smallmouth and water levels

[smbassman]

I will be coming up to Rainy at the end of May thru the 1st of June and fishing swell bay and redgut, If the water is low how do you think if will affect the bass if at all? Thanks in advance!

[tearin' lips]

smbassman,

Welcome to Rainy Lake, well at least the forum on Fishingminnesota.com...It's good to have you with us.

The low water, which hopefully won't occur, will not affect the bass at all. The only major factor that would be affected is the production of young of the year smallies. In a hypothetical example...

1.) Say the water is two feet low and a majority of the smallies spawn in two-four feet of water. Now say the water a week after spawning rises three feet. Their eggs are now in five to seven feet of water...which could affect spawing success. It the reason for the rise in water level was a factor of rain...sediment from runoff could cover/dust the eggs...not allowing proper amounts of oxygen and killing the eggs.

2.) Probably the worst case scenario is what I saw last year on the Rainy River. The water level started out fine, but low precipitation caused the dam to close its gates and the water levels dropped. This caused the smallie beds to be high and dry. Little if any reproduction occurred.

Well I guess I made a short story long...but in the end low water is not going to affect your experience on Rainy at all, just be careful to not hit any rocks!! Look here for up to date information as the time approaches, and if you have any further questions feel free to ask. Myself and the other helpful moderators on this forum as well as the "regulars" will be more that happy to help!

Take Care and Good Luck Fishing!!

[smbassman]

Thanks for the reply. This will be my 4th year up there and every year has been different. We have caught some big smallies. My prefered bait has been suspending jerk baits and wiggle warts in the reddish color as I've noticed that the crawdads are a reddish color up there. The jerk baits seem to be best in a gold color, maybe imitating a small walleye. Last year was an excellent year for top water and caught many 4lb+ and quite a few 5lb smallies. One guy in the group did catch a 6.5 lb smallmouth which was almost as exciting for me to see as it was for him to catch.

Rainy lake is by far the best place I have fished for smallmouth in my life and I have been many places in canada over 20 some years of going there every summer. I have noticed that you still need to know what your doing and what to use and how. I try to give my pointers to people in camp if they are having a hard time, but giving some of my spots has proven to be a wrong move. From now on I think I will just give general areas. It seems Swell bay is less pressured than alot of places and I don't know why, we have had great fishing there every year. Do any of you have any luck in Swell bay?

[jackfish]

You really can't sweat the water levels. You get what you get. So just go fishing. The fish still do what they always do. Just a couple of things to consider. The lake maps, (particularly the GPS maps)are not perfectly accurate. They are good but there are thousands of rocks, shoals and bars that you could go over last year but will destroy your rig ,if the water level remains the same, this year.

Fish find new habitat that suits their needs. It may be deeper or off the bank as was the case the last time the levels were low. There are fewer weeds, this is important, and realize that the water is often much clearer in low level low flow conditions. I've given you a bunch of great Rainy Lake hints hope they help.

Jackfish

www.jackfishhammy.com

[smbassman]

Thanks Jackfish!

I am just getting excited to be up there. We stay at Taylors Cove and every night we troll in under the highway bridge from swell with cranks and usually catch some farily large northerns and nice sized walleye.

Never have caught a walleye over 6lbs at Rainy but catch at least a 6lber every year. Seems like we always catch our biggest in close fishing for smallies. In your opinion is that where the biggest walleyes will come from in late May?