# Lake vermilion Minnesota



## billy4prez (Feb 27, 2010)

Not a report just yet, but we cancelled our last week of August Canada trip and decided to go to Lake Vermilion in Northern Minnesota. Anyone have any experience on Lake Vermilion? Looks like a pretty good size lake with alot of walleye, alot of small fish though. Is it jig and minnow that time of year? Leeches? Worms? I plan on trying crankbaits and worm harnesses first. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 

Thanks Billy


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## Schatty (Jul 13, 2012)

billy4prez said:


> Not a report just yet, but we cancelled our last week of August Canada trip and decided to go to Lake Vermilion in Northern Minnesota. Anyone have any experience on Lake Vermilion? Looks like a pretty good size lake with alot of walleye, alot of small fish though. Is it jig and minnow that time of year? Leeches? Worms? I plan on trying crankbaits and worm harnesses first. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks Billy


We canceled our Canada trip for the week of labor day and booked at Lake Vermilion that week staying at Vermilion Dam Lodge. This will be our first trip there but from what I have read August is a good time to pull crawlers or troll crankbaits until mid to late september when the bite turns mostly to jigs and minnows. We will be taking all of our gear and hopefully hook up with a big musky or two when we arent fishing for our walleye dinners. Lets hope the coronavirus doesnt shut us down before our trips. If you dont mind please share results!


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## Super G (Oct 3, 2012)

I Lived in Minnesota 25-30 years ago - great place to live if you like outdoor activities! We used to backtroll and drift with jigs tipped with leeches. Night fishing was slip bobbers and leeches or crawlers. But again that was then. Good luck! Brush up on your Oly and Lena jokes! Oh yah, you betcha!


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## billy4prez (Feb 27, 2010)

Schatty said:


> We canceled our Canada trip for the week of labor day and booked at Lake Vermilion that week staying at Vermilion Dam Lodge. This will be our first trip there but from what I have read August is a good time to pull crawlers or troll crankbaits until mid to late september when the bite turns mostly to jigs and minnows. We will be taking all of our gear and hopefully hook up with a big musky or two when we arent fishing for our walleye dinners. Lets hope the coronavirus doesnt shut us down before our trips. If you dont mind please share results!


I will let you know how we do schatty. I heard the same, shad rap no.5 crawdad color crankbait on leadcore to be exact. Alot of gold blades for the harness color. Alot of guys use different color hooks? I am going to try a jiggin rap as well, Ive never done anything like that-minus hair jigs in the spring. I watched alot of fishing shows and they work? We will be at glenwood lodge on the northeast side of the lake, hoping for good weather!


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## Schatty (Jul 13, 2012)

billy4prez said:


> I will let you know how we do schatty. I heard the same, shad rap no.5 crawdad color crankbait on leadcore to be exact. Alot of gold blades for the harness color. Alot of guys use different color hooks? I am going to try a jiggin rap as well, Ive never done anything like that-minus hair jigs in the spring. I watched alot of fishing shows and they work? We will be at glenwood lodge on the northeast side of the lake, hoping for good weather!


I have done well for early fall walleyes in Canada on slow death rigs off bottom bouncers so I will be sure to have those handy. I also saw a few videos on Vermilion with guys snapping jigging raps off the bottom. I am sure a lot of different presentations will work, usually i do best on whatever i am most comfortable with. Good luck, have fun and stay safe!


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## 3goldens (Jul 13, 2012)

I have been there twice in the last 5 years. First in September second time in late may. And had a buddy there in late june this year. I can honestly say it is a tough lake to fish and i have little valuable info to be able to pass along. My friend that fished in june had been there with me on the previous 2 trips and is a good fisherman, struggled mightily to catch any pike no muskys and a few small walleyes. Bluegills and a few perch was all they managed to bring home. Although we do not usually work very hard for walleyes with lake erie in our back yard. On the may trip i saw some awesome muskys that were recovering from the spawn and had little intetest in biting. Ice out was actually a week prior to our arrival. Wish i had better news and some great places to fish. Got a really nice map book of the lake if one or both of you would like to use it.


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## G.lock (Apr 1, 2014)

I've spent a lot of time at Lake of the Woods, a little west of Vermillion but should fish the same.
You can't go wrong with jigs and minnows, crawdad and perch colored cranks work well.
I've also done well slow rolling a spinner tipped with a perch twister on smallies and northern, always wanted to try tipping the spinner with a night crawler. 
Color wise perch and white seemed best.


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## Patricio (Feb 2, 2007)

It's a musky lake.


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## ChappyC (Nov 17, 2004)

Contact Tim Watson at 218-878-2075. Kabtogama, Namakan. and Rainy lake. Do not waste your time at Vermillion. Tim is a legend in the North country and puts you on the fish, period! He has done many outdoor shows and has fished with all the big names and even they walked away with lessons learned.Have been going for 21 years and my only regret is not starting to fish it in my early years. Sandy point lodge 218-875-2615 is a great place to stay. Am buying a place up there on Kab as I write this. Take a cooler for the fish to take home!


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## Schatty (Jul 13, 2012)

We returned from our week stay at Vermilion Dam Lodge (VDL) Saturday night. We had a pretty good week despite some difficult conditions for half of our trip. We arrived at VDL Saturday 9/5 around 5 pm and after getting settled into our cabin we hit the water about 730 pm for about an hour. The first night we had no idea what to expect so we found a good point and tried casting jigging raps with no luck other than a few hookups that came off before the boat.

Sunday morning we caught up with the lodge staff to get some intel on the walleye bite and they mentioned that all of the local guides were pulling small crankbaits behind lead core in the open water bays and having some success on eater size fish. Luckily we took all of the leadcore gear and hit up the closest deep bay, Niles Bay and started pulling Flicker Shad in 30 fow and started catching fish pretty quick. The first day we managed to catch our limit of 16 eater size fish and the other guys in the group pulled only 2 fish but both were quality fish, a 19.5" just under the slot and a 26.5" giant just over the slot. That made for 2 nice fish fry meals from just the first days catch.

Sunday night brought high winds and colder temps and the next three days didnt get out of the lower 50s. We were prepared for the cold so it wasnt unbearable but when the wind blew with those colder temps it was tough to stay warm. We still fished each day and managed to catch fish each day though our catch rates were way lower than the first day. Monday through wednesday we probably caught 15 to 20 fish each day with just a few big enough to keep and a few in the slit range. Thursday brought back some more stable weather and the bite picked back up. 

Thursday was a fun day on the lake as we tried a new bay, Wakemup Bay, and caught 3 nice walleye in the slot, biggest at 24" and a nice batch of eaters to bring home along with a bonus pike and a few nice smallies. Friday also was beatiful weatherwise but the sunny skies and 70 degree temps slowed the bite a bit. We managed to catch about 8 to 10 eater size fish but all went back to the lake to grow.

Lake Vermilion is a beautiful lake with lots of bays to explore but it is quite busy compared to our usual canadian lake. There are thousands of cottages and huge homes on the lake. There were a lot of boaters as well. The boaters there all come kind of close for my liking while traveling at full speed. We had at least 15 to 20 boats go by while trolling that zoomed right over the top of our lines maybe 50 feet behind our boat. I don't think any of them were being rude intentionally, I just think that is the norm there. 

Vermilion Dam Lodge has excellent accommodations and the staff is very helpful. If you are looking for a lodge on Vermilion I would recommend them. We personally will probably not return so long as our neighbors to the north allow us back into their country but I'm glad we got to explore that beautiful part of our country!


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## Schatty (Jul 13, 2012)

Some pics from the trip


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## Schatty (Jul 13, 2012)

Few more


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