Well I’m back boys!! My family took a few days to experience the hot and humid weather of southern Minnesota. BTW this body is NOT happy with HOT AND HUMID! Give me 50-70 in the summer, or flat out skip summer and head to fall!!
When we left “Manland” it was apparent the walleyes were beginning to transition to deeper water here on Rainy Lake. Each trip we we needed to be more precise as we were fishing a diminishing pod of shallow fish. We had hammered this difficult transitional period very effectively this year, but knew our “Milkrun” was about up. Making a bold move to re-locate fish can simply be a daunting task with paying customers in the boat. Seldom is it understood even guides need to re-locate fish during seasonal movements. As many of you experienced down south; Rainy Lake endured a 3 day soaker with strong 25-40 mph East/North East winds. This really shook up the volatile fish movement. Yesterday we started shallow and put around 15 very nice slot fish (20-25 Inches) in the boat. We were unable to get on anything with any consistency in mud/cabbage. We then worked mid-ranged scattered boulder piles with much more success. Seemed every boulder pile receiving favorable winds held a few big walleyes. It appeared as if it was going to be a “Hit and Run” type trip. At about 11 am. I lost a MONSTER Walleye boatside. 
This called for a 5 minute timeout 
At around 1pm we had ZERO “Eater” fish in the box only boating big “Slots”. Again we looked to split the day working big fish, and then chasing eaters. I was very happy to say we started printing big fish in deeper water yesterday mixed in with fish looking for a “Hot oil bath”. As much as we love chasing big walleyes shallow it is also nice for anglers to catch mixed fish (Shore lunchers/Tankers) in the same locations. We ended up keeping 7 nice eater sized walleyes for a meal and let go several more nice slot fish with smaller guys mixed in.
Here is a tip you may want to consider now that we are again printing fish on our electronics;
******Most anglers now realize you simply cannot catch fish that aren’t there. This is a simple concept to grasp. The overwhelming reliance on high quality graphs like our present Humminbird 1198C we run at dash are a guides best friend during the trip. Still even the high power output of top of the line sonar can leave you scratching your head unless you know precisely WHAT your looking for. Printing fish (Marking pods of good fish) might not always be EXACTLY what your looking for. Printing fish that are currently in a feeding mode is GOLDEN BABY!! Case in point; Yesterday our first line breaks that had our heavy NNE crashing in and held lots of fish. We dialed in our I-Pilot and watched a steady stream of fish snub our presentations only picking up a couple. Leaving fish to find fish………. is difficult for many of us to do. Still we pulled up in search of a school of walleyes ACTIVELY feeding. In doing so we were looking primarily for “Globs” of bait whether that be our emerging Mayflies or schools of minnows located on prime breaklines WITH printed “EYES”!! I’ve always been a firm believer that locating pods of fish on feeding shelves is much more productive than seeing scattered fish in “No-Mans” land. Yet this fits our style of precise “Spot on Spot” fishing philosophies. Fish have windows of activity. Trust me fish DO NOT feed 24 hours a day as much as you would like them to. Sitting on resting fish will give you plenty of time to finish that sandwhich. Sitting on feeding fish will wear out the hinges on your livewell and keep the “NET…WET”. Consider this the next time you comb structure. WHAT THE HECK AM I LOOKING FOR!?!? It is nearly impossible to find something your not looking for. Printing fish is elementary these days in the advanced stages of walleye fishing, and most all anglers clearly understand the importance of this. Recognizing a school of feeding fish by the location of the fish along with the presence of food will tilt the odds in your favor.
This is precisely why as a fishing guide I’ll often refer to our most difficult job as LOCATING the forage. Forage is washed around via wind or current. When you lack wind this can spread the food around, and is much less condensed. Heck there are a LOT of guys that can simply cross the eyes on feeding fish. With this being said I assure you the angler most efficient at both recognizing and pinpointing the food will most always have “Tight Lines” on the most consistent basis.
Walleyes remain simple fish for the most part; Spawn/Eat.
Focus your game on the “EAT” aspect, and “GET BIT” 
A very special thanks to Neil, Solomon and Mike yesterday for sharing the boat with me. Newcomers to Walleye fishing both Mike and Solomon held their own all day long!!
We’ll see you on the water team!! We’ll be the boat with the “Net………Wet” 
