Pre spawn Canadian Shield fishing

[Ogandrews]

So I am heading up to lake vermilion tomorrow for the next week. For those who don’t know lake vermilion is a 40,000 acre lake in northern Minnesota that is part of the Canadian Shield. To give you an idea how far north it is it would be about 250 miles north of the north shore of Lake Ontario, so it’s pretty far up there. The lake is pretty unique, it’s got around 400 islands on it and has multiple separate basins separated with narrows with some very long bays coming off of some basins. Lake is mostly made up of rock with a lot of expansive weedy shallow bays and lots of offshore reefs. I fish up there 7-8 different times each year, but I always struggle to get onto a good smallmouth bite until the water gets into the 60-70’s. Last weekend the water was upper 40’s in the basins and low 50’s in the shallower bays. I know the fish will be in the earlier stages of prespawn, and I know that they will most likely be near the spawning grounds which are usually shallow gravel flats. I have had minimal success fishing the outer edges of these flats around this time before. Does anyone have any advice on what to look for location wise? With the warmer weather we’ve had up there I’ll bet the water will be in the low 50’s in the main basins most of the time I’ll be there. Bringing a lot of gear up, lots of dropshot baits, tubes, neds, deep and shallow jerkbaits, blade baits, mid depth cranks, liplesss, keitechs, hair jigs. Any advice would be appreciated. It’s strange that here where I live I’ll be able to catch smallies in low 40 degree water but up there I struggle so much.

[SWVABass]

great topic to read through here. @A-Jay has put a ton of work into it along with some other members.

[Dwight Hottle]

My suggestions are based on fishing Rainy Lake the last few years during the month of May on the Canadian side. Take a quick look at the offshore reef areas. Jerkbaits will work well as a search tool if your not marking smallies. Don't waste a lot of time unless your getting bit. Next look for warmer water near the typical spawning areas. Dark water areas with wood & some rock that are the warmest water near other warm water areas. You can fish jerk baits or bottom baits like a tube. If Vermillion is anything like Rainy white jerk baits rule over other color combos. If you have any creeks or rivers flowing into the area that is always a good area to try. Once you find them in a particular area & beat up on them try to find similar areas so you distribute your fishing pressure to other areas. Always look for the areas that have the warmest water temps with some bait fish present. Good luck.    

[Ogandrews]

1 minute ago, Dwight Hottle said:

My suggestions are based on fishing Rainy Lake the last few years during the month of May on the Canadian side. Take a quick look at the offshore reef areas. Jerkbaits will work well as a search tool if your not marking smallies. Don't waste a lot of time unless your getting bit. Next look for warmer water near the typical spawning areas. Dark water areas with wood & some rock that are the warmest water near other warm water areas. You can fish jerk baits or bottom baits like a tube. If Vermillion is anything like Rainy white jerk baits rule over other color combos. If you have any creeks or rivers flowing into the area that is always a good area to try. Once you find them in a particular area & beat up on them try to find similar areas so you distribute your fishing pressure to other areas. Always look for the areas that have the warmest water temps with some bait fish present. Good luck.    

Vermilion is set up super similar to rainy lake, just about 30 miles south and not nearly as big but it’s still a big lake. Thanks for the advice, I never really spent much time on offshore reefs until once the water warms up then they are on fire. Everywhere you look on vermilion there’s a handful of reefs in deep water so I’ll give those a try as well.

[WRB]

My inlaws had a summer home on Lake of the Woods north of Minnesota late June for several years. What I recall was how fast the pre spawn seasonal period ramped up from cold water period to bed fish. Smallies were on beds when the water temps reached 58 degrees. The reefs were void of smallies until post spawn. Staging areas included any River mouth and points at the mouth of wind protected bays. 

My most productive smallmouth lure was 1/4 oz black jigs with motor oil red flake and split shot rigged night crawler color (cinnamon with red flake) 5" soft plastic worms during mid and top water Shad color Pop-R type lures and clown color jerk baits low light periods.  

Hope this helps,

Tom

[FryDog62]

I think Dwight gave you great advice... jerkbaits over reefs are key, and yes don’t waste a lot of time with plastics til you find them.  The other search baits I use in addition to a jerk bait is a bladed jig or Rippin Rap.  
 

Maybe the best thing you can do when you arrive is to drive around and check water temps in back bays, current flows, etc.  You can easily find water that is 2-3 degrees warmer than the main lake and it will make all the difference in the world up there this time of year.  Hardest thing to do when you first arrive is to drive around and around because you want to fish... but the initial homework to find warmer water is key.  

[WRB]

Lake Vermillion is similar to lake of the Ontario Canada is a few respects, Musky, Pike  and Walleye are dominate around main lake reefs. It's been my limited experience Smallmouth bass move don't usually out onto the outside structure until the summer, largemouth tend stay near shoreline cover. You all know this lake better then I do, so if smallies are on the reefs pro spawn try it.

Tom

[RoLo]

8 hours ago, WRB said:

What I recall was how fast the pre spawn seasonal period ramped up from cold water period to bed fish.

Smallies were on beds when the water temps reached 58 degrees.

The reefs were void of smallies until post spawn. Staging areas included any river mouth and point

at the mouth of wind protected bays. 

 

Tom, for a guy in southern California, you have a good handle on my stomping grounds  ?

 

Roger

 

[WRB]

21 minutes ago, RoLo said:

 

Tom, for a guy in southern California, you have a good handle on my stomping grounds  ?

 

Roger

 

Inlaws live in Minnesota and we visited often spending several vacations at Lake of The Woods, Sabascon bay. My father inlaw had his float plane for 35 years and what he called out post cabins on several lakes that were well furnished and heated.

I miss those trips and shore lunches because we don't have Musky, Pike, Walleye and big Lake trout* where I live. Musky are ultimate fish for a bass angler like me to catch.

Tom

*we have lake trout in Tahoe

[Way north bass guy]

Just yesterday I was out in Georgian Bay with my son pike fishing. Bass season is not open here yet so we weren’t targeting them, but they’re always in the same areas we get pike in the spring. Any warm, dark bottom

bay ( ours were about 50-53 deg yesterday), had smallmouth all over them. We also always run into big smallmouths anywhere a creek or river runs into the bays. Yesterday we caught about 15 smallmouths, most were between 4 and 5 lbs. It’s hard to keep your lure away from them sometimes while pike fishing, especially if it’s windy or the water is a bit stained and you can’t see them attack your lure. I will say, a Berkley Powerbait Powerbait Swimmer on an Owner ballhead jig slowly running along the shallows will

get hammered just as hard by a smallmouth as a big pike. 

[RoLo]

 

23 minutes ago, WRB said:

Inlaws live in Minnesota and we visited often spending several vacations at Lake of The Woods, Sabascon bay. My father inlaw had his float plane for 35 years and what he called out post cabins on several lakes that were well furnished and heated.

I miss those trips and shore lunches because we don't have Musky, Pike, Walleye and big Lake trout* where I live. Musky are ultimate fish for a bass angler like me to catch.

Tom

*we have lake trout in Tahoe

 

I agree, muskies are the ultimate freshwater gamefish.

If human longevity was closer to 175 yrs, instead of a paltry 85 yrs,

I'd probably target muskies exclusively. 

 

Roger

[soflabasser]

I have caught muskies they are a fun species to fish for but pound for pound peacock bass are better fighters and more exciting to catch on lures. Tarpon fight even harder and you can catch them on bass tackle in canals that are 100% freshwater. I do agree that in Northern waters muskies are in the top of the list of best freshwater gamefish to catch. 

[WRB]

Nor to get off topic but...salt water fish are stronger then fresh water fish including peacock bass. 

Musky strike bass lures when using bass tackle and are big plus great jumpers exciting fresh water fish to catch. My PB musky was caught using a 1/4 oz black hair jig using 2500C reel, 8 lb Max UG line that weighed 37 lbs on Dominion Day July 1st 1976, Smallmouth fishing. My wife was with me as we were taking a friend back yo her island before it was too dark. I stopped to make a cast before returning to the party still in progress. Special fish!

My father inlaw had the local paper run a story titles " Antique net ruined", he had a great sense of humor....miss that man.

Tom

[RoLo]

40 minutes ago, WRB said:

Nor to get off topic but...salt water fish are stronger then fresh water fish including peacock bass. 

Musky strike bass lures when using bass tackle and are big plus great jumpers exciting fresh water fish to catch. My PB musky was caught using a 1/4 oz black hair jig using 2500C reel, 8 lb Max UG line that weighed 37 lbs on Dominion Day July 1st 1976, Smallmouth fishing. My wife was with me as we were taking a friend back yo her island before it was too dark. I stopped to make a cast before returning to the party still in progress. Special fish!

My father inlaw had the local paper run a story titles " Antique net ruined", he had a great sense of humor....miss that man.

Tom

 

I heard all that 

 

Roger

[WRB]

52 minutes ago, RoLo said:

 

I heard all that 

 

Roger

Old man repeating stories 

[Ogandrews]

If musky season was open that is pretty much all I would be fishing for this trip but that doesn’t open until June. Vermilion is tied with Mille lacs in my opinion for the best trophy potential in Minnesota. Last year a new catch and release state record was set out of lake vermilion at 57 1/4”, and there have been many fish bigger than that caught before the catch and release record program was around. It gets a lot of pressure for how far north it is but still has much better numbers than Mille lacs. Lake of the woods, at least the northern part, has better numbers than vermilion but vermilion has better potential for true monster 55”+ fish in my opinion.

3 hours ago, WRB said:

Lake Vermillion is similar to lake of the Ontario Canada is a few respects, Musky, Pike  and Walleye are dominate around main lake reefs. It's been my limited experience Smallmouth bass move don't usually out onto the outside structure until the summer, largemouth tend stay near shoreline cover. You all know this lake better then I do, so if smallies are on the reefs pro spawn try it.

Tom

Lake vermilion is almost like a miniature version of LOTW. It’s hard to say it’s mini when it’s a 40,000 acre lake but compared to LOTW it is a little farm pond. Vermilion has big deep basins similar to the southern part of LOTW and also has hundreds of island complexes like the northern part by Kenora has. There is something special about the lakes in the Canadian Shield, it’s an amazing place to be even if your not catching fish. Thanks for all of the reply’s, there has been steady weather in the 70’s up there for a week now and it will continue while I’m up there so I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to get on the fish. I’m always able to get into some great largemouth fishing this time of year so that is always a good backup plan, not to mention the walleye I’ll be targeting in the evenings and night.

[WRB]

Good luck, very special region enjoy the loons and everything that goes with it.

Tom

[Scott F]

Which part of the lake are you staying on? I fished Vermilion for close to 25 years. I always stayed on Black Duck Bay in the central part of the lake.

[Ogandrews]

1 hour ago, Scott F said:

Which part of the lake are you staying on? I fished Vermilion for close to 25 years. I always stayed on Black Duck Bay in the central part of the lake.

My parents have a cabin on head of the lakes bay which is the farthest west basin. Spend a lot of time fishing head of the lakes, Norwegian, black bay, and wakemup bay. This trip I want to try to get farther east and fish some waters that I haven’t been on as much. I have been coming up to vermilion since I was 6 years old but started seriously fishing it about 4 years ago. I’ve spent a lot of time fishing the river as well, incredible pike and smallmouth fishing.

[RoLo]

23 hours ago, WRB said:

Old man repeating stories 

 

No, not at all.

That meant "I fully understand" as in the urban expression "I heard that"   ☺️

 

Roger

 

[WRB]

10 minutes ago, RoLo said:

 

No, not at all.

That meant "I fully understand" as in the urban expression "I heard that"  ?

 

Roger

 

I am starting to repeat stories and know I've told this one before.

Tom

 

[Hammer 4]

1 hour ago, WRB said:

I am starting to repeat stories and know I've told this one before.

Tom

 

That's o.k...I for one like hearing/reading them..

[Ogandrews]

Well so far the trips been a success. Haven’t targeted bass nearly as much as I thought I would but have had caught them every time I’ve tried to. Water is around 60 so I have spent a lot of time walleye fishing. Been on a great shallow water pattern where I’ve been snap jigging small swimbaits and flukes on a jig head in 3-10 fow and the eyes have been hammering it. Nothing huge but did get a nice 25” this evening. Highlite of the trip so far for sure is the 47” musky I caught on a hair jig while smallmouth fishing. Medium light spinning rod and a 8lbs mono leader. 20 minute fight and I forgot my musky sized net so I had to hand land her, what a fish.

[gim]

19 hours ago, Ogandrews said:

Highlite of the trip so far for sure is the 47” musky I caught on a hair jig while smallmouth fishing.

Is it the angle of the photo or is that muskie super skinny? Are they already spawned out up there?

[Ogandrews]

On 5/24/2020 at 8:12 PM, gimruis said:

Is it the angle of the photo or is that muskie super skinny? Are they already spawned out up there?

Mostly the angle, I was shaking so badly that it was really hard to get a good picture. This fish looked like it was post spawn though, not how they usually look up here. I saw a lot of fish paired up and others that were staging shallow so they will be spawning any minute now if they haven’t already. Hooked into another that was for sure over 50” on a little husky jerk while walleye fishing too but it wrapped me up in a dock piling.