I’ve often wondered in years to come if we’ll look back at the summer of 09 as the “Summer that never happened”. Our water remains cool, and once again the MIGHTY Rainy Lake continues to toss curve balls that many quality anglers can’t put the wood to. As I’ve mentioned in the past Rainy Lake can fish very different year in and year out due to many variables. This year the obvious one is cooler than average temps which does a multitude of different things to a body of water covering 220,000 acres including, but not limited to bug hatches, forage movement, and submergent weed growth. Regardless of conditions Rainy Lake continues to put impressive fish on the board, and this week which was probably “my” most challenging of the summer was no exception.
This week we found remnants of a prolonged bug hatch still holding down the appetites of many schools of large fish. This forced our team to vacate the big schools we’ve followed for sooooo long and relocate different fish on a different pattern. That is a tough thing to swallow when you watch huge mark after huge mark snub your presentations only picking of a few here and there. We left the popular patterns as of late and picked on some unsuspecting trophies whom were either over the fly buffet or were just incredibly hungry for some H20 precison jigs with MEAT!!
I would say that this week is a prime example of the importance of being on the water on a DAILY basis. Earlier this week I had to take a freakishly long 3 day vacation to finish our addition, and in that short period of time the pattern shut down. When talking patterns this may be the most important thing you’ll gather out of this report. If the pattern your working is not………….WORKING than at some point you will need to realize that. Instead of combing the same type of structure or fishing the same fish that are NOT BITING you will need to hit a different pattern. Smell what I’m stepping in?? Well even a guy like myself that has a huge comfort factor in big fish locations has a tough time throwing away some safety nets and going for broke. Today we literally never had another boat fish within a mile or two of us, and put the beatdown on the big eyes!!!
In closing Rainy Lake is the most rewarding lake I’ve ever fished. Those who do the homework and put in the time to decipher the where and why’s catch unbelievable amounts of quality fish. From Here til ice up Rainy lake IS YOUR TROPHY WALLEYE DESTINATION!! Oh…… If you have somehow forgotten how hot The end of August and September/October can be last year we boated 5 over 30 inches and many many over 28!! Time to rally the troops boys!! Love to team up with you!!
Tight Lines Team!!
Boy I bet that was tough to switch it up like that. It looks like it did not take long to find active ones. Nice fish Tom, can’t wait to here how you like your first time out on open water up there
. Only 5 weeks and we will be up there doing physical therapy with bum arm 
Nice Job Daze, Great Report!
Is it September 16th yet???
Smile Boys your on IDO!!
And….The Beat goes on
Pack your gear boys!! GO TIME!!
35 eyes break 20 inches YESTERDAY!! in a EAST WIND mind ya 
Nice job Chris and congrats on another successful guide trip!
Many anglers truly do not understand what it takes to consistently put quality fish in the boat day after day. 
Roll on Team!! Had a chance to get some of the Family out for a couple hours, and they did not miss it!! Lil Daze still is my SECRET weapon!!
You said it Brad. Each day is different and keeping on fish like Chris does is no easy task.
I’m sure many people reading this think this can be done by your average angler…? I just talked to a couple guys that fished the last few days up there and they strugled to put fish in the boat. When they called me all I said was, “you should have called Chris”. I think day one of their next trip up there will start with you Chris
Those are very kind words guys!! I know we all work very hard to be at the top of our game providing the best service to anglers possible. Seems most all the big lakes have several different bites taking place at once. It becomes a bit of a card game trying to figure out when to hold em, or when to fold em when it comes to patterns or locations…….I know I certainly DO NOT need to tell you boys that!! I tip my hat to the Mille Lacs guides!! Not only do you deal with tough conditions at times, but pressure on good bites can dampen them quickly I’m sure. Keep up the good work!!