Rainy Lake, Minnesota fishing report 8-28-08

As the mighty Rainy Lake water temps make a reversal the fishing continues to build momentum. Spot on Spot coupled with boat control played a big roll with either catching a lot of fish or no fish. As water temps have started to decline the loose schools of fish seemingly tightened up. Todays action was symbolic of this weeks action. Search Plan A,B,C and D structure with favorable wind. If the wind is intolerable or NOT FUN to fish in then we worked current. Never really run out of plans or optimism just daylight!!

On today’s half day trip we started pinning some big girls on the tip top of a micro sized hump. I like these humps to fish as they see significantly less pressure than well known reefs. The other thing is that they are typically only big enough for one boat to be positioned on the fish. Much Better to be catching than observing. Today we were faced with pre-front conditions which can turn fish on and off in an instant, and make fish move depths rapidly. We originally put the wood to the eyes in 20 feet, and minutes later followed the school to 40 feet as the fish sought shelter with changing barometric pressure. We had a small heart to heart with what is expected if we are to soak jigs in depths such as today. The boys responded perfectly, and we effectively caught and released some BEAUTIES on deeper pre-fall haunts. REELED THE FISH UP SLOOOOOOOOOOW!! More important to reel slow, and lose a fish without a doubt!! KUDOS BOYS!!!

A couple of days ago I had a customer pin me down on exactly what I am looking for when targeting fish for the day. He asked me what is the perfect condition…. Well in my experience the best possible scenario or the Paradigm of walleye fishing in the world according to Daze is the following. My number one producing spots which all have a varying degree of current flow with a strong wind howling directly into the current. This inversion of bottom disturbance can spark a frenzy of activity. My best days this year have had those 2 things in common. Trust me you can still fish wind and current and catch no fish, so it is imperative to have this disturbance on producing walleye structure. When this happens……….You Guessed it LIGHTS OUT!!!. a couple weeks ago we had the stars alligned precisely as described and we boated 40 walleyes over 20 inches on a 9-4 trip. Results like that aren’t common, but are definately possible.

Everyday is a bit different than the previous. Fish will move or simply change their attitude. The game becomes much more challenging with wind direction switches. When Ma Nature spins and blows more often than not you will be left with a small pod of fish in the past hot spot, some in the new windblown area, and some lost in between. These are the days you see a lot of boats running from spot to spot to spot to spot. LOL!! Trust me you will likely not pin down the hercules school on a day like that. These are days in which I will run the boat on top of smaller pods of fish unless I graph the the end game school in which you will see Rainydaze on top of the I/O like a walleye beacon putting the hammer down on the big girls. Great fishing with all the new groups this week, and look forward to sharing another day in this walleye factory in the near future!!! Fall is just around the corner, and so is that New State Record I have my heart set on. Oh FYI if I do drop the hammer on the next state record I will likely be taking a couple years off, so don’t delay… book today!! LOL!!