2020 Rainy Lake Fishing Reports & Conditions

[RapidsRat]

Fishmeister thanks for the current information. I and so many others really, really appreciate the updates that you and other who are lucky enough to call the area home provide us via this thread.

Can I ask you or anyone else about ice conditions on the lake now and any preditions looking ahead a couple weeks to 4/1?

Will the Marina still be a good access point to Sand Bay in a couple weeks?

Is Tilson Creek always a good late season access point? Any comments or thoughts would be appreciated.

RR

[Fish&Fowl]

The lake is in good shape, as are most of the landings. Travel will probably be best by ATV from now on, and looking at the extended forecast I'd say we're going to have good ice around here for a while yet.

[1850 ashbay]

We're heading up to the north arm next week with sleds or wheelers and we're wondering the best place to get on around the causeway. Can you park at 5 mile pretty easily and go on from there? I've used the landing in the middle of the causeway before but I think there's construction equipment parked there now. There's also the fly-in outfitter right on the east side - can you pay them to park at their place?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[CaptJohnWis]

Been down here in Texas all winter so don't know current conditions.

I have paid to park at the fly out place and drove wheelers out from there in the past. But I would check the little island on the Causeway. It is my favorite take off spot. Most years they have a plowed road headed north from there. If we are headed way up north, we take the road as far as we can and then unload wheelers or snowmobiles to go rest of way.

I do not like Five Mile Dock. You have to go under the Causeway if you start there. Often there are bad snow drifts under the Causeway.

And of course NEVER go under the railroad bridges!

[Cheers]

5 mile and islands at causeway are being used

[1850 ashbay]

Capt John or Cheers do you know the name of the fly-in place on the east side of the causeway? I'd like to try to get a hold of them before we come up to make sure we can park there...

Thanks!

[Muskies]

Good evening,

The place is called Northern Wilderness Outfitters. 5 mile dock should not be a problem though. We just had a very wet weekend so the snow should be well packed and good running on the lake.

Good luck,

[1850 ashbay]

Thanks a lot Muskies. I can't wait to get up there!

[RapidsRat]

Hey G-man thanks for the comments. With the cold front I know we'll have good enough ice the weekend of April 1. I am keeping an eye here and my ears open to decide if I can bring the sleds, otherwise I have one wheeler for two guys, I hope my buddy don't mind walkin. Last weekend I was on a lake off Hwy 1 west of ORR and it was 90% baby smooth ice. Can anyone comment on the ice conditions on rainy and did the snow today get that far north, I am hoping.

Thanks alot & see ya on the lake!

[bassbuster1]

The snow on the lake is gone wheeler's are the best mode of transportation now.

BB1

[bassbuster1]

Went out today the ice conditions are very good,we caught 10 crappies,3 tulibees and 2 pike.We were only out about 4 hours.We were using plastics only.

BB1

[bassbuster1]

There were people driving out at 5 mile dock,also at the little island just over the causeway.

bb1

[1850 ashbay]

Thanks BB1.

We'll be up next wednesday. We're all chomping at the bit...

[fishmeister_86]

Hi F.Mers,

I fished northwest bay the last 2 days, crappie fishing was ok, yesterday pretty good, today it was slooow. We took wheelies, however there were trucks driving everywhere. There is no snow except on the shorelines & land. It is suppose to warm up this week, so I'm guessing things are going to soften up.

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

[buzz1ng]

Are there any Bays on the American side where there are Crappies? Would like to coem try for some. If not, Ill just try to find some Walleyes.

[MARKM]

Thanks for the report Fishmeister. How much ice did you find when you were up at NW Bay? Can you tell how much is good ice and how much is frozen slush?

[PurpleHaZe]

We had our best luck with the3/8 oz disco ball jig gold was the best for us. I was amazed how many fish school up on the reefs good luck and have fun one more thing

If you dont have one I suggest getting a Rainylake Map and Gps Chip. Its almost a must have when your doing your own thing out there.

[ryan_schmidt]

Walleyes have been on a feeding frenzy the last couple days! The wind has been chucking out of the east for 7 days in a row, and the surface temps in the bays are 62 to 64 degrees. Eyes are stacked up on wind blown shorelines and points in 2 to 8ft and are really agressive. Most of the eyes we caught were in the 20 to 26in range, but were also picking up plenty of eaters for shorelunch, and take home fish. Eighth and quarter ounce northland jigs tipped with gulp minnows, 4in moxies, and chubs have all worked great. If you have a trip panned to Rainy in the next few weeks your timing is great.

[Berng]

Ryan,

Would you describe how you work the jig in 2 to 8 feet? I'd appreciate any additional comments you may have.

Berng

[CaptJohnWis]

Use the lightest jig head you can get away with depending on the wind. A slow drop almost always gets more bites, especially in shallow water. If you cannot tell when you hit bottom, you will be snagged a lot. It is much easier for me to fish from an anchored position. I get snagged much less and bites are easier to detect.

I just wait for jig to hit bottom then give a 12-inch flick (sometimes bottom turns out to be a fish. ALWAYS be in position to set the hook, rod tip low and pointed at your pait. Any other postion means you will have lots of slack line to deal with when setting the hook. Always watch your line, most jig hits are very light and seldom felt. If your line does anything different - SET THE HOOK.

Fished from noon till 5:00 p.m. today. Lousy bite but nice weather. Only got two bass, one walleye and 6 pike. All shallow. Seemed perfect conditions but I just could not find them this afternoon.

[ryan_schmidt]

Hi Berg,

Like Capt said use the lightest jig head you can get away with depending on the wind. Position the boat about your cast lenghth away from the wind blown shoreline or point. When using jigs tipped with minnows I tend to work the jig much slower. Give it little twitches and pops letting it fall back to the bottom, and always work it all the way back to the boat. Often times you'll get bit right below the boat. When using jigs tipped with plastics give it suttle jerks moving the bait faster, but still letting it fall back to the bottom. I like to keep the rod tip pointed two thirds of the way up. You have much better feel than having the rod tip pointed right at the bait just my opiniion. When you get bit slightly lower the tip, and and simotaneously reel in what slack there is on the line then give a firm hook set. I've never seen the need for the Bill Dance hook set. Yesterday there were 4 of us in the boat. 2 pitched jigs into the shoreline, and the other 2 long lined their jigs behind the boat giving it suttle jerks. Both methods boated lots of fish, but more were caught ptching into shorelines, and working it back. Every once in a while I'll throw the anchor, but usually I use the electric trolling motors as this allows you to cover much more water. I prefer using plastics in shallow water, but always bring live bait. Seen many days when fish were negative and finicky, and all they would hit was live bait.

[tearin' lips]

Fished Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. Friday and Sunday were by far the best early season fishing that I have had on Rainy. Thursday we didn't fish too much. Met Bassbuster at the landing and he said he was doing well in real shallow.

Friday we ended up fishing 40' of water just outside of a spawning bay and ended up catching eater after eater. They were all mostly 15-16" fish with one 25" mixed in. After shorelunch we tried working shallow windblown points with 1/4 oz. jigs, pitching them on shore and working them down into the shallows, and it was very effective also.

Sunday we fished the deeper water, and did well initially until the 'eyes shut off at noon. We then went and fished some crappies and did well, the crappies weren't really concentrated so moving along the rock piles with the bow mount and covering water put fish in the livewell. We kept enough walleyes and crappies for dinner and released the rest. The crappies were all males and averaged 11".

[Berng]

Dear Captan and Ryan,

Thanks so much for the detailed jig fishing comments . I really appreciate that!

Berng

[OnAFly]

We fished the NW Bay this weekend with very different results than usual.

Normally at this time we would fish shallow (8-14 ft) and get lots of 20-30 inch fish. We found almost nothing in our usual shallow spots.

Most walleyes were had in 20-25FOW near deeper water. Any point near matching that description held lots of fish. But, unlike other trips, almost all were 15-17 inch fish. This was good for eating, but it would have been nice to get more big walleyes.

One big pike was boated at 35in and 14lbs. It was a fatty and was probably full of walleyes. She's still swimming around in there so maybe in the next few years we can catch her again when she's even bigger!

One note: All of the walleyes we cleaned had bellies FULL of fly larvae. I'm guessing this had a lot to do with why they were positioned where they were.

[harvey lee]

Just got back home late afternoon from our annual trip to Woody's for Memorial weekend.

Thanks Woody and LeeAnne for another wonderful trip to the resort.

http://www.fairlyreliable.com/

The results were mixed for many but my nephew and I had a pretty sweeeet trip with the eyes and pike.

Largest pike were 33 & 35 and many, many others that were boated.

We also boated many slot eyes and also some of the larger variety.

The majority of our fish came on crankbaits from 4.5 to 7fow. Trolling 1.8-2.1mph. We also dd pick up some fish on hammered gold spinners and a minnow. Rapala Shallow Shad Rap's in crawdad and the Rapala HSO-Classifieds;acking Minnow in size 9, blue & Silver was also a very hot crank.

We fish almost all of our time in 2 bays and did check out a few deeper locations but we did not mark much for fish in the deeper water.

Nice seeing and talking to you Dave "Fishmeister" on the water.

[Lipriper84]

Fished NW Bay on Friday through Sunday, We had a hard time finding fish In the morning until about 2pm, Tried spinners and jigs with minows and gulp. Also tried dead sticks in shallow and deep. Only a few fish to be had with all presentations. Started trolling Gold and Silver Original Floaters in size 11. Caught a lot of Northern and a good amount of eaters. This was trolling points in about 8-12 ft of water. Then we moved into a Shallow bay thinking we were only going to catch Pike, but ended up finding a lot of walleye mixed in from 23-25inches. Biggest was 28 1/4 on a Chartrouse size 11 original floater. It seemed like the May fly hatch and the crazy weather had the fish scattered pretty good.

[GrizzlyAdams]

Had a fantastic weekend at Woody's again this past weekend. Tons of fish were caught, most too big to keep. Great problem to have. As always Woody put us on the fish and made our trip enjoyable. The accomodations were great as always. We were up with Harveylee and his nephew. Always a pleasure fishing with you guys.

Thanks for all the extra help Woody and showing us how to clean northerns. We landed a bonus crappie pulling cranks, a bonus jumbo perch and a bonus small mouth all while fishing for walleyes and northerns. We also caught all of our fish in 2 different shallow bays. All fish were caught between 4ft - 8 ft of water. Nothing deeper. Had to switch a lot of cranks from day to day to see what they wanted.

Thanks again Woody and Leann for a fantastic weekend. It was great seeing you 2 again and can't wait to get back up there and see you again. Hopefully this fall if not sooner. Miss you guys already.

[topwaterman]

Any word on the smallmouth? It sounds like the water is in the mid to upper 50s, so males should be doing their thing on the beds and females should be close by. Also how are the bugs?

[oleWalter]

Grizzly,

Great to hear about your success up on Rainy. I'll be heading up there on Saturday for a week-long trip!

Any colors or live bait or other presentations that were working better for you while you were up there?

Any info is appreciated as it is my first time up on Rainy!

Thanks

[GrizzlyAdams]

We fished jackfish bay and black bay the whole time. Big cranks worked the best the first couple days then it was the smallest cranks we had. Rapala floaters, clackin raps, x-raps and husky jerks all worked, as well as shallow shad raps as stated in Harveylee's post. Had to switch up a lot if the bite slowed. Color also varied depending on the day but chart/silver, blue/silver, perch, all white and clown were our go to colors but did have some success on odd ball colors from time to time. Even caught a couple on a pink husky jerk. Good to have a variety. Sunday afternoon a 1.5 inch blue/silver floating rap out fished all the rest 3 to 1 in our boat. Hammered gold spinners with a minnow also put fish in the boat trolled at the same speeds of 1.8 to 2.2 mph. I would not be caught without chart/silver and blue/silver on Rainy.

Be careful in black bay as it has a lot of rocks. Dinged up my new prop but thankfully that was all the damage done.

Best to have a Gps with lake chip and give the rocks lots of room.

We didn't mark anything out in deeper water and never even bothered wetting a line out there. May have changed by now but I doubt it. Focus on shallow bays. Should get a good mix of walleyes and northerns in those bays. We fished close to weeds or right in them for most of our fish. Ask the resort where you are stayin at for the latest info when you get there. Highly suggest a guide if it is your first time. Give Woody a call. He does full days, half days and evenings. Top notch guy and fisherman.

Good luck and looking forward to a report when you return.