Just returned from an annual run to Rainy Lake – had a blast. Not a cloud in the sky, nor a breath of wind Weds & Thurs, which made it a little uncomfortable on the water. Everywhere we marked fish, we caught fish – although we struggled in finding bigger fish that were active. Tons and tons of small eaters.
Crawlers on slow death hooks pulled behind bottom bouncers were the ticket and most of our fish were found between 30 and 40 FOW. Off shore reefs held bigger fish. Some of the islands we can usually count on held nothing.
On Friday my buddy caught his 300th walleye of the season. Okay – he cheated by doing a fly-in trip to Canada to punch up his clicker – but it’s still a lot of eyes. When he caught number 300 I put my rod in the rod holder so I could net it and then snap a photo or two. After the pics were taken, I reached for my rod – that was now doubling over. Crap, snagged bottom, I figured. No. Fish on. A 28-incher. Check out the look on my face when we caught our first glimpse of it…”Holy S&#t!!!”
We ran out of bait shortly after we caught that one (on Friday). We tried everything else we could think of – Gulp Alive crawlers, ringworms, other plastics – and cranks (both off bottom bouncers and pulling lead core). Nothing else came close to the productivity of crawlers. 75 eyes on Thursday, plus another 20 or so saugers…
Great trip. Camped in Lost Bay. Blueberries everywhere – so we had blueberry pancakes for breakfast one morning. Good livin’.
