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.
