Rainy Lake

Guy’s looking for a time window for fishing Rainy Lake as I have won a trip from the locale walleye club. Would late May to late June be a good time frame. Will have 4-6 in party with two boats.
Stonecutter

That time frame works great for us every year.gI suggest getting ahold of Rainy Daze if you want to get a head start on some good fishing.Good Luck!

Thanks for that, it’s thru Woody’s. Is there a website for MNDNR to check the reg’s. Will I need a pasport/card.
stonecutter

No passport needed for the Minnesota side. You will need a remote border crossing permit and a Canadian license to fish Canadian water.

Woody will fill you in on everything you need.

If it was me and had won that trip, I’d split up the group and hire Chris Granrud for part of the group and Woody for the other part early into your trip. After that, you can use your own boats. They may show you some good spots in U.S. waters.

Hire Woody, he knows the lake better then any human walking up there.

Besides, I’m sure he either discounted the trip or donated it. The courteous thing to do is use his guide service and stay at his resort.

OUCH!! Oh well we’ll keep trying.

It wasn’t meant as a slam Chris. I just think since the prize was put up by Woody it would only be right to use him.

I would have done the same for you. And………I believe you would do the same to.

I should add I’m not real good at “tact.”

Those Packer guys can tell you that.

Keep up the great job up there.

Hi Stonecutter

I’ll attempt to stay out of any silly rhetoric on this. We prefer to have our consistent big fish pictures to do our promoting, and my customers with big fish do simply a great job for our guide service.

First off the clear question would revolve around what your group would prefer to target on your trip?? What type of fishing do you enjoy the most?? What size boats are you dipping in the lake. All of these factors are key to your success or lack of on your trip. I would assume you’ve already been asked these questions though?? Each month of the year can offer tremendous fishing. Still Rainy Lake has been known to humble some very good fisherman. I am not so proud to say it has humbled me many days. Each season presents different challenges, but this is precisely why I love this fishery. With that being said the changes in the season have the fish locating themselves in different areas. Rainy Lake is a vast 220,000 acres of water. When the fish move based on bait fish movements and water temperature fluctuations different patterns need to be clearly understood to optimize your fishing.

I’ll help you choose the timeframe of your trip in anyway I can

Beyond that Congrats on heading to Rainy lake!

Chris, can use all the help posible. We presently fish Lake Oahe and Lake Sharp in South Dakota which proves daunting at times. We have an 1850 Sportfish and a 196 Phantom. Have also fished L.O.W. in the past.
Your idea of spliting the group is great but could posibly do a day with Woody and one with you as the leaning would be increased. Like the FLW different tactics.
Have to see how the guys feel about it. The plans are just begining.
thank you stonecutter

Hi Stonecutter,

I’d probably suggest you to proceed in planning your upcoming fishing trip with Barry Woods under the present circumstances. Although I thoroughly enjoy working together with most of Rainy Lake Licensed Captains this isn’t something that we would be presently interested in. Should you indeed want to work with 2 captains and want to work with 2 seperate guides I will gladly suggest other captains I can suggest with great confidence. In the future or under different circumstances I’d love to fish with your group of guys!! I think Lake Oahe is fascinating from a walleye fishermans perspective!! We continue to work very closely with many licensed guides allowing us to efficiently handle groups of fisherman while pooling information while on the water. I assure you there is nobody we trust our guide customers with that is not highly competent, and conversely to an above opinion we believe we provide the premiere knowledge and service on Rainy Lake as do most of our customers. Still fishing can remain……Fishing at times. We also continue to re-invest heavily in top of the line equipment from Rods, Sonar and boats to help out customers succeed in in customers quest for big fish. Beyond this we believe catching fish is where it is at and that is what our guide service has been built upon. We are a results based guide biz as much as the “art of fishing” allows us to be. We flat out work our tails off on the water everyday to best ensure a great trip for our customers, and I believe we’d have a great time on the MIGHTY RAINY LAKE!! This year Rainydaze Guide Service has re-invested once again in our guide service purchasing a brand new 2011 WX2100 Skeeter boat powered by a 300hp Yamaha SHO. We’ll be running state of the art Humminbird technology at dash and bow. Ipilot control for spot on focus in tight spots. Our focus is 99% on catching elite fish 1% “Hey this sure is a beautiful setting guys”. In the future we would want to understand precisely the goals of your group to best design the trip fitting your needs/wants. Your boats are plenty sufficient to manage much of Rainy lake, but of course be aware of lack of rock markers in areas….. You will be staying in Ranier? (far west end of Rainy Lake), so if your trip should call for east travel inside the beautiful Voyageurs National Park you’ll either want to trailer your boat to the VNP boat landing cutting off 7 miles or so of boating each way or simply fill her up in the morning. Sand bay in the Ranier area can offer good fishing at times of the year in close proximity to your location. Still many times it is considered very poor. Clear understanding of this will quite honestly be best for the success of your trip. It is not prudent to presume anglers are prepared for the BEAUTIFUL Rainy Lake when she shows an ugly side. A 14-16ft aluminum boat can be overmatched on this big shield of water when she shows her windy side. Fishing LOTW of course can be much more fierce than Rainy Lake, so you should be fine.

Hope your crew has a wonderful trip on Rainy Lake!! I personally can’t WAIT to dip that boat into the Rainy Lake Gold this April!! Those huge pike have me losing sleep at night, and the early season Tank walleyes……….

Last year we ended up boating 50+ pike exceeding the 10lb mark and a ridiculous amount of eyes over 27 inches. When fishing Rainy lake you’ve always got that chance at your next PB!!