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2020 Rainy Lake Fishing Reports & Conditions


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Well it did today. For starters there was nobody else at Bowman's Landing. When I quit there must have been 40 rigs. Will be a long wait when they all quit at once!

I was to my first spot by 5:30 a.m. It is a point off an island that breaks into deep water. As I was coasting up to the shallower water I saw a mark at 34 feet. Threw the motor into reverse and hovered over the fish. Dropped my Fin-S-Fish straight down and was rewarded with my best walleye of the year - 30-3/4". Didn't weigh as I wanted to release quickly but about 11 pounds. Sorry, no pictures - can't get anybody to go with me and start at a reasonable hour.

Fishing slowed down after that but I did manage to get about 10 walleyes and 3 pike. The biggest pike at 38" came from the same spot as the big walleye only I got the pike on ultra-lite so it took quite awhile to land. All the pike are super fat. Only one bass out of deep water. Saw some swimming around in the shallows but no bites.

Still some mayflies hatching. Water is up about 10 inches in the last week.

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Say Capt,

I was wondering do you only fish the North Arm?

How far north do you travel when you do go?

Just Wondering...........

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I'd say about 80% of the time I fish the North Arm. It is the shortest drive by boat - only 3 miles across Sand Bay to Causeway. Once in awhile I go all the way north to the Cascades or Ash Bay but that is rare. I prefer to spend as little time as necessary boat riding.

I guess that is why I prefer long days on the water. If I only fish 6 hours, I spend 25% or more of my time boat riding. If I fish 16 hours, I spend 90% of my time fishing. If I'm going to burn $30 of gas I want to get my money's worth!

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I hear yea on the boat gas....

We come to Rainy once a year and stay at Camp Idlewood, been doing that 20+ years. We come up in mid-July (12 days to go). I like the views on the water so I don't mind the boat ride. We fish mostly the North Arm and do very well on the northerns, nearly every day we have some over 36" and some days over 40". One day a few years ago we had the trifecta (sp), walleye @ 26", smallie @ 20" and the northern @ 41" all in one afternoon in three hours.

I can't say I've had much success with smallies in July and if you have any tips for me I would certainly appreciate anything you could throw my way.

Chet

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Headed up this wknd & staying at resort near I Falls, wondering what bite has been like east of brule narrows as its always a nice boat ride through there and east .... thanks

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we did pretty good (better than most we talked to) east of brule on monday.

caught all of our fish on shorelines 28-15 feet. The moved shallower throughout the evening. They were really hitting the crawlers until about 5pm then switched over to a hard leech bite.

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Fishing has been slow the last few days. Averaging only one or two fish per hour. Marked lots of fish in one area and they were mostly dink walleyes. I am seeing some nice big schools of baitfish on the sonar. That is encouraging as saw very little last year. Just not marking numbers of big fish.

Has anybody cleaned one of these FAT pike lately? I sure would like to know what they are stuffed with. Everyone I catch out in the main lake is a porka no matter the length.

Talked to a local bass expert Friday and he is having trouble catching bass as am I. Course with the big tourney fast approaching, most folks are going to be tight lipped on the bass fishing.

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My GF bagged a 39" pike on Tuesday (or was it Wed?) but turned it back so I don't know what it had in its gut.

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We were on the North Arm June 18-25, one of those fat pike we caught had a big extended belly, we figured there was something big in there but there was nothing there? There was also another one that had the feet claws and tail from what we thought was a small muskrat, it had some nasty looking claws. Everything else had been digested.

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...Figured I oughta post my report here too...

Alright, here's our report from Fishing Rainy.

Thursday: Woody took us out for a full day of fishing. Started trolling big cranks around islands and reefs for a couple of hours and caught a smaller pike and had a 5 or 6 pound walleye up to the surface before getting off. Casted some reefs along the way to too. The wind was really picking up so we went into a shallow (4ft) weedy bay and pulled spinner rigs the rest of the day. Caught 8 or so walleyes and some more smaller northerns. Woody was very informational but I think the fishing was a little tough.

Friday: Really wanted to catch a big pike, so per Woody's instructions we trolled some more big cranks around some other islands and reefs for 4 hours. Natta. But we did mark a bunch of fish when we were trolling around so we went back there and caught 25+ walleyes pulling lindy rigs with leeches in 35'-42' of water on a sand bar. Biggest walleye of the trip was caught here. 24.5". Slowed down in that spot later in the afternoon, so we went to a 'secret' mid lake hump that I had fished before and found our limits of 13"-16.5" walleyes and a couple of sauger. YUM!

Saturday: Slept in a bit, but eventually made it back out to the sand bar and caught the biggest pike of the trip on a minnow lindy rig. 33". Caught a few slot walleyes here too but fishing was a bit slower. Went to a current blown island point that we had all to ourselves and caught 12 slot walleyes on lindy rigs with leeches and minnows in an hour and a half. Went to the 'secret' hump in the evening and caught 1 walleye and there were 3 boats anchored on the exact GPS points that we had caught our walleyes the day before!

Sunday: Packed up. Fished from 10AM - 1PM. Caught 10 slot walleyes close to camp in a slack water area around the corner from a wind funnel/white cap area between two islands in 18'-24' of water. Great spot.

Just some closing thoughts. Woody was a great guide and a joy to be around for the day. Learned some new tactics/locations and it was nice having someone else control the boat all day! Caught the same number of fish on leeches and minnows, but it seemed that we got bit off more by pike when using minnows. After reading bassbuster1's post, I wish we would've known to try pulling bucktails and spinners over some weedbeds for big pike as we couldn't get anything to hit the big cranks on the rocks. Wish we would've fished more and partied less....... And finally, there are TOO many federal game wardens in the park. We were stopped 3 times on the lake, they showed up once at our campsite while we were there, who knows how many times while we were out, and we were checked on our way out. I know they're just doing their job, but it seems a bit overkill.

Great trip and I can't wait to get back!

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Nice report!

We have success pulling spoons and getting more then your fare share of big pike everyday we're on the water. We'll be up next week so I can't wait for the fun to begin.

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I am taking my kids up to Voyaguers Wednesday for a week of camping and walleye fishing. We are headed east of Brule Narrows on Rainy to camp. I was hoping someone might be able to help me with some tackle suggestions. We will probably jig, Lindy rig, and slip bobber fish. Since we are camping I am thinking leeches and crawlers. To hard to keep minnows alive. What I am looking for is some good colors and jig/ rig sizes.

Any tips on additional patterns would also be welcome.

Thanks in advance,

Steve

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Hi Angler, I've been guiding for walleyes on the Minnesota side for the last seven days. The fishing has been really good. We've been averaging about 60 walleyes a day, and at least half of over 20 inches. We've been fishing both sides of the Brule. We've been catching the eyes in 24 to 32 feet on main lake reefs. Lindy rigs and leeches have been deadly, and jigs and crawlers have also worked really good, especially in the mornings. We've been using quarter ounce jigs. The best colors have been gold, blue and white, chartruese and orange, and black and orange. We've had several big pike grabbing on to eyes while realing them in. If your thinking about targeting pike I would suggest trolling over the tops and the edges of main lake reefs with deep diving cranks, and theres always alot of big pike that are in the cabbage beds on Rainy. Casting bucktails, spinner baits, spoons, jerkbaits, and top water buzz baits will produce lots of action for pike. Have fun on your camping trip, and good luck to everyone fishing Rainy Lake.

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  • 4 weeks later...

No reports in the last 4 weeks? I'm headed to the far east side tomorrow morning and I was looking for some current info. Thanks.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Fish Head,

We found fish in anywhere from 14-30 fow and caught fish on minnows, leeches, crawlers and cranks. Our biggest fish were caught pulling spinners in 20-23 fow. The biggest being a 29.25" sow and also caught a 28"er as well. Lots of little guys to sort thru and the guys fishing the reefs caught more eater fish.

Have a great trip!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just got back from Rainy yesterday. We boated in to east of Brule Narrows on Friday afternoon in some nasty wind and left on with a stiff wind too! But in between, Sunday was quite the gem. We cuaght our limits of 14"-16" fish in 1-1/2 hours on lindy rigs with minnows and leeches! Probably the best walleye fishing I've EVER had that morning. There is no doubt in my mind we could have caught 100 walleyes that day between me and my girlfriend, but from my understanding you're supposed to stop fishing for walleyes if you have your limit in posesion. BUMMER! And alot of the fish were coing up from 35' to 45' and that causes a bit of stress I'm guessing.

I was also glad to see that I was able to catch those suspended walleyes on leadcore rigs too. Fish were spitting up small minnows which I'm guessing were smelt. No lucky trolling big cranks or casting for pike. Still trying to figure them buggers out up there! Did have about a 10 pounder swipe my hook and minnow about 5 feet from the boat as I was reeling in on top of a 35' deep reef. Guessing he was looking for them dink walleyes that were struggling to swim back down to the bottom!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sounds like the same thing Large Gator-pike do in the winter under the Ice house.It must be easy for them to just sit there and wait for their next "stunned meal"to appear.c63

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Few of the fish I have caught in the past week Tough to take pics when you fish alone but always fun to be on the lake fish or no fish

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Only eight fish in seven hours. 6 nice bass and 2 walleyes. Strong North wind made boat control tough. Couldn't mark much no matter where we tried.

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Fishing was good last week in Redgut. Had no trouble getting our slot eyes, and had many nice fish in the 22 to 26 inch range. More larger fish than slot fish. Also got three nice bass, it seems the larger bass show up on the reef edges thia time of the year and we generally get a few while trolling cranks. Also got a dozen or so northerns, with the biggest around 32 inches. Got all fish trolling cranks, which is all I do. The fish are moving back to their winter range this time of year, and it seems to fish like in the spring.

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Fished Thursday pm with Capt. John to hit a couple spots as my boys and a buddy were coming up Friday for 2 1/2 days of fishing. I think he posted the 11 lb. walleye I caught on a plastic. Much to Johns dismay I switched to pulling bottom bouncers and a half crawler most of the time with the boys. Ended up with 216 fish, 70% caught on crawlers and the rest rubber.( I did have a clicker) 19 were 24"-25" with a 27.25". 39" northern was the biggest. I catch a lot of fish on plastics but you have to love a half a crawler even if they are for bottom feeders.

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... till you gits back. Got a dozen walleyes over 20" at that Celebrity Point. I loaded up fer big uns with a half ounce jig, leader and big tail. First cast 39" pike. Had 10 more strikes on that heavy rig. But only landed four including 26" bottom feeder. They really liked that big heavy thing but fish kept falling off half way in. I always seem to have that problem with a heavy jig head.

Switched to a lighter jig head and didn't miss any more.

If I threw out to deeper water all I would git are 16" walleyes. When I threw to 10-20 feet I got pike or eyes over 20". I opted to throw shallow and leave the eater fer you. Oh OK, I did keep one for a meal tomorrow.

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Sorry, All up the north arm. Nothing past tug point or in the N.E. arm. A lot of shoreline and a couple reefs.

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Finally got back out been a week did good for the 3 hrs i went out 12 slot fish biggest being 261/2 and 4 dinks and 2 northern got the eyes in 28 to 31 ft of water they were piled up i just set the pilot on anchor and they were light bitters they liked the bait right on the bottom without much movement thats what worked this morning for me.

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Hey Cat,

The last week I have been fishing the river, which has been fun. Were fishing 4 to 6 foot of water, all on jigs & shinners. My brother tried plastics Saturday, but they wouldn't touch it. Alot of walleyes 15 to 18", largest 25". The river dropped over 3 foot from last night to today. Also catching some nice saugers.

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

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Thanks for the report fishmeister I couldn't catch a eater at all either 10in dink or 17 1/2 or bigger Might have to hit the river next week to get some eaters.

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  • The title was changed to September Walleye Fishing - Rainy Lake, MN

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