2020 Rainy Lake Fishing Reports & Conditions

[CaptJohnWis]

I caught a pike on the lake almost two weeks ago which I kept and ate. 26" and full of eggs. Today I caught about a 17" pike on the river which I released. Right afterwards I noticed it had spewed a bunch of eggs inside my boat! Water 54 degrees. I could not believe such a little pike ( a real beanpole) could be laying eggs but she was!

[Big "T"]

Must be why you guys have such a great pike population up there.Keep them reports coming john.

[Moskeeter]

Guy's,

I have been fortunate to have been to Rainy 5 or 6 times now. Each time i've been which is always the first week of June, the smallies have been pre-spawn just about ready to go. Are you seeing them already in this stage? Are the water temps seriously in the mid to upper 50's? Just getting done with the spawn down here at Lake Ozark (which is a little early) and was hoping to time it right for your water. Keep the reports coming, enjoy seeing what's going on up your way.

Thanks

[matt_shermoen]

Got out for a few hours yesterday. Had some good fishing for smallmouth bass and pike. Had to battle the walleyes off, but their are always fun to caught. Many fished the shallow- weedy bays on the south arm of Rainy. Water levels still low and I would remind everybody to use caution when your out there. I have been fishing Rainy Lake my whole life and have been guiding for 11 years and I am finding rocks that I never know about. Good luck on the water.

[ryan_schmidt]

Rainy Lake is off to a great start. Fished walleyes on the opener and had a super day. The weather was beautiful and the fishing was good. We caught our walleyes in 2 to 8ft of water. The best technique was casting eighth ounce jigs in to wind blown shorelines and points. Also caught some trolling spinners tipped with minnows. The last few days I have been chasing smallmouth bass. The smallie fishing right now is fantastic. Big Rainy Lake bass are on a feeding frenzy, and were catching lots of them in the 3 to 5 pound range. The best baits have been soft plastics and spinner baits. Jerk baits and topwater have also been effective. They're pretty much crushing everything in sight, and today we started to see some on their beds. The crappies are also biting. We targeted crappies for a couple hours yesterday, and caught some classic Rainy Lake slabs. It was not fast and furious, but the action was good. We were using eight ounce jigs and slip bobbers tipped with a minnow. A great way to stay on top of the Rainy Lake bite is to click on the Rainy Lake Houseboats screen on the left side of the page, and then click on the fishing reports. Good Luck to everyone fishing Rainy Lake and have bending the rods.

[harvey lee]

Please keep it hot until next Friday.

[ryan_schmidt]

Hi Harvey, no need to worry. This shallow water bonaza will be in full swing for quite a while.

[fishmeister_86]

Hey Harvey & Ryan,

Nice to see you posting on here Ryan. I know you come from good fishing genes, speaking of which how is Dad doing???

I also have caught some nice walleyes in the shallows, but done the best in 12 to 28 feet., seems like the day bite is 24 to 28 & towards evening from 12 to 22 feet., last night we fished a different spot & did very well in 5 feet.

I have been using the new northland vegas jigs in the deeper daytime bite. Northland used to have a dark green jig (Christmas color) that I was told by an old legend named Ray Jans maybe 25 years ago had the best clarity beyond 17 feet of water in Rainy. I wish he were still alive, because he was right, I have had alot of success on that color. Northland quit making that color, but now that brought that color back in the vegas jigs with a little sparkle in it. I really like that color & it has produced alot of walleyes this year allready., you may have to look for them, because most of the bait shops carry the vegas jigs, just not that color.

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

[Rick]

Rainy lake has huge crappies, nice sturgeon, chunky walleyes, a ton of 40" plus pike and is studded with islands. The Falls Motel is an excelllant place to stay. Another great place for information can be found viewing the video below.

More videos at HSOshow.com™

[harvey lee]

Your looking good Woody.

See you on Friday.

[ryan_schmidt]

Thanks Fishmeister, and my dad is doing great. Again Thanks.

The fishing on Rainy Lake continues to be hot. We targeted Smallies again Thursday and Friday. The fishing was outstanding. We saw tons of bass on their beds. The conditions were perfect for sight fishing smallies. Both days there was very little wind and hardly any clouds. Each day we caught too many bass to count. My thumbs are still raw from unhookikng all of them. The best bait were flukes, cinkos, tubes, and my personal favorite topwater poppers. We were mainly casting chug bugs and skiiter pops, but I'm sure alot of other ones would have also worked great. Catching bass on surface baits, and watching them come up and explode on it is a just a gas. If you have never done it put it on your bucket list.

Saturday and Sunday I was back to guiding for eyes. Saturday was very good fishing. We caught mostly bigger walleyes between 20 and 26in, but we still caught plenty of nice eaters for shorelunch, and some for them to take home. The best technique for us was trolling spinners at between 1.5 and 2.5 mph. We were using crawlers and minnows on the spinners. We also caught lots eyes pitching eighth and quarter ounce jigs with minnows and gulp minnows. All of the walleyes were on the wind blown shorelines in 2 to 8ft. Sunday was a tougher fishing day as the wind switched three times during the day, and there was periods of flat calm waters. Our best fishing was in 12 to 22ft. We were vertical jigging with minnows. Most of the eyes were in the 12 to 17in range. One things for sure fishing on Rainy Lake just never gets old, one the best multi species lake in the world. Good Luck to everyone fishing on Rainy Lake.

[Big "T"]

Nice report ryan, good to see some people sharing good reports! Also a thanks to fish meister always quality info...

[Scott K]

Good news! I will be there in 4 days

[ryan_schmidt]

Thanks Big T. I'll try to keep them coming.

Good luck 4wanderingeyes. You should have great fishing.

[CaptJohnWis]

Fished 6 a.m - 3 p.m. Only caught 8 fish. Water temps high 50s everywhere I went. Bass left all the shallow spots where I have been doing well. Or maybe they just have lockjaw. Jigged walleyes in deep water and lost two. Landed one fishing shallow. Shoulda stayed in bed.

[Moskeeter]

Nobody catchin anything? C'mon boy's, post something I'm dying here waiting for next weekend!

[CaptJohnWis]

Went again Thursday and it was still SLOOOOW. Some walleyes, pike and one nice bass. But one fish per hour is lousy fishing in my book. Staying off lake for the holiday.

[Sigcreek311]

Lost Bay and Cranberry have produced a few walleyes the last three days. Tried pulling raps but figured out it might be too shallow for that with the big motor running and such low water. Switched to lindy rigs and crawlers and had plenty of action. 2 - 4 feet. Only a couple keepers, rest too big. Trowled extremely slow!!!

[Scott K]

I went up this past weekend and we did excellent. We stayed at Woody's and he pointed us in the right direction, well he put us on the fish. Many fish, large, and slots. We had 5 in our party, and I think we averaged over 100 fish each. I will make a post with pictures. Thanks again Woody!

[jakkfish]

I was up fishing from 5/28 thru 5/30. We camped in Saginaw so we did all of our fishing East of the Brule. Fishing started off good on Friday catching lots off big walleys and pike our biggest was a 28 inch walleye and a 34 inch pike we seen bigger pike follow up to the boat but could not get them to bite. Fishing slowed late on saturday and sunday was a tough bite with the cold front moved in. All of our big fish came out of shallow water 2-12 ft we caught most of our eaters in the 25-35 ft with a jig minnow combo with oarnge/yellow jig giving us the best action. I'll be back up in a 3 weeks and I'm already excited!

[wallEYE06]

Hey All

My family and I are making our first trip to Rainy Lake this week. We are going to be spending a few days on a housboat departing from jackfish bay. Can anyone offer some advice on good fishing and or camping spots? Are minnows the bait of choice or have crawlers and leeches also effective?

Any information would be greatly appreciated. Can't wait to get up there!

[GrizzlyAdams]

I would bring along, minnows, leeches and crawlers. Never know what they will want and best to be prepared. I would head east of the Brule narrows and find a site in that area. It is absolutley beautiful in this area with much less boat traffic and more peaceful evenings. There are plenty of reefs to fish just east of the brule narrows and good fishing also in kempton channel. I would highly suggest staying at blueberry island as it is one of my favorite islands in that area. Excellent scenery. Also good reefs around this island as well. Jigging and snells were the ticket for us last year in those areas mentioned. Definatley have a map of the lake while fishing to avoid submerged rocks and be very careful and to find the reefs. Good luck and let us know how it went.

[wallEYE06]

Thanks for the tips GrizzlyAdams! Appreciate it. Hoping to have a good report next week.

[GrizzlyAdams]

Good luck. Don't forget the camera!!!

[#fishhunt#]

On my way up after work tonight. I'm pumped. Hope they are still going strong. Going to be throwing everything we have at them from Jig minnow, leeches, spinner crawlers and raps. Fishing from 3 ft to 30 feet(thats what I'm reading)Am I missing anything?

[2121 WARRIOR]

last weekend might have been the best walleye fishing i've ever had!!!

no i dont know exactly how many we caught but we ran out of minnows and leaches but fishmeister was nice enough to borrow us some of his! fat heads and a jig...blue and white was by far the winner and a close 2nd was the old reliable vegas jigs! we had to have had 40-50 yesterday that were over 20 inches with 26 being the biggest! everything was anchered and jigging or bobbers 32 to 27 feet...

[WARRIOR 2090]

Z85 you were anchored in 27 to 31 vertical jigging or floating a jig under a bobber? Sounds like you were one then good for you I am jealous I have not gotten up to rainy yet

[Fish Head]

I was out the last few days and although we caught eyes in 7 to 34 feet, our best depth was 22-24. Both jigging and rigging with both leeches and crawlers.

Not a ton of keepers. Most fish are under 13" or over 20".

[SandBayFishCamp]

45-50 fish in 5 hours. Mostly eyes (20" - 27") and smallies (10" - 17") casting spinner baits (yellow/blue and white) and shallow xraps (glass and perch) against mixed shorelines.

Struck out on most reefs with live bait except toward evening. White and Vegas green jigs seemed to produce well.

[ANTLRMAN]

I am coming up on the 10th. I am bringing my 2 daughters and my wife to stay on a houseboat with Northernaire just east of International Falls. I am an experienced walleye fisherman but I have never fished Rainy. Can anyone give me some advise or tips for patterns that time of year, presentaions etc. It would be greatly appreciated. I would love my kids to stay on the fish and enjoy their stay. Thanks