Headed up this weekend

Headed up this weekend. Hope to come back with a good report.

What area…east side or west? Targeting anything in particular? Article in today’s Strib was saying that the walleye population has improved to the extent that there is proposals out to liberalize the slot a bit.

Good luck! Word is the trolling bite has been really hot. Sounds like fish are spread out so covering water is key. I’ll try to sneak in some fishing time while I’m up.

We are camping at McKinley Park, not sure what side of the lake that is considered. Planning on focusing on walleye but may try for musky.

Any suggestions on area/depth/baits?

That is Pike Bay on the East end, good place to be!

For musky you will be able to fish the big bay area. Fish rock rock and more rock anything from rock shoreline to rock reefs along with deep rock. fish cranks and plastics like bulldogs and medusa shadzillas are also very productive.

Allan Davis wrote:

For musky you will be able to fish the big bay area. Fish rock rock and more rock anything from rock shoreline to rock reefs along with deep rock. fish cranks and plastics like bulldogs and medusa shadzillas are also very productive.

If I remember Big bay…and I do, there’s nothing else but rock, rock and more rock. Other than open basin areas but there are some that will troll using Cisco colored cranks. One thing I’ll never forget is if the wind picks up, Big bay can produce some big waves!

Thanks for the info. I think I am going to start tomorrow by pulling a superdeath with half a crawler behind a bouncer in one rod and a harness with a full crawler on the other. Any suggestions on blade color/pattern?

Greg

I would start with a red hook, slip sinker, 2-3′ snell and save that other stuff for Mille Lacs.

Compared to other lakes, Vermilion doesn’t have a lot of food to compete with. Find the fish and keep it simple and natural.

Crawlers, leaches, chubs, shiners…?

Crawlers, but I wouldn’t be afraid to try some leaches. Leaches of the dock at night were great shallow. I don’t think the night bite in Pike Bay is real good, but if you get want to park on some 4-6′ deep rocky humps or points in Big Bay, leeches are the ticket. Leeches catch crawfish too!

How’d the weekend go for you guys?? Found some success early/late fishing shallow. Not huge numbers but caught a handful of really nice eyes.

Leadcore bite was fantastic. Hoping to go back to for a 4 day weekend in 2 weeks

Agree, lead core bite was the best it’s been all year for me. Both numbers and size. Headed back up the 15th, hopefully the bite holds out otherwise time to break out the meat and jigging raps.

BigV when do you start pulling lead? I’ve always started early august. I should be trying it earlier…

I think that is right. I usually start hitting my milk run of spots the beginning of August, then pull lead exclusively until mid-late September.

We were pulling little rippers 110-140 back and caught some nice eyes. The wind was a little bit of a bummer since I only have a 16′ boat with a 25hp motor. This lake seems great and I will be back again. The facilities at McKinnly park are great if anyone is looking for a tent/RV site.

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Any new reports heading up tonight. Gonna start off pulling lead and go from there.

Should be good to go with the lead, bite is typically strong through the end of the month. Just use your electronics and mix up colors until you find what they want. Shoreline breaks and open basin were going last weekend.

Any certain depth I should start on…..

I’ve been fishing 17-20, but the areas I’ve been fishing only get that deep. Other areas like big bay the target depth may be deeper. Use your graph, mark fish before you start dropping lines.

Report back on your trip, good luck.

Pretty tough day flat calm and caught 2 fish over 15 inches….any suggestions…pulled live bait and lead core from 10 to 30 feet

What are you pulling for cranks? I know the lead bite is still red hot.

I’ll be heading up next week, will report back on what am able to find.
Hope the weather holds out descent.
Jack

A little of everything best have been salmo hornet’s and shad raps…. better so far today but still a little slow.. nice day again though