2020 Rainy Lake Fishing Reports & Conditions

[Mooseart]

Today, Rainy Lake is undergoing an exceptionally early break-up and ice out! Even Redgut has become juicy again.

[toughguy]

boooooooooo

[HAILGOD2011]

Doesnt Anyone fish Rainy>>

[fishmeister_86]

Hi Hail,

Nope, we all quit fishing Rainy, the fishing is so good, we don't have time to post...LOL -I don't remember you ever posting on the Rainy site, but we have many posts under different headings on the Rainy site both about the ice & the fishing.

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

[Big "T"]

Got back yesterday from staying at Woody's. As usual had a great time. Fishing was a little slow at times but managed to bring home a nice meal of perch, walleye, sauger, pike. We fished sand bay friday and got some really nice perch and sauger. Saturday we went pike hunting caught 4 biggest being 34". Been coming up for about 4 or 5 years now both winter and summer. This was one of the best trips for me because i am getting to know some of the local people and making some great friends. Can't wait to get back up and do some fishing and see my friends again. Also the ice roads are in great shape and there are many, many great spots to fish just off the road. ALSO A BIG THANKS TO WOODY AND LEEANN MY STAY WAS GREAT AS USUAL AND THANKS FOR ALL THE HELP WOODY YOUR A GREAT FRIEND!

[tracker x-2]

hey guys

Hows the fishing up there ive read on some other sites that there is not much for night fishing that true?????. Ill be heading up tmrw, Just wondering what the ice conditions are like and how lake travel is.

[woody]

Thanks Big T and back at ya!

[tearin' lips]

Tracker,

There is absolutely nothing going on for a night bite on Rainy. When my buddy used to have a permanent on the lake we would catch maybe 1 or 2 walleyes a winter after dark. The Pout bite can be good after dark if you are in an area where there is a concentration of fish. Currently we have 2.5 feet or so of ice, with an ample covering of snow on the lake. Travel is good via snowmobile, but difficult with any other modes of transportation.

[tearin' lips]

Fished tonight in 22-24 feet of water. Caught mostly Sauger and Perch, with two walleyes sprinkled in. Some of the saugers ran a nice 13-14". The fish wanted either a red Rattlin' flyer, or a Perch colored Lightning spoon.

[clKiekhafer]

No new report for the opener?

[fishmeister_86]

Hi CLK.,

We had alot of major wind starting saturday. We caught walleyes but the wind really made it tough. Friday we fished crappies keeping 7, 5 that were a 1.5lbs. one that was just under 2 lbs. & 1 about a pound, saturday I was pumped as I had graphed on wednesday for 3 hours from close to my cabin to 15 miles up the lake. I found 7 spots with fish & 5 of those spots were loaded. We had 3 boats so I was pumped to take them to the spots...only problem the water temp dropped 10 degrees between the wind & cool nights. We ended up boating about 15 walleyes and 5 northerns which I was dissapointed as some guys had drove 7 hours. Sunday...major wind. We did best in 35 to 45 feet. The best bite by far was kettle falls, but unless you have people willing to shell out gas $$$ and are willing to get going real early, it doesn't happen. We were jig fishing.

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

[NoviceFisherman]

Stayed at Kettle Falls from 5-18 (Friday) until 5-22 (Tuesday morning). Shawn and Rick were great - we stayed in the hotel. Fished the Canadian side (Willow Bay, Moose Bay, Friendly Passage, Stokes Bay and Hale Bay). Caught many Walleyes (every 15 minutes we had a fish) on floating Rapalas. Blue or perch colored worked the best. The two treble hook sized Rapala worked the best as well. Fished sallow water - 4-5' deep on the edge of any shoreline cat-tail weed-bed we could find. I only caught one fish on a jig but trolling crank baits was the best. Seemed over cast skies turned them on and sunny skies turned them off. Had big northerns (~45") grab walleyes on several occasions. This was my 10th trip - best one for fishing by far. Three years ago I quit fishing the channel and reefs during May and now we really do well fishing the weed edges.

Keep your postings coming - I do look at this most every day but rarely post.

[NoviceFisherman]

Forgot to add - I have the green 16' Lund with the black 60hp Evinrude. We go by the handle "HabDog" or "HotDog" on channel 12 when fishing. You might have seen me "bobbin" out by Gull Island when the hail storm came through the lower bowl on Sunday. First time I've ever idled through six footers. When your in the valley of the wave you could only see water. Go slow and you'll be ok.

[DGTAYLO]

Got back last Wednesday from a stay on Hook Island. Fishing was my best ever.... A little over 3 hours, two guys dragging Hammered bronze spinners..... 64 fish (2 northern, 1 smallie and 61 eyes) More above the slot than below.

[OnAFly]

I just got back from the Northwest Arm. Fishing Friday was good, a 27, a couple 25 and a bunch between 16 and 17 inch walleyes. All fish kept had mayflies in them along with minnows. Saturday was tougher, but once we found them, we got plenty big fish and plenty slot fish too. All fish in the box were spitting up tons of mayflies. This morning fishing was tough. Only 3 eyes, a 25 and a couple 18s. I'm guessing a hatch was starting up.

Biggest pike was 35in and ~10lbs, smallies were few and far between, but we didn't really fish them. They were on the beds, and easy to catch with a jig and minnow. The ones that were roaming didn't hit anything. We did end up finding a bunch of nice perch. Biggest one was 13in.

We fished points and reefs, but most fish were caught on reefs anywhere between 12 and 26 FOW.

[waterspaniel]

Thanks for the report. I've always wanted to catch Perch on Rainy, but have only gotten the scattered 1 or 2. Did you find a school of perch? in the weeds shallow? on a mudflat deeper? any info is appreciated. (I'll be on the north arm for a week starting the 9th)

[OnAFly]

It was on reefs with rocks on top (topped at ~10FOW) and surrounded by soft bottom. We were catching them on the soft bottom in ~23FOW. The most we got out of one spot was 6, but when we found them they were between 10 and 13.

[Gerkmaster]

Just got back from another sweet trip to the north arm of Rainy. We fished June 9-14 casting shallow bays for pike, casting shorelines for smallies, and trolling windswept areas for walleye. Overall fishing was good, not great. It is evident most of the larger pike 36+" had moved out of the shallow areas. We caught some up to 33" but no trophys. We caught enough slot walleyes to eat for dinner and tossed a number of larger fish back.

Smallmouth bass fishing was very strange. Several locals told us they were on their beds but we had a hard time catching anything over 15" and not many of them at that. With surface water temps ranging from 72 degF (main lake) to 78 degF (shallow bays), I would have thought we'd of crushed the hog smallies but it wasn't to be. Perhaps the big cold front on Monday messed them up.

Thanks a million to Bitz who pointed us to several nice areas! We had a great time and are looking forward to our return to one of the most serene places on this planet!

[waterspaniel]

We're just back from our annual North Arm trip--a very unusual one! We had motor trouble with one of our boats ( had to be towed back sat.--thanks Wayne George!) so we fished the entire week within trolling distance of the cabin on Sears Bay. Trolled Sears all week and had steady pike and walleye action (and a few bonus 12" perch). 28" eye and 37" pike the biggest fish. Fish hit all day on any color/syle of crank--shadrap, tail dancer, Minnow Rap, Flicker shad. 2-2.5 mph, 12-16 ft. Mayfly hatch mid-week. at times collected small, clear debris on the line--spiny water fleas? Strange not to visit our usual haunts--Little Canoe, Waller, Ash, Alexandria and to not rig w/ the 1-1/2 # of leeches we brought! Lots of wind and rain.

[bitz]

Glad it worked out for you. Pics are great!

Bitz

[Bambito]

Does anyone know if the east end of Rainy lake got the rain that Duluth got? We are headed up there to Kettle Falls in mid July and am just wondering if they got the same amount of rain and what that will do to the lake and the fishing? Thanks!

[fishmeister_86]

Hi Hogwild,

No...we did not get those large amounts of rain, Rainy's lake levels are in excellent shape & the fishing is EXCELLENT!!! The fish are shallow in some areas & on the reefs in others, but the walleye fishing has been awesome.

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

[Northlander]

Dave can u e-mail me. Im looking at coming up in mid aug and looking for a cabin to rent for 3 nights.

[fishmeister_86]

Hi Steve,

I sent you a e-mail...and by the way I don't rent the cabin out as that is NOT LEGAL. Tell me if you don't get the e-mail.

Thanks,

Fishmeister

[clKiekhafer]

Just got home from spending three weeks on Rainy and staying at Camp Idlewood. The new owners are great people and will do anything to make you happy. I had a few things that I needed and they were right there to make my trip a good one, Thanks Greg and Rhonda! The fishing this year was great for walleyes. We caught them in all parts of the lake from Sand Bay to east of Blueberry and north to Ash and Northwest bays. The northerns were slower then most years, but we did get into a pretty good batch a couple of days ago. There were no large northerns this year like in the past so a 33" will have to do it. Most years we manage something in the 40" range. The walleyes were small to decent size slot fish. We did get nice eaters in the 15-16" range. We had six fish meals and brought home some for later enjoyment.

[tcwin]

Sounds like a good time. Does Camp Idlewood still do a pot-luck one night and fire another night? Lots of good memories of both.

[clKiekhafer]

Yep on both accounts and sometimes both in the same night.

[Browndogranch]

Thanks for the kind words Chet. Looking forward to your visit next year. You missed all the excitement yesterday afternoon as the wind came in hard from the East. The beach sure takes on a different look with 3' waves crashing down. All is good now as the rakes were put into action. Have a good summer and keep in touch.

Greg

[SledNeck]

Had an awesome day of walleye CATCHING on some mudflats 35-45 FOW. Leeches in the AM then CRAWLERS were on fire the rest of the day. Didnt look like anyone was doing to good on the mainlake reefs from what I seen.

[zanzibarro]

Sledneck,

Were you after/catching eaters or larger Walleye? I was up on Rainy Sunday and Monday. We did OK on eaters (lot of 14-15 inchers) but not much action on the bigger fish. I think we caught 3 walleye over 18 inches the entire time and we had 3 boats.

So just curious what size you were looking for when you mention the awesome day of catching.