The spouse and I returned Wednesday from 4 days of camping and fishing the east side of Rainy. We stayed on the American side, but I spent most of my time fishing main lake reefs on the Canadian side around Breezy island. This was not intended to be primarily a fishing trip. The trip was about reconnecting. The wife and I have had to delay time together for the past year due to aging parent issues so I kept siting at the campsite trying to be the dutiful and conversational spouse. Finally She simply told me, “ You need to go fishing” to which I grudgingly agreed.
The first couple of days I fishing reefs close to camp and after establishing a couple of active reefs I would catch a few fish, return to camp then head out again. Each trip I tried a couple of new areas and generally caught fish on most. Not all reefs are created the same, and some held larger more active fish, others not so much. With so much water Rainy can sometimes be a bit intimidating.
I have wanted to get better at summer reef fishing and used the time to learn how to better use my electronics to locate and stay on large active schools of fish. Though most reefs held fish by carefully looking for larger balls of baitfish I got much better at finding the spot on the spot and when I did it was lights out.
When I located fish on the electronics I would spot lock and cast. But the best method was to drop the windsock, move down wind and slowly back troll. Many times this time of year of the fish move below 30 feet so I don’t fish them. Surprisingly most of the fish I caught were between 24 and 27 feet so I was able to size down. So much fun. Moving the boat in and out of gear seemed to give the jig a little more lift and drop triggering fish. Most of the time I used a 3/8 ounce or 1/4 jig tipped with half a night crawler. The last night I must have caught over 30 walleyes all in the same depth and in an area no longer then 40 feet.