Rainy Lake Minnesota fishing report 5-21-09

Rainy Lake continues to put smiles on the faces of anglers during the opening weeks of the season. Whether anglers are chasing MONSTER pike or Freakishly large walleyes you can expect “TIGHT LINES” here in borderland. We’ve spent most of our days isolating transitioning Pike and walleyes on “IN BETWEEN” structure. In my mind this period is most confusing to visitors as it is more difficult to pinpoint obvious holding structure for fish. The bigger fish have left spawning grounds for the most part, and are migrating to the summer haunts we enjoy fishing. This “Transition Period” has both big “Marble Eyes” and “Giant Gators” stopping for Scooby Swimming Snacks along the way.

So lets talk TRANSITION AREAS!! Pretty broad spectrum when you talk migration from spawning grounds to Summer haunts when you consider you are searching a mere 220,000 acres of water!! Neck Down areas is a term thrown around loosely with area fisherman. A Neck down area or Cut is any situation that limits water flow creating current. Rainy Lake of course is a flow through body of water. We always have water moving, and with slightly higher water this year there is an increased flow rate to an obious lesser degree than on a river system. Increased water flow or Current is both good and bad. The good part of the equation is that you have obvious current, but the difficult part of it is there is secondary current locations fish can hold spreading fish out a bit more. The dominate force for holding fish is still abundant baitfish. The biggest and baddest are definately looking to EAT. Regardless of any other factors if there is not a vast supply of crawfish, minnows, leeches…. the fish will not hold in numbers.

Once you’ve located a pattern that is holding numbers of fish there are a variety of early season methods that will fill the box or camera. Right now Big fish and eating fish are seemingly holding in different depths. Look deeper for eaters and look to mid-range transition areas for your big fish. When fishing deep early in the season this is prime for jig and minnow. As always go as light as you can get away with considering wind and current of the area. For the spawning Transition fish pulling spinner rigs, jerkbaits, small divers or fan casting jigs and plastics can be very effective all depending on what you have confidence in. Trust me your confidence presentations usually put the fish in boat. I prefer to fish a 1/8 to 3/16 oz. precision jig with a K-Grub or paddletail in perch imitation color combos. As always match the jig size to the plastic being used and wind/current. It is ideal to get into and stay in the strikezone for the maximum amount of time. If you can’t reach the strike zone (Bottom 2 feet) for walleyes then your too light. If you are bouncing through it too fast then your are obviously too heavy. Experiment a bit to match your presentation to the condition your fishing. In my opinion size and weight is equally as important as color schemes.

As we enter the latter portion of May look for the big slabs to start snapping up shallow. Get on the nests and get on your game face. Rainy Lake is boasting one of the healthiest Crappie populations in the state if not the world. Do Not be surprised to pull big walleyes and pike out of the lake, or ATTEMPT to with you light crappie gear. Pike of course are in there eating them, and Walleyes will be just around the corner. Many ways to turn these slabs, and the hardest part will be pinning down active spawning grounds. When finding fish a small Thill float with a flu-flu tipped with a minnow will start a feeding frenzy for these giant slabs!! Play around with the colors, and of course the color that works best usually is the color that you only have one of!! Tight lines Team!!