Trip to LOW/Rainy river this weekend

I am heading up from 8/2-8/6. Thinking of running lead lines and cranks. This is the latest in summer that I have gone up there and am a little unsure of fishing patterns. Any advise would help.

Trolling cranks in the basin mud and the reefs around the Bridges, Knight and Garden islands are the usual late summer patterns.

I am headed up tomorrow morning. Will be a little breezy over the weekend so probably no runs to little traverse bay until Monday. I will try the mud. Hopefully that bite is pretty good like it as been for me a few years ago. The last two has been much slower.

Trolling cranks in the mud with leadcore or snapweights has been working really well for my wife and I on the south end this summer. Finding the fish with the electronics is key and it’s pretty easy fishing once you find them.
The last time out we got 5 over 25″ with a 27″ as the biggest with limits of keeper size walleyes and saugers in a really short day. Numbers of different colors and styles of cranks have been working for us.
I’ve heard of and read many stories about numbers of big fish this summer on LOW.

Not asking you guys to catch fish for me, but what are the cranks that seem to be working. Most all of my cranks are jointed shad raps size 5 and 7. I also use berkeley flicker shads and have an assortment solid shad raps. Any colors that may be helpful. Thanks in advance for any info shared.

Everytime I am up there they seem to prefer a different color, even day to day. If full sun (no clouds) chrome colors seem best. I would just keep switching until you find what they want. Jointed shad raps are good. Shad raps decent too. I am sure flicker shad will be good at times too. Gold, blue, purple, perch and craw are all good. If it is cloudy uv colors are usually good.

Good luck. Let us know how you do.

Jointed flicker shads are working good. Having good luck with white multi colored. Don’t forget ur bottom bouncers and spinners at home. Some days there better than cranking

#7 and #9 Flicker Minnows, #7 and #9 Tail Dancers, Reef Runner Deep Little Rippers and Salmo #5 Hornets or Salmo #6 SDR Bullheads can all be great at times too. In addition to what’s been mentioned, we usually try these on a given day too. Preferences usually change throughout a day. I like brighter colors on sunny days and darker more natural colors on cloudy days.

Big big billed husky jerks work well. 4-5 colors of suffix lead core and ur down to the mud in 34 fow. blue/silver/orange or clown good. Some days purple. Downriggers are ok but alot of small fish grab and hang on not releasing tying up the line. You know right away when tip stops shaking on the lead core. While small baits catch fish of all sizes,…the big husky jerks get bigger fish on average. Good luck. I will miss it as my friends won’t ride together in a truck for 7 hrs with the virus.

It was a fun trip. Ran out to garden island and felt that we were on a good bite. We caught about 50 walleye in 2 and 1/2 days all on spinners with crawlers (Pink and Silver were what seemed to be working for us working the edges of reefs) Caught my personal best 29″. Friend caught his personal best 27″. Average fish size was 23-25 inches. Only caught 7 eaters. Thanks for the advice before the trip.

We also had a good trip. We fished the mud and the reefs while windy and made a run to the north when the wind died down Monday. When we fished shallow on the North the majority of fish for us were smalls. Majority came from cranks. Our big fish came in the mud, again pulling cranks. 29.75″ was the largest we got. We fried fish three days and everyone when home with a limit as well. There are a lot of small fish out there too, so the future looks bright.

when everyone references fishing garden island, what side of the island is everyone typically referencing? We ran up there mid july and fished the southwest side where there were a few other boats, but didn’t catch a fish and didn’t see many caught. Maybe we just missed the bite? Or are there quite a few spots that are fished around garden?

I think it may just be a reference for the north islands area by garden. We fished different islands not far from garden. Like I said it is a good area for eater fish. I have always had better luck fishing the mud for big fish.