2020 Rainy Lake Fishing Reports & Conditions

[john 613]

We got back from Northwest Bay this morning. I had found walleyes concentrated in 2 areas that both happened to be at between 18 and 26 feet of water. I caught one on a minnow rap trolling around looking for them. A white jig tipped with a minnow worked the best over all the other colors that I tried. Quite a few smaller ones under the slot and only 2 over the slot. I tried casting into some shallower areas with no luck except for a couple small northerns. Heading back up in a 3 weeks. John

[walleyedane]

Just got back from a few days up at Rainy Lake. Got there on Wednesday around noon. It was very windy so we did not venture out to far. Caught a few walleyes by pitching a jig and a minnow around Big American Island. It was just like smallie fishing only catching walleyes. On Thursday we were guided. We tried shallow early but there was very little wind so we ended up going deep. The bite was tough but our guide worked his butt off to get us on fish. We went deep 35-40 feet and picked up 2 or 3 fish in each spot we tried. We did limit out but had to work for them. It seemed we did better than most that day. Casting a jig/minnow out and dragging it back as slow as you could go worked well. We all had different colors and it did not seem to matter. Later that night we went into Black bay and found the crappies. Fished 4-5 feet of water up against the reeds and out a bit. Thanks again to our guide Kevin Erickson for taking the time to show us a few possible spots for us to try. It was a fun trip and we had great weather. If anybody is heading up there and has never been there I would highly recommend getting a guide for your first day. It is well worth the money.

[tearin' lips]

Fished today from 830 am to 100 pm and did well. We worked our way up towards Soldier Point and tried a few different spots. In all locations we found the walleyes in 27-32 feet of water. Biggest fish was 21" and 85% of the fish we caught were all 15-16". We kept enough for a meal and headed in since I have to leave this afternoon. All fish were caught on 1/4 oz. jig with a minnow. Color did not matter as most fish were aggressive.

[CaptJohnWis]

Fished there this morning and many dead mayflies on the water. Couldn't catch much but did get one nice bass on surface lure - first one this year. Water 65 in the Bay but only 60 in main lake.

[CaptJohnWis]

Main Lake 59 degrees yesterday morning, 61 evening.

Only one bass but 18 walleyes to 27-1/2". Only one eater (burp), but those little guys don't seem to like plastic as much as their mamas.

Did have to cuss out one [PoorWordUsage]. I am the only boat you can see or hear on the North Arm. Here comes a big dark aluminum boat with three guys. Obviously meat fishermen as they have the skeleton of a fish painted white on side of their boat. Now of all the THOUSANDS of good spots to fish, where do they choose to start vertical jigging? You guessed it - 30 feet from my boat. After I told them what I thought of their tactics, I left before I did something stupid.

Best lures 1/4 oz plain lead jig head with blue Lindy Munchie Worm.

[Redgutwarrior]

Fished the week of east wind from 6/14-6/20. Walleyes were found anywhere from 15-25 feet. Even found a few out on reef structure already. Bass were still tight to shore and females still have not spawned out yet. Anything worked for the walleyes....jig/minnow...jig/gulp....floating jig/crawler....a few on spinners and lindys. Top water baits did the best on the smallies. One of my guests did really well with the pike throwing large plastic swim baits, in spots where we had them hit our small walleyes....he was able to win the daily walleye contests when he got a 25+" walleye to eat his swim bait.

[CaptJohnWis]

Lots of bugs on the water. Didn't seem to bother the walleyes any. I banged 6 at my first stop almost as fast as I could cast out my plastic fluke. All over 20", things slowed after that but I still got 19 fish for the day, all nice except a couple eaters, alI released.

[tearin' lips]

Fished the last 2 days pretty hard and it was slow. This mayfly hatch has tightened up the walleye's lips pretty good. We covered alot of water from Dryweed Island all the way up to Kempton Channel. We found fish in current areas and transition areas this weekend. We did graph quite a few of the reefs before the Brule, and the reefs in Saginaw but there were not enough fish on them to even justify dropping a line.

Areas we worked were a ways away from any shallows, and 35-40 feet deep. I think the absence of baitfish on the graph and mayflys contributed to more cooperative fish. On the bright side it appears that the mayfly hatch will be done real soon and fishing should return back to normal.

[TRZ II]

I was up for 3 days from the 2nd to the 4th and fished the saginaw and kempton area. Found some walleye shallow 8-12 ft on humps, really liked chartruse jigs and leeches. caught about 35 and only 2 under 20 in. Found pike and walleye in the cabbage. Got a few pike over 35 in, Smallies were really slow only got about 10 in the 3 days. Overall a great trip but I think the mayfly hatch hurt the fishing especially the smallies. Was really surprised to not catch many eater walleye? Where can you find smaller ones? Got a few over 25in. I will be back in a houseboat again for sure-a truly great experience.

[Rick]

From Oldendays on 7/5/11...

I was up for 3 days from the 2nd to the 4th and fished the saginaw and kempton area. Found some walleye shallow 8-12 ft on humps, really liked chartruse jigs and leeches. caught about 35 and only 2 under 20 in. Found pike and walleye in the cabbage. Got a few pike over 35 in, Smallies were really slow only got about 10 in the 3 days. Overall a great trip but I think the mayfly hatch hurt the fishing especially the smallies. Was really surprised to not catch many eater walleye? Where can you find smaller ones? Got a few over 25in. I will be back in a houseboat again for sure-a truly great experience.

[tearin' lips]

Oldendays,

You unfortunately hit the start of the mayfly hatch on that weekend. On the 3rd and 4th of july I was catching my eater walleyes in deeper water in the Saginaw area, 36-40 feet on the breaklines using a jig and a minnow.

I was out this last thursday and was starting to find more fish on the reefs in the brule area. Fishing is definately picking up, now that the bulk of the mayflys are done hatching.

[Muskies]

Like Bill stated earlier, your timing could not had been worse for the mayfly hatch this year. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. As for a better area for "eaters" I have never found an area just for eaters. I've had luck in the areas you were in in previous years. The walleyes are starting to begin thier "normal" summer patterns with my personal favorite...jig and minnow producing in 20-30ft.

[SledNeck]

fished east of brule this sat

Caught way more fish on crawlers than leeches

no problem catching eater sized fish

[Mooseart]

Thank you for the excellent fishing report! It may help folks improve their experience.

It's refreshing to read a report about the fishing and not about the fishermen!

[Cheers]

You dont need a stinky minnow ! Crawlers work very well but the bronze carp are a pain in the %$#^*($ .

[Xplorer]

Camped/Fished the east end of Rainy from the 23rd to 27th, from Blueberry to Kettle Falls. Lots of fish to be caught, all the reefs and island points seemed to be holding fish. Highlight of the trip was taking my 9 year old out one evening casting for smallie's and having him catch 8 in 75 minutes casting shorelines. His last fish was caught right in front of camp and was a beautiful 18"er that was beautiful and gave him a great fight.

Will be back in 3 weeks for another 5 days of fun. Most fish were caught on leeches/rigs in 26-35'.

[SledNeck]

Had one of my best days ever on Rainy on sunday. Caught fish fast and furious everywhere. Tons of fish over 20". Too many boats on the reefs so I fished lots of spots that Ive never seen boats at and it was a blast.

My son caught his personal best walleye.

[fishmeister_86]

Hi Sled,

And that is EXACTLY why I live here!!!

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

[SledNeck]

Hi Sled,

And that is EXACTLY why I live here!!!

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

Well, I do live close enough to do day trips!

[Mooseart]

Fishing is at its peak! There are many different years classes on almost every reef. Most of the biters are at around 26'. Trophy sized fish are common and bothersome bronze carp are scarce. Both the walleyes & mergansers are feeding heavily on krill.

FM, did your Colorado friends stay at a family cabin last week?

[fishmeister_86]

Hi M.F.,

Stayed at my lake cabin Mon-Wed & my house Thurs-Sun. They had a blast & the fishing was excellent. Spent the last day with them in Mainville. What a awesome fishery!

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

[RainyPro]

FM

I have fished Rainy for 20 years, always stay at LaBelles and fished mostly NW Bay.

I have fished Mainville twice (once by portage and once by road) but many many years ago

The Walleyes always seemed small; we called them cigars, LOL. We have talked about going back several times but didn't want to make the drive for small ones. Have things improved there? Is it worth the drive from NW Bay?

[#fishhunt#]

Departure for Rainy 1 hour 55 minutes. Staying on Grindstone Island. Can't wait to get up there and do a little jigging and lindying on the reefs. Sounds like the fish are snappin'. Wooo Hooo!

[tearin' lips]

Fishing continues to remain absolutely fantastic. The walleyes are stacking on the reefs nicely. 18-26' is where I have been finding my fish as of late. There is a nice mix of fish towards the east end reefs that I have been fishing. There isn't really any areas that are outshining others. There have been fish everywhere from Dryweed to Blueberry and beyond. Leeches have continued to out fish any other bait, but I have had reports of jigs and minnows doing well too.

[tearin' lips]

Fished Friday with my sisters towards the east end. Found fish in 27'-30' of water. It didn't matter what we threw down there, leeches and minnows were each producing fish. We didin't get any big ones, but all the 13.5-16" fish we wanted.

[fishmeister_86]

Hi F.mers,

The fishing is hot & heavy, my son & his girlfriend up here. Kelsey hadn't ever been to Kettle Falls so we made the trek there, fishing the entire way. We worked only reefs & breaklines where there wasn't a boat. We had 9 slots to 24 inches, a nice limit of 12 from 13 to 16.5 inches & lots of fish under 13". Since we had 3 in the boat, we used the electric and moved very slowly & verticle jigged with a jig & minnow. Best depth was 20 to 30 feet. Its a good time to be fishing Rainy!!!

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

[bak2MN]

QUIT RUBBING IT IN!! LOL. I have to wait till next years houseboat trip to fish up there again.

[hitthebricks]

We will be up in Red gut Bay from the 1st to the 8th, making a few trips to the north arm, any tips for this year. Only looking for bait availability and preference and depths

Thanks in advance

HTB

[SledNeck]

fished sunday... marked FEW if any fish on the popular reefs.. fished out of the way "reefs".. I use the term loosely and hammered the fish... they were all 20" plus....but thats fine with me, Im sick of eating walleyes now anyways.. caught a 22" walleye that hit like a muskie and it fought and ran so hard, we thought we might have a sturgeon/huge pike/muskie on the line.. when we got the fish in, it didnt have any bite marks on it... so maybe it was on steroids or something.

[FISHINGURU]

You guys starting to make ice yet? Looks like it's super cold up there tonight, the forecast looks pretty good for ice making also.