The time has come and gone for our annual fall trip to the north arm of Rainy. Unlike last year we did not experience any rain warnings and frigid temperatures. More importantly how was the fishing.
An ode to Hollywood in Top Gun, Where’d the pike go? Where’d who go? They were a mystery last week.
That was the theme of how things went for us. We spend 80% of our time targeting the toothy critters. This trip was the slowest for my 8 years and over 30 years for my partner. We tried many different locations, different presentations, and not much to show for it. Either the fish were stuck in an “I don’t care mood” or we were not able to locate them. We saw very few follows as well. We were able to pick up a lunch fish each day and the stomachs were empty. Not sure if that means anything or not. 
One day we did have a change of pace. While playing duck and cover behind islands we decided to portage to another lake. The idea was to target lake trout. No trout but did catch a few pike, walleye, and bass.
On the bright side, Rainy Lake in the fall is still a great place to be even if the fish aren’t cooperating.