Homework pays off for walleyes today

Burning batteries on the H20 I pinpointed a couple spots that seemed to be very similiar to the patterns that have been producing as of late. Headed out today moving and grooving until I pinpointed what looked good on the couch last night(American Idol makes me want to mark waypoints!!) ANYWAY got on a “Wall Break” that seemed to have deep haunts acting as a baitfish highway along steep bouldered inclines. Lakemaster got me within feet, and then pounded holes to get spot on!! Must admit I did more searching and grooving than fishing today, but when I finally settled in the fish were looking for Lightning spoons and minnow heads, and I was glad to accomodate the requests!! 3 nice 11 inch perch which were fun!! 15,16.5,17,20,24.5,25.5 for walleyes plus a 12 inch bonus sauger.

Those walleyes are so dark, you sure their not eel pout? J/K

Seriously though, they must not get much sun light to be that dark. Got to love the H2O! Thanks for the good report!

Nice Catch!

Welcome to IDO Josh!!! Lots of great info on the site as well as great fisherman!!

Hey BabyMallard,

The walleyes on Rainy Lake are coming from a tea stained water, and are arguably the most beautiful black Backed and Bright Gold you’ll ever see!! This summer on back to back days we boated a 29 3/4 and 31 1/2 and the blazing GOLD sides were unbelievable.

They are great looking fish! I’m jealous. Maybe someday when I save enough money I can get up there.

Heck its just money Mallard Maybe you need to look at the fish again

Fishing with Rainydaze……….Priceless

Baby Mallard you’d better book now and just hope you can save up the cash…..w/ the pics Daze has been posting lately, and after the last IDO episode I wouldn’t be surprised if Daze Inn wasnt booked through 2012!!!!

I like the way you think DS

Nice fish! I burn so many batteries on the H20 staring at maps and contours. It is a blast. You admitted it first, so I thought I would give some support to the fishing addiction that many of us on this site embrace. You are not alone! Awesome!!!

Have to keep putting in your homework!! In the summer I really enjoy a couple days off to explore new patterns, techniques… I try fishing areas I never see anyone or fish odd depths, techniques… Most often the day doesn’t boat many fish, but I credit many bruiser walleye patterns to this search and destroy day. When I’m with customers I don’t like to experiment for obvious reasons, but it is the experimenting that allows you to continue to learn. Never stop learning the lake or species. Once you think you’ve got it figured out the guy on the dock pulls up his stringer of nice walleyes right in front of your house when you’ve put 40 miles on the boat!!

Nice report Rainydaze, I agree with everything you say, its fun to explore and try new areas and techniques, especially with the H20C and chip. The more a guy tries the more versatile he can be in different situations.

I can vouch for your homework and searching around, me and a couple buddy’s were out there for the first time the past couple days, we seen ya out there Wednesday morning drillin, searchin, and fishing like a mad man.

We recognised you from the site and wanted to chat with ya but we didn’t want to move in on you, we were the guys in the two clams with the white sled. By time we noticed you on your way back you already went past us.

We were staying at the Falls Motel and Kelly did a good job giving us first timers some direction and advice. You guys have some stellar scenery up there and I agree them walleyes look awesome. I love the look of them really dark gold walleyes. We got on to a few of those.

We caught a couple sauger, one of them had a pink tint to it and we thought that was pretty neat. We also got on to some of them nice perch, one of them is what you could consider a true jumbo..it was a beast, we landed a decent pike also.

We only had 2 days to fish for the first time ever on Rainy so between trying to do our homework, searching around and trying new techniques it went in a blink of an eye. You know how that goes.

thanks for the report….have a good one

Hey FishinGuru,

I saw you boys also!! Kelly is a good friend of mine!! We guide together, and he has a great place to shack up!! How did you do the second day?? That day you saw me I decided I was going to PULL my one man shack (Wouldn’t recommend unless training for next Rocky movie) due to the nice weather, and search a micro boulder pile off the edge of a hump. I thought my auger was getting iced up, and turns out it was sweating from the workout!! The Lakemaster chip put me write on the edge of it, but did a lot of movin and groovin as you likely witnessed first hand to find that!! I got on to them really good that day, but you saw how many holes I hammered out. I found them on the deep edge off those boulders. AS MUCH AS I THOUGHT THEY SHOULD HAVE BEEN CLOSER!! SILLY ME!! Don’t tell the fish let them tell you. I pulled my portable past you guys, and considered seeing how your doing, but didn’t want to impose either!! You definately should have flagged me down!! (Next Time!!) LOL!! Those are 2 spots out of 2 million. CRAZY HUH!! I’ve been waiting to pick up the big pike, but haven’t got into them like last year. A fair amount of 4-6lb fish, but really waiting for the 10+ to start showing themselves. Last year in the general area I iced a 20lb BEAST. Landed her on 4lb MONO, so it was touch and go. There in there, and if you noticed there are a lot of baitfish in there this time of year.

I will be placing attention on Giant SLabs here in a couple weeks. You can get them now, but searching isn’t much fun when rods are icing up. I like to start the Crappie Dance Feb- open water!!

Welcome to IDO!! Great site, Great Info, and even Greater People!!

Good Fishing!!

Yeah that was quite the long haul to be pulling out a port but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, as we were unloading and seen you walking we were gonna ask if you needed a lift to where you were heading but weren’t sure how far you were gonna go…then you just kept goin and goin lol. (thought maybe you were training for the next olympics ), probably a good thing though cause we got about 50 yards off the road and sank in the slush like quick sand lol.

The Nils was icing up on me also , but maybe she was sweating too, that second day I must of drilled about 75 holes or so searching the piece of structure we were on. We drilled on all sides of it and around the tip. Weren’t sure if the fish were working the slow tapering side of the drop or right off the steep break, we drilled from 12ft all the way to 48ft or so.

My buddy ended up deciding just to set up and sit it out in about 36ft and he actually got on them on plain red hook and decent sized shiners…we didn’t do very well on anything but shiners. I spent most my day hole hoping with jigs and either half a minnow or a head. He ended up with a few eater size and a nice 20 inch eye, a sauger, and probably about a 5-6 lb pike or so…I think he missed about a handful also, the ones that got away were some rod bending drag smokers..they could of very well been what we were searchin for some BIG EYES.

The structure and the unfished territory out there right now is mind boggling, a guy could venture out and fish primo pieces of structure that have been totally unfished since late fall…it really is crazy, wish we had 2 weeks and not 2 days lol.

Big pike are fun especially on ultra light setups, i caught a nice 12-13lb pike down here on a local lake last month on my little ultra light panfish rod, 4lb mono, and a pink n white ratso while tryin to intice some finicky crappies.

Next time we’ll definitely stop over and chat if we happen to run into you next time we head up!! Maybe we can team up and hammer out some new structure or something.

Thanks for the welcome, I often search the site and have posted in the past but totally blanked out my user name and password. I guess it’s time to become a more active member..have a good one.

Have never met a guy with “Ice Fever” I haven’t liked. It Takes a certain breed of angler to “Move and Groove” for fish. One tug of war battle with 30 inch eye hooks most for life. I really appreciate the change of seasons we experience here in Minnesota. As soon as one season starts to wind down I’m gearing up for the next. NEVER a dull moment. Whether it be Ice Time, Ice Out, Summer, or Fall They are all my favorite while I’m in the middle of it. If you get a hankering for dropping the hammer on some Giant pike this spring Give me a ring. 3-4 guys and I’ll handle the Boat, Beckman and Camera. Your job is to simply Zing and Sling (And preferably hook fish not the guide!!) Trust me there have been some close calls!! Had to call a few timeouts in the boat before

Keep the great info coming Fishing Guru!! Glad your posting again!!

Ice fever forsure, i hear ya on the changing seasons, they are all great and each one offers something new to chase fishing wise…trout,pike,eyes,crappie, ect, ect…it never ends lol.

I’m still searching for my first 30″ eye, my biggest so far is a 27 1/2 incher…she got released to grow larger.

Them Beckman nets are real nice, i think i’m gonna have to pick one up this spring when open water rolls around, looks like they are less stressful on the fish and the fisherman.

I could promise ya i won’t hook you but can’t make any promises about some of my buddy’s

LOL!! I’ll keep that in mind in regards to your free swinging buddies!!

Yes Beckman sets the standard for nets. I ABSOLUTELY love my Walleye net, and will likely be getting myself another Big Pike Net like is illustrated in the television show. I used to be a big rubber net guy, but after trying to swoop those heavy nets I realized the disadvantage of them. The Beckman is not only may very sturdy, but you have the hook resistent bag, and it is light enough to make quick dips. I’ve lost 2 PIG walleyes while fishing alone with my rubber Cabelas Brand net that I was simply unable to get to the fish fast enough with one arm. THAT WON’T EVER HAPPEN AGAIN!! As you know having 30 inch walleyes boatside isn’t an everyday occurance, so netting efficiency is KEY!!

Thanks Beckman!! Oh for the record the DAZE BECKMAN landed (3) 30 inch plus walleyes last year, and a estimate of 25 walleyes between 27-29 3/4 inches!! Biggest fish to grace the Beckman last year measured 31.5 and weighed 13lbs even!! Next summer I’ve got a 32 in the the cross hairs!! Oh for the record the 31.5 was released healthy, and may be the next state record as she was a brilliant specimen, and very very heavy. That fish looked very healthy, and still has some growing to do!! Catch that fish in another year or two on a late ice out year which prolongs the females spawn until the opener, and IF someone were to catch her before she dropped eggs…… Lets just say It will be very very heavy… 13lbs this summer with no eggs!!! More ciscoes and smelt for another year and if the stars were to align where she were still full of eggs? Pretty exciting stuff right there!!

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Next summer I’ve got a 32 in the the cross hairs

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Tell you what Chris….I’ll crank it in, and you can scoop it with the Beckman. I may even let you appear in the pics!

Trust me when we drop the hammer on that 32 we’ll get a few pics, and I’ll sneak in one!! Look forward to it buddy!!

Somebody notify the Moderator
Somebody named “Chris Granrud” is posting as RainyDaze
…I dont know this Chris Granrud
and what has he done with poor RainyDaze?
Is the Queen ok? Will she be going by another name also?

*Confused in a different state that touches Canada, except on the other side of N Dakota.

LOL!!! You can still call me Rainydaze Montucky!! Yep it’s me!! Very tricky I know!! Don’t worry the Queen is fine, and extremely happy I just threw in another few big chunks of ash in our wood boiler!! 23 below right now with a BRISK wind!! Brrrrrrrr!! Even my little Brittany Spaniel was high stepping outside hoping I’d hurry up!! How are the Montana Boys!!