27 Consecutive Walleye Openers on Little Vermilion

[TennesseeGuy]

This was my 27th consecutive walleye opener on Little Vermilion Lake, although I had to cheat a couple of times by going in the second week of the season due to a couple of graduations I needed to attend. This stay was only 8 days, but I began staying two weeks around 1990 and made it for three weeks in 2005 when JP Bushey was new in camp. We needed to tour the lake and look for rocks. JP didn't need any help locating fish.

 

Our group was short a few guys this spring as three of them had other issues that required their attention. We had a great week and missed our guys who had to stay back. Due to pretty nasty weather conditions the two previous years, we had several fishermen sit out this opener. Usually there's a full camp, but there were only nine of us for the week, three from my town in Tennessee, plus Kyle from Norton, OH & Larry from Geneva, IL joined me in my cabin. Only other fishermen in camp were four Ben Roethlisberger worshipers, from the Pittsburgh area.

 

I went in Friday for a day of pike fishing, then Larry & Kyle joined me Saturday morning.

Here's our ride in on Friday.

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I never tire of looking from the airplane window. As usual the window could use a little cleaning, but the photos still look good to me, especially during winter.

 

The Chukuni River flows from Little Vermilion Lake to Red Lake and this is a shot of Pine Ridge Road as it crossed the Chukuni. The water is off limits until June 15 and usually holds plenty of nice walleyes until the spawn is finished.

Below is the mouth of Bull Whip Creek that usually holds both walleyes and pike in early season, but I didn't get around to fishing it this time due to low water.

rrichards, an OFC member, had a friend make this personalized lure for me. I gave it a good workout the first day in camp. It came with my name on it. The workmanship is beautiful. It practically does tricks on the surface and has great action when being reeled in. Unfortunately I had a gimpy shoulder before leaving home and I put some pretty good hurt on it when leaving the dock Saturday morning. I was fishing alone and needed to push my boat off the ramp, then push it into a pretty stiff breeze before getting in, starting the motor and getting out of shallow water before being blown ashore. I made it okay, but put a lot of stress on the shoulder and must have had the bone spur go into something soft and tender. No throwing lures for me the rest of the week. All I could do is jig 1/4 oz jigs for walleyes, but I also managed to bring in my share of nice pike. I had a second cortisone injection upon returning home and hope to hold off surgery until around the first of November. My lawn and vegetable garden will need my attention until summer is behind us.

 

 

 

 

Nungesser River flows into Little Vermilion at the north end. Here's a shot looking into the mouth. Heavy rain last September pushed a lot of sand out into the lake and a low lake level made it tough getting into the mouth of the river. I made it in on the left side, but it wasn't easy. Going out I thought I could turn left as leaving and pick up a channel that's been there for as long as I can remember. Wrong. I had to remove my pants and shoes so I could wade and pull my boat off the sand bar, through shallow water, across more sand and back out into the lake. I fished it twice during the week and it was good to me. The Nungesser River gave up plenty of walleyes and nice pike. Here are shots looking in and looking out at the lake.

 

 

 

We had a sunny eight days with temperature at around 80F. plus every day. Fish were all over the lake and they were in a biting mode.

 

The Canadian sun surely likes having it's picture taken.

 

Fishing was good. Fishing conditions, weatherwise, were great. Every day. Bugs were not a problem. We missed our usual friends who are usually in camp during the opening week. We had empty cabins, but the entire month of June and first week in July are booked solid.

 

Those who sat out the opener this time have missed out on a great week.

 

I should have taken more pictures of fish, but fishing alone in hot weather put a crimp in my style. My camera timer can be set at 2 seconds or 10 seconds. 2 seconds is a little short for me to get a good pose and 10 seconds was more than I wanted for the fish. The few I took were barely fair, but at least I can prove that I got out on the water. My Frabill pen helped preserve the pike and I should have done a better job. Maybe I'll improve when I get my "new" shoulder.

 

Thanks for taking a look. If you ever run across one of rrichards lures, I suggest you jump on it.

[kickingfrog]

Nice, we have another southern gentleman to regal us with shirtless fish photos.

 

Great stuff.

[irishfield]

GREAT stuff Connie! Glad to see you putting up a post again and looking healthy!!!

[Terry]

nice

 

looks like a great fishing trip tradition

[Roy]

You're one tough dude, Connie. That was a beautiful account of your trip. Too bad about the rest of the regular crew but I suppose that life is all about priorities. I have no point of reference as I've never been up there but that water appears to be terribly low. It must have changed where you fished with the new challenges and hazards. Stripping down to go play in the water up there in May must be another hazard on body parts. And those aerial shots, man, everytime I see those I keep thinking that I'd want to stop at every lake and river to give them a try.

Good on you for keeping up the tradition my friend and thank you for the great report.

 

BTW, did you happen to run into your favorite CO?

[solopaddler]

Thanks for that Connie and too bad about your shoulder!

Did you manage any big pike trolling?

[Whopper]

Sorry I missed it, who made the pasta this year?

 

The last three years one wouldn't even of thought about going shirtless

 

Glad to hear you had a good trip besides the shoulder.

 

[mepps]

Wish I could have been there to Connie - looks like a solid trip!

[John]

Thanks for sharing Connie, great report as usual. I hope that the gonads have found their way back home! I'm with Roy, the water level looks incredibly low.

[TennesseeGuy]

Roy, the water level was extremely low for May. It was more like mid October. My fishcop friend didn't visit although he checked us on our way home May 2009. We talked quite a bit and he did not ask if we had a license or if we had fish. He probably forgot to ask. He listened more than usual for him.

 

Solo, I didn't troll. Probably because I don't know how. I troll only a couple of hours a season.

 

Phil, we all missed you and we missed your sauce. Next May?

 

Clive, the week is better when you're in camp. Hope you can make it back in a year or two.

 

We couldn't have asked for better weather and fishing was everything we could hope for.

 

Friends from my town are going in June 19, but I have jury duty for about 5 more weeks. I hope some young defense attorney sees me as soft on crime and allows me to be seated on his case, especially if he's defending a bad guy.

[TennesseeGuy]

I forgot to mention one of the most important events of my trip. May 13 I arrived in Red Lake just in time to roust DanC before he was so sound asleep that he wouldn't answer the door. We managed to visit for about a half hour or so before we let him back in bed. We didn't enjoy a beer because I didn't want any fresh beer on my breath in case I'd be stopped by Red Lake police.

 

DanC is putting in the hours and that's unfortunate because there a lot of fish to be caught up that way.