mrwalleyee

[winterse]

mrwalleyee,

I will staying at FISHMEISTER's place this weekend and would appreciate any additional information that you can give. If you don't want to post any specifics, but would like to e-mail them please contact me. My e-mail is winterse at hearthnhome dot com.

I am very interested in crappies and walleyes. Locations, patterns, and such are appreciated.

Thank You,

winterse

[mrwalleyee]

As far as specific spots? I don't post specific spots on the internet. I don't really even care to email them to people. Please don't take offence to this. It's just one of my rules. Fishmiester was more than helpful in getting us going. I'm sure that if you bring him a map, he will be able to help you out when you get there.

The one piece of advice that I will give you is to make sure that you bring one of those skeeter nets along for when you are cleaning fish down at the dock at night. It took 4 people to clean fish at night. Two of us were cleaning fish and the other 2 were waving life jackets around trying to fan the bugs away from us. I was surprised that someone from Sha-Sha didn't come over to see if we were signaling for help.

One other thing. Fishmiester gave us some advise that took us a while to figure out. I wish I would have paid attention sooner. He said if "if they aint biting here, they're biting simewhere else, so keep moving". We got stuck in a rut of pulling up to a spot and sitting there waaaaaaaaaay to long before we figured out that no one was home. I don't know what you are running for electronics. If you have good stuff, trust it. If it shows archs down there, there is fish there. If not, MOVE ON TO THE NEXT SPOT! I was fishing with guys that figured that if you had a line in the water, your odds were better that you would catch fish. NOT TRUE! If there's no fish there, your just drowning bait. Don't be affraid to try new things if what you are doing isn't working. If you see fish on the depth finder, throw out a marker. That is what I did, and the fish were still there when I was ready to fish. If they aren't bitting on what you are putting down, try something else.

My dad and I were constantly changing for the first three days. One of us would be using a lindy while the other one jigged. If one got hot, we would adapt. If minnows aren't working, try some leeches or crawlers. This stuff isn't rocket science. You just have to be willing to move and adapt. I guarentee you that if I would have had a better depth finder in the boat that I was driving, I would have burned up twice the gas that we did, but we may have caught twice the fish too.

One thing that I learned was that just because I was on a premier walleye and small mouth lake didn't mean that I was guarenteed fish. We worked for them that's for sure. And it was very satisfying doing it.

Good luck on your trip. I hope the weather is as good for you as it was for us. Later, Paul

[fishmeister_86]

HEY MR. WALLEYE,

THE MORE I READ YOUR POSTS, THE MORE I THINK YOU WOULD MAKE A GREAT MODERATOR. YOUR INFORMATIVE, HONEST & I WAS WAS IMPRESSED HOW QUICK YOU FIGURED OUT THE LAKE. THOSE FOLKS WHO COME HERE WITHOUT ANY KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAKE, AND GET FRUSTRATED SAYING THE FISHING WAS TERRIBLE., WELL ITS A MASSIVE BODY OF WATER. SOME GOOD QUOTES THEN COME TO MIND, 90% OF THE FISH ARE IN 10% OF THE WATER. THIS MAY BE A LITTLE EXTREME, BUT CONTAINS ALOT OF TRUTH., MY FAVORITE IS: HOW LONG AS DOES IT TAKE TO CATCH NOTHING? LIKE PAUL SAID, IF YOUR NOT SEEING FISH...MOVE...FIND THEM!!! KEEP ANSWERING POSTS PAUL, YOU HAVE GOOD INFO.!!!

SINCERELY,

FISHMIESTER

[mrwalleyee]

Ahh-shucks Dave, your gonna make me blush . I guess, I figure if I was dumb enough not to listen to those that tryed to help me, I could try and help others not make the same mistakes . Later, Paul

Got a nice welcome back to work today, Sunny as heck and 93 degrees. See if you can scare up some work for me after you find uffda pete some work up there I'd appreciate it. It was hard comming home.

[winterse]

Thank You Very Much MRWALLEYEE. I appreciate the thoughts. I have fished Rainy three times bfore this, but most of my time was spent in Sand Bay. I am trying to get a feel for what I should be trying and I think you gave me what I needed. I will be using a Vexilar FL-18 to attempt to locate fish and there may be another locator, but I am not sure as my brother-in-law pruchased a new boat this past weekend and I haven't seen it.

It will be fun trying to put together the pieces.

winterse

[mrwalleyee]

I was using an FL-18 on my bow mount when we were anchored and jigging. Worked great. Good luck. Later, Paul

[eyepatrol]

mrwalleyee

Out of curiousity, what was the boat traffic like up there? I know where we go in NW Bay you're able to fish all by yourself, usually nobody within 1/2 or 1 mile of you. Did you have the same type of experience on the MN side, or was there a bit more traffic?

[mrwalleyee]

Memorial day there was a bit of "traffic", but we were still left to fish our spots all alone. There was one particular island that we fished that had around 6 boats fishing it, but everyone gave eachother space. After that, we saw boats moving around, but never had to compete for a spot.

[eyepatrol]

mrwalleyee

Thanks for the response. I've always wondered what it was like fishing Rainy on the MN side, traffic-wise that is. One thing I've noticed is it appears the walleyes spend their time in much deeper water on the MN side than they do in NW Bay. Probably because NW Bay averages around 28 to 30 feet deep and most of the structure is 15 foot deep and shallower. Many of the walleyes, especially the keeper size ones, in NW Bay can be found along the weedlines up there, and even the bigger fish that hold on rock structure are caught in 12 feet of water or shallower (up to 6 feet).

Anyway, thanks for letting me know. There may be a day when my Rainy Lake trips are spent on the MN side. Depends on cost mostly.