This was my second trip to LV and I didn't think it could be much better than my first but I was pleasantly surprised.
We arrived at Red Lake (Balmertown) on Friday the 16th only to be greeted with the news that we would have to wait until the ice cleared at the dock at Sportsman's Lodge so we could get in and get unloaded. After a few hour wait things were good to go, loading up the Beaver.
And away we go!
Couldn't believe how much ice was still on the area lakes, driving up most seem to be open but we did see snow in the bush and a couple lakes that had some ice, but nothing like we saw from the air.
The Beaver hits the water on the west side of the lake about a mile from the lodge and taxis up to the dock, still lots of ice to the east.
One thing nice about flying in was being able to check out the lake and the ice free areas which was pretty much the south end of the lake, the creeks and rivers. Little Vermillion is a lake that is basically broken up into two lakes with what they call the Middle Narrows joining the two larger sections.
Our first site of the camp after a long taxi in.
We hit the dock and unload our gear, only problem was they couldn't get everthing on the plane and we didn't have any rods, so we spent the rest of the day getting unpacked and sitting at the main dock watching the ices flows melt away, a first for me. Amazing what the warm sun along with a good wind will do to the ice.
May 17th Walleye Opener, this is one opener that I will never forget. The numbers of walleyes we caught out of two fairly small areas of one of the rivers that feed the lake was just simply unreal, so much that I had a rythem going with catching the small 15 to 18 inch males.
My partner Norton for the first day with an nice eye.
A few of the many that were hoisted over the side of the boat
Norton with a nice northern he jigged up out of our walleye hole, and this wasn't the only one either
Me with the biggest eye I caught all week
The rest off the week we pretty much split our time exploring, fishing for the eyes early and late and fishing for pike in the mid to late afternoons when the water would be it's warmest in the bays.
The pike came on spoons (GOLD JSM), small bucktails and suicks were pretty much my weapon of choice, a few of my better pike for the week
Even Deg could get in on the action
Here's the fella that started all this for us, TennesseeGuy with a few of his fish on the last day I fished. This was an exceptionally fun day because we were fishing reed beds with spoons and suicks and the fish were pretty spunky which made for some good battles.
The final sunset I would see for the week at LV
Our ride out on Saturday, a nice twin engine Beech.
The group TennesseeGuy, Whopper, Norton & Deg
A final view of area we fished a lot throughout the week
Truely an awesome place!
Cheers!