rainy lake Rainy Lake Fishing Reports by Capt John

[CaptJohnWis]

I did about ten shows with Gillespie. We always caught a bunch of fish. He would schedule a day and often I would call him and say "wait, they ain't biting". But he would come anyway and we always did very well. Luckiest guy I ever guided.

 

Here is a link to a classic and my final show with him:

 Moved to Minnesota shortly after.

 

Record musky link

[CaptJohnWis]

Fishing slow again today. I thought topwaters would work late in day but only one small bass on those. Ten fish in six hours and nothing big. Walleyes were thick on a hump topping out at 15 feet but I had trouble getting them to hit lures. Light hits or biting the tail off lure. Lost one big fish there but the ones I caught were only 15" or so. One decent pike on a shallow hump. Live bait is still the ticket for eaters - not what I am interested in. 

[bfisherman11]

Thanks for the link John. I will check it out. Much appreciated! 

 

I will be heading up to the lake next Saturday. My wife and I are staying at Idlewood. If you see my brown Smoker Craft Big Fisherman  honk your horn.

Bill

[Wakemup52]

Capt John, love reading your posts and appreciate you sharing! A couple of buddies and I are headed up next Thursday-Monday and staying at the Fisheries. We are targeting musky primarily but will fish for smallies and walleyes for a shore lunch too. Any advice on muskies this time of the year?

 

We are thinking of making an adventure and doing a run up the Seine river too, any advice or things to watch for on that run?

 

Thanks a ton!

[CaptJohnWis]

3 hours ago, Wakemup said:

Capt John, love reading your posts and appreciate you sharing! A couple of buddies and I are headed up next Thursday-Monday and staying at the Fisheries. We are targeting musky primarily but will fish for smallies and walleyes for a shore lunch too. Any advice on muskies this time of the year?

 

We are thinking of making an adventure and doing a run up the Seine river too, any advice or things to watch for on that run?

 

Thanks a ton!

I never go up that way but I hear it has musky. Let me know what happens. I have only been in the boat when we caught one musky on Rainy so no real info on those.

 

Some nice pictures from yesterday's fishing trip.

 

 

[Muskies]

Hello wakemup,

Pretty windy last couple of days so I at home working on my honey do list. I've caught a few muskies along the east side of lower red gut 25 years ago using buck tails. Nothing large but have spoken to a few people who have caught a released 40" plus ones in the same areas. I've also seen muskies and northerns follow up while fishing for walleyes in the same areas. Hope you get a few and enjoy your stay. The people at the fisheries are nice people and can give you a more updated report. Have fun!

[Wakemup52]

Thanks Muskies, I will post an update next week once I’m back. Appreciate the information!

[bfisherman11]

John, after that big storm, then the cold, did you get out? I tried  few walleye spots but couldn't hold in place because of the wind today. Plan B was to fish for Bass and we caught about 16 so it was a pretty good day. Tomorrow's winds look a lot better so I expect better walleye results. 

 

Bill

Edited August 31, 2018 by bfisherman11

[CaptJohnWis]

Fishing very poor for me last couple days. Got about five nice bass Wednesday. Only one bass yesterday and a few eater walleyes. Wind was ugly coming back from FAR North Arm yesterday in Mike's boat. I an staying on shore for the holiday weekend. Boats should be much less after Monday. Might go way up north to Red Lake Ontario area for a week. Want to try a new lake,

 

 

[fins_n'_feathers]

Just watched your video from yesterday. We have been experiencing the same thing the last two days. Fish stacked up that won't bite anything. It's very frustrating because before this little cold snap they would inhale anything you put down there. Going out now to see if they are hungry today.

[Muskies]

Had the same problem but kept trying different spots until I caught a few then just anchored over the top of the fish. Vertical jigging was the ticket.

[Wakemup52]

On 8/25/2018 at 8:57 AM, Wakemup said:

Thanks Muskies, I will post an update next week once I’m back. Appreciate the information!

 

We had good fishing in red gut, the fish were pretty active across the board and it was a fun trip! Looking forward to going back- Frank at the Fisheries was fantastic.

[CaptJohnWis]

My garage got damaged two weeks ago in a bad wind storm. It is gettin torn down tomorrow. New one on order for next week. But I still have lots to do like making old slab bigger and puttin up new building. Not much fishing as of late. Insurance company is dragging its feet about settlement. But I am calling it a total loss so down she goes.

[CaptJohnWis]

Not been fishing much - new garage still not finished. Door company failed to send torsion bar so that delayed installation. Then we discovered they sent the wrong cable - another delay. Supposedly they are going to refund $300 of the $2100 the door cost. Arrrgh. Now my contractor has left for greener pastures but I finally have (I hope) all the correct part. Anybody know a good garage door guy in the Falls?

 

But had a few good days for bass earlier in week. Today was lousy. Water 51F which is good. But wind, rain and 30s air temp chased us off early. Only four bass in three hours. Been doing some weight vs length on the bass.

 

18" = 3 lb

18.5" = 3.5 lb

19' = 4 lb

19.5 = 4.5 lb

 

no 20-inchers yet this Fall.

 

These have been pretty close most of the time on the typical very fat Rainy Lake bass.

 

Garage build was a hoot with several helpers. Here is a link to some of it.

Link to garage build

 

[CaptJohnWis]

Here is what I woke up to yesterday. Staying on shore and hoping fer warmer weather.

 

https://youtu.be/iD8g2-Eqpnc

[CaptJohnWis]

Big motor died today and I had to chug back in 10 miles at about 5MPH. Last mile I had to use electric motor. Bummer. Kicker motor would not start either. I have been having low battery problems and now I am convinced the big motor is NOT charging the battery back up after it starts. I ran the big motor at least 70% of the time I was on the water so it should have been charging the batter. Merc 150 started beeping (while it was running at idle!)and dashboard said "critical Low voltage" . It would not run above idle speed and all accessories shut down except dashboard. And it finally died completely about a mile from the ramp. I am lucky I didn't have to spend the night on some island. I had even put in a brand new battery a few days ago but obviously that was not the problem.

 

Marked a school of fish that would not hit. Very frustrating but at least I made it home.

 

 

[lexdog]

17 hours ago, CaptJohnWis said:

Big motor died today and I had to chug back in 10 miles at about 5MPH. Last mile I had to use electric motor. Bummer. Kicker motor would not start either. I have been having low battery problems and now I am convinced the big motor is NOT charging the battery back up after it starts. I ran the big motor at least 70% of the time I was on the water so it should have been charging the batter. Merc 150 started beeping (while it was running at idle!)and dashboard said "critical Low voltage" . It would not run above idle speed and all accessories shut down except dashboard. And it finally died completely about a mile from the ramp. I am lucky I didn't have to spend the night on some island. I had even put in a brand new battery a few days ago but obviously that was not the problem.

 

Marked a school of fish that would not hit. Very frustrating but at least I made it home.

 

 

 

needed some live bait

[CaptJohnWis]

A little nippy there this morning - ehh?

[PRO-V]

Colder than a gold diggers a&& in the Klondike!!

[CaptJohnWis]

Skunked on Rainy!

 

Mike and I tried for a few hours this afternoon. Not a bite. North Arm still iced over from about a half mile north of Causeway as far as you can see. Had to fish Sand Bay.

 

Short video showing what we saw

 

 

[hydrashack]

John you been out?  I am heading up in a few weeks and in need of a report.

 

Thanks buddy.

 

-Shack

[CaptJohnWis]

Fishing was good for bass right after ice out. But it has slowed way down. Water only 51 in bays.

[hydrashack]

Thanks John.  Looks like we have a bit of a warming trend coming.  Hopefully that will heat up the water and the bite.

[Better Than Working!]

I will be up June 6 for a few days with my dad. Things a very different than this time last year! Starting to get excited! 

[Scott Friedman]

Thanks John! We are coming up in 7 days and hoping for warm. Would love to see more updates as the week progresses.  Will post our results 

[fins_n'_feathers]

By no means am I a Rainy Lake expert but we have Been fishing a few days a week since opener and have found the walleye fishing to be very tough. Seems like the fish aren’t where they should be and we have searched high and low and the only place we’ve found any concentrations of fish are in deep holes next to shallow points. These fish will bite but the ratio is about 10 dinks for every keeper. On the way in in the evenings we always stop in some shallow bays to pull cranks and there wasn’t anything until the last few evening and now a couple bigger slot fish have started to hit the boat each evening so I think that’s a good sign. My best guess is with the late cold spring we’ve had the fish probably spawned late and are in some kind of post spawn/super cold water funk. I think if we can get some warm sunny days to heat the water up things should start to fire up. Like I said I’m no expert just what I’ve noticed. 

[bfisherman11]

John, Glad to see you posting. I will be up with my new Lowe FM165 July 22nd. Can't wait.

Bill

[G I Mike]

Hey fins_n'_feathers,

 

Have you been fishing US or Canada?  Just curious as we will be up end of the week.  

[fins_n'_feathers]

G I Mike, we came back up to the the cabin yesterday afternoon and did some shallow water trolling in the evening. That bite is really starting to take off. Kinda what I figured, just needed a couple warm sunny days to get them going. Today we went all the way to the east end and fished current areas on the way there and back. That was ok, nice keepers but not huge numbers. The biggest surprise was when we were leaving an island after having dinner we were idling away from the dock and around the corner a little as I was moving around in the boat putting stuff away and happened to look up at the depth finder at the right time as the boat went over a huge pile of fish. We stopped for a little bit and and tried it out and they ended up being dandy walleyes with some nice 14 inch saugers mixed in. We didn’t stay to long. Didn’t want to beat em up to bad and they were in pretty deep water. Save them for another day. That spot was 26 feet of water on the edge of a rock to mud transition. It looked like the fish were eating bugs of some kind. Good luck! Wwe have to go home tomorrow but will be back up Friday morning to get after them. Oh ya we strictly fish the US side until the rock pile bite gets going. 

[G I Mike]

Thanks for the report!