Northern pike on the lower Vermillion River

[Scudly]

Downstream of the waterfall in town.

Buddy Jon and I fished a neat stream earlier this month. With daylight savings time kicking in Sunday morning we made the most with extra light and met up at 6:30, half hour before sunrise at 7:00. My car registered 35 on the outside temperature gauge. Cold enough that before leaving the house I decided to suit up in the garage in advance. Water was ice cold. Cold enough where I'm thinking it's not even worth getting up early, the fish need some sunlight to get them active.

Great looking water Jon found us. He had been here several times before and had an idea as to where the fish would be. We threw worms, Jon had a nice northern swipe at it during a retrieve. Right away I switched over to a Mepps minnow with spinner and landed this northern. Jon swears his was bigger, I'm guessing it was the same one.

Jon and I moved up to a deeper pool and waded as far as we could. Jon quickly discovered a leak in his neoprene waders, right in the crotch. Ouch. We decided to retreat back to the car so Jon could get out of those wet cold waders.

All in all a nice brief morning on the water. Jon was wet and shivering and I was fighting a head and chest cold that does not seem to want to go away. One decent pike, we called it a day and retreated our separate ways home for breakfast.

I may try this spot again soon, however start mid-morning or even later in the day. By the time Jon and I were leaving it was actually getting really nice out, nice enough to want to take your fleece jacket and fingerless gloves off.

[Aaron Carrell]

Great report. I've been working in Hastings temporarily this fall, and took a hike down there one afternoon to see if I could spot any fish in the area. I've been wondering what might be down there, so its good to know there might a fish or 2 to be had. Any idea if the smallmouth hang out in those few pools below the falls?