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.7th ( 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. 8th. 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 15th.. 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.
