# Vermilion River



## SBR256

What's going on in the Vermilion River? I have tried every jig color under the sun, still no steelhead. Not even a bite, getting frustrated. Any advise for me, been float fishing mostly, should I try a spoon maybe?


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## Buckeyeguyty93

Egg sacks, pink and yellow have been best!


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## Lundfish

I can tell you that the river has been extremely slow for every single person that I've talked to there. I know quite a few guys that fish on the river. Not to say that someone hasn't had a good day but I consider a good day at least 5 fish. The most that I've caught so far in one day has been 2. The Rocky I've had 4.


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## nooffseason

It's definitely been slow. I've only picked up 2 fish in 3 outings on the V this year. Keep in mind this river is much better in the spring with it being so far west. I live close though and can't help myself from venturing down there.


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## queequeg

Went Sunday with one hookup. Went to a hole that last fall I pulled out five I one three hour period. One hit Sunday. Granted, the water was a mess of chocolate color and that didn't help. I know there are fish in that hole but I just don't think the water clarity was good enough.


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## steelhead sniper 860

Ive landed well over 30 trout this fall season from mid -September till now and only 3 came from the Vermilion. I have to admit I got skunked a few times on the vermilion myself this year, I live close though so its easy for me to find a couple hours here and there. I landed 2 yesterday at mill hollow morning after the snow storm on cured steelhead eggs tied in pink.

The fish are already pretty well distributed and some are far up stream in all systems. Last month beginning of October I had a friend who had already caught one clear up to Gore orphanage / Sperry road access. 

Like the guy said in the post above, Vermilion becomes "alive" in the spring when the manistees roll in thick.


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## Lundfish

steelhead sniper 860 said:


> Like the guy said in the post above, Vermilion becomes "alive" in the spring when the manistees roll in thick.


Yeah we believe that the only reason the dnr stocks manistees in oh is to cater to the fly guy that sight fishes and snags fins.

Why else would they put a spring run fish in rivers that are almost 100% runoff that lock up in the winter time? It makes no sense. On top of that the fish don't reproduce naturally because the water turns into bath water in the summer! The big push is in the spring...just plain idiotic.

If they divide the numbers with half being spring and half being fall run I know at least a couple thousand guys that would be happy. Of course the dnr doesn't give a crap about what us people that fish think. They are being stubborn jerks on this issue.


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## Fishermon

Actually, they switched to stocking the manistees because the fall run londons had such a poor return rate. It was not done to tee off the bobber fisherman or cater to the fly guys.


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## tehsavage

I'm sure Lund gets that point but he is 100%right about doing 50/50 on the runs. After all the reason they stock is for us to catch. They probably didn't get good return rates on fall fish cause everybody and their brother was down there for fall run. Pressure would be evenly distributed between fall/spring 


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## Fishermon

The return rates were low because the fish weren't returning to the rivers not because everybody and his brother were there for the fall run. Fishing pressure then was a fraction of what it is today, I think there are more fish being caught in the rivers now in the fall than there was when they stocked fall run londons.


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## kapposgd

Response given to a fellow angler named Jason Moore after he contacted the DNR:

Thanks for your interest in our steelhead program. Our Ohio steelhead program is based on fertilized eggs that we get from the State of Michigan taken from the weirs on the Little Manistee River. We grow all our steelhead from the eggs we receive from Michigan, and our current target is approximately 400,000 7-8&#8221; yearlings that are stocked in mid-April to early May. We stock 5 streams: Vermilion (55,000), Rocky, Chagrin and Grand (90,000 each), and Conneaut (75,000). Castalia State Fish Hatchery is our sole facility for raising our steelhead.

We completed evaluations in the 1990s and early 2000s to look at our old London and the Manistee strains. The Manistees gave us far better return rates -almost 4x- and the growth rates and returns of large fish (>10 lbs) were far superior for the Manistees. By the way, there are no more London-strain fish, as our London hatchery has now outsourced our rainbow trout raised for the catchable trout program. We cannot bring PA fish or eggs into Castalia because of disease issues. Any fish or eggs brought into Castalia SFH must be certified disease free, and there have been known issues with positive disease tests from PA fish. 

The Manistees are more classified as a winter run fish. Granted they don&#8217;t start showing up in our streams in great numbers until early- to mid-October, but their runs can last into early- to mid-May, which is far longer that our Londons ran. The peak runs of the Manistees seem to be November thru April, but there is a great deal of variability based on the flow regimes of the rivers. If you look at the flows of our steelhead streams for the autumns of the last decade, we have seen a pattern of persistent low, warm water during the fall season. In fact, lower lake levels may have complicated the situation. Certainly development in all our major steelhead watersheds has led to flashy, highly variable flow rate, conditions on our streams. By the way when we do see cool wet falls with good flow rates, the fishing has been good. We even had some fish caught in Fairport Harbor this past week with the cooler weather.

The poorer returns are not limited to Ohio streams. We are in continual conversations with biologists (and anglers) in Pennsylvania, New York and Ontario, and all have noticed a downturn in the steelhead fishery. We are looking at sea lamprey wounding rates and populations as a primary reason for this decline, but are assessing other possibilities. The declines are across the lake&#8217;s jurisdictions and strains of fish stocked, so we can&#8217;t single out blame on the Manistee&#8217;s performance. All agencies are continuing to monitor conditions in the lake, the forage base, the sea lamprey population, growth and survival of steelhead, and the open lake and tributary steelhead fisheries. The Ohio Division of Wildlife is currently evaluating the performance of Castalia State Fish Hatchery to insure adequate stocking numbers are maintained into the future; we are evaluating if the program and budget can sustain any changes in the near future. Our steelhead program has become very popular. We want to make sure that we get the best product out for our anglers annually, and not dabble in this and that, and communicate that we have a clearly defined direction for the program. Thanks again for inquiring about our steelhead program. 

Kevin
Kevin Kayle
Fisheries Biology Supervisor
Fairport Harbor Fisheries Research Station
ODNR, Division of Wildlife
1190 High St. 
Fairport Harbor, OH 44077
phone: (440) 352-4199
e-mail: [email protected]


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## thephildo0916

Lundfish said:


> Yeah we believe that the only reason the dnr stocks manistees in oh is to cater to the fly guy that sight fishes and snags fins.
> 
> Why else would they put a spring run fish in rivers that are almost 100% runoff that lock up in the winter time? It makes no sense. On top of that the fish don't reproduce naturally because the water turns into bath water in the summer! The big push is in the spring...just plain idiotic.
> 
> If they divide the numbers with half being spring and half being fall run I know at least a couple thousand guys that would be happy. Of course the dnr doesn't give a crap about what us people that fish think. They are being stubborn jerks on this issue.


This is just funny.


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## kapposgd

Yeah he's just trolling, pay him no mind

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## Osmerus

I think a big contributor to the "poor" or "late" return rates is the lake itself. We have been posting record warmth for lake Erie off and on for the past 5 to 8 years. Many of our fish have to push further east now to find cool lake temps in the summer. It takes them longer to show up around here and there could be some mortality in young fish that dont find that cool water in time. Plus those algae blooms on the lake dont do us any good.

I do notice some lamprey wounds on our fish here but not as many as you find in the other great lakes tribs. Im sure they make an impact and on top of warmer waters and lots more guys fishing for them the numbers can start to drop fast. 

Dont forget there are also alot of steelhead being pulled outa the lake in the summer. The shear numbers of guys that troll now and fill coolers day in and day out is pretty high esp. from Erie to Buffalo where the deep cold stuff is. Trolling for eyes and steel has pretty much turned into commercial fishing. The technology now to access these fish in the summer is leaps and bounds beyond what we had in the past. It all adds up.

Still plenty of fish to be had in the rivers just gota cover more water to get those high catch rates.


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## Steelie.B

^ Agreed. I'd love to see the daily trout & salmon limit on the lake during the summer reduced from 5 to 1.


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## Lundfish

thephildo0916 said:


> This is just funny.


Your biceps are even funnier.


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## creekcrawler

> I'd love to see the daily trout & salmon limit on the lake during the summer reduced from 5 to 1.


Don't know if would matter - I'd think most steelies caught trolling in deep water probably die, even if released.


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## kapposgd

Those are all good points, one thing I haven't seen or heard about is the use of nets in lake Erie accidentally killing steelhead. A buddy of mine got a crankbait caught in a net out on the western basin, and when he lifted up the net to get his bait out he said the net was LOADED with steelhead who were stuck in the holes. We're talking hundreds of fish here...imagine how that adds up across the lake. 

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## Osmerus

Yep, there still are commercial fishing boats on Lake Erie esp. the Canadian side. They do harvest a lot of fish from the lake. Store or restaurant bought walleye usually comes from the Canadian side of the lake. If your targeting eyes with nets I'm sure quiet a few steelies get caught up to.


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## steelhead sniper 860

went to bacon woods mill hollow access this morning at 730am, Landed 3 steelhead by 9am, done fishing by 1030, Good day. only saw 2 other guys total. first steelhead was a Big colorful male with hook jaw, 2nd was about 20 inch chrome hen. Last fish was small fresh chrome male about 16-18 inches. all caught on pink egg sacks.
Also, I saw one other guy catch a dink on a spinner within 20 minutes of day break. 
Beautiful morning out on the river.
:G


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## steelhead sniper 860

I've been really busy this week but managed to get out today around 2pm-345pm and picked up 2 fish at mill hollow on my spinning noodle rod setup with pink spawn sacks. Vermilion River is about 50% or more frozen and very Low and clear, found deepest water I could and found a couple fish.
I was getting pretty cold and to find more open water would have required some hiking so I called it a short day.

Also Happy I went and re-traced my path at another un-named creek and found my long lost container with 4-packs of new hooks, 2 packs of floats and a pack of split shot at the bottom of a hill  

:F


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## laynhardwood

got this brown trout today on fresh spawn it was awesome but that was my only bite it's mostly ice covered good luck guys


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## bereafish

That's awesome . I got my first brown last year but it was half the size of that one.


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## steelhead sniper 860

laynhardwood said:


> View attachment 87412
> got this brown trout today on fresh spawn it was awesome but that was my only bite it's mostly ice covered good luck guys



You caught that Brownie at the Vermilion? Incredible fish, Both mine were smaller steelhead about 17-20 inches. Thanks for the picture!


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## laynhardwood

Yes it was in vermilion I broke out some ice so I could fish a little hole that's pretty deep and the brown trout was only bite I had but well worth it


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## jiggin'fool

That is awesome! What a fish!


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## yonderfishin

Thats a nice brown trout. I think Lundfish got one or two browns out of there last year. Its nice to see they are in the V. Catching one of them would be a nice bonus even if thats all you got that day.


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## Lundfish

yonderfishin said:


> Thats a nice brown trout. I think Lundfish got one or two browns out of there last year. Its nice to see they are in the V. Catching one of them would be a nice bonus even if thats all you got that day.


I pulled one out of there last year in March. You sure don't hear of many in that river.

On a side note I got 3 drop back browns out of a Lake Superior trib yesterday. One was my biggest brown ever.


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## Hardtop

When you suggest "spring" being the better time to fish the river is that march, april.....? I have caught a few at Cold Creek in the winter months and would like to try one of the real chromer streams....HT


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## steelhead sniper 860

yes, march and april is the peak of the run at the vermilion.
sometime around st. pattys day we usually get a good push of water into the system. wait for the precipitation, then time the river when it comes down by using the Flow gauges on riverboss.com. 
The vermilion fishes best between 100-300 cfs, with it being prime in my opinion more between 120-200cfs..
Good luck I hope this helps!


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## Hardtop

Thank you.......that sounds like a good time when we are waiting on the big pond to turn on......HT


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## jiggin'fool

Look at the turbidity chart too. It will tell you how muddy it is... For some reason it takes a while to clear up every now and then... I like it around 10 to20. At 20 you probably have 18 inches visibility... I have caught em at 30 but looks like coffee with cream. I usually go somewhere else if its above 30... Its at the bottom of the page on the USG's site that you can get to from riverboss.com


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