Hello, some friends and I are planning a our first trip next week to Rainy Lake. We will be staying at the Island View Lodge. I would appreciate any info or suggestions on locations and presentations. We will be looking mostly for walleye, but we like to fish for most any species if the action is good! Any info would be greatly appreciated.
Two “must haves” for Rainy.
1) Quality maps, get a good set of maps. Hot Spots will work if you aren’t going to fish Rainy very often. If you are going up there alot invest $35.00 into a set of laminated maps. You can get them at Rainy One Stop or Woody’s. Both are East of town on Hwy. 11.
2) Quality electronics. Trust them!! Do not fish any reefs where you are not marking fish. Rainy is fabulous and also full of fish. Don’t waste time on reefs that are not stacked with fish.
If all goes right I will be heading up on Thursday – Sunday this week. I get tons of good info from Rainy One Stop, good people there also.
Have a great trip and let us know how you do.
You posted 2 very good points Brian. Good electronics are about as important on Rainy as anything else you bring. There are many more reefs than shown on the maps but maps get you headed in the right direction.
Most are getting walleyes deep on the reefs now – from 40-55′. They are biting on leeches if you can bring some good sized ones from southern MN – only panfish size up available here. Otherwise crawlers and minnows are working too. You can also find some shallow walleyes pulling shad raps in 7-12′ along rocky bottom shorelines that fall off to deeper water. Crappies are also showing up sporadically on the reefs too.
It’s going to be cool all week so it might be a slow start to the week but a day or 2 of consistent weather and they’ll likely be biting well.
I’ll be at Island View Monday night. Look for a dark green F-350 with a ginormis winch on the front, usually parked at the waterfront parking area.
Thanks for all the good suggestions! I have upgraded Hot Maps chips for my Sonar/GPS and I talked with the folks at Rainy One Stop and got some good tips. We are actually going to arrive there next Saturday the 15th and stay the week. We will be easy to spot, we are from Nebraska, so our plates and boat numbers will give us away!
Nebraska football must be on the upswing the Nebraska people are staring to come out again!! 
Just kidding, welcome to Minnesota and I hope you have a great time on Rainy. 
Thanks for all the info from everyone! We had a great time even with some challenging weather slowing the bite some. We got our fill of eater eyes every day and got some nice northern action as well! Look forward to coming again some day!
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