Pacemaker Fishing Forum

Since Canada was closed, Tyler and I did some research and decided on Lake Vermillion in Northern MN just below the Canadian border.  It had a lot of really good writeups and supposedly had BIG Smallies and Musky.  We were going primarily for big Smallies and Muskie, and hopefully a few Walleye to have a shore lunch or two.....at least that was the plan.  Where the hell were all the fish!!!

We were supposed to fly into MSP and drive up to the camp arriving about 6pm Saturday.  Because of endless flight delays due to maintenance (luckily we got upgraded to 1st class) we didn't get to camp until 12:30am Sunday morning.  But camp was nice and clean, except for our fishing stuff. 






The boat was a nice 18fter with 115hp engine, trolling motor, 2 casting decks, and 2 fishfinders...for $750/week!  No pics

The lake was beautiful.  Typical Canadian lake, 40 miles long, but not too much really big water (a couple big areas but you could find shelter).

 
   
 

Sunday we headed out and fished all morning with nothing more than a few <12 inch Smallies off of some mid-lake humps.  We tried some points and shoreline with nada!  No pics because Tyler wouldn't let me take pics of anything under 2.5 lbs and that applied to both of us.

Monday we hired a Musky guide named AJ.  Great guy!  He put us on about 15 Musky.  We got about 8 of them to follow with no takes, had 1 swipe at the bait but didn't take it, and had 3 on the line.  We netted 2 of the 3 (I lost the 3rd).  Tyler's goal was to get a Musky over 40 inches.  He caught a 47 incher!  DAMN they are strong fish!!!  He got that on the line and all hell broke loose.  Amazing fish! 
 


After that, it became Tyler and AJ's mission to make sure I got mine.  I felt pretty guilty with the service I was getting.  BUT, I finally caught my first Musky!  She was 42 inches!  They pretty regularly catch 50+inchers on the lake.  I can't imagine bringing one of them on the boat!! 


It was a great day!!  I would have been content with just Tyler catching his fish.  The look on his face was priceless.  Me catching one too was just icing on the cake.  If you want to get put on big Musky, call AJ.  You can contact me for details.

That night we discovered a place called "The Landing" about a mile from our cabin.  That became our dinner and drinks location for the rest of the week.  Awesome bartenders, great people, and great food.  They knew us by name and had our drinks on the bar the minute we walked in the door.

The rest of the week we struggled to find worthy fish.  Don't get me wrong, we caught some.  We probably averaged about 15 Smallies per day with nothing ever bigger than about 12 inches.  Probably another 4-5 Walleye per day mostly trolling deep diving cranks (20 ft down).  Tyler did catch a 23 inch Walleye while trolling.  He looked at the fishfinder as we went over the Walleye and calmly said "We are about to get hit by a big one".  Then BAM! Fight on.



Tyler also  caught a 30 inch Pike while trolling.  So he let me take a picture of that one too.



FYI, I did catch a lot of fish (probably more than Tyler).  But he never takes pictures!

Thursday was my birthday.  So, we fileted some Walleye and did a shore lunch with fried walleye and broiled potatoes seasoned with onion soup mix!  YUM!  Sorry Ernie, no food fishing for you.  I forgot to take pics.  Tyler and I got free shots at the Landing that night and made a bunch of new friends.  I couldn't ask for a better Bday!

Even though the fishing wasn't outstanding we had a great time.  Spending the whole week exploring a lake on a boat with my son while fishing is about the best thing I can ever imagine doing.  Luckily he seemed to think so to. 



We are planning next year's trip to somewhere else.....Mexico for 10lb LMB????