Tips on Fishing Rapalas on Vermilion

This information was posted on Fishingminnesota.com the forum on Lake Vermilion by Chris Larson,
it is reprinted with his permission

Minor editing has been done on these instructions by Dave Sorensen

I use rapalas two ways.
The first way
The most important thing with trolling rapalas is the structure.
When trolling look for breaks/humps or major changes in depth.
For example when in 30 f.o.w. look for structure to make passes over
that are 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.
The types of rods that are being used are 8'6" diawa wilderness trolling rods and diawa acuedepth reels with line counters.
Usually there will be 160 to 240 feet of line out and all the lines are at the same distance.
(if there is more than 2 people in the boat run side planers out 100 feet and then 75 feet of line behind them)
The second way
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 you should run the rapalas. You have to watch out because you can go from 30 to 5 feet real fast.
This is the way to get the bigger walleyes.

For this process use deep diving shad raps that run about 15 feet down.
Firetiger and chartuse seem to be the best colors for me.

The following pictures are the types and colors that are being used