lotw fishing

coming up sat. for a week of walleye fishing, is the lake better than the river? any info would help and thanks in advance

Some recent reports from these guys. Good luck. Let us know how it goes. I would sure like to get up there this fall.

https://www.facebook.com/RippingLipwithJasonGrollFishing/

https://www.facebook.com/CQuesnell/

I was up there last week. Most of the fish are in the lake. There is a good school about 10 miles out near the 9 footer. We were trolling, but there may be a good jig bite too. We tried 30-31′ out from Lighthouse gap and only caught small saugers.

@grizzly
I’m heading up the week after you. If you could post mild reports while you’re up there it would be greatly appreciated. Good luck but leave some for me

I will see if my wife can bring this site up on here phone I have a flip hone yet. lol

Any updates? Headed up there next week.

corya wrote:

Any updates? Headed up there next week.

Border View posted a pic on FB of the river full of shiners, so the run has started, and the big eye’s shouldn’t be too far behind.

caught way more fish out on the lake, first few days were cold and wet but had some nice fish with a 26 the biggest and as the week went on it warmed up but so did the smaller fish. fished anywhere from 20 to 30 ft. of water and caught fish, we had some nice 16-19 inch eaters,only fished the river 1 day and it was slow but talked to a couple guys that fished around the corner of wheelers Friday afternoon and caught some nice ones so maybe moving in. water temp was 59 yet

Thanks for the update. Sounds like a fun trip.

How was the water clarity in the lake?

What was the preferred technique? Jig and frozen shiner?

water allways looks like coffee to me lol jig and leeches were great also but they don’t have them I had them left over from devils lake this summer

Keep the info comming gentlemen, please!

The “Young” man that is known on here as “Sheldon” (te-he aka, Iowaboy1) will be up there during the 4th full week of this month 21st-26th. This will be his first trip and my 19th for this time and place, we are staying @ Ballards.

Oh ya, gott’a love the new guy/boat monkey, right? Let the games begin!

My brother and I are headed up on Thursday. Hoping there is a decent bite on the river, as I don’t have a very big boat and don’t like venturing into the big water with any wind. If anyone has any info on the river bite, I’d love to hear it.

coming up the 25th and will gladly post a report. I realize the shiners have made their journey into the river. we plan on the lake in the morning and river in the afternoon hours. Going to pitch rubber in the river for the big gals. This seems early for the shiners but I believe it comes in waves? It has been a few years since we made the trip but do you guys think it will be too late? Corya, please follow up as you guys are headed right into the run….tia

Yeah, I have heard the shiners come in waves. The reports from this week sound like the fishing has been good out in the lake.

Everything I have heard it gets better, especially for bigger fish the later it gets.

The first episode of IDO last year was from the first part of November on the Rainy River.

was up to the Rainy River this week….
lots of slot fish in the river.
nothing big…locals use 1 oz gold /pink/white jigs w an emerald shiner.
we seem to have the best luck on them, but anything that
has visibility in the murky water of the river.
Current was strong….
misc sturgeon this week…..
make sure you bring a batt operated bait bucket of the otters will clean you out at night.
Be careful as boats will run right by you at anchor WFO…most rude anglers ,I have ever seen
good luck

We got up there on Thursday afternoon. Fished a couple hours Thursday night and all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Stayed in the river the whole time, mostly between Wabanica Church and Wheeler’s Point. The bite was very good Thursday through Saturday and slowed drastically on Sunday. The two of us caught 50 to 80 fish a day. A lot of smaller fish, but also a bunch of fish in the 15 to 19 inch range. Biggest fish of the trip was 24″. Caught a couple northern and one small sturgeon. We used 3/4 oz. in gold, pink, and orange tipped with frozen shiners.

Fishing is pretty good right now. We are two days into a four day trip. Limits both days. We’ve been on the lake in 16-25′ of water. Many are in 4 Mile Bay and the river. From those that I have talked to, the lake is still out producing the bay and river. Lots of 15-19″ walleye. We haven’t found anything in the 25″+ in the lake though.

Thanks for the updates so I can live in the moment. Any reason to get live shiners? I remember the frozen ones out produced live the last time I was there.

It have never used live shiners after Labor Day up here. Only frozen shiners and crank baits. I have tried to get plastics and jigging raps to produce but frozen shiners definitely put more fish in the boat! I’m amazed at how smart these fish are at getting the frozen shiner off both a jig and a stinger hook without getting caught. The guy at the rod end must not be very bright!

Anyways, today the wind was west at 15+ with gusts in the mid 20s so we had a less than a stellar day. Zippel Bay ended up being the answer and we found fish in some calmer water later in the day.

Any reports from this weekend? heading up 10/21

Tough fishing yesterday. Wind was really blowing. Fishing was decent today. It is supposed to blow bad again tomorrow, causing us to say heck with it and head home in the morning. Word is the lake has been better than the river.

Any of you guys trying the river throwing plastics for the trophy caliber fish or is everyone just satisfied jigging shiners for the small fish? I guess if all we catch are eaters, it will be a failed attempt the way I see it. I plan on getting a few for the box no doubt but this time of the year, there should be many 28 plus fish roaming the river.

Fishwater83 wrote:

Any reports from this weekend? heading up 10/21

would like to hear how you guys did. I am still sticking to my plan of pitching the crap out of the river unless the lake is putting out a great average.

Fishwater83, did you end up going up? If so how did it go? Any more shiners in the river yet?

we did, we fished sat-mon.
Saturday we went out of long point as we wanted at least one day on the lake before trying the river. we ended up with around 44 fish, everything was out in 30′ for us. jig n a shiner.

Sunday we hit the river as we tried to get on the lake but couldn’t wet a line as the waves were the biggest id ever seen on a lake. we were scared shi*less and turned around back to the rainy. we tried sturgeon for 3 hours and got a 53″ up near the church. went to the wilsons creek area and found 16′ and ended up getting a 26.5, 24.5 and 22 amongst lots of eaters in the evening.

Monday was super windy but we did really well again in the wilsons creek area which is where we concentrated our efforts most of the day.

overall though I am no expert but we saw some bait clouds move through on the electronics and would always pick fish up when they came through but I talked to the guy at log cabin or whatever that bait shop next to the liquor store is called and he said he is starting to see shiners in the trap again.
fun trip overall, we did 2 fish fry’s and came home with our limits of nice fish.

Good to hear you got to go. Thanks for putting up a report. The waves can definitely get big up there. I bet that Sturgeon was a fun fight. Sounds like fun fishing. I like hearing that guy is starting to see some shiners. We stopped at that bait shop also. The guy was pretty bummed out that the shiners had stopped running. I am sure it is hard on business. He was a nice guy though. I will definitely stop there again. Sounds like he had just bought the place or was in the process of it.

Went Wednesday thru Saturday. Fished out in the lake on the east side of pine island because of the blizzard moving in on Thursday. We did ok with about a dozen 13 to 17 eyes and sauger just jigging frozen shiners.
Thursday we awoke to 7 footers crashing over the rocks at morris point so the decision was either to sit in the cabin all day or battle the elements in the river so the river it is. It was a battle to anchor anywhere with the 30 mph wind gusts and 3 footers so we gave up after an hour or so. The bow mount got in one hell of a work out trying to keep us locked in anchor but it did its job amazingly enough. The fish were less cooperative and we only got one legal walleye on a pulsr and also bit off by what I can only assume were pike.
Friday was also a river day mostly scouting and it was slow as we only got into a few jigging shiners near wheelers point.
Saturday was beautiful as the lake finally layed down. We tried plastics in the river with little success in the morning so we high tailed it out past the gap and had awesome fishing in the lake. Lots of sorting but I bet we got around 60 to 70 fish in 21 feet of water. Shiner and gold and pink were hot for us. our biggest was 24 and another 6 or so over 20. Drop the jig down to the bottom and lift up slowly and wait for the light tap, then lift the rod tip. Not one fish hammered the shiners, it was a very light bite almost like pan fishing.
It was an epic storm up there on thursday-friday but the fishing gods were good to us on saturday.