Day 1
We arrived at 7AM on Thursday (10/1) and were fishing by 8AM. Weather was bright sun with east winds around 10 gusting to 15. We headed out to one of our regular spots and picked up a few fish right away. With the winds fairly calm (at least for Rainy Lake), we moved out to the reefs east of the Brule. We only marked a few fish on some of the reefs and most reefs didnt mark anything. After bouncing around that half of the lake without much to show, we started working our way back and ended up in the Rat Root River. Having never been back there, I want to thank those that gave me some pointers when it comes to navigation thru there and what to try while back there. We pulled out a few 10″ to 12″ crappies and a nice perch. Overall, the bite was more aggressive in the morning on day 1
Day 2
Started out with some frost in the boat, we headed toward the Brule and tried a few new spots near there. Marked a lot but would only get a few to bite. This was common theme in the morning, they were there but had lockjaw for the most part. By mid morning thru afternoon, the wind picked up to 10 to 15 again, only it was out of the SE (bright sun all day). The fished turned on somewhat on the reefs east of the Brule and we caught twice as many in the afternoon compared to the morning. We ended the day in the Rat again with a few big crappies (1 at 14″) again
Day 3
Bright sun all day, winds picked up to 15 to 20 by afternoon. The morning bite was decent in some of our regular spots, other spots there were no fish to be found on the graph. We tried a few reefs east of the Brule with marking fish on only 1 of them. We pulled out a few (including a decent smallie) but boat control was a challenge so we moved to calmer waters trying a few new spots on the way back. The new spots had fish but most were in the 11″ to 13″ range. We ended the day back in the Rat again, with a couple more crappies (including 1 at 13″)
Day 4
Day started sunny with light winds out of the SE, good morning bite is our usual spots. Mid morning we decided to see what was on the reefs again, the first one we stopped at marked fish and it turned out they were aggressive. We caught 8 walleyes in an hour and a half with 7 of them being between 18.5″ and 23″, the other was at 15.5″ with a bonus northern in the mix. Over this hour and a half, some high clouds blocked the sun a little and the winds died. At the end of the hour and a half, we weren’t marking many fish anymore so we moved on to other reefs. We found a more fish but mostly small so we headed back to where we had some luck. By the time we got back there, the winds picked up to 10 to 15 but switched to the East. There were no fish to be found there. We bounced around to a few usual spots and a few new spots on our way back with only a few fish to show. We headed back to the Rat again, picked up 1 crappie right away, then nothing.
Overall, it was a good trip. This is out 3rd year fishing Rainy and each year gets a little better than the previous. This was the first time we had bright sun with east winds for most of the trip and I think that made the bite a little tougher, but we have no complaints.
We have reservations in for 10/1/16 thru 10/4/16 already.
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