Fishing Reports by Cliff Wagenbach
(218) 753-2005

Lake Vermilion, 06/02/2008

The walleye bite continues to improve as the water warms up this week.
The water temps have been as high as 62.5 degrees in some areas the past couple of days!
The walleyes are already starting to move off shoreline locations out onto the main basin reefs and islands.
Minnows are still the main go-to bait, but leeches have been starting to work well in some locations also.
My main presentation this week has been a standard lindy type bait rig with a 3' to 6' leader and a #2 Gamagatsu bait hook.
Dragging a jig and minnow combination has also been working well for some.
Most of my fish are being caught in 16' to 32 feet of water close to rocky shorelines and rock piles.
Moving very slowly and paying attention to feel the light biters and then feeding them a little line will
put a lot more fish in your boat!
Good Fishing!

Cliff

Lake Vermilion, 05/20/2008

The second week of the walleye season has had some very unstable weather, to say the least!
Those of us that braved the cold, wind, and rain did manage to have some good fishing though.
Walleyes have been hitting in almost any depth of water up to 40 feet and have been caught on almost any type of presentation!
I have been sticking to Lindy type rigs because they are much easier to use in the windy conditions that we have had all week.
At times I have had to use up to 1 ounce of weight just to stay on the bottom!
I have been running a 5 foot, 8# test Cajun Red leader with a #4 or #2 Gamagatsu hook baited with a rainbow,fathead,
or pike sucker and with enough weight to maintain bottom contact.
We have caught walleyes in 8 feet of water to 30 feet of water using this type of rig this week.
Jigs/minnows also worked well on the few calm days that we had.
Good Fishing!

Cliff

Lake Vermilion, 2008 OPENER, 05/10/2008

Finally! The 2008 walleye fishing opener has arrived!
After checking questionable ice out condition on the Tower end of Vermilion for the last week
we finally got enough open water on the South shore of Big Bay to be able to get out onto a large enough
section of water to be able to fish.
Even though my clients and I were unable to gain access to my prefered "Opening Day" walleye spot
because of a huge ice flow on most of Big Bay I was able to get to a couple of my back up spots
and we managed to have a very good day on Saturday!

The morning started off with snow flakes falling as we headed out from the Hoodoo Point Landing! Another "Typical Opener"!
With the water tempretures averaging 39 to 44 degrees in these spots the bite was very light and tenative, but fairly steady.
All of our fish came out of 22' to 33' of water and were caught on bait rigs with a 3' to 4' leader,
3/8 oz. egg sinker, a size #4 red or green Gamagatsu hook, with rainbow chub as bait.
We had to move very slowly to get any bites and had to feed the bait to the fish for a few seconds before setting the hook.
We ended the day with 41 walleyes caught! We kept our limits of 16 fish that were 13" to 16-1/2" in length,
and released two fish that were in the protected slot.
By 3:00 pm we were all ready to call it a day as the wind had come up and the temperature had begun to drop again.
Big Bay should be ice free by Monday or Tuesday. This is only the second year that I have ever seen ice on Big Bay
on opener weekend!

The fishing can only get better as the water and weather warm!

Good Fishing!

Cliff