Report 07/30–08/02

Fished the above dates with the wife to be. We fished the reefs around Browns Bay and Blueberry Island area. Fishing was pretty good, but we had to work hard locating them. Each reef seemed to have fish concentrated in small area. When we found them the action was pretty good. Caught all on a leech/rig. Sometimes red hook/bead was best and others yellow hook/bead was the ticket. Caught mostly fish in the 18-21 inch range with 25 being the biggest. We did get enough small enough to keep and eat. Weather was awesome. Only downer was the skeg found a rock in the channel on the way to kettle falls . Thanks god it only grazed and did not do to much damage. I got my green/red bouy mixed up for a half a second Overall another wonderful trip to Rainy and the first of hopefully many for the wife. She already wants to go back

Matt

Glad to hear you had a good time in borderland Matt. After making 2 trips a year up here for 25 years finally decided it was time to move to our favorite vacation area and glad we did.

Walleyes are all over the place right now – from 7-50′ but they aren’t on every reef and you also have to look for active fish.

Yesterday I tried getting to Kettle Falls to check out something but it was still too rough for my 14′ Lund so went to a shoreline and trolled a shad rap in 7-9′ and caught 3 walleyes 16-17″, 4 smallmouth and a pike in an hour before getting back to go to work.

We were at Rainy on literally the dates you report.

A few notes and I would appreciate your feedback.

The fishing was the best and we usually go to Rainy in late July/early August. The Walleye bite was best at dusk and a few hours while dark. I am sure we caught over 100 walleyes, while most guys were either at the tavern and going to bed. Suprisingly, most of our fish were caught in less then 15 feet of water, very close to Island View Resort. Leeches, crawlers and Shap Raps were the top producers.

I also caught the biggest Smallie of my life and am having a replica made.

It was a great trip and we will retun next year — I love Rainy Lake.

Welcome Frivers – Welcome to IDA.

Always good to hear from happy Rainy Lake visitors. I fished quite close to I.V. myself today and we did quite well also.

I am especially interested in the piece in your report about catching walleyes “a few hours after dark”. Most of the locals would tell you that for the most part, a night bite is a nearly non-existent on Rainy, except very occasionally in the fall. I never accepted that opinion for the reason usually given – stained water.

PM me if you’re interested in talking off line about the night bite.

Will PM you as soon as I can. I live in SE Wiscosin on a small river island and there is flooding. Just took a quick break to check the board.