Me and a buddy fished Rainy Lake from 8/14-8/19. It was my first trip to Rainy and WOW, what a big beautiful Canadian Shield lake! We only fished the US side and that was more water than we could handle for a week. I was hoping to catch 20-50 walleyes a day, but we only managed around 10 fish a day, that is including some smallmouth and pike action in the evenings. Walleye fishing was tough. We sat on fish with the IPilot anchor lock and jigged them with minnows. The screen would be lit up with fish and we would only get bite about once every half hour to hour. And then you had to let them suck on it for a minute before you set the hook. We did try Ranger Matt's suggestion of ripping one-eyes and blade baits to produce reaction strikes, but those fish have a much different mentality than the river fish most of us are use to fishing. The system was loaded with bait fish and the walleyes we caught were full. We were able to catch enough for shore lunch everyday and our biggest was a 24"er caught at 3:30am, yes 3:30 in the morning. It was something to the 1197c Hummingbird lit up like New York City, from all the zooplankton, baitfish, and walleyes, during our night fishing adventure. A full moon, drink in one hand, fishing rod in the other, a good friend talking about high school glory days, and my buddy catching his PB walleye. I will be back to Rainy, but I would suggest a June trip when the eyes should be more willing to bite. We stayed at Island View Lodge and it was very nice and reasonable.
Kyle
Rainy Lake Report
Re: Rainy Lake Report
Where's the pictures? sounds like you had a good time even though the bite was lite. I have never fished Rainy --does it have lots of rocks?
Re: Rainy Lake Report
You will have to ask Bob Stewart about how many rocks Rainy has. I will try to upload some pics.
Kyle
Kyle
Re: Rainy Lake Report
Rainy is a great lake. I have been there 3 times in early June. We primarily target smallmouth but also catch quite a few walleye and pike. We stay a Kettle Falls ( on the Minnesota side), get a remote border pass and primarily fish the Canadian side. This year we took my 9 year old nephew for the first time. Needless to say he had a great time. He caught is first walleye, smallmouth and pike on this trip. Below is a picture of his second (and largest) walleye. It has been a couple of months since the trip but I think he is still smiling. 
Dave Cook
"The finest gift you can give to any fisherman is to put a good fish back, and who knows if the fish that you caught isn't someone else's gift to you?" Lee Wulff
"The finest gift you can give to any fisherman is to put a good fish back, and who knows if the fish that you caught isn't someone else's gift to you?" Lee Wulff
Re: Rainy Lake Report
Here is another try at the picture
- DSCF0066a.JPG (42.41 KiB) Viewed 3419 times
Dave Cook
"The finest gift you can give to any fisherman is to put a good fish back, and who knows if the fish that you caught isn't someone else's gift to you?" Lee Wulff
"The finest gift you can give to any fisherman is to put a good fish back, and who knows if the fish that you caught isn't someone else's gift to you?" Lee Wulff