Lake Vermillion

[Grapela]

This will be our second year to this lake as the canadian borders remain closed. We did ok last year but mostly stayed on the norwegian bay side of the lake and did not venture out much. We will be there June 5th-12th I know the answer to this but this should be post spawn time for both Largemouth and smallmouth correct? Is it reasonable to say that the bulk of the smallmouth population should still be shallow 2-10ft? I am just trying to get a feel for this place as most all the bass we caught were in the 1.5 to 3lb class and I know there is bigger here, we mostly caught on senkos,neds and top water. Early in the week there was a good jerkbait bite but that died. We would like to head to the east side of the lake this year but just looking for general ideas of what depth, water temp and structure we should be looking for. Also has anyone been out there and what is the current water temps and have the smallies moved up?

thanks all just trying to accelerate our learning curve here.

[brianf.]

Heading up tomorrow for 10 days. The fish are definitely going to be in spawn mode with the early ice out and warm weather. At that time of year, you will be fishing post-spawn fish primarily, though they don’t all go at the same time as you know. If you are catching smallish fish, back off the bank and fish where you normally would hold the boat. Those larger females will tend to stay near the spawn site but will back away and hold on slightly deeper rocks, wood, or weeds. Helps to have good electronics to see that stuff. Your bait choice is fine and your shallow thinking is fine but don’t let those easy buck bass tempt you to stay right on the shoreline if you want larger fish. Both sides of the lake have big fish. The biggest I have ever had in the boat was a 22”er shaped like an over-inflated football at the mouth of Norwegian Bay. Btw, Vermilion is spelled with one ‘L’. Vermillion with two ‘L’s is an entirely different lake.

[Grapela]

Kind of what I figured this year with early ice out. Good luck on your trip and let me know how it goes. We are looking forward to it as usual.

[HellaBass]

Can confirm I start to see smallies some smallies starting the spawn process on Monday May 17th, I will have some videos coming out from my tournament very soon.

Also, the water was clearer than I have ever seen it, that might put the smallies deeper than normal. But in my opinion you will probably find some fish deeper on the east side but they still can be found shallow'ish as well. I rarely fish deeper than 10-15' anywhere on that system and have done very well in tournaments

[Grapela]

That's good to hear, keep me posted on how you do and water temps. We want to venture east this year but would be nice to know what to look for.

[Grapela]

Just watched a couple of your videos pretty cool. I also fish out of a basscat. Look forward to your tourney recap video