Opening weekend.

[Ace]

Even with the lake partially covered with ice, opening day was a success for most of the anglers that I talked to. The one major problem we all had, was catching fish small enough to keep. 

On Saturday my brother and I released 12 fish that were over the 17 inch slot limit.
They included a 25, 24, 22 and a 21.5 inch walleyes. We only boated 4 fish under 17" and they were just under the limit.

Sunday proved to be a little tougher bite, however we did release 5 more Walleyes that were over 18 inches. We also boated 3 Northerns over 32", including a beautiful 38" that weighed in at about 16 pounds. Throw in about 7 or 8 jumbo perch and you have a pretty good day of fishing.

There were a lot fewer boats than normal, because of the late ice. Unfortunately they all fished in many of the same areas, so we did see  some over crowding in some areas. All in all it was a pretty good opening day for most anglers on Vermilion. 

"Ace"

[jkrash]

Hi Ace
Sounds like the bite over your way is similar to our area, we had a number of cancelations due to the ice and late spawn,.We did have one group that showed up and braved the ellements. Most of there fish were in the slot with a few in the 24-25 inch range, and they found enough small ones for a meal so all in all they did well.
Now if I can find a couple 26 1/4 's for the tournament this weekend, I'll be a happy camper.

[Ace]

Hey John,
I heard that you guys cashed a check on Saturday, way to go!

Dave and I weighed a limit in at 6.63 lb's, I think we finished around 20th place.

The first fish we caught in the morning went 25.5, I had a tough time letting her go.
Two more 20+ the first hour of the day. We must have caught about 40 Walleyes for the day, none under 15"s.

We caught them trolling Pike bay with #9 shadraps, in the perch pattern. We tried some deeper water later in the day. We hoped we could find that big kicker fish, but it didn't happen for us.

Congrats on you're success!

"Ace"

[jkrash]

Thanks Ace
We had a good day, first spot we stopped at produced so we sat there as long as we could, actually we got blown off the spot a half dozen times and had to relocate until the wind quit. I'm not sure how many fish we caught but I know only two were in the slot most were in that 15" range except the half dozen 16"ers we wieghed.  I talked to a few others that trolled cranks and they said they caught a bunch also