Getting Ready for Rainy!

8 days out from our annual trip to Rainy Lake/VNP. This year we are staying at Kawawia Island, we haven’t been to this site yet but it looks very nice. I’m looking forward to learning to fish jigging raps this year. I’m hoping the walleyes have moved to their summer mid-lake structures by the time we get there. I had some success with it last year on Sand Point but mainly did a lot of drop shotting with leeches. Prepping for our trip I have a slip bobber rod, jigging rap rod, drop shot rod, jig rod and bottom bouncer/spinner rig rod ready for chasing the big girls. We’ll probably throw some shad raps at shorelines for what ever is hungry too.

I want to try using countdown rapalas with Livescope when we find some fish to see if I can entice them with that.

Anything else you guys have used for eyes? I really look forward to trying new things on this trip.

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No Lindy rig? That’s our standard up there but it can get boring. I like to try other presentations as well. Need to try more jigging raps. This year going to try some floating stick baits (ones with a good wobble fished slowly) behind a Tokyo rig with a leader. Crawl it right on the bottom.
Good luck!!

Lindy rigging is too slow for the young lads in our group. Slip bobbers and a few beers is more their speed, at least for walleyes.
The stick baits with a tokyo rig, kind of a mini bottom bouncer? How long of leader and what speed to you pull them at?

We have taken a HB trip on Rainy for about a dozen years end of June to early/mid July, and the off shore structure is usually not going too strong yet. Might be different this year as it’s been so warm so early. Trolling the channels by your campsite is a good option, otherwise the Brule Narrows pretty much always hold some fish. Two things in common there are current.

How long of leader and what speed to you pull them at?

I’d try a leader of 1-3 feet. Could go longer if you use a suspending stick bait. I use a cast and retrieve method and vary the retrieve until you find what works. Stopping and twitching it every so often can sometimes trigger the strike.
This rig would be an option as others are casting jigs, slip bobbers, jigging raps.

We had a great week on Rainy! Fishing was the best we’ve had in the 6 years we’ve been going there. Mid lake humps held lots of hungry walleyes, both eaters and bigger fish on slip bobbers and dropshots. Shorelines held lots of bass and pike, a lot of smaller fish but fantastic action. Original Rapala floaters twitched and jerked, gold/org and perch colors worked best. Topwater bite was good too in shallow bays for pike and bass, that was a lot of fun.

We did a day on the Canadian side somewhere in the Rat River bay, wow! Probably one of the best days fishing I can remember. Multiple smallmouth 17-9″, pike 30″, several nice walleyes and more small bass and pike than we could count! Primarily on jerk baits again with the occasional spinnerbait or topwater. Amazing the difference a couple miles across an imaginary line makes but in 6 hours fishing that area we never saw another boat either.

Bugs were very bad, luckily we brought a screen tent that saved the trip.

Did you have any success on islands? Also did points or shoreline need to have decent sized rocks to hold fish? Glad to hear you had a great trip!

Our best shore line action was rocks with reeds/weedlines, it seemed the shorelines with just rocks didn’t hold nearly as many fish as those with weeds adjacent to them. The back bays South of the Brule Narrows held a lot of fish for us, again find the weeds and rocks and there were fish there. There were a lot of small bass and pike but some nice ones mixed in too and the occasional walleye too.

Thanks for the tip! Im running up there friday so looking forward to hopefully crushing some smallies and eyes.