Lake Vermilion Real Estate

A Buyer’s checklist:

•  The snow has stopped falling.  √ Check.
•  The lake ice has melted.  √ Check.
•  The start of Fishing Season is (mostly) established.  √ Check.
•  Low mortgage lending rates remain in place.  √ Check.
•  Lakeshore inventory is up.  (+18% since January 1st).  √ Check.
•  Lower lakeshore property asking prices.  √ Check.
•  The kids would love a place at the lake.  √ Check.
•  The better half would love a place at the lake.  Pending.

The 2011 Lake Vermilion Fish Population Report is now available.  Duane Williams from the Tower, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources office is the author of the report.  Duane is the Large Lake Specialist assigned to Lake Vermilion.  You can view the entire report here.

A few notable statements from the Lake Vermilion report are as follows:

Walleye – The walleye gill net catch in 2011 was 17.9 fish/net, which was well above the historic average for Lake Vermilion and the highest walleye catch since 2007.

Northern Pike – The mean length of Northern Pike in the gill net catch was 27.4 inches, well above the historic average. 

Smallmouth Bass – Angling prospects for Smallmouth Bass look favorable in 2012. There are good numbers of medium sized and large fish in the population from strong 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2006 year classes. 

Muskellunge – Male Muskie had a mean length of 42.9 inches, while females had a mean length of 48.5 inches. Nearly 14% of the Muskie sampled were over 50 inches long. The largest Muskie sampled was 54.6 inches long.

The report also includes important information on invasive species, Cormorants, fishing tournaments, Walleye stocking, habitat and water quality, and license fee initiative.

Here’s the March monthly installment for year to date completed real estate sales on Lake Vermilion.

Again, year to date sales for 2012 are represented by the short black line on the bottom left of the graph.

It’s really too early in the year to use this information to predict activity in the coming months.

Let’s see what April brings. I know there are several pending sales in the works that should bump the April number.