Lake close to ice up

Lake near frozen

 

November 17, 2011…water temps in mid 30s…We are expecting the lake in front of the resort to freeze over tonight. Musky fishing has been excellent the last 10 days.  Over the last two weeks we have had a wide variety of dedicated musky fisherman including some well known guides.  I could  not keep track of every fish caught for its hard to get reports given most of these guys would be out at first light and back at dark…but..its safe to say from the reports I did collect and from all the photos I was provided  that there has been over 50 musky caught in the last two weeks With  8 ..fifty inches or over. One group from Eagle River Wisconsin( Curt Priefer,Brian Krelle and Mason Gerlach)  caught 5 musky in three days including a 55 incher. They also had a 52, 50 ,48 and mid 40s fish. 

 

 

Curt Priefer with a 55 incher

Brian Krelle with a 50 incher

 

Mason Gerlach 52 3/4 by 24

Another group that came up on Monday Nov.7^th ( Andy Hamm and friends)  and fished with guide Ben Olson .combined they boated 21 muskies in 6 days of fishing!!. They were primary

casting  Bull Dawgs and similar heavy rubber type baits. Andy reported almost all of the fish hit boat side. Most were under 50 inchs with one over. Steve Jonesi who was a  guide on Lake Mille Lacs ..was up with some friends..he boated a 54.5 incher on Nov. 8^th.   Victor Petik  from Des Plaines, Illinois came up for this second trip this Fall.. with his son to try one more time before putting the boat away for winter.  He trolled for several days and only caught pike..then on his last day hours before pulling his boat..his son Alex caught his First 50 inch musky on a 14 inch Jake…what a great way to end the year for musky Fishing.  So far this fall we have not heard of any fish caught around the lake over 56 inches…last year at this time there was there was one 57 incher caught out of our resort ( Andy Huter)  and one 60 incher caught on the east end of Vermilion that was in Outdoor News.. The season is not over yet..so hopefully we will hear someone gets one of those monsters ..if not…there is always next season.

 

 Guide Luke Ronnestrand who has been staying at the resort

guiding his clients all summer and fall..Luke shares his daily catches and seems to be averaging two musky per day . Luke is on the water from light to dark everyday guiding..he is a having a great fall.  His biggest fish this fall was a 55 incher  That fish was caught around Oct 15^th..  Luke is still up here now fishing/guiding and expecting to break Ice with his boat tomorrow to get out to the main lake.  Might seem crazy to be fishing with outside temperatures down in the teens combined with wind, lake freezing,etc….but most of us know this is time of the year you have a real shot at a record fish on Vermilion when the Cisco Spawn….that’s why Marty and I will be right behind Luke tomorrow with our boat trying to get out of the bay breaking ice to also get a day or two more fishing in before we have to hang up the rods for the winter.

Musky Outing 2011

October 25, 2011

Musky Outing 2011…Despite high winds..the outing was a great time for all.  The winds never stopped blowing strong all weekend with gusts up to 40 mph. Water temps were 59° degrees at the start of the event and by Sunday morning some of the guys were reporting finding water temps down to 55°.  Even with high winds everyone was able to get out fishing. We had a total of 9 fish caught and released with the largest at 49.5 inches and with over 70 fish seen .  The nightly presentations were excellent. Guest Speakers included Larry Ramsell and his presentation on the results of a two year tracking Study he was involved in, Luke Ronnestrand and his presentation on boat control techniques to cover structure and tips on doctoring up bait with colors, and Bob Benson and his presentation on fishing tips and techniques for fishing LakeVermilion. Bob had another great season guiding on Vermilion and was able to share photos of some nice catches this year.  Brett Erickson from Throne Brothers Tackle gave a presentation on bait selection and shared some great information and news on upcoming baits, covered rigging for trolling, and using planner boards.

 Mike Keyes and Guide Ben Olson with Keyes Outdoors attended the event and filmed a program about this outing. They interviewed people attending the outing and spent a lot of time on the lake. They also boated some fish. The show will air some time this winter.

 I think one the best things about our outing is there is no competion…which creates an environment for everyone to share information.  I believe this is very beneficial for the Fishermen that attend that don’t get a lot of time on the water each year because they can mix it up with the Pro’s that are on the water everyday.  Our guides that attended the event this year provided an incredible combination of talent: Luke Ronnestrand, Bob Benson, Dusty Carlson, Larry Ramsell, Ben Olson, Matt Synder, Matt Seifert, Pete Brzezinski, and Brett Erickson. Everyone in the Guide Group is a very successful guide/ fisherman that earns a living in the musky fishing industry.  One fisherman ( Donnie Oswald from Hibbing Mn,) caught his first musky fishing with Larry Ramsell.  Mark Hughes from Wayzata, Mn caught his largest musky 48 inches…he was fishing with guide Luke Ronnestrand.

 Today October 25^th…water temps are down to 48. We have several groups of musky Fisherman this week. Luke Ronnestrand guided a group to two fish yesterday one being a heavy 50 inch fish. Whitefish nets are starting to show up on the lake indicating the start of the Whitefish run for the west end of Vermilion. We are expecting good fishing as the water temps fall near the low 40s.

Fall is here

September 26,2011,

Fall colors are a week away from hitting the peak. This last week has been beautiful.  We have had a couple of nights of frost leaving a fog on the water until the suns burns it off ..then the days warm up into the sixties with no bugs,  just plain gorgeous.

Small game season has started. Grouse numbers are up this year and the grouse hunters that have been coming up have had good success. Also Duck Season has started off Good. Alex ( who works at the resort on the dock) and a friend had good success over the weekend hunting a flooded area just east of the Resort.

 Water temps as of today were 61 degrees. Walleye are starting to show up in their usual deeper fall spots..Altough there is still a lot actitivity off the shallow weed lines.  Most of the guides have switched to minnows as the primary Live bait..but crawlers are still working if used on spinner.  Musky action has not taken off yet but as the water temps drop we expect it start improving anyday . Our tenth annual Fall Musky Outing starts Oct 13^th..we already have about 30 people signed up and expecting a few more. This year we have a great line up of top guides and expecting some great fish being caught.  Bass fishing has remained  consistent all season..with both smallmouth and largemouth still up hitting in shallow water. Smallmouth season is now closed but many are still getting caught and released when fishing for other species?  We have not seen our usual fall crappie action start .. every year we have guests catching limits of crappie from a spot we call the deep hole near Niles Bay.  That structure has Crappie move in on it around Labor Day and the fish seem to stay there throughout The winter.

 One the best stories of the year is the monster Musky lurking below the Dam. Throughout the summer guests that would walk down to the dock below the resort To fish for panfish, Northern ,bass and walleye kept coming back with stories of a huge musky coming up and eating their hooked panfish, or bass…some reports the fish was 55-58 inches.  There has always been musky below the Dam and not uncommon for a guest to catch one pushing 50 inches with only one over 50 inches caught a few years back. Most of the musky caught below the Dam were usually are not heavy in the body for they rely on a low protein diet to survive vs musky on Vermilion that can eat Whitefish and Cisco.  In August a fisherman from Brainerd Mn, ( Damien Williams) Came up with his family. Damien is a serious musky fisherman who fishes the Brainerd Lakes all the time. One evening he took his daughter down below the Dam to fish for Pike and ended up catching a 47 inch musky.  When he told us about his catch he also shared  that he seen the big musky everyone was talking about…knowing his experience in catching muskies he would be a good judge of size….so we asked him honestly how big that fish was down there…he responded “ its big..real Big..I would guess around 55 inches”  Marty was standing there listening to the story .… when he heard how big the fish was estimated at..he told me he had to go down there and check it out. We both were shocked to hear we could have fish that big living in that small section of the river.   Three days later Marty caught the fish..it was just short of 55 inches but had  very thick body. Marty estimates the fish around 40 pounds.  All I can figure is that fish came over the dam in spring and took up residence right below the falls for it was great source of food and oxygen in the current. Its unlikely that fish has always been there and got that big feeding off the Panfish and bass in the pool below the rapids.  The good news is he released it right away after measuring it so next year the monster will still be there unless it moves north into the larger stretch of the river. 

Looking forward to the start of a great fall period.  We have a lot of fisherman already booked to come up for some short stays throughout the month in addition to some families coming up for the Minnesota MAE weekend ( kids are out of school for four days).

Summer update

Summer update June 2011…..June started out with some cool water temps the first two weeks then warmed up quickly. Overall fishing was consistent with many years past..with early June providing some great crappie action . Walleye fishing was good with some very large slot fish released around June 12-15th…including one 30 inch fish. Musky fishing for June was very exciting with a bunch of fish caught near the resort in the mid 40 inch range. The musky use the entire Wolf Bay area for spawning and it seems more show up each year in the shallow weeds near the resort. The mayfly hatch happened around the third week of June ( which is the normal expected period). In later June guests reported seeing large schools for cisco ( bait fish) breaking the surface throughout the west end of the Lake. This is very encouraging for a healthy population of Cisco means the walleye, Pike and Musky are eating good ( high protein, oily Baitfish) . One good story for June: My nephew ( Kyle Gebavi from Park Ridge Illinois) age 16 came up to work at the resort for a month. He and my Son Austin would get off their shift and musky fish in the evening. On June 28th…Austin got a tip from guest of a big school of baitfish breaking the surface around a reef within a mile of the resort. Kyle and Austin went out that night trolling the area and hooked into a huge musky…This was Kyle’s first musky…it jumped completely out of the water during the fight…Austin was the net man..they successfully boated the fish , took measurements, pictures with their phone and released it. The fished measured 55 inches. July 2011….By the 4th of July water temps were up to 70 degrees…Weather over in July was beautiful… most days hitting the 80s and night temps dropping into the 60s. A few days of super hot weather but limited rain. Lake water levels dropped quite a bit but given we had some very heavy rain days in June ( one day we received 5 inches within 24 hours) the levels are still normal for this time of the year. Based on water flowing over the Dam.. it might even be a little higher than years past in June. Bass fishing in July was simply crazy with tons of Largemouth and Smallmouth caught ..Guests were reporting catching and releasing multiple fish every time out. The week of 7/2 Mike and Lori Gillespie from Brazil Indiana came up for the second time. Mike loves to fish smallmouth and had a goal to catch a 5 lb plus smallmouth. He hired local guide Bill Rosner who specializes in fishing the Vermilion River just north of the resort. They canoed into a section of the river that is known for big smallmouth. They had a great day…Mike made his goal catching a huge 22 inch smallmouth and Lori also caught a trophy 20 inch fish. Overall the walleye fishing in July was excellent. We did hear from several guests that they had to release a lot of big fish due to the slot requirement. Our hope is for 2012 we will have an adjustment to the regulations to include increasing the slot which will allow harvest of walleyes up to 19-20 inches. The slot has been very successful on Vermilion but its time to adjust it for the lake has a very healthy population of big walleyes…especially on the west end of the lake. The DNR is holding a public meeting in late September to consider the request to adjust the slot. I will be very involved in this along with many other local resort Owners . On July 20th we held our second annual “ Lets Take a Kid Fishing on Lake Vermilion” . The event is opportunity to get kids ages 10-15 out fishing for the first time. The sponsors are local business, resorts, guides, Sportsman Club, Etc… We had a great turnout with 71 kids. Our hope is to keep this going each year to promote introducing kids to the outdoors. The trend in the country is less and less people ages 35 on down are getting into hunting and fishing which is showing up in the decline in fishing and hunting license sales.This event is way for our Lake Community to help plant the seeds for the future outdoorsman. One our resort guest’s ( Mike Pashalek) donated his time and boat use during the event this year and took out two kids fishing for the afternoon. The docks in front of the lodge were hot this year for catching not only tons of Sunnies but several big northern and Bass.

June 2nd, 2011

 The spring crappie fishing has started to turn on the past two weeks. Several resort guests reported catching some nice crappie. Water temps have come up some since opener but still remain under 60 degrees . The week of May 21…one group ( Jim Bolman,from Illinois ) had another great annual trip. . This group comes every year and always seem to dial in on the fish…they caught and released a ton of bass, some nice slot sized walleye and limits of crappie. Labor day weekend we had a lot of returning guests some of which have been fishing the lake for decades. One group was led by Joe Axe from the twin cities..they caught some beautiful crappie and some nice walleye including a 26 incher. Joe and his brothers have been coming to Vermilion Dam Lodge since the 70s. Over the last few days crappie have slowed down some and the walleyes are starting to show up on summer locations.. Musky and Northern have remained active in the shallow water and hitting spinner baits. (Five muskies caught over the last week)..all of which were caught in shallow weed beds.

Slow Opener

 This year’s opener turned out to be tough fishing due to colder than normal water temperatures. The morning of opener water temp. was 47. Walleye spawning range is 47-51. Crappie will spawn when temps hit 60.  The late ice out this year (May 1st)combined with lack of extended warm sunny days since ice out contributed. Several groups of returning fisherman was up for the opener including Mike McCarty and crew from St.Peter. That group put a lot of time on the water and reported tough fishing. One guy in their group ( Rob Jones) did catch a nice 28 inch/8 lb Walleye.

 

Weather forecast this week includes temps into the 70s and extended sunshine. This should improve fishing greatly. Crappie Bite at least a week away.  

 

 

ice is leaving

Spring is finally here..This winter we had the most snow accumulation in  a decade. The snowmobilers enjoyed great conditions.  . Snow came early and heavy this winter creating a thick layer of insulation on top of the ice and the ground. This prevented the frost from getting down too deep and the lake ice from getting too thick. . The melt off’ has so far been gradual. We don’t expect a big runoff/high water level conditions at opener,  We are  expecting what would be a normal ice out around April 26^th.  Already started on spring projects/clean up. We  are anxious to get open and ready for the sound of a Boat motor starting on the dock. Looks like we will again have a great crew this season at VDL. Dock staff will be Marty, Austin, Danny, Kevin, Alex, Kyle, and Mike. ..Marty… I should mention is well rested and ready for the season for he just returned from Maui, Hawaii after a five week stay. Kenny our chef spent some time this winter with his kids in Illinois and spent a few weeks in Florida.Shiela is going to  be back again this year. She is looking forward to seeing all the guests that do meal plans served in the Lodge.  It looks like a great year with good fishing ahead and we are excited to see everyone return.

Winter is here

Winter has come early this year. This looks to be a great year for the snowmobilers.  It started with some heavy snow fall in late November followed by some prolonged weeks of cold weather ( some nights down to 20 below). The cold weather was needed to ensure the lake develops good ice thickness.  The local snowmobile clubs are responsible for staking the trails on the lake. They will only mark them when there is safe ice conditions.  They have not staked the lake yet..but my guess by the first of the year we should expect the lake trails to be staked and open for riding.  Winter is beautiful up  here when you get some good snowfall. This winter we will be keeping a couple of cabins open for snowmobilers looking for lodging.  After the holidays we will being doing Sport shows and starting some winter cabin upgrade projects. People ask us all the time “What we do in winter”…the reality is the winter can be as busy for us as summer for between sports shows and resort upgrades we take on each winter there never seems to be a lot of down time.

Last chance fishing

The Lake in front of  the resort had ice up to the boat landing..My Insurance agent (Carl)  Marty, and myself had planned to fish today maybe one more time before ice up…so we elected to trailer a boat to the  far west end ( Head of Lakes Bay) for the water temps on that section of the lake was still around 40 degrees…we were trolling using planner boards….pulling crank baits close to sharp breaking shorelines….we elected to keep one bait deep off a board while keeping the boat in around 15-20 ft…the deep line/board stayed over 30ft….we were trolling a 2 lb bull dawg off that deep line when a nice fish hit….54 inches 27 inch girth…we had our girth tape a measured it carefully. …musky formula puts this fish at 49 pound…….outside temps  are expected to drop into single numbers at night the next few days..so the lake is not long for being iced over….not sure if we will get out again this year..if not, we are thankful for another great year.

Another Giant Musky

Deer season opened over the weekend with some nice Bucks shot by VDL guests…also had guests musky fishing….Several musky caught in spite of the nice weather….including one monster caught by Andy Hutter….57 inches with a 26.5 inch girth...the formula for determining weight puts the fish at 52 pounds…Andy released it.  Andy was up with Ben Olsen and a group that caught several fish over the weekend and reported lost another real big fish trolling..  Andy said that fish ran away/pulled the line against the reel’s drag  like he was hooked to moving sub (when trolling with the type of gear most use in late fall…if a fish does that …you know its big for even a heavy 50 inch fish might make a few runs…but in the colder water…they simply don’t fight as hard as they would in summer when the water temps are warmer).  Andy’s 57 incher hit  casting off a reef…..recently there was a picture of 60 incher in the Mn Outdoor news out of Vermilion…its truly amazing how many Giant Musky Vermilion has in it….also over the weekend Guide Luke Ronnestrand caught/guided clients to several fish including a 53 incher…Guests that headed east from VDL…reported that the east end of Vermili0n is starting to turn on as the Cisco are now starting to come up for spawning.