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Bringin' Friends to Rainy for the First Time


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Hello everyone. Every time I make a trip to Rainy Lake I check this forum for the latest information and it has always been helpful. Now I am in need of a little bit of assistance as I am bringing friends up that have never been north of Duluth, what a treat they are in for.

In the past we have always camped on Kawawia Island and fished in and around the islands near by or in Saginaw bay, but this trip we are staying at the Thunderbird and will likely be looking to fish nearby rather than traveling that far unless that is where the fish are biting.

Any Ideas on fishing the west end? I have heard alot about Sand bay and Cranberry bay, but I am not familiar with these areas. I have a Lowrance LMS-320 with the Navionics chip so finding our way around shouldn't be too difficult.

I really would like to make this a memorable and successful trip for my friend and his wife.

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Am guessing nobody has replied yet because we're too busy fishing the river and hunting and haven't fished the lake in the last few days. Anyway welcome to Fishing Minnesota.

On the west end you can start by looking above, under and below the Ranier bridge. Going east from there find places where the lake narrows with current and deeper water (30-45') on your map and look for fish in those areas. We've had quite a bit of rain the last 6 weeks and even more just south of here so the water levels are in good shape with good current.

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Right on Uffda! Boy I'll tell ya the weather has been tough as of late. Not many brave soles out there fighting the wind and rain on the lake lately. The areas you mentioned will likely be producing. I'll echo Uffda's response on depths, and might add that I wouldn't be affraid at all to try deeper. You can't go wrong this time of year up here, but may need to be versatile. Fished walleyes in the morning, squeezed a bit of work out this afternoon, and hunted grouse before dark. Life in the northwoods! Kudos to my new pup Trapper for flushing his first 3 grouse!!!! Anyone who has trained hunting dogs knows how exciting it is to see that shoe chewing pup have that light switch turned on in the woods! My ole hunting dog is 12, and have had to leave him at home due to sore hips and shoulders this year. I'm as sad as he is when I load up the truck without him. Great time to be in the northwoods boys!

RD

RD

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RD how's the river doing for 'eyes. I saw D.P's truck at the mouth of the littlefork yesterday on my way back from our shack. Sounds like you guys have been putting a hurt on the 'eyes! Great I can't wait to actually fish this weekend!

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Hey TL,

How's School? Yep Dave, Doug and I have been doing quite well. The river is way way up now though. It is a whole different ball game than what we had. You literally can hardly fish a 1 oz in the mouth of the Little fork now. If I were you I'd be chasing crappies on Rainy or flushing some of our feathered friends. Good to hear from you!

RD

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School is the same old stuff, day in and day out. I envy you guys being able to stay in the best spot in the nation! I can't wait to get back and catch some fish!

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
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    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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