Ill be headed up to Namakan on Wednesday. Just wondering if anyone has any recent reports to share?
Also, is KAB outdoors a good place to get bait? Ive read online that the person at jims ash trail store is a jerkface and KAB outdoors looks like a nice outfit
We’re heading up Wednesday also. Haven’t heard much for a fishing report. Fishing was decent on opener, highlighted by a great evening bite opening day.
As far as bait goes. I think you can still get bait at cold spring north of Orr, otherwise Gateway General Store is the place we go.
We give Jim’s Ash Trail store a pass also. Never been impressed with their food, bait, employees etc.
Hammered the fish on Rainy this weekend. We caught well over 60 pike in one day most smaller but some fish over 35″. No giant walleye biggest was 26″ but over 30 fish in one day all over 19″ We also picked up 15 or so big smallies. All fish were caught on jerk baits in 4-5 feet of water near the shoreline. The key was to focus on windblown areas that had a warmer water temp. Water is much lower than last year.
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awesome Aboxy17!
Thanks for the tips grubson!
Were on Kab, Monday through Friday (15-19).
Fish seemed more scattered than past years.
A lot of nice perch 11-13 inch mixed in with similar size walleyes.
Monday was slow. got better each day with Thursday being the best.
Boated 30 – 40 northerns in the morning ands 30 – 40 walleyes in the afternoon.
Friday was real sunny and the bite slowed.
12 – 22 FOW all week.
Lots of good size eaters, 15 -18s.
Came home with limits for all.
Hey guys, we leave on Tuesday. I wish I had been up there the last 2 weeks. I have seen guides posting crazy pike an walleye,(mostly on rainy)
We will be on Namakan Tuesday-Friday. This will be the earliest we have ever been up. We usually do the 2nd week of June when the kids get done with school. And every year all we here is “O man you should have been here a few weeks ago”LOL so here we are a few weeks earlier. Crappie55… if you would send me some information on how you did and any specifics once your home would be awesome!!! Everyone boat safe. Can’t wait for a tight line!
well just got back into town after a 5 day trip in Namakan. This was my fist time there and we had a great time! The weather couldnt have been better and i really enjoyed the campsite we were on.
Its truly incredible how beautiful VNP is! Its been nearly 30 years since i was in the boundary waters and this place really took me back there.
Boy the mosquitoes up there are no joke!!!i bought a cheap bug net before i left and we put that over the picnic table and if we didnt have that we would have been miserable. Spent most of the evenings sipping whiskey and playing cribbage in the bug net. I think ill be investing in a better quality one before my next trip
The fishing for us was poor. That seemed to be the vibe from others i spoke with too. We had no trouble catching 2lb hammer handles all day long and we managed to catch a few smallies but only caught 1 walleye. that part was a little disappointing but it was my fist time up there and we also spent a fair amount of time doing other activities besides fishing. We focused mostly on shallow water, 3-15ft. We cast crankbaits towards shore, pulled crankbaits, lindy rigs, pitched jig and minnow, vertical jigged, jig and plastic… never really put together any sort of pattern or got on the fish. We had our most success casting cranks to shore and pulling crankbaits in around 8-10ft of water.
Since my campsite was on Namakan i spent most of my time fishing that area. Later in the trip we did fish Kab a bit but not very much. We did go and visit some of the resorts and had some drinks with folks there. 1 guy said hes been coming up with a group for 20 years and its the worst year they have had. Another guy at a different resort said they absolutely slaughtered the smallies and walleyes but they ran all the way up to Rainy and he was chummy with the bar owner and was a local so im sure they know the lake and the patterns really well. As boats passed us while fishing we would ask how they were doing and most boaters all said about the same – “we caught 1 or 2 here and there but not a lot of success”.
The one walleye we caught was in 22′ of water. The water temp was anywhere from high 50s to around 66 degrees in small shallow bays.
Camp dinners consisted of pork chops, steak and a pike fish fry. lunches were mainly hot dogs or PB&J, with a late breakfast of eggs and bacon thrown in the mix as well.
Overall was a super enjoyable experience and we will definitely be back again
We got back from our trip today. The beautiful weather was welcome though I’m sure fishing would have been better with some cloud cover. The only thing biting really well was the mosquitoes and knats.
Overall fishing was tougher than most years for our group. We still managed a great fish fry and a couple limits to bring home though. Plenty of slot fish mixed in with eater sized fish. The biggest from our group was 25.5″. Most of our fish came from 2-6ft of water on sand or mud bottomed wind blown shorelines. I struggled to find any concentration of fish or a spot with more than a couple willing biters. Just had to keep moving and hit as many places as possible. We averaged 2-3 walleyes per guy on our usual 3-4 hour outings with more than enough pike and a few bass mixed in. I really didn’t spend any time looking deeper, I just very much prefer the shallow bite.
Jigs and plastics took most of our fish but we caught a few on jerk baits and bobbers too.
Im glad you guys had a good time. Hopefully the tough bite won’t scare you away. I’ve been a student of that system my whole life and still feel like I know nothing about it sometimes. That’s definitely one of those lakes that can be phenomenal one day and hand you your backside the next. I talked to some who really struggled and others who did really well, that’s just how it goes on a big system like that, they’re always biting somewhere.
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Glad you found some fish david. We had a great time even without a ton of fish to be had. BTW there are a ton of guys up there with black alumacraft boats with yamaha motors. I pulled up to a few different boats and shouted “are you grubson?”. Needless to say I got some strange looks lol
Hopefully the tough bite won’t scare you away. I’ve been a student of that system my whole life and still feel like I know nothing about it sometimes. That’s definitely one of those lakes that can be phenomenal one day and hand you your backside the next.
x100 I’ve been going to Rainy for about 15 years, and feel exactly the same. The problem with the VNP lakes is 90% of the fish are in 10% (or less) of the spots, and the places you think they might be are too many in # to fish or scan them all. Every point, saddle etc. etc. looks great! Until it isn’t. In my limited experience the bottom content is as, or more, important than the actual structure up there.
Great report Crappie, VNP’s beauty is enough to keep me coming back and sounds like you will be too!
Any recent reports on Kab? Water temps/water levels? I am heading up there Friday for a bachelor’s party and hoping to get into some fish!
Any recent reports on Kab? Water temps/water levels? I am heading up there Friday for a bachelor’s party and hoping to get into some fish!
Nothing for you, never fished it. Just had to say awesome bachelor party idea! 
Any recent reports on Kab? Water temps/water levels? I am heading up there Friday for a bachelor’s party and hoping to get into some fish!
Following as well…
From some of the FB posts from resorts, sounds like Smb are shallow and eyes are being caught pretty shallow yet.
I hope the mayflies hold off for a bit yet…
Burning bans start tonight.
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