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Going up to rainy lake for the first time


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Tomorrow i will be going up for my first visit to this lake and i've been hearing that this time of year is very hard to catch walleyes. Is this true? Are there any good strategies for this lake to catch walleyes? I am going up there to fish the smallies but would love to hit some walleyes and have a nice dinner. Its also my understanding that late next week there will be a tourney on the lake. Will that put a lot of stress on the fish or is the lake so big that it just won't matter?

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walleye are not hard to catch on rainy. sure there are times when conditions get tough, just like any lake, but we have never had any problem catching them. the key is finding the fish and matching up with what they want for bait and presentation. two years ago it was cranks, and last year it was bottom bouncers and crawlers. finding active fish is 90% of the hurdle, if you do that, you will have success. read some of the other posts for general locations to try. if you dont mark fish, move on.

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Are active fish then usually sparce or are they somewhat easy to find. I'm also wondering when fish are usually most active on rainy, i suppose its early morning and dusk.. or is there some unusual time for them?

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not sure where your fishing, but I have noticed the eyes tend to shut down around dusk on the north arm and nw bay. Smallies there I found to be better deeper this time of year near the rock piles and points... the smaller smallies will continue to hit the shallower areas.

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