Headed to Rainy, What’s the report?

Hey all,

Headed to Rainy this weekend, looking to get on smallies. Please see the attachment of where base camp. Would appreciate any insight as I have never fished smallies up in that area.

Thanks!

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Lots of great islands/reefs/shorelines around there. If you have side imaging find good boulders/rock on any of that and you should get into them. Theres so much prime stuff if you dont find it on a spot move on to a new piece. Check the bays too if the rock isnt panning out. You wont struggle. Good luck!

Appreciate the input! What sort of presentations are working this time of year up there for smallies?

Definitely don’t forget the top water baits. Whopper Ploppers, poppers, and spooks. Early and late in the day, look for fish busting bait on the surface on top of rock piles.
Small spinner baits, mepps style spinners, jerk baits, or crayfish colored lip less cranks.
Paddle tails or twister tails in the 2.5-4″ range, white is the color of choice.
Ned rigs, hair jigs (black or white), or a dropshot.
If your looking purely for action, bring some night crawlers for the drop shot. Or run them under a bobber setup.

Appreciate all the feedback! Thanks!

My kid just fished a tournament up there last weekend, he said their best fishing were weeds that came off of points especially island points, and reefs that came up to 3-4 feet where they could see weeds. Ned rigs and top water.

Don’t forget the tube jigs, I always have a dedicated tube rod. They seem to be good for getting a sizeable bite and easy to fish in the rocks.

Kyle if you can get a Canadian license, it’s about $30 for 8 day license, fish the Canadian side. We were up there in late June, fished the Canadian side from the Brule Narrows east to Stokes Bay, we’ve never caught more smallmouth than we did that week! We did best on anything topwater but spinners, rapalas, tubes worked too. I don’t think we had a day with less than 100 bass in the boat. Plus we got into some very nice pike and walleyes too. We just fished shorelines, seems that we found most fish that had both rocks and weeds on them.