Thunderstorm walleye on the Rainy

Fished with Chris Granrud yesterday on the Rainy. The forecast was for some wind and storms throughout the day. For once the weatherman nailed it! We had steady rain for most of the afternoon mixed with hail and the occasional thunderboomer in the distance that kept us right on the edge of pulling the plug and heading for cover. Thankfully the bite was INSANE and the storms never got quite close enough to chase us off the water!

As for the bite…, man, this is why people make the drive to fish the Rainy in the spring. We landed an amazing number of fish from 27″ – 30″ yesterday with everything coming on plastics. If memory serves we fish close to 10 spots yesterday and caught fish on all but one spot so this is definitely not a localized bite by any means. Basically every current break we could find near some deeper water was chock full of big fish on their way up the river. We positioned the boat in 12′ of water and lobbed plastics shallow on heavy head (3/8 oz. minimum) to allow for a SLOW presentation. I think this was a key piece to our success as lighter jigs that would typically be more than appropriate for the depths we were fishing, 4′ – 8′, just DID NOT produce. I assume it was due to the slower drift speed and more controlled presentation we offered when fishing the heavier heads but we’ll likely never know. What I do know is once we had the fine details figured out we had some phenomenal fishing… at times we had multiple BIG fish in the net at the same time.

One other thing I know… the new Pulse-R’s ROCK!! I’d estimate at least 90% of all of our fish fell to the Chartreuse Orange Core Pulse-R with a few coming on Moxies or Paddletails. Bright colors definitely seem to be best.

Not sure what else to add other than this would be a very, very good time to be considering a trip north to the Rainy. The forecast looks good for the rest of the week and if the fish actually do bite better under bright conditions than they did yesterday in the rain… I’ll need physically therapy when this is all said and done.

Man, I love it up here!

I’ll try and upload pics tonight. I’m in Granrud’s guest addition and the internet is a touch slow right now.

Here’s camera man Ben’s first plastics walleye. Since it rained most all day we weren’t able to shoot much video so he got a free pass to fish. Either Chris and I are good teachers or he’s a quick learner because Ben caught some great fish…. including his PB (not shown in this photo) at 29.5″.

Ben’s PB at 29.5″. So easy a camera man can do it.

We took pics when the weather allowed. By mid afternoon the rain had us looking like soaked rats but the rain gear kept us dry as toast so it didn’t matter. The hail, now that I could have done without!

First open water trip of the year… you’re bound to forget important STUFF. Like the bump board. No problem though. Apparently Chris makes it a habit to carry a 25′ tape measure in his Storm Suit. (The fish DO get big up here but come on?!)

This one was a tad short of 28″.

If you’ve not tried them yet the new Pulse-R’s from B FISH N Tackle have been the bomb. Here’s Chris trying to get his back from a nice walleye. The action on this baits at slow speeds is really something special and proved to be our top producer by a large margin.

This next shot is a new one by me. The fish, a nice upper 20″ class walleye, had a hole through the gill plate. It looked like someone had pushed a pencil right through the gill cover and everything had healed cleanly leaving the fish apparently no worse for the wear.

Here’s a scene that was repeated over and over throughout the day. Chris and I taking turns netting fish for each other. We hand landed when we could so the other guy could keep fishing but once a biggie was hooked up it was time to lend a hand.

Yup, that one was deserving of the scoop! IF memory serves it was one of our “Turdies” for the day. Well deserved, Chris. I held out the PulseR’s as long as I could….

When you come to Rainy… bring two nets. Or risk this scenario. Chris and I hooked up at the same time and fought both fish back to the boat until it was time to start scooping. I scooped Chris’ fish first. Next it was my turn. That’s a 29.75″ tanker and a 27.5″ fish in the net at the same time!

Uh… little help please?! I wasn’t going to get that net over the side with one hand without some help.

V is for Victory… or two big walleyes. I forget.

At this point we’re having about as much fun as can be had in a fishing boat.

And as soon as we get the fish out of the net and released… it all starts anew. At this point I’m basically tired of netting fish for Chris and I just want to get a jig back in the water. For the record Chris is sneaky…. he’ll “let” you tidy up the net and put away the pliers just so he can get first crack at hooking up another tanker.

And yet another SUPER TANKER! We did find that the fish kept right on biting, even in the dark, overcast conditions but the fish did push shallower. As the sun started to go down we just kept throwing jigs closer and closer to shore and the fish just kept smacking baits.

Now we’re just getting fancy. Subtle plug…. SKEETER.

Don’t forget about Ben. By this time he’s had the fishing day of his life but he’s not done yet. How about one last 29″ fish before the sun is completely set. I’ve not heard much about fishing on the Rainy after dark… I’ll bet a dollar they keep right on feeding into the night.

And just to show it can be done after dark Chris sticks our last fish of the day as I’m tidying up the boat and prepping for the run back to Birchdale. This fish came in about 2′ of water on a paddletail. Chris was making short little under hand flips to shore when this dandy about claimed the rod.

And with that, we’re done. And going fishing. Sun’s out. The temps dropped low overnight but by midday we’ll be back in the 50’s. I’ll check back tonight and should have more to report.

Great report James. Looking forward to getting back up there Wednesday night.

Keep your eyes peeled for me up around Birchdale somewhere!

Nice fish James

Glad I deleted my post. I didn’t want to be stuck in between that nice report, muddying it up.

Looks like quite the trip so far. Too much fun for 3 people. It’ll be interesting to see what happens today after the front.

Looks like a great day to be on the water. Keep up the good work boys!

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And as soon as we get the fish out of the net and released… it all starts anew. At this point I’m basically tired of netting fish for Chris and I just want to get a jig back in the water. For the record Chris is sneaky…. he’ll “let” you tidy up the net and put away the pliers just so he can get first crack at hooking up another tanker.

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Simply Awesome I can attest on the Daze being sneeky from back in the BWCA trips. He was always first one and last one fishing

The smiles say it all!

Looks like a blast! One of these years I’ll make it up there.

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Looks like a blast! One of these years I’ll make it up there.

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Why not this season? Walleye fishing is open until 04/15 on the Rainy River, still gives you almost 2 full weeks to plan a trip and we haven’t had the mother load run that Rainy is so famous for….Cmon Thursday..

Looks like a fun trip!

-J.

Great report and great fish. That Gandrud has a few tricks up his sleeve. Keep an eye on your rods boys.

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Ben’s PB at 29.5″. So easy a camera man can do it.

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I bet he is praying and hoping for rain every trip now!

Great report.

how long does the mother load run? If a guy could get up there end of next week is there still good odds of catching numbers and size?