Rainy Lake – Before memorial day?

One month and counting, year 16 and counting!!!

Every year I hear this same thing from guys.. You should have been here last week ;). So this year we are going 2 weeks earlier than we ever have before. We typically go June 5-15 and fish shallows for post spawn fish and some years hit it good and others we miss it and they are already in transition to deeper water. Last year we went June 1st and were told they were in the river. Turned out the only place we found them were right where the river dumps into the lake and we had a great day of landing 30+ in an afernoon all within 200 ft of the mouth. Again we heard the same thing if you were up earlier people were catching 100+ in the river and by kettle. So with that myth we are looking for information on the early pre/spawn walleyes on Rainy.

We are going up the week before Memorial day, May 19-22nd and plan to camp on Fish Camp island weather permiting.

Wondering if anyone fishes that run and what might we expect?

Are we fishing 30-40 ft deep right at the damn and need cannon ball jigs?

Are we fighting 200 boats like they do below the dam at Red Wing?

If you have had success this time of year I would love to hear from you!

Thank you

Eau Claire Boys
Fishin for Food and Fun

If you are fishing the lake before memorial day I promise you there won’t be 200 boats. I would be surprised if there were 50.
Have you guys ever hired a guide for a full or part day? Might be worth it to shorten the curve.

If you ran from the Island all of the way to Kettle Falls dam I would guess the total number of boats that you would see would be less than 30.

I have fished up by the dam a few times and it surely would not be considered my go to area. There is usually a lot of flow coming out of Kettle Falls dam and this section is really churning. There are some really great looking current seams by this main flow. For how good it looks and I am surprised at how few fish we catch in some of these areas. I also hear of some people claiming to do well close to the dam but not our group….

There are 2 channels flowing from the dam to the main lake, USA and Canada channel. What I call the USA channel is by Kettle falls hotel starting just off the main water flow from the dam. This channel is 90 degrees from the main flow. Because of this there is water flow but it is fairly civilized compare to the main flow. Both of these channels will hold fish this time of year. The bulk of the boats (which is not much) will be fishing the USA channel. Most of these people are staying at Kettle Falls Hotel. Very few people are fishing in the Ontario waters. I prefer more solitude and normally fish Ontario waters. The negative side of fishing Ontario waters when accessing it from the Minnesota side is that you can’t bring over any bait. You will need to fish artificial only.

Ontario opener this year is May 18th so your timing would be prime for that. I would be heading to this area for Ontario opener but this year I will be much further north in Ontario.

Depth – I do not recall ever fishing deeper than 25′ of water this time of year. 6′ to 22′ usually are productive depths. If you try and fish up by the dam with the raging water a 1/2 ounce jig will get blown out quickly if you get on the wrong side of the current seam.

I’ll be there the following week. A guide can really help, especially in spring and fall when fish are moving. One thing that seems the same, is it’s often different. In 10 years have seen a half dozen different patterns. One year walleye were keying on young of the year crawdads on the outer weed edge. Not the first place we looked. Missed last year due to a death in the family. But covid years there was a huge spike in boat traffic compared to prior years. 2 years ago, we saw 3 boats in one bay in the east basin. Prior years don’t see 3 boats all day. Now that Canada is open again, and allowing OWI’s not sure what it will be this year.

Thanks guys! We have done 4 guides over the years each time it really helped us find and locate fish. Then using that information for following years. There in not a lot of water between the dam and the lake so I think we should be able to hunt fish down our selves vs spending $500.

16 years of being on Rainy we have had some amazing years and some flops. I am hoping we have a banner year! Fishing the spawn run in the river.

I want to get up there and try to get a guide trip in with Capt. Donnie O’bert someday. I think the stories that guy he would tell would be worth the price

Donnie is a close friend of the family and 100 percent the best guide up on Rainy. A day in his boat is something you will never forget. He’s probably all booked up for the summer but I would not hesitate to book a trip for next year.

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