Rainy Lake Fishing Reports by Falls Motel

[bassbuster1]

We had several groups of fishermen in this past weekend, with mixed results. The weather was not the best, Sat was hot and flat, Sunday was hot and windy. They did manage to get some walleye's under these conditions though. I was out Thursday and Friday bass fishing, I went out east and did pretty good on shallow fish. We did get half dozen eye's in shallow too. Went to North Arm on Friday once again the fish were shallow some on beds others just up feeding on the minnows. We did manage to get some nice pike.

[bassbuster1]

The cold front that just went through slowed the fishing down a bit, for bass.The walleye bite is still going strong on the reefs.

BB1

[bassbuster1]

We have been out on the water the past 5 days,mostly on the North Arm.The bass fishing has been fantastic!The big ones have moved up shallow and seem to be hitting anything you put in front of them.The wind side of the lake seems to be the best.We have been getting some nice walleye's on the humps out east, on the American side.They are deeper during the day and come up on top of the humps early and late.

BB1

[SledNeck]

I noticed last weekend that the walleyes we usually catch in 28-34 FOW next to shorlines moved into 19-22 feet in the mid day. Maybe it was just that particular day, but it was strange.

[fishmeister_86]

Hi F.Mers,

It may be HOT out...but the walleye bite is going in full swing, these last 3 weeks the walleye bite is as good as I have EVER saw on Rainy. I took numerous friends & relatives fishing and they are saying we have NEVER had walleye fishing like this. I have not used a minnow in almost a month, I have used only leeches & lindys. Many times I have 4 people in the boat and using lindy rigs can be tangled mess if not careful. Im running the electric up front, so with my lindy, I'm using a heavy egg sinker with a short 2 foot vanish leader with a red hook or a plain hook & a white glow bead in front of it. I do this in order to stay close to the boat & out of other lines...normally I would use a lighter egg sinker & a 6 foot leader. The best bite is 20 to 25 feet. If the wind is heavy, as most of you know I will anchor, when I do this I use about a 18" vanish line leader. Another way that has been very effective is a method that my brother learned from Kelly from Falls Motel & that is called drop shotting , I'm learning this method , but find that works very well. If you have a chance to fish Rainy...NOW IS THE TIME!!!

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

[lzika]

I echo the fishmeister's report. We had a group of 7 guys up at Kettle Falls the past few days and a lindy rig with a leech was very effective. A lindy with a crawler worked great, too. We brought a lot of minnows but the walleyes didn't want them. I tried a jig with a leech/crawler/minnow for a couple hours yesterday and was outfished bigtime by the guys using lindys. We fished the reefs and caught most of our fish in 25 feet of water...lots of 19"-23" walleyes.

[fishmeister_86]

Hi Zik,

Assuming this #1 son. Welcome to fishingmn./hotspotoutdoors. Now lets see you get your Dad posting on here. Lots of good ideas///great site.

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

[bassbuster1]

The bass fishing has slowed a bit for us this week,but the walleye have really been going.We have been fishing the Canadian side for the most part .My customers who are fishing the American side are doing real well on the humps and tell me they are having a blast.

BB1

[bassbuster1]

We were in Redgut today and limited out on nice crappies,12 to 13 inchers.The water depth we got them in was 19 to 22 feet.We fished with hair jigs only no live bait.We also did a little bass fishing ,and had a huge muskie come up and take a 1 1/2 lb bass.

Wow

BB1

[srj]

Nice accomodations Bassbuster and the Mrs. We stayed with you last Thursday in 204 I think it was. Enjoyed chatting with you both too. Sure was chilly Friday morning--38 is plenty chilly for August. However, the fishing was very good on either crawlers or leeches. But wow, were they deep! 34 - 42' were where we caught all our fish. Humps or shoreline didn't matter, just deep.

Always enjoyable getting back to Rainy.

[bassbuster1]

We were out fishing yesterday ,on the North Arm,the fishing was great we hammered the walleye's and bass they are on the humps big time.We were using plastics,and the fish were on top of the reefs early ,then slid off the wind sides later in the day.The fishing was good all day long.We did not get any big eye's. We were targeting big walleye's,we search a lot of humps,we will be back after them soon.The weather has started to cool down now,this should make the big ones bite.

BB1

[bassbuster1]

Well we are making ice now on the smaller area lakes, wont be long we will be walking out,We had 11 degrees this morn the rainy lake is not yet froze but it wont be long.Time to start planning your icefishing trip.

BB1

[clKiekhafer]

bassbuster1,

When do yo think the ice will go out this year? I'd like to make a run for some very early northern pike fishing and was thinking the best time is right after ice out or shortly after that, what do you think?

[bassbuster1]

Iam going to guess the 10th of May.if this weather pattern would change anytime soon it could go earlier.

Bb1

[clKiekhafer]

Iam going to guess the 10th of May.if this weather pattern would change anytime soon it could go earlier.

Bb1

thanks

[bassbuster1]

The spring pike fishing (ice out) is just around the corner,this is the time of the year when some of the biggest pike are caught.Here are a few sample URL=http://s899.photobucket.com/user/bassbustermama1/media/Larrybigpike.jpg.html]

[clKiekhafer]

Thanks BB, I'm waiting for the snow to GO!

[bassbuster1]

Big pike time is now ,I was shore fishing yeserday,I caught 2 nice ones ,missed another,saw another.Tommorrow I will be putting boat in and trying to get to some of our closer spots.The main ice is not out yet but I think it will be gone by this weekend.

BB1

[fishmeister_86]

Hey Bassbuster,

LET SEASON BEGIN!!! Went fishing for about 7 hours sat...it snowed lightly, very windy...however 4 us did manage to catch over 40 walleyes & a few saugers. Most of the fish were small, but we did keep 12 walleyes that were 12 to 16 inches. We were fishing 45 to 60 feet of water...we missed alot of fish as when your jigging that deep, it is very challenging. Fireline you would think would be the ticket & we had rods with both mono & crystal...however mono worked better. We caught almost all fish on 1/4 & 3/8 oz. white glow northland jigs. We did manage a few on jigging raps. When we hooked a fish, we reeled them up slowly...as we didn't want to have fish belly up if we were releasing them. We had 1 stay belly up which we kept. Water temp. is 38.5 degrees. Looking forward to great season as this late ice out could turnout to be a fantastic season...time will tell!!!

See you on the water!!!

Sincerely, Fishmeister

[harvey lee]

Dave, I will be up Memorial weekend. Typically I fish the bays and pull cranks. Does it look like I will have to go to plan B?

Myt thinkins is that with the late ice out, the eyes would be in shallow in the bays along the weeds and it may be a great year for the larger pike.

Thanks for any direction.

[fishmeister_86]

Hi Tom,

I think your going to hit it about right, today the water is going to start warming the lake up. You may have fishing like you did a couple of years ago in there. If the cranks don't work (most likely they will) try pulling spinners with NO WEIGHT...lots of line tipped with a minnow, hammered gold normally works best.

See ya on the water!!!

Sincerely,

Fishmeister

[harvey lee]

Later Dave and thanks.

I will be up next Thursday.

[bassbuster1]

The fishing is really turning on now on Rainy,We are getting large pike and some really nice walleye's in the shallows.The pike are in last years weed growth,feeding up on perch.We are getting walleye in the shallows too,as shallow as 2 ft.The eye's we are finding seem to be at the mouths of small rivers and creeks, laying right on the banks ,they are spawned out.We have been using xraps for the walleye, fished real slow,the pike are hitting flukes rigged weedless and fished through the slop.

[woody]

Very nice Kelley!

[bassbuster1]

The fish are really up shallow now atleast the ones we are catching!Bass and walleye are feeding on the perch,we are still getting some big pike too.The water in the back bays is warming up real fast.The fishing is getting real hot also.

BB1

[bassbuster1]

The water temps in the back bays are 63 degrees and the bass are in and feeding.I was in the North arm today and wow they were biting .The lake is high and the bass have moved in shallow.no waleye and a few pike,did lose a nice pike at the boat.

BB1

[MYSTERY_POLE]

Sounds like the fishing is picking up. Were you fishing mainly on the U.S. side or Canadian side or both? How high is the water from normal lake depths. We normally are up during this week, but due to scheduling conflicts won't start until this Saturday. What were you using and have the walleys gone deeper? Sounds like we fish the same by pitching to shore and jigging back for walley. Any sign of mayflies yet? Any top water bites, is there any visible grass due to the high water? i seen some posts about current due to the high water, is this the case. Appreciate any info you have. Good luck and good fishing.

[bassbuster1]

Hey guys ,for all you posting and wondering whats going on .....the fish are biting, we caught everything today we were targeting bass on windy points we got bass ,walleye and big pike.If you are coming soon ,this is the best fishing I have seen in a while . We were on the Canadian side and it didnt matter what point we were on.I threw a spinnerbait all day ,couldnt put it down,they were just pounding it.Well if you arnt on your way to Rainy soon you are missing a FANTASTIC Bite.

BB1

[MYSTERY_POLE]

Thanks bassbuster. Any specific color , size, and or blades? We normally pitch twister tails and crank baits depending depth. Headed up on Friday night. Hopefully will be back with a full report. Good luck to all in the coming weeks.

[bassbuster1]

Fishing has been good lately,we have been fishing the shallows and catching ,bass,walleye and pike.