Little Vermillion, Sportsman Lodge

[Whopper]

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!

[Greencoachdog]

Great report and beauty pics Phil!!!

[Billy Bob]

Nice report and good to hear you had great fishing.

 

Do you have any pics of the accommodation's on the lake ?

[lew]

You got my reply to your excellent story over in that other happy place Phil

[jonnybass]

Wow. That is amazing.

 

What service did you use? ie, if I wanted to take that same same trip, who would I call?

[Sinker]

Looks like a truely awesome place!!

 

Nice fish and great picutures!

 

Sinker

[Whopper]

Billy Bob & jonnybass here's the link

 

http://www.trophypikecanada.com/

[jonnybass]

Billy Bob & jonnybass here's the link

 

http://www.trophypikecanada.com/

 

Thanks for the link.

 

I'm curious, what do you bring with you on a trip like that?

[corvette1]

cant beat ice out pike fishing looks like a great time

[Roy]

Excellent report and pics, Phil. I don't know Norton but it sure is nice to see Don, Connie and yourself in fine form and enjoying yourselves.

Looks you guys just arrived at the cusp of ice out. A couple of days earlier and you might have been socked in for a while.

Thanks for posting that, Phil.

[jonnybass]

They mention on the website that they have cooking facilities, but if you're flying in do you bring your own food?

[limeyangler]

great report, great pics....yup the ice up here certainly took its time to go.

[johnnyb]

nice report -- great pics!

[Puckhead]

Awesome report!! Man, I've got to do a deep fly in one day...

[Peps]

great report and awesome pics, looks like a little piece of heaven

[tbayboy]

Wonderful report Whopper. Those are some beauty pike and I imagine you had your fill of tasty walleye. Great way to start the season, thanks for the report.

[solopaddler]

Fantastic, thanks for posting!

[jwl]

great report and pics...awesome way to show the rugged north country right from the fly-in to the beauty fish in the pics, looks like a great hardcore fishing adventure to me...some real pig pike there.

[addy79]

amazing!!

im sold on LV

 

great looking Northerns!!

 

[jdmls]

nice pics...your stomach must have dropped when you saw all that ice when you were flying in !!!

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Excellent report. Looks like the fishing was non stop action. There must be some real monsters lurking in that lake.

[Reef Runner]

What an adventure. Wow. Thanks for sharing your experience with us all!

[setomonkey]

Awesome report, sounds like a great week with lots of action.

 

Must have been something arriving at the meeting pt and learning that there was still lots of ice on the lake.

 

Mike

[bpsbassman]

Another great report Whopper.

Hopefully, I will get there in the next few years.

[Daplumma]

Good stuff Phil.Did Don say if he is going to Lakair?

Joe