We have fished that weekend for the last few years, but always on the east end. Staying west this year and camping at Loon Bay the same weekend. We have caught fish then, but not nearly what we do later in the summer. I think we will try Black Bay too and see how that works out. No matter what, Rainy is an amazing experience. Good luck with your trip and maybe we will cross paths!

Thanks for the fishing and fish holding advice. For the record, that was a 51″ northern pike caught on Wollaston Lake in Saskatchewan. We caught several that size that day, likely all of whom spent the rest of the day with exceedingly sore jaws. But, now I know to not do that anymore.

I’m excited to try things up there later in the season. Hopefully it works out. Thanks again for the advice.

Sean

Just got back from Rainy this afternoon. Fishing on the far east end by Kettle Falls was slow, but we still caught enough to eat and had a great time. Water temp was between 47 and 49. Everything we caught was on a jig and a shiner or fathead. Seems like the walleye have moved out of the river and are done spawning so in the coming weeks things should pick up nicely. Hope you have a great trip!!

I ended up going with the 93SV echoMap and could not be happier. I love the sonar and the down imaging was pretty cool. Going to take a bit to learn the DI but I am excited to keep playing with it. The unit itself is very easy to use and it seems that the sonar quality is far superior to the Lowrance units I replaced. As far as the GPS goes I thought the map was outstanding on Rainy. It refreshed very fast and seemed to be very accurate. Thanks again for all the advice!!

Thanks for the reminder to report, PatK! We had a blast! It was a rough one on the way out but once we got to Hostess Island and dried off all was well. On the first day we did really well fishing. Seemed like we couldn’t miss with walleye. Pretty much everything we tried caught fish. We used twister tails and gulp alive minnows with great luck. Also used some crawlers I picked up at Rainy Lake Sports. The guys there had no leeches and told me they liked crawlers better anyway. On the second day the fish just shut off. We would catch a couple walleye then nothing so we’d move and do the same. We used jigs, spinners, and about everything else in the tackle box and just had a tough time catching fish. We did catch a few nice northerns and some smallies along with a few walleye up in Ash Bay. The trip up there was beautiful but fishing was slow. On our last evening we towed a stranded boat back to our dock and then gave them a lift back to the landing. Was nice to be able to help someone out knowing that one day I am going to need it as well.

The kids had a ton of fun. My 5 year old has some sort of magical touch. He can catch fish where nobody else can catch fish. He’s been coming out in the boat with me since he was 2 so he had a blast fishing big water for the first time. My 8 year old daughter thought rainy was amazing and was able to bring several fish in the boat. She’s a tough girl who wanted to hold every fish we caught to get a picture to send to Mom. When we would get back to the cabin all they wanted to do was fish off the dock so I spent a lot of time untangling line and resetting bobber stops. No complaints though, it was great to see them having fun with a fishing rod in their hands. I was very impressed with both of them and won’t hesitate to take them on a trip like that again.

I have never had a bad trip to Rainy. Some trips boat more fish than others, but its always fun. I will be back in a month to fish the American side! Cant wait!!!

Thank you all for the advice!! We are very excited for the trip. The kids have been counting down the days. I went to town today and bought a variety of plastics and will probably get some Gulp Alive before I head out Wednesday. The notarized letter for the kids in hand as well as passports. I just picked up a new Garmin echoMap 93SV so I am looking forward to trying that out up there. Having always fished the American side (mostly the east end) of Rainy and I am used to having live bait so this venture into plastics will be fun. The last time I used plastics was in the 80’s fishing up north of Kenora. We will probably stop by Rainy Lake Sports before we head out as well to get at least some live bait.

Again, thank you very much for your replies. This site has the most friendly and helpful members. We will be on the lake Thursday morning so if you think of anything else before then I’m all ears!

Thanks for the information! I will be ordering the echoMap 93sv this week. Next trip to Rainy will be on August 10th and I am VERY excited to use it up there!

Thank you all for your replies! I appreciate all of you taking the time to look things up for me, check your maps, and sending emails! I went to Scheels and looked at the unit they have there and I don’t think it was a 1ft contour on Rainy. That may very well have been because it wasn’t updated with the latest map. After digging some more last night and following the links posted above I do see that Rainy is an HD map (Maybe it’s a recent addition).

So, onto the next question. Not sure if I should start a new thread with this or not, but Ill start here. Those of you using Garmin units, do you like them? I am thinking about either the echoMap 93sv or the 73sv. Any recommendations? Should I get the map chip as well? Thanks for your help!!

I really wish we would have headed to the Kettle River. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20 and we still had an amazing weekend. I will be headed back in August so hopefully I have better luck then! Enjoy your trip and I will definitely touch base for some tips on that trip!

I just returned yesterday from a 4-day trip to Rainy and it was tough going. Water temps from 53-55. We camped in Lost Bay and had a heck of a time catching any walleye. Tried jigging, casting jigs, bobbers, rapalas, bottom bouncers, and almost everything else in the box. Fished shallow water in bays and along islands and points. We ran from Cranberry Bay to out past Blueberry island (and all places between) and had a tough time even graphing fish. When we did graph them we couldn’t catch them. Caught a couple decent walleyes in the Brule Narrows but that was about the best we did. Lots of people came into Lost Bay but left in short order. It seemed that everyone was moving which told me that I wasn’t alone in my bad luck. I usually fish Rainy in June, July, and August and stay on the east end around the blueberry island reefs so this was an exploratory trip for me. The weather was beautiful but it looked like mayflies were stating to come out when we were there. That could have been part of it too. I have always done well on Rainy and this trip was disappointing as far as the fishing goes. Of course Rainy is beautiful and I was in great company so I have nothing to complain about. Heading back for at least one more trip this summer in July and then hopefully August. Should be better then.

Let me know if you want any specific questions about what we did so you can avoid my mistakes. Good luck on your trip!!! I hope you do better than I did!!