Wow, that slot does work, heck I was tossing back more fish today that were over 17 than I ever have!

Todays catch was
1, 24 incher
3, 20 inchers
9 that were between 17 and 20
and 9 keepers that were between 13.5 and 16

O-ya
A stick and some old fishing line.

We were useing a lindy rig in 15ft and going .4 mph on the gps.
Times were 5:30pm to 8:00pm

Didn't catch a thing............But then I guess it helps to put a line in the water, eh?

Diddo on the slot working... caught somewhere in the mid 30's and only able to keep 5. Lot of 19-22's, biggest at 28". Stayed real shallow 3-9'

It has been a reel adventure keeping up with daily ice reports and now the early success stories.I find myself checking the site several times a day looking for additional reports.
I was one of the opponents of the slot when it was being debated a couple of years back. Obviously, I was totally wrong and, based upon the report data, the slot is definitely going to be a phenomenal "shot in the arm" for Lake Vermilion both in the short and long term.
I think it would be a great idea to discuss the proper release techniques for "any" fish that is released back to the lake. Lip hooks are obvious, but gut hooks and fish handled for photo shoots require a bit more thought. I believe that I read in one of these posts from a few back years back that "dangling" a big heavy fish, such as a muskie or northern, vertically by the gill covers is a gigantic no no. If Lake Vermilion is on it's way to a trophy fishery, then proper handling techniques for it's trophies will only further the cause.
Congratulations on everyone's success.

great pics 2thepoint. My old setter used to be my guide too when she'd be in the boat. She knew how to pick the spots!

Thanks... I couldn't imagine going somewhere without Buddy. (you will see him in all my fishing pics summer and winter)


Fishing report from today....

Went lake trout fishing on Embarrass pit and caught a tree that cost me $20 worth of tackle.

Went out on Whitewater Lake looking for wallyes for 5 hours with no bites.

I knew I should have went to Vermilion even if I cant find a fish small enough to keep

Hopefully next weekend the smaller eaters will be biting although those big ones are nice to see and fun to catch. not a bad problem to have i guess when you cant catch one thats small enough to eat

Just out of curiosity, could you go into more detail about fishing rapalas in 25 feet of water at 2.8 mph? What kind of rapalas? and were you flatlining or running leadcore or snapweights or what? Speedtrolling an F11 in 25 feet seems sort of counter intuitive.

del

well congrates to all who caught some very nice fish!!!! see you up there fathersday weekend hiope there still bitting then!!!!

I use them 2 different ways.

the first..
The most important thing with trolling rapals like I am is the structure. When I troll I am looking for breaks/humps or major changes in depth. For example when I am in 30 f.o.w. I will be looking for structure to make passes over that is only 20 feet deep and the water around it is 30. Vermilions depth changes rapidly and usually on the structure there will be fish holding either on the edges or right on the flat spot. I am using 8'6" diawa wilderness trolling rods and diawa acuedepth reels with line counters. Usually I will have 160 to 240 feet of line out and I run all the lines at the same distance. (if there is more than 2 people in the boat I run side planers out 100 feet and then 75 feet of line behind them)

the second...
look for mainland or islands that have steep drops right off the shoreline. There are places on vermillon where it is 30 feet deep ten feet out from shore and that is where I run the rapalas. You have to watch out because you can go from 30 to 5 feet real fast. This is the way I get the bigger walleyes.



For rapalas I using deep diving shad raps that run about 15 feet down. Firetiger and chartuse seem to be the best colors for me.

Thanks for the tips, we'll try em out this weekend. We usually just jig, but I would like to try a little trolling a little more.

As per 2 the points success, I found the best action in 33-23 FOW vertical jigging the edge of a reef. Just couldn't hook the buggers, but they were there!

Give it a try.

Also try running a smaller shad rap in the shallow water near shore in 8 or 9 f.o.w. With the colder water temps some of the bigger fish may still holding there.

Trolling the raps is a good way to find fish on the humps. If I do find lots of fish in a small area than I will switch to ultra light rod and a lindy rig. When the fish are gone then I start trolling again. I find a new place to fish almost everytime I am out.

Here are the rapalas I normally use on Vermilion

Or anything with an orange belly.

Wow... trolling raps at 2.8mph on a COLD opener... Never would have guessed you would catch so many...

Thanks for the informative posts... Sounds like a great way to find new "spots" to come back to as well.

Always seems to be the most enjoyable to find new spots and catch fish away from the crowds.