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2020 Rainy Lake Fishing Reports & Conditions


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Was up last weekend, only fished about 4 hrs 2 times. !st day where I was killing them pulling spinners 10 days earlier it was really slow, only caught 6 and could only do it with floaters and a leach. Mayfly hatch was on and you could see the walleyes come up off the bottom 5-7 feet and go into the mayflies and then go back down. Tried fishing up but nothing. Next day caught 24 pulling spinners and half a crawler. The biggest walleyes were 24", did get some nice 16.6" eaters and a 38" northern. Going back up Tuesday.

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we were pulling our lindy rigs way up off the bottom and walleyes were hitting them on the way up

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The fishing is so good that the commercial fishermen are practicing catch and release!

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  • 2 weeks later...

just got back from 4 days on rainy, had to work to get walleyes. marked alot of fish from 20-45 ft. water temp on main lake 63-64 degrees. had a very tough time catching eaters. vertical jigging with minnows was probably the best. shorelines, islands and reefs all held fish but a tough trip compared to past yrs, not nearly the numbers. trolled the reefs for pike, caught a few but nothing for size. always worth the trip, nothing like being on rainy!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Any one have any recent reports on how the bite has been. Are the fish schooling up or still scattered? We will be heading up on Wednesday for a week and am curious what to expect as far as the fishing goes. Thanks in advance. Grizzly

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Sloooow in North Arm. I quit early yesterday because of high north winds (don't believe the NOAA 3-day history! - it was steady 20+ MPH). At the boat landing, I met one of the better fisherman I know that fishes Rainy all the time. We both agreed that this has been one of the worst years ever for numbers and size of all species.

Now if you are talking eater size walleyes, that is a different story. Seems I have been catching lots more dinks in North Arm than ever before. But I prefer porkers, not eaters.

I know the smelt are gone (or nearly so) so that is not going to help when it comes to producing lunkers. But I haven't been finding many schools of ANY bait this year! Tough to grow big ones on a diet of mayflies, perch and crawdads. I ask again for reports of minnows! You guys that keep lots of fish - what are they eating? Are you finding any minnows (besides yours) inside the fish?

Bass fishing has been especially bad this year. The schools of 4-pounders are GONE. I haven't got a five-pounder yet this year. Big pike? - Not much on them either. You will notice a near total lack of pictures of those on this forum for 2009. Even ice-out didn't produce any numbers of big fish like prior years. Walleyes? Well seems like you can always catch some of those but I have only got one over 30-inches all year.

I have heard reports of some big walleyes being caught by guys pre-fishing for the August bass tourney. Fishing shorelines and tops of humps. I have been getting small ones in 25-30 FOW but they have been extremely fussy. Live bait might have helped but I didn't have any to try. Been kinda tough to mark on sonar (really tight to bottom). If I see anything promising, I anchor and vertical jig and then you can see them come up off the bottom. Mostly 14-20 inchers using this technique though.

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Captjohn,

Thank you for the report. As long as we catch fish we are happy. Yes we would like some big ones but some eaters are welcome too. Actually anything we catch is fine by me. We would really like to target crappies also for a couple meals. How are they biting as of late and can they be found in numbers or are they scattered also? Thanks again for any feed back. 3 1/2 days and counting.

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I ask again for reports of minnows! You guys that keep lots of fish - what are they eating? Are you finding any minnows (besides yours) inside the fish?

Capt. John, When we were up the second week of August all we found in the pike from North Arm was crayfish.

The fish we caught on the Minnesota side had perch in the them (Pike) or empty (Walleye).

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That and mayflies are all I am finding in fish. I am starting to think more than just the smelt have died off.

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This is definately not the fishin report I was hoping to find, going to Rainy for the 1st time ever, was really hoping to see that fish are jumping in the boats everywhere.

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I was walleye fishing 8/21-8/23 east of the Brule Narrows. Not much to report. Fished mostly the mid lake humps. We caught fish but they were almost all tiny (11-13 inches). I could always mark fish in 30-32 ft, so that’s where we spent most of our time. I tried some shallower, 16-26 ft, but caught very few and they were the same size. I used crawlers, leeches and minnows, but didn't find a preference for one over the others. I tried some trolling spinner rigs with bottom bouncers, but did more lindy rig fishing than anything else. Also tried some floating jig heads on the lindy rigs a couple times with the same result… tiny fish.

Someone had to have better luck than me. What did you do different?

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I just returned from Rainy (east of Brule) the only thing we did differently was our fish were caugth in 40-47 fow. We had the oppiste problem...very few fish in the slot. Most fish were 19-22 inches.

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I haven't been to Rainy before but noticed that I don't see alot of posts of bobber or night fishing. Were hoping to go for multiple species, Walleys, crappies, northern, don't care so much about keepers but hoping to just have fun catching the big pigs.

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That's because the mosquitoes will pick you up and carry you away, so any pictures of night fishing didn't survive. LOL

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Thanks to everyone who has been posting for Rainy lately. I'm leaving this afternoon and coming back on Sunday. Plan to camp in the Kempton/Anderson bay areas. And it looks like we're gonna be hitting the lake in the midst of a major COLD front. Yay..........

From past experiene that will just dictate that you need to fish slow and deep for the walters. Looking to pull lindy rigs and floating jigheads between 30 and 45 feet deep. Hoping the pike might get more active with the cool weather though!

I'll post when I get back, if I'm not a popsicle.

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I spent the last 4 days fishing both east and west of Brule. The walleyes are still scattered more than expected for this late in the year. I caught most of them throwing or trolling cranks in 5 to 8 fow. There were fish out around the mid-lake reefs as well that would take a rig and leech but not huge schools. I didn't see any big pigs this time. I tried some night fishing with glowing slip bobbers but didn't have any luck. Jointed shad raps at night did better.

The smaller than usual smallies have the feed bag on for live bait in the shallows and on the humps. Pike of varied sizes are very active in the warmer sheltered coves. Didn't hit any pike out deep.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Returned on sept 3 from a week of fishing on the big lake and had a blast. The weather was perfect and fishing wasn't too bad either. Very slow for the locals standards but very good for our standards. I live in Mankato and our fishing is good when you catch one or two. We caught a lot of walleyes. Very few eaters. Most fish were 9 - 12 inches or 20 - 24 inches. The bigger fish were caught mainly on the reefs and the smaller ones came from a channel area. We only caught a few northerns and most of those were caught while fishing for walleyes. Same for the small mouths. The northerns seemed to be hovering above the walleyes mid way up the water column. We had several northern hits while pulling in smaller walleyes. What a blast. We would be reeling in a smaller walleye and all of a sudden the fight was on. We would get them to the boat and watch the northerns let go just before we could net them. A couple of the walleyes had 2 big rips after this would happen. Simply amazing!!! A lot of the big walleyes we caught and some northerns were very skinny. It seemed that most of the fish we caught in the shallower water would not fight much at all and the fish caught over the reefs would fight til the bitter end. We fished East of the Brule the whole week in the Kempton area. We all have been completely depressed since we left and can't wait to get back up there next year. This was by far my favorite trip of my life and will be heading up on a yearly basis. Rainy, in my opinion, is one of the most beautiful places in the world and what an awesome fishery. The people up there are some of the friendliest people around and helped make this trip even more fun. Thank You. As already stated the fish were very scattered with some nice ones being caught in the most unexpected areas. For those of you heading up there soon I am very jealous and if there is a way you could fit me in your suit case let me know. Lol. Thanks again to Rainy Lake Houseboats for everything and making our trip what it was and to the "Royal Flush" for the guidance on the way back and hope you guys also had a great time. Keep the posts comin as I will be living vicariously through them til we can get back up there. 1 week up there is just not enough time, it goes way too fast especially when you spend all day fishing. Man does time fly, why can't work days go by that fast. Anyways it was a blast and the memories will last forever. Good luck fishing to all of you.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just returned this evening, Red Gut fishing was spectacular. Three of us brought more than 60 eyes into the boat between Friday afternoon, Sat and a few hours Sun morning. Enough eaters for a meal and more packaged for the trip home. Also found a few crappies mixed in and a sauger or two with the smaller eyes. Lots of them 12-13 inches, largest this trip was 24.5.

Fish were active, some biting very aggressively. We didn't miss that many, just about all of it using Lindys from 24-32 FOW. We didn't go much longer than 15 minutes between catches. Wish I was still there. Fantastic weather, even better fishing.

DSCF0835.jpg

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I ask again for reports of minnows! You guys that keep lots of fish - what are they eating? Are you finding any minnows (besides yours) inside the fish?

We only kept a few fish this last trip; after we get enough for a meal we're catch and release guys. Happy to report there was a smelt coughed up when one of our larger fish surfaced, one of our keepers spit out the remains of another in the livewell. Didn't check the bellies of the ones we cleaned, but I'll make a point to do it next time. Unfortunately, not until the spring [sigh].

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi F.mers,

Well I have been off the site for a few months as I had some major computer issues. I finally have got back on, so I will start posting again...sorry it took so long!!!

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

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Good to see ya back on! Talked to your bro yesterday...i think he fired you an email concerning someone contacting you in regards to fishin next summer. I wouldn't mind sneakin up there myself early winter if you got a little time. I may need more than a couple inches of ice though!

later,

tracy

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Hi Greenfarmer,

How you been??? You know your welcome to come up fishing anytime Tracy. Take your pick, go to Canada lake trout or crappie fishing, as far as walleyes, early ice is normally best on Rainy but a few winters ago walleye fishing was awesome all winter. We also have a new connection on the Lake-o-woods as our brother Wes is working for the D.N.R. over there., so just let me know.

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

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Hey Fishmeister...FishinGirl here. I was gonna call you, but time slipped away 2day... Looking for a place to take some guys fishing next August, on the border: Lodges to stay, etc, or if your up for guiding, be happy to pay ya.

I'm an avid ice fishergirl in S MN, (have been to Wigwam ice fishing, but skunked). Rather hit fish, sounds like you know the waters. Hard to fish areas you don't know:(

Let me know what works best to call ya...days work best for me..I'm usually fishing with kids at night.

Thanks!!

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Hi Fishingirl,

Nice to see women who love to fish. I personally do not have a Captian License which is required in the state of Minn. to guide. But give me a call & I will give you some names of excellent guides. You will love Rainy, the Walleye fishing is 2nd to none & the scenery is breathtaking.

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

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Thanks will call ya Monday! Have been to Canada fishing quite a bit, BC or north of Saskatoon..but been a while on border. about 10 years!! Waiting for ICE! But haven't fished there in spring or fall! Need a mounter for my living room!!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Water temp at Bowman's Landing 42, North Arm 50. Fishing was slow yesterday in North Arm. I only got a dozen good fish and one walleye. No wind when I started but big rollers shortly thereafter. Tough tell when you get a bite with all that wind. Quit early as it was crowded (I saw three other boats fishing!). One had the nerve to be on one of "my" spots.

Got nothing fishing tops of humps. Everything deep yesterday.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Fishing was excellent Saturday with over 80 fish landed. Mostly good fish, with a dozen walleyes and one 18-20 lb pike thrown in.

Today fishing was slow. I started off with another big pike on four lb. line. But only added a dozen bass, one eater walleye, and a 18-1/2" sauger. No pics today as I fished alone in North Arm.

Spoons and jigs in 20 FOW best bet but got several shallow on Saturday. Today everything deep which is probably why I didn't catch more. Wasted time trying the tops of humps where they were Saturday.

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Mainly cause I didn't catch much of anything! Spots that have been good for weeks, lousy today. Only fished four hours - five fish landed.

Headed fer Texas soon. Might try river before I leave.

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  • The title was changed to September Walleye Fishing - Rainy Lake, MN

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