Lake Vermilion late July fishing brought mixed results, largely due to a longer than usual stretch of windy days. 7 of 10 cabins had returning guests with lots of years of experience on the Big V, and it was not as easy as usual for them. High temps late last week and early this week brought Big Bay surface water temps into the 80 degree range, only to find them drop by over 10 degrees as several days of high winds churned the water. Not so great for the walleye fishing, but a little kinder to the muskie guys. Fishing the rocks and netting fish in the waves made for missed fish and tired guys. Just ask Bob Larsen – after working hard all week and catching the nice 51.5″ Lake Vermilion muskie shown on our Facebook page, his son Eric told us Bob slept all the way back home to Wisconsin.
Along with Bob’s 51.5″er (a few inches short of his Lake Vermilion Personal Record), Jason Wenzel caught his PR, a 51.5″ muskie, as did Bill Janz, with a 50″ fish. In fact, Bill finished out the week catching 6 muskies.
Fish our guests told us about include:
Muskies: 51.5″ Bob Larsen, Jason Wenzel. 50″ Bill Janz. 47″ Bill Janz. 46″ Jason Wenzel. 45.5″ Travis Wenzel. 42″ Bill Janz. 41″ Bill Janz. 39.5″ Travis Wenzel. 36″ Travis Wenzel, and several more under 40 inches.
Smallies: 19″ Josh Wagner. 18.5″ Sue Perkins. Plus many fish in the 16 – 17″ range.
Largemouth Bass: 18″ Jim Lamping
There were days when the smallie action was good, but unfortunately wind gusts approaching 40 mph made staying on the walleyes once they were located a very difficult task. We’ve got another core group of returning guests with us this week. Fortunately it looks like that weather pattern has finally moved on, with a stretch of cooler days making their way this direction.