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Posts: 55
Location: Coon Rapids, MN | Just wondering how people did on Vermillion last weekend? I am heading up there for 4 days next Sunday so hopefully the fish are active! |
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Posts: 209
Location: Big Falls MN | We seen a few fish up shallow and put two small ones in the boat. we were around the hinsdale island area |
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Posts: 55
Location: Coon Rapids, MN | Thanks for the info. What were the water temps like up there? |
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Posts: 209
Location: Big Falls MN | it was right around 65
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Since I didn't finish my "Honey do list" I missed the opener (first time in 14 yrs.) but got out on the west end yesterday and moved 6 fish , all over 40".
the water temps were 67-69* from the bigger basins to shallow bays. weeds are growing pretty good, but the Cabbage is just starting to grow.
Went out tonight for 2 hrs. and put a 41" and 46.5 in the net in a "weeds meet rock area"
A good start so far.
Water levels are a little high compared to last summer.
good luck.
Jerome |
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Posts: 304
Location: Lino Lakes, MN | Nice report Jerome. Keep up the good work.
Steve |
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Posts: 55
Location: Coon Rapids, MN | Nice work! I will be fishing the west side. I'm staying at Ludlow's and will probably try to find fish in that area to start. 3.5 days to go! Can't come soon enough! |
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Posts: 304
Location: Lino Lakes, MN | Blake,
If I were a betting man you could probably get into consistant fishing without ever putting the boat on plane for the trip.
The Wakemup Narrows is an area I do not fish enough. I would not worry about burning up a lot of gas. There is alot of main lake basin water on either side of the narrows that alot of fish use thruout the year. The narrows area is the main area of spawning habitat that must draw good numbers of those fish out of the baisins..
Draw a line isolating the narrows from Niles Bay and Wakemup Bay and pick that area apart. You have deep water 25 feet and lots of big shallow bays. You have rock options and weed options thruout the area. Rock being shorline points, edges of islands and some small reefs.
Good Luck on your trip
Steve
Edited by Sorgy 6/6/2012 3:18 PM
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Posts: 956
Location: Home of the 2016 World Series Champion Cubs | Im chomping at the bit as well. Less than 2 weeks till I head over to Spring Bay. Crew of 4 with two pure fishing virgins, not just muskie virgins. It went from a muskie trip to a "whatever's biting trip" for the most part with crappies, smallies walleyes and muskies all on the hit list. Ought to be interesting. Outfitting, teaching and we'll call it guiding..........May the fish gods have mercy on me. Ive never fished for anything but muskies on the V. Any tips (for the bait fish of course, not muskies) would also be welcomed (pm's) Thanks to sworall for some intel. And yes Ill be going out with Steve Amundsen too. Looking forward to it.
Thanks in advance.
Karl
Edited by KARLOUTDOORS 6/7/2012 8:30 PM
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Posts: 55
Location: Coon Rapids, MN | Thanks for the info guys! It looks like Its going to be cooling down throughout the trip so we'll see how it goes! |
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| Hey Karl---- heading to Vermilion huh?-----if you want a surefire bait that catches everything----have a good supply of X-raps(if you don't have em already). We caught everything --pike ---bass--perch--walleyes-----muskies----all on x-raps------with clown, perch, and pink being our most consistent producers.Twitch those bad boys like crazy. Walleyes will be in the deep channels on and live bait you like to use--also. Bass spinnerbaits worked well for us too----- chartreuse,white,and black. Wish I could get back there but we're heading to Canada for the opener----let us know how you do-----Pat Elza |
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Posts: 956
Location: Home of the 2016 World Series Champion Cubs | Hey Pat,
Good to hear from you. X raps are and have been good for me. Can I guess where youre headed? I wish I were going with you. I love that place. Those were my plans until my group expanded to include an angler who'd have difficulties crossing the border  . We'll make the nest of our time. Just found out my nephew will be staying with us through mid July. You never know......
I hope you find that 60" hog up there. We both know they are there. |
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Posts: 1150
Location: Minnesota. | Pat Elza - 6/8/2012 9:19 AM
Hey Karl---- heading to Vermilion huh?-----if you want a surefire bait that catches everything----have a good supply of X-raps(if you don't have em already). We caught everything --pike ---bass--perch--walleyes-----muskies----all on x-raps------with clown, perch, and pink being our most consistent producers.Twitch those bad boys like crazy. Walleyes will be in the deep channels on and live bait you like to use--also. Bass spinnerbaits worked well for us too----- chartreuse,white,and black. Wish I could get back there but we're heading to Canada for the opener----let us know how you do-----Pat Elza
Pat, will you please send me a PM? I'm not familiar with this bait and we spend a couple weeks each year on the V...family vac. .. and I have a bunch of gen. questions that will help a lot.
No spots etc.. Nothing other than how I fish and what I do and a couple other questions.
It would cut my learning curve lots I"m sure. Thanks. I don't fish these raps and need to branch out a bit as I have a REALLY tough two weeks up there sometimes....usually!! *G*
Jeremy. |
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| Karl----yeah you know where I'm headed man-----it's a disease! Been trying to get back on V for awhile now----but every time I mention it, someone in our group bags another Ontario MONSTER----and all other opinions become moot. We had a hot bite on smaller bucktails when I was on V---lilytails,bootails and small Shumway stuff------burning the living daylights over the high weeds. It was so crazy , even had the bass chasing them down- Maybe someday i'll get back that way-----have a great trip--- catch a monster-----Pat |
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| Hey Jeremy---- you're not doing anything wrong on Vermilion if you have had limited success----it can be a tough "nut to crack". I divided the lake into 2 types of water , to make it easier on myself(I like EASY)---rocks spots and weed spots. I'm sure you already know that the east end has more rock related areas while the west end has more weedy bays and shallow weed spots. We tried the rock spots first and didn't work out very well. once we transitioned to the weeds(summertime) we found a ton of active fish of all species---muskies included, and some real monsters too. The hard part was tripping their triggers and getting them to bite. Lure choice and speed became critical with these pressured critters----when everyone else threw double 10's---we were burning small bucktails. When everyone tossed the BIG DAWGS ---we straight cranked the spring dawgs ------lots of late nights fishing too----get away from the crowds and take away the element of spooking fish at the boat during the day. Pink x-raps-----can't say how well these work on V---rip rip pause----rip rip pause---BANG----game over! Good luck to ya Jeremy----Pat |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Well guys ,... The water temps on the west end are @ 72-73*
I went out this evening @ about 5:30-9:45 and saw 5 nice fish in
the 45-50" range just chilling in the deep weeds......... And the weeds are looking really good. These fish were not hungry at the time and I needed to get off of the water because of this stupid job that I have.
My last stop was a rock and weedy area just off of 40 ft of water, there I saw a whole bunch of White Fish popping on the surface eating mayflies, there should be a few muskies near by,.... but I had to go,......Bummer !
I'll be working for the next few days,.......another Bummer !
things are going to really let loose soon.... Jerome |
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| Hi Top H20
I am here at Vermillion on the west end with my son and not having too much luck. We have caught a few small pike and bass. We enjoy fishing for muskie, pike and bass. Could you offer some suggestions on locations and baits?
Thank you
Dan |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Just find a few weedy bays right now and pound the heck out of them.
start in about 10ft of water and work your way in.small bucks, dawgs, reefhawgs(pike love these) twich baits, hellhounds,......Just fish.
check out the rocks if you can't find em in the weeds.
Maybe troll deep breaks and points.
Have fun. |
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| Top H20
Thanks for the information. Spent some time in a bay near Ludlows island and caught quite a few pike ranging in size from 26" - 29". a whole lot of fun especially since we were using light tackle.
Will try the same bay again and have another bay or two in mind to try as well.
Never seen one muskie follow though. Should we try large bays that are bright colored or dark?
Thanks again,
Dan
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | Dude go further west, and hit a few rock reefs before you get to the Landing!
West /Southwest,... And hit every bay till you get to Norwegian bay,...... Some Big Mama's up that way.
That should keep you busy and give you enough time to figure things out for the next few weeks.
Exploring with your Son is the main point,.... boating fish is just secondary.......
Good Luck
Edited by Top H2O 6/27/2012 1:00 AM
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Posts: 956
Location: Home of the 2016 World Series Champion Cubs | We were there (spring bay resort) June 16-23 and suffered the effects of water temps that dropped back down to 65-66 degrees and we got hit with more rain some of which did a real number on Duluth. was rough for us too as the temps were messed up and several days pretty windy. long story short zero muskies but all strikes came on top water very close to or over weeds. Naked reefs and rocky shore structure did nothing for us. Some decent slot walleyes and pike but no keepers. Perch saved the day as far as shore lunch was concerned. Should improve with stable weather. Good luck. |
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| Hey Karl----yeah that weather was pretty crazy------we did well in Ontario-----got 12 skis up to 49 inches. Also got a 46.5,47,48,48.5 included in our dozen. The lake trout were slamming jigs---the smallies were smashing topwaters---when they weren't scarfing down the mayfly hatch that was occurring all week. Hope your season gets better man----Pat |
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Posts: 956
Location: Home of the 2016 World Series Champion Cubs | Yeah mayflies were also an issue. Though Ive seen it much worse it wasnt helping us at all either. Meanwhile back here at home we've been knocking em dead on the cohos and kings up to 18 lbs. Still waiting on our first 20 lber for the year. The boys get fired up something fierce when a king starts screaming drag running you out to over 400' on the line counter. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'll usually give the boys one solid run per fish with the clicker on before I quiet them.
Glad to hear you had some good action up north. |
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Posts: 897
| I fished the east side on the 23rd ann 24th, saw one on rock on the 23rd and a bunch of fish in both weeds and rock on the 24th. All smaller fish, most sub 40, one 45. Should have had 3 in the boat but for the mistakes of rookies I had in my boat! My no-good-brother-in-law had one come screaming in from the side at the boat. He sees it coming, yells an expletive, and proceeds to literally pull the lure out of the water as the fish was trying to eat! Gills flared, mouth open, all he had to do was keep it on the surface and the fish would have slammed it! lol. Gotta love rookies!  |
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| This was a weird opener-----with the exception of the 48 and the 48.5-----all our other fish were caught on different baits----everything from topwaters to deep divers----couldn't develop a pattern to save our lives-----I guess being versatile saved our trip-----at least the fish cooperated. We're just about ready to hit the BIG LAKE too-----don't catch all those big kings before we get there-----see ya ---Pat |
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Posts: 173
| Any suggestions for a Vermillion rookie? I'm spending the next 3 months up here for work and hope to get out on the lake most sundays and 4th of July. Possibly some evenings eventually after work slows down. I've gone out on my own a few times and have not raised a musky yet (on the east end). Had a guided trip on the West end last fall but not really sure those things translate. |
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Posts: 956
Location: Home of the 2016 World Series Champion Cubs | Pat, sounds like theyre really rockin the kings up at nprth point. Not doing badly further south but alot of hootin n hollerin from near the state line. Get ahold of me if ur looking for a seat filler.
Edited by KARLOUTDOORS 7/1/2012 12:09 AM
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| Thanks for the 411 Karl----I will let you know when we hit the water----right now getting ready for our 4th of July bash----gonna be flat out NUTS!!!!! then I have a short trip to Texas to see my author buddy, Bob Chochola-----do alittle bass/alligator gar fishin-----see a killer concert---then back to Chi-town---whew----gonna be a busy couple of weeks. Take care man----Pat |
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