rainy lake Rainy Lake Fishing Reports by Capt John

[CaptJohnWis]

On ‎7‎/‎5‎/‎2018 at 6:43 PM, Janet Morey Hennies said:

Made it to Rainy June 29th to July 2nd.   It rained every day for a few hours.  Top water smallies were decent one day.  Fished Red Gut bay for the most part.   If we fished deep jigging for walleyes, they were all 12 in dinks. 

For some odd reason, Red Gut seems to be the walleye nursery. Been a long time since I was there but had similar experience on the dink eyes. EVERYWHERE we went the sonar would lite up a 22 FOW. And all were small walleyes. There are bound to be big ones as well but I never got any there. Bass, crappie, pike and musky are better choices in that area.

Walleye should be starting to bite on mid-lake reefs now. Mayflies look to be done for the year. But there will always be some nicer ones shallow looking for perch in the weeds.

 

[CaptJohnWis]

Went yesterday in Mike's boat - mine is out of commission. Perfect conditions for topwater action but we got a late start so only had about an hour before sun came out and topwater bite died. Had about half dozen blow ups on topwaters but only hooked one fish.

I jinxed myself by catching a nice bass on first cast of the day. Spent rest of day losing some big fish. We ended up with about 20 fish for the day and nothing big. Very slow bite. Mike did get a nice crawdad when he started using crawlers - har.

Tried weed lines, humps, shore lines - nothing working well. Most fish on jigs.

Tuesday's Video

[CaptJohnWis]

Fished with Mike yesterday.

I still have no boat of my own that is safe to fish from. My Lund 17' Mr Pike has a big hole, that I tried (unsuccessfully) to fix. But the 115 Yamaha and 80lb 24v Minnkota Terrova work fine, trailer in good shape as well. So if you know how to weld aluminum, you can buy my old boat a fix it. Lots of extra goodies included, - 4 batteries, spare props for both motors, spare tire, cover, +++ more.

Ordered a new 2017 Lund 1850 Impact but don't have it yet.

Fishing terrible yesterday, and then it got hot - the air temperature that is! Fished all morning with one decent pike and two dink walleyes to show for our efforts. Tried many different areas and techniques but nothing until later when we got a few decent bass on shorelines.

 

[CaptJohnWis]

Fishing very slow again today. Not one decent bass but we did get a few pike and walleyes. Again not marking much except bait real deep.

Last stop of the day proved eventful

.today's big fish

 

 

 

 

[CaptJohnWis]

Still do not have a boat so had to bum a ride with Mike. Fishing was decent. We ended up with three nice walleyes, 6 nice bass, and several eater walleyes. Swim baits and jig/crawler best. Nothing doing on shore line today. Most fish in 10-20 FOW. Marked a lot in morning that looked like big fish but couldn't get them to hit.

Today's video: https://youtu.be/tpmC0Po8T_U

[CaptJohnWis]

Tried out new boat today. Got a couple perch, one walleye and one pike. Marking LOTS of fish in 20-30 but they weren't biting so guessing mostly perch - they are harder to catch on lures than just about anything.

https://youtu.be/OKXtSjsrvgU

[Cheers]

nice boat! Got one like it last month . Did your live well divider come with the boat ? Mine did not have one but the  groves are there for one . Just wondering if mine got lost 

[waterspaniel]

nice boat!  I've caught the occasional nice perch over the years in the north arm--any info on targeting them ( time of year, location<--mud flats/weed lines, > depth, bottom type etc.)  In Madison, Wi. perch school up in July over mud 22' w/ jig/spike or helgramites is a staple.  thanks!

[Better Than Working!]

Nice boat! I hope you get to spend plenty of time in it!

[CaptJohnWis]

On 7/26/2018 at 5:33 AM, Cheers said:

nice boat! Got one like it last month . Did your live well divider come with the boat ? Mine did not have one but the  groves are there for one . Just wondering if mine got lost 

Mine came with divider.

[CaptJohnWis]

On 7/26/2018 at 10:58 AM, waterspaniel said:

nice boat!  I've caught the occasional nice perch over the years in the north arm--any info on targeting them ( time of year, location<--mud flats/weed lines, > depth, bottom type etc.)  In Madison, Wi. perch school up in July over mud 22' w/ jig/spike or helgramites is a staple.  thanks!

I almost never use live bait so catch very few perch. I did mark some schools of perch (I think) that were on a hump about 35 feet on top. Rainy is loaded with mayflies and I am sure the perch and walleyes are rooting them out of the mud all year long when the hatch is not in progress.

[CaptJohnWis]

Fishing very slow yesterday but got to put a few miles on new boat. Mike wanted to come in after just a few hours ( ten). Lucky for him the weather was looking scary so we quit early. As it turned out we got off just in time!

Ended up with about one fish per hour which is awful on Rainy. One nice bass a few decent walleyes. Mike had a few problems as shown in the video.

July 27 video

 

[CaptJohnWis]

Fishing poor again yesterday. Only five fish in eight hours. Nothing huge. Tried mostly points and humps plus some shoreline. Tons of bait everywhere in 30-50 FOW - even in middle of Sand Bay. They show up as individual fish on Humminbird down imaging so I doubt they are minnows. Probably small perch or ciscos.

 

I need to build a garage to house my new boat. Current garage is too small. Probably will go with a metal building kit. I have never done this before. Looks like pouring a slab foundation will cost more than the building. I am thinking gravel will work and be much cheaper - any comments? My current driveway is small gravel and it has worked great but my current garage has a slab foundation.

 

Been waiting for a quote from local builder to make a stick built building but can't wait much longer.

[PRO-V]

Talk to someone that works at the paper mill and see if they can get you some wire from the paper machine. It is a porous poly fabric that is tough and won't rot. You could lay that down over the gravel floor.

[CaptJohnWis]

1 hour ago, PRO-V said:

Talk to someone that works at the paper mill and see if they can get you some wire from the paper machine. It is a porous poly fabric that is tough and won't rot. You could lay that down over the gravel floor.

THANKS!! - I will ask my neighbor who works there.

[CaptJohnWis]

The cold snap didn't improve fishg yesterday. I was 35 F at my house when I woke up. Had planned an early start to fish surface lures but went back to bed. Fish very sloooow again. But I did keep a nice sauger for lunch today.

 

[CaptJohnWis]

Tried out my new boat latch this afternoon. The new boat is very hard for me to get back on the trailer by myself. The old Mr. Pike would stay put once I drove it all the way up on the roller trailer. This new one won't even stay put at idle speed - it rolls right back down unless I give it more gas. So I had to leave it running at about 1000 RPM just to stay put. And without a helper to latch the strap on, I had problems.

 

Happy to report that the new latch works as advertised and I had no problem launching or putting it back on trailer all by myself. Now I have to build a garage that this boat will fit in.

 

Got a bunch of dink walleyes in 25 FOW at the tip of a point. Similar structure yielding nothing.

 

today's video

 

 

[CaptJohnWis]

Fished for an hour with Mike before storm chased us off. 10 fish - Grubsters for me and crawlers for Mike. Tried again after rain quit but got chased off again. Walleyes appear to have finally moved up on humps and deep points.

 

 

[CaptJohnWis]

Sent out a challenge to my Texas buddy Tim.

 

 

 

[bfisherman11]

John, I am coming up the last week of August. Thank you for posting because it is so neat seeing footage of my favorite lake.

 

Bill

[CaptJohnWis]

Fished with Mike today. Got about 40 fish. 6 good fish (big bass) and some bottom feeders and couple  pike over 30". Most in 13-20 FOW. Never really marked any schools of fish. So picking up stragglers here and there. Way to many boats out today to suit me. Once we saw FOUR on a spot we were going to fish - needless to say we did NOT join them.

 

Today's video 

 

[bfisherman11]

John or anyone else. Have you ever tried one of the new underwater camera's like Aqua-Vu? I see they are HD and color. Might be a good addition for fun. Just wonder though how they would be in stained water like Rainy.

 

Bill

[CaptJohnWis]

On 8/13/2018 at 4:16 PM, bfisherman11 said:

John or anyone else. Have you ever tried one of the new underwater camera's like Aqua-Vu? I see they are HD and color. Might be a good addition for fun. Just wonder though how they would be in stained water like Rainy.

 

Bill

I have used a camera  many years ago. It worked well both ice fishing and open water. But the fish I was marking and then saw on camera (nice walleyes) were not biting. We did do well one day ice fishing for bass that liked having their picture taken.

[CaptJohnWis]

Fishing very slow this afternoon. All dinks of various species - and not many. The amount of bait I am marking is unbelievable. Pods of baitfish thick in 30-50 FOW and now they are showing up even shallower.. I saw a  few schools  of tiny minnows on the surface today. All bout 1/2 inch long. 

[Mooseart]

The smelt are stressed. Warm water and depleted dissolved oxygen.

Notice the terns skimming struggling smelt.

When there is high NW wind, notice the large congregation of gulls feeding in the waves crashing on the South shore rocks.

Notice that the cormorants are no longer "Working" for smelt.

This has been going on for many weeks, in the North basin.  The predator species are well fed!

Smelt are the main forage in the North basin and they dictate most angling results.

It has been several years since the last smelt "Event"

[CaptJohnWis]

I hope most of those little minnows are smelt. I have not seen an adult smelt on Rainy in over five years. They used to be so many that I even caught them ice fishing tiny jigs. These little minnows I see now are too small for me to determine species.  I have seen bass spitting up everything except smelt - shiners, sticklebacks, ciscoes, sculpins, perch, and of course crawdads. But no smelt for many moons.

[bfisherman11]

John, excuse the question but why are smelt minnows so important? Is it because you guys like to catch adult smelt? I am just a walleye, pike and bass fisherman so I don't know any better. Ha, oh thanks for the reply about the camera.

 

Bill

[CaptJohnWis]

2 hours ago, bfisherman11 said:

John, excuse the question but why are smelt minnows so important? Is it because you guys like to catch adult smelt? I am just a walleye, pike and bass fisherman so I don't know any better. Ha, oh thanks for the reply about the camera.

 

Bill

When the smelt were plentiful on Rainy, the fishing was better. I caught most of my big bass and walleyes back then in shallow water. Average size of bass went up a lot from what it was 45 years prior, once the smelt showed up. Smelt might not be a native species (but neither are smallmouths!!) but they sure fattened up the other fish.

[fins_n'_feathers]

Has anyone ever tried downrigging around the main basin reefs? Seems like we always mark a fair amount of fish sitting in the mud around the reefs that won't bite a spinner or a Lindy rig. 

[bfisherman11]

John, Thanks! By the way I realized I watched you on TV years ago on Wisconsin's Waters and Woods. LOVED those old shows and John G could always get a guy motivated. Ha

 

Anyhow, I much appreciate these current videos and the shows I watched as a young fella.

 

Oh, I bought a Aqua Vu 715 for my trip just to give it a try so thank for the input. I use my Helix 7 to find the structure and depths but the camera will just be a fun gizmo to play with.

 

Regards,

Bill