Heading back to Rainy

Driving up to Thunderbird Tuesday for a few days of fishing. Looks like hot with thunderstorms for weather. That’s the problem with fishing and hunting trips one can’t control the weather.

I expect the best fishing will be on mid lake humps. My big disappointment is this time of the year is usually good for Crappie on the Canadian side, a no go this year. 2020 the year of compromise!

I will report next week.

Wayne

We got back on 7/1 and it was a tough go fishing wise. May flies were everywhere, from bait balls in the water to the top of the water looked like you could walk across it at dusk/night. Hopefully it’s wrapping up now. We caught a few fish deep, a few fish shallow, and were on top of fish most of the trip just couldn’t get them to go. Still had a great time, and it was a cooker pretty much the whole trip so the beach at Blueberry Island got plenty of use!

Good luck up there, my trip to Rainy isnt for a few more weeks (fishing 8/1 thru 8/7), Staying at Sha Sha as thru Thunderbird was book up pretty solid when I called them at the end of May.

I will be going back up in early October as well, staying at the Thunderbird for that trip

Up on Namakan right now, got here yesterday to our campsite. Water in our bay is 82, 77 on the main lake. Just had a huge thunder boomer go then with hail and everything. Lightening bolt took out a red pine 40 yards from my boat. I’m guessing the initial straight line winds were about 50mph.
Did fish earlier today around 11 with the FW, got three right at 21” in a current area at 22’. Deeper reefs were pretty bare This morning between 6-9am. Mayflies are still pretty thick here. And the ankle-biters are bad.

Tomorrow we will be fishing our way up to Kettle Falls and back, and of course having a pizza and a couple pink things out on the lawn While we’re there.
Sitting in the screen tent with a vodka/lemonade right now listening to the rain on the roof, and the thunder all around, for the time being. Hoping to grill tonight and have a fire before the evenings over.

Thanks for the info xplorer. We’ll be up at ATL this Saturday.

Got back last night. Fishing was great. Lots of chunky 16 and 17 incher’s great eaters. Had to weed thru lots of bass. Locations were spotty no rhyme or reason why fish were or weren’t on a reef. Just had to jump stop to spot to find active fish. 14 feet was the magic depth. Seemed like lindy rigs was a key to catching fish but heard reports others did good with slip bobber’s. I tried them with some success but rigs worked more consistently. Leeches worked best. It was pretty windy most of the time and they were biting lite so there were a lot of missed hits.

All of us had a great time and released at least 50 Walleyes in three days with about 30 of those over 18 inches, biggest was 23 inches. With Canada being closed finding a good spot to yourself was difficult, most fisherman kept a courtesy distance.

Well I’m done fishing for this summer. Camping season starts this Friday. Good luck guys.

Wayne

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great report! cant wait until Im up there in a few weeks myself

Sounds like a great week Wayne! Did you spend most of your time east of the Brule?
Headed up camping to Kempton East in 2 weeks, for 5 days of reef hopping for eyes and casting for smallies.

Actually only fished East of Brule one day. Big waves and 20+ winds and the fact we caught fish on West side so didn’t need to make the long run.
We did need to be patient as the bite seemed to come in spurts. I forgot to mention we did mark fish deeper but they just weren’t biting. I tried crawlers on bottom bouncers with some success. Best was Lindy rig cast out and worked back slowly with lot of hits near the boat dead sticking at end of cast.

Good luck on your trip.

Wayne

Forgot to tell all!

The biggest reason for my success is I’m friends with a few of the guides who tell me their secrets over a few drinks each night. When I first started fishing Rainy I hired a guide each year for a day till I knew the lake good enough to fish on my own. Still share spots and techniques over drinks.

There you have it— HIRE A GUIDE, LEARN HOW TO FISH BETTER!

The whole truth from a fisherman.
Wayne

Wayne…glad you had a good week.
We were up there from June 30-July 3 and struggled to scratch out a few fish every day. We fished humps and weed lines. With so little wind that didn’t factor into our strategy.
Most of the few fish we caught were slots out on the humps. Jigs and leeches. Caught one off the back of the houseboat in about 6′ of water at sundown while getting eaten by mosquitoes.
We were dealing with 80-90 degree temps, no wind, bluebird skies and mayfly hatches. Surface water temps pushed up to 82 degrees.
We ended up fishing early and late and staying out of the sun in the middle of the day and taking a few swimming breaks each day next to the houseboat on the nice sandy beach we were moored for our stay.

Don’t feel bad. The guides told me it was slow the week before I got there. Timing can be everything , rain, wind, no wind. Just got go and make the best of it. Its all about a lot more then catching fish.

Wayne