Rainy Lake revival

It looks like the Rainy Lake area here on FTL has been a little quiet lately so I figured I’d throw something out there.

I visited Rainy Lake for the first time last summer and had a blast. I’ll be there again in mid-late August for a couple days. I didn’t know the first thing last year so I just found a reef with some other boats on it and gave it a try. I was happy to boat a bunch of walleyes out of 35-45′ with spinners and rigs. Although I was happy with the numbers, the fish were running small (I think the biggest was a bit over 18″).

Any ideas of what I could change (or should I change) this year? For starters, I was thinking about hitting more reefs. I was just happy to be catching ANYTHING last year. If I wanted to troll cranks, do I just look for shoreline breaks?

Maybe it is just me but I think the Rainy Lake Forum on this board is D-E-A-D.

Schnauzer,
Not sure about Steve Mattson, but anyway my parents had a cabin on Rainy for over 20 years and it’s a wonderful fishery! Late summer you will find walleyes around most of the major midlake humps (reefs), but don’t limit yourself to ones that top out at 10 or less. There are very productive humps that top out at 20 feet. Areas that I have fished are the humps around cranberry bay, north of jackfish island, around shelland and blueberry islands and if you want a long boat ride, the american channel is good all year round. As far as trolling cranks, cranberry bay is good and the area around the brule narrows. I usually start with a bottom bouncer and spinner or phelps floater and once I locate fish I switch to a jig. Sometimes large shiners work other times rainbows are the ticket. Last fall the shiners caught the majority of the big fish. Hope this helps. Jon

I AM ALIVE! WHOA! Where have I been?? Sorry for the delay fellas. JonN and Schnauzer, rest assured I have been enjoying Rainy to the fullest…maybe too much.
No question, the action this time of the year is out on the main lake humps (reefs). The best reefs to target right now are the ones just east of Saginaw Bay and north of Blueberry Island on the east end of the lake. Lots and lots of fish being caught right now.

Leeches are the way to go right now, but minnows will start to get the nod as we get closer to fall. I am hearing some reports of people getting ’em on crawlers and minnows, but leeches are producing the numbers right now.

Another option for you is to try wind pounded structure with crankbaits and stickbaits. I go for the big smallies and walleyes on the shallow wind pounded stuff and usually get a nice mixed bag of fish. My best wind pounded eye this year is a 25″er.

Good luck.