Rainy Lake 2022!

If you are familiar with Thunderbird the water was about 6″ below the windows last Tuesday when I had lunch there. Monster pumps pumping to keep the basement from being in the dining room. They did put a dock out so they have a usable dock anyway. Water level has pretty much stabilized it’s now the wind causing problems. It blows the water to shore and it’s not good. I look for the level to start dropping but it will be late July if not early August before things are near normal. 600,000 sandbags used.

From reports the fishing has been good. I haven’t put the stickers on the boat or bought a fishing license yet.

Here’s the water level graph for today, June 30. Still over 5 feet above the rule curve. Inflow is dropping but still high.
http://www.lwcb.ca/waterflowdata.html

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Thanks! We were there in 2014 and pretty crazy to think the water will still be higher than that. Anyone else been fishing?

http://www.weather.gov/dlh/RainyRiverBasin

Click into the “latest flooding briefing slides” for the latest update.
Rainy “may” return to normal levels by mid to late August.

Over 1 inch of rain in the Falls and many places in St. Louis County yesterday. Not good. Rainy might go back up some in a few days.

Just got back from the Ash River trail. The water there is dropping fairly fast 2 to 3 inches a day. I was there for 10 days and the level was down 20″ in that time frame and seemed to be dropping more each day. I only fished three days and caught fish each day. The fish are scattered at all depths and still prefer minnows/leeches. Water temps are around 60 but I am sure rising with the warm weather.

Netguy wrote:

Over 1 inch of rain in the Falls and many places in St. Louis County yesterday. Not good. Rainy might go back up some in a few days.

1 1/2″ here in International Falls last night. Strong winds which isn’t helping those who sandbagged.

My folks and my brother’s family are keeping their reservation to LaBelle’s for July 9 – 16. Last I heard 2wks ago they were having to boat in to their resort. No idea what it’ll be like in 10 days.

We switched our reservation from that week to the week of August 13 – 20 and I’m pretty happy we were able to. My parents will be going with us as well, but my mom is concerned the fishing won’t be any good and that it’ll be hotter than the dickens. However I think it’ll be just fine. It’s been 30 years since we fished Northwest Bay in August, but I’m guessing the fish will be in the same areas as July.

Dutchboy wrote:

If you are familiar with Thunderbird the water was about 6″ below the windows last Tuesday when I had lunch there. Monster pumps pumping to keep the basement from being in the dining room. They did put a dock out so they have a usable dock anyway. Water level has pretty much stabilized it’s now the wind causing problems. It blows the water to shore and it’s not good. I look for the level to start dropping but it will be late July if not early August before things are near normal. 600,000 sandbags used.

From reports the fishing has been good. I haven’t put the stickers on the boat or bought a fishing license yet.

I trying to visualize the water levels. I checked RLHB website for pictures to get a visual. But didn’t find any. Anyone have pics of Tbird or RLHB to help put it in perspective.

Anyone been fishing lately?

I’ll be on Namakan 7/2-8th, I can let ya know what I find there next week.
I’ll be looking both shallow weeds and deeper rocks to start, thinking they will be in both areas (and probably in-between too).
You guys still planning on heading west thru the Narrows this year?

stevenoak wrote:

Anyone have pics of Tbird or RLHB to help put it in perspective.

Rainy Lake Guiding on Facebook has a drone video of TBird on Facebook from June 12th, basically the water is up over the patio and they have it sandbagged around the building. Water is up to the 2 cabins closest to the water and the road between RLHB and TBird.

xplorer wrote:

You guys still planning on heading west thru the Narrows this year?

Yeah, we usually try and make it to Andersons Bay, but not sure if we will go that far this year or not. Or what HB sites are even operable right now.

We camped at Kempton Entrance east for 4th week in ’19 and ’20, and were at Logging Camp way on the east end last year. So lucky we decided to stay on Namakan this year for 4th week.
Just heard Kettle Falls is fully re-opened, except for the portage.
We’ve done well in the area around Anderson bay, stayed at the campsite there a couple times and did well. You ever gone down to fish Boob’s rock? Last 4th week my son and I just hammered the eye’s there several times during the week.

xplorer wrote:

You ever gone down to fish Boob’s rock?

No, never heard of it. Where’s that at?

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>stevenoak wrote:</div>
Anyone have pics of Tbird or RLHB to help put it in perspective.

Rainy Lake Guiding on Facebook has a drone video of TBird on Facebook from June 12th, basically the water is up over the patio and they have it sandbagged around the building. Water is up to the 2 cabins closest to the water and the road between RLHB and TBird.

Thanks for the reply. I’m among the remaining dinosaurs not on any form of social media. Think my wife may have them. Ask when she gets home. RLHB used to post pics. But I would imagine they up to their collective arse in alligators.

I believe the mermaid is, or recently was, totally under water after the last pic. Not TBird or RLHB, but should give you some perspective.

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BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>xplorer wrote:</div>
You ever gone down to fish Boob’s rock?

No, never heard of it. Where’s that at?

PM sent.

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Water is falling fast on Rainy also.

Dutchboy wrote:

Water is falling fast on Rainy also.

Still over the 2014 high and more than 4 feet over the rule curve.

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Bigwerm is FB rock on Rainy? I’ve never seen it.

MX1825 wrote:

Bigwerm is FB rock on Rainy? I’ve never seen it.

FB Rock? The Mermaid is by the Silver Island Narrows Copenhagen Island on Rainy Lake.

Never seen it in my 3 trips to Rainy. Next time will have to look it up. Thank BW!

Ron wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dutchboy wrote:</div>
Water is falling fast on Rainy also.

Still over the 2014 high and more than 4 feet over the rule curve.

Still falling fast.

Here at the campsite on Namakan. Water is about a foot high still. Our site lost the first 10’ of it dock.
Water temp is 66. Will head out in the AM to see what I can find.

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BigWerm,
So far almost all eyes have come out of 21-25’ on rocks. Leeches and crawlers equal. Shallow (8-12’) with weeds hasn’t produced. We limited on keepers on Sunday and been getting mostly overs and smalls the last 2 days.
Tons of houseboats out here, parking everywhere. Kettle Falls was packed yesterday.
Have a great trip.

Has anyone been out on Rainy lately? We’ve been fishing off and on the last couple of weeks and can’t seem to put any kind of pattern together. Can’t find shallow fish, from what we’ve seen they aren’t on the reefs yet either, just striking out on everything. Not sure if it’s just us looking in the wrong places or if the fish are somewhere in between? The water seems much cooler than it should be for this time of year. If anyone has any insight or advice it would be much appreciated. I’m at a loss.

They reopened the boat launch at VNP. They extended the no wake. They opened some campsites back up.

On Kab, Namakan, Crane they dropped the no wakr.

xplorer wrote:

BigWerm,
So far almost all eyes have come out of 21-25’ on rocks. Leeches and crawlers equal. Shallow (8-12’) with weeds hasn’t produced. We limited on keepers on Sunday and been getting mostly overs and smalls the last 2 days.
Tons of houseboats out here, parking everywhere. Kettle Falls was packed yesterday.
Have a great trip.

Thanks! We had an awesome trip, amazing food, great weather and solid fishing. We were down lake past Anderson’s Bay for the start of the trip, and had the opposite experience. The deeper fish in 20-25′ we couldn’t get to go, but had decent fishing on the first break and under 15′. We were in a 16′ old Lund with a 15 hp and old Starcraft with a 40 hp, so we weren’t willing or able to get to many reefs, but we did try your island recommendation without many marks. We did catch a good mix of smallies, eater eyes and pike. Highlight of the week was the 21″ my buddy caught for one of our first fish, and my other buddies 40″ pike (that actually measured 37″ but he swears he left a few inches of the lip off the end of the tape ). Great times with a great group of high school buddies in year 11 of the houseboat trip for us!