Rainy Lake 2023

Figured I might as well get this started since the season is a few weeks old already. We have been mostly crappie fishing and they have been cooperating fairly well depending on the day and wind direction. It seems like they are pretty much wrapping up with the spawn so it will soon be time to start chasing walleyes. Anyone else been out at all? Also does anyone know if any of the resorts/restaurants on the lake will cook your fish like they do on low or red lake?

Thunderbird does a excellent job.

Thanks for the report, how is the water level looking? We are 18 days out for our annual trip to Rainy. Getting a bit excited to go!
I can imagine the bugs are bad there like everywhere else?

I would say the water lever is pretty normal right now. It seems like it might have came up a little in the past week but nothing crazy. Makes it nice for getting in and out of the boat on the crib docks. The dam must be wide open or close to it because the amount of water moving in Ranier is incredible! The mosquitoes are somewhat tolerable during the day and a breeze helps but when evening comes around it’s pretty much impossible to be outside. Last weekend was the first time we noticed some fish coming out of the shallow bays/places they spawn and seemed like they were setting up on the points at the mouths of those bays or if there were islands close by we saw some along those as well.

These posts are very helpful. As another week has passed, any additional guidance on crappie and walleye?

Are Crappie still thick in the shallows? Black Bay?

Are you getting more walleye action hitting windy shorelines or points/humps?

Just got back from the cabin. Was up there for five days. We spent most of our time in Black Bay. It seems like the walleye bite back there is really starting to take off but there’s a ton of pike in there to weed through to get the walleyes. As far as crappies go I think that game is pretty much over, getting a few incidentals in the mix but not really a targetable number of them. We did notice a few fish showing up on rock piles that are very close to or connected to shore but didn’t spend much time fishing them. Going to regroup and head back up there tomorrow for another five days. With the water starting to warm up I think fish will start moving to a summer pattern soon.

Left Rainy Lake June second had a great time. Fishing was pretty good. Had to adjust presentation based on sun v/s cloudy.Chartreuse when sunny. caught lots of Walleye and some Crapie and lots of small Pike, well except for ONE.

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That’s a nice one Wayne.
Did you have a target depth?

Seems as if the 10-15′ range was of focus.

We fished mostly 8 to 10 areas with emerging weeds.