Wednesday, April 29, 2020

April 27, 2020
Recently the Minnesota Governor announced that resorts are allowed to open this season contingent on operating with specific resort guidelines and with a COVID-19 Preparedness Plan that addresses state and federal Government agencies recommendations.  

Our number one priority is the safety of our visiting guests and Staff
. We are taking immediate action to prepare and follow a Preparedness Plan that incorporates the recommended COVID-19 government agency guidelines that helps ensures the safety of our guest and staff.  Also, we will be taking some additional measures in how we will be operating the resort to provide increased protection of social distancing, sanitation, and employee protection.  Some examples but not limited to include expanding internet Wi-Fi to all cabins, limiting Lodge store access to Resort guests only, extensive cleaning of cabins, complete removal of all linens between guests, resort laundry will be sent out to a commercial laundry facility to provide hospital level cleaning, direct cabin check in and check out, Employee PPE and testing, using only approved cleaning solutions and sanitizers for COVID-19.

Shortly, we will be sending out letters to all 2020 guests with a complete list of all the actions we will be taking to keep everyone safe. We know many of our guests are ‘ready’ for a break to visit Northern Minnesota where it’s clean, remote and relaxing. But we would also like to remind everyone that this Virus has no boundaries and even though our region of the country has some of the lowest cases its absolutely critical we (Vermilion Dam Lodge) will do our part to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Our part includes strictly enforcing the COVID-19 preventive actions that we set in place. We also will be relying on our visiting guests to do their part by helping us follow the COVID-19 guidelines and letting us know if they have come in direct contact with anyone with the virus prior to their arrival date and within a time line that could potentially provide risk to the other guests and staff.   
Feel free to contact me with any questions, looking forward to seeing everyone make it up to Resort this summer.

Ed Tausk
Lodge phone: 1-800-325-5780
Mobile: 1-218-750-0582

Sunday, August 4, 2019


Midsummer fishing report update  Aug 4th, 2019. 

After the lake warmed up in mid-June the fishing stabilized. June and July provided a lot of nice warm sunny days which allowed for Lake vegetation to catch up from the cooler than normal Spring, in which weed growth was behind. 

Walleyes…Fishing in June and July  for walleye is not consistent with 2018 locations. Walleyes seem to favor this year rock related structure ( points, rocky shorelines and mid lake shallow humps) vs. weedlines and sand flats.

The best technique seems to be standard slip bobbers with leeches or crawlers.  Single hook Lindy rigs are still working, but when fishing rocky areas, nothing works better than a slip bobber. What we noticed this year is the walleye seemed to be targeting crayfish, for most of the walleye our dock crew cleans seem to be full of crayfish.  This is why the fish must be keying on rocky areas vs the weed lines looking for perch.   

By mid-July the walleye fishing catching window seemed to be limited to early am and right before dark. Forage numbers ( small perch , bluegills, cisco and minnows ) seem to be up this year.  Many fishermen are reporting they are seeing plentiful schools of smaller bait fishing in most of the main basins.The walleye being caught by our guests are not only very healthy from all the forage, but there are good numbers of fish being caught just below the slot ( 18-20 inches).

Bass…Smallmouth fishing has been excellent all summer.  Smallmouth are also taking advantage of crayfish on rocky shorelines 5-12 ft.  Standard plastics and crankbaits with red color are working well. The best overall bait for smallmouth is the jumbo leeches on a jig.  Fishing on top the Dam and below in the pools have been great for VDL guests.  Best presentation is a weedless Worm with a light weight, and let it drift down in the current.  

Largemouth bass fishing has been odd this year. We are not seeing the numbers and action as years past. Some of the best largemouth fishing has been in Larson Bay and Wakem-up narrows using top water buzz baits.

Pan Fish….Crappies have moved over open water for the summer, and not a lot of fisherman are targeting them this late in the summer. Blue Gill fishing has been excellent all summer. Fox Bay has been producing some nice sized Blue Gills ( large enough to get good meat off of them).

Musky and Pike…. This year the best musky fishing started during the may fly hatch over open Water ( non-structure related) and continued until just recently where last week musky fishing has picked up on mid lake reefs and weed beds.  Guide Bob Benson is having a fantastic year Guiding VDL guests. Bob is putting fish in the boat every day and has had several two fish days for his guests. Recently he guided his daughter to two 50 inch fish. Current bait patterns have been Bucktails, but the Beaver Bait has been super hot on Vermilion this year. Would highly recommend picking up a Beaver Bait before your trip to Vermilion. Thorne Brothers Sports in Blaine, Minnesota stocks them.


Pike fishing has been very good this summer.  Seeing a lot of nice 32-38 inch range fish being caught. New slot for our region is 30-40 inches..so many have to be released. Pike patterns have been standard small bucktails..with some type of rubber trailer/teaser.  Indian Bay and Greenwood bay have been consistent in producing pike.


Wednesday, June 5, 2019


June 5th update

Fishing report…..water temps have finally come up some and our resort guests are seeing variety of water temps in the upper 50s.  We have gotten more than average rainfall this spring so the water levels are little higher than normal but not high enough to create on issues.

Crappie….The last two days the crappie fishing has finally really picked up with limits of some beautiful crappie up to 14 inches. They are at least two weeks late on moving into the spawning beds for this end of the lake due to the cooler spring temps and lack of sun which has restricted weed growth for cover.  I would suspect the next week the crappie fishing will be hot.  Fish are being caught in less than 2 ft of water using light jigs tipped with red and white tubes . Also minnows are working .  On group of our  long time quests from Dubuque Iowa ( Tommy Ball crew of 12 fisherman ) are doing very well getting their crappie and sunny limits.


Bass… Bass fishing has been slow and fish seem to have not moved into shallow water or gotten active.  One group of guests reported today they starting to catch Largemouth on a  standard Texas rigged Sinko.  Smallmouth that have been caught are full of eggs . Those caught have been in 8-10 ft of water on crank baits.  They have not moved up yet into the shallows or on the beds as of today.


Walleye… Since opener the larger fish seem to have been scattered throughout a range of depths from 10-25ft.  All the action has been on minnows.  Most of the fish we have seen kept by guests and Guests that have been out with guides are walleye ranging from 13-15 inches.  


However, yesterday we had Guests fishing in front of the Dam and off the resort fishing dock with slip bobbers / leeches catch several big walleye . Sizes ranged from 25-28 inches. These appear to be post spawn females.  It was crazy for a while we had 8-10 fisherman on our floating dock fishing.



Pike….Several groups over the last two weeks have targeted pike and done well on the lake but many reports of lack of good weed beds /cover.  Greenwood bay has been hot since the opener for Pike.  Other areas that have been producing is Wake-em-up narrows area in Indian bay.  Some of the hotter baits producing fish are perch colored rattle traps and the old Standby Number 5 Mepps spinner ( orange and black.)  We had a group of fisherman ( Seth Larson Crew) from Windfield , MO, who all had good river fishing experience take their boats up the road and put in on the Vermilion River (  just a few miles north of the resort ) They had a great day fishing Pike and boating over 50 fish per Boat. Nothing huge but hot action fishing pike with shallow running stick baits and spinners.

Musky …Season opened last Saturday. Guides Bob Benson and Luke Ronnestand have been guiding Resort guests most of the week.  Both are averaging  at least one Musky per boat/ day caught and reporting seeing numbers of fish tight in close to shorelines of bays with vegetation.  Guests fishing Crappie and Largemouth in shallow weed areas are seeing a lot of Muskies chasing their smaller baits .  Even though the Musky Spawn should be over they are still present in the Spawning areas.  Today we had a resort guest catch and release a 43 inch musky on an  ultra-light rod using 6 lb test  and small tube jig.

We think now that water temps are coming up the next two weeks should be some great crappie and walleye fishing.



Monday, May 13, 2019

Opening fishing

May 13,2019 

 Fishing Report 

Opening fishing kicked off saturday. We had a couple of our resort guests that found 
walleye in deeper water. Surface temps range from 46 to 50 degrees. Fish that were
 caught were "eater" sized walleye.  The larger post spawn females have not seemed
 to get active yet with the cooler water temps.  Although this am one of our long time
guests Ken Erwin caught and released a beautiful 26 incher .


 One guest found pockets of Smallmouth Bass in Niles Bay along rocky shorelines. He was casting small rattletrap type crankbaits. A few Crappie caught but nothing near the spawning beds . As water temps start to rise in the next week with weather forecast calling for temps in the 60s we should
see the crappie starting to move toward the shoreline shallows. 


One of the largest fish hooked but lost was off our new fishing dock. One of the guests 
was casting a Rapala and hooked a huge Northern Pike.  He fought it for few minutes but
was lost trying to get it into net.  Our employee Tyler ran out when he was fighting the
fish and got a good look at it.  He estimated the fish to be pushing 40 inches.  
It's not uncommon for guests to catch not only pike but walleyes off in front of the
Dam this time of year. With current strong due to the melt down of the ice coming
off the lake there always seems to be bait fish and game fish hanging in front of
the Dam . The new fishing dock was designed to be right in the current and provides
 a great opportunity for our guests to find action right here without leaving the dock. 

Resort projects going well . Completing the renovation to Knottypine, several boats
in the shop getting new floor covering, Hillside bathroom renovation, Fishing Quarters
East new kitchen cabinets, new carpet in the Aerie cabin and numerous other cabin
repairs.  


Monday, April 22, 2019

Spring start up , projects , projects , projects

April 22,2019

Weather has been very favorable and it appears our ice will be earlier than
 most would think( can't give my projection for it might impact the ice out
 contest we have going on facebook)...but I will say the opener should not
be impacted.  We have jumped into our spring projects which includes a
makeover to the Knottypine cabin, renovations and repairs of our fleet of
rental boats, road building into the lot next to the resort we purchased two
years ago and will be the site of a new three bedroom cabin this year. In addition
 our usual spring /go through the cabins and make a list of repairs/upgrades.
Every spring we always get surprises of unexpected repairs from Mother Nature.
  Given it was a long cold winter the frost will create issues when it starts to
thaw like pushing culvert pipes out of the ground or moving cabin's elevations
 which all require more work to correct.

In any event, we will be ready for the opener..we have a great crew and
everyone is in motion to get the resort ready for the season.



Friday, March 29, 2019

Spring is almost here !!

March 29, 2019

Just finished the NW Sport show in Minneapolis, MN.  Great turnout and it was great seeing a lot of our Minnesota guests that stopped by to say hello. Resort is thawing quickly and even though still about a 20 inches of snow in most places it is almost gone.  We have some big projects to complete
before opener and getting ready to dig in.