I had yesterday off as we celebrated the 4th of July. The day prior we honestly had one of those “Blue Collar” Walleye days here on Rainy Lake. I talked with a few other guides that scratched there head and wiped the sweat from their brow at the lodge. “One of those days huh…..Was something commonly heard”. 2 guides (Good Sticks) really struggled putting countless miles on the boat and coming in with only 10-12 Walleyes. I had the fortune to fish with Gary Cutler and company who were returning from a fishing trip in Canada and wanted to test the waters of Rainy lake. We burned through a lot of spots ourselves picking up some fish here and there. Anglers need to know you will have days like this. Somedays are EASY and somedays you’ll work. Still if you work a finesse presentation in the wheelhouse of the fish you can come back to the dock with good fish. I’ve always felt there are windows of activity throughout the day. Somedays the windows are wide open and somedays those are very short. Fortunately there was a window in the early afternoon hours where the ridiculous heat was offset by a bit of west wind. We put our share of eaters in the boat during that period. Our crew was fortunate to end up with a beautiful 16 fish limit of Walleyes and 12 slots, but there wasn’t a guy in the boat that knew we worked for them. We caught an estimated 35 Walleyes that day. I’ve always said anglers needs to be able to catch a nuetral fish on most days. You’ll elevate your game when you can catch a negative fish, and most always put good numbers on the board. Most every angler on the lake will catch that aggressive fish. Our presentation was very fine with a 3/16 oz. H20 Precision jig and crawler. My Loomis NRX rod without question gave me a distinct advantage being able to detect those tension bites. I suspect those fish are still digesting the Mayfly hatch and will soon be jumping in the boat once again. 
July 5, 2012 at 11:18 am
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