Late July/Early August angling

[protiller]

I understand it will be the "dog days" of August, but I was thinking of putting a two or three day trip together to Kab. How is the fishing at this time of year? I assume the smallies should be starting to turn on, but does anyone have any luck with walleyes during this timframe? If so, any particular location, depth technique, etc.... I'm not looking for anyones secret spot just a place to start. How is navigation on the lake? Do boulders just appear out of nowhere or are the marked with buoys? The reason I asked is that we were on Rainy a couple years ago and found two rocks, not marked on the McKenzie Map nor was there a buoy near them. They were in the middle of a bay barely under the surface. Luckily the navigator spotted them before the boat or lower unit. It coulda been disasterous. Well thanks in advance to all who reply,
-Tiller

[Animal]

My experience with fishing on Kab in early August is that it is mainly an early morning or late evening bite unless there is some overcast. By fishing early and late I can gennerally pull up some walleyes fishing deep along main channel reefs or big points. From 9:00 AM to 6:00 PM it is usually pounding the water with occational success. I've found the time is better spent napping.

Several years ago I abondoned Kab in the mid to late summer for Rainy because the bite for W's is 100% better. There is also some good crappie action that can be had.

Kab or Namakan is no safe haven for boaters. With the low water on this entire system last year there was plenty of suprises that I encountered. If it were me, I would go to Rainy and just be careful.

[guts]

Kab can be difficult in mid August, except for early am bite. I generally prefer Namakan if fishing on Kab is slow.
Forunately we have not had low water for a couple of years which geraeally helps. All the main rocks are bouy marked. You have to be careful if you are fishing shorelines as they may have some surprizes, they generally don't have shorelines marked as its not a main travel channel. LOL, guts

[Xplorer]

protiller,
When on kab, namakan or rainy i figure the channel area is usally well marked for rocks. Once your out of the main channels (bouyed) you are on your own. There are rock caution markers in other spots to mark well known places, but there are many that are not also. Get the best maps you can and use common sense when tooling around. Each trip i try to just slowly troll a new shoreline/bay in the evening/morning to get an idea what is in there for future reference.
Fishing wise, i would consider either Namakan or heading thru kettle falls to the east end of Rainy and fish the reefs. It can be quite spectacualr fishing if ya hit it right.
Xplorer