That time of the year again, we are headed up to Voyageurs Rainy lake camping on Three Sisters Island. Our first time on this side but we have fished this area in the past. My question is regarding the NW shore of Saginaw bay, it appears to have some very “fishy” structure from the Brule Narrows all the way down into the bay according to Navionics. Anyone fish this area? We’ll give a try for sure and hopefully we get some good weather with it!
I have fished Sag Bay in early June twice. Many of the smaller bays will hold fish also. Jigs and stick baits on any wind blown rocks. Bring lots of jigs. Make sure you have a map chip. I can’t say WIND loud enough.
Yup, Sag Bay and Brule are great areas to fish, pretty much any of the shoreline structure around that doesn’t fall right off into deep water is good. If the wind isn’t too crazy the mid-lake reefs can be good too.
I have had some decent luck working structure around Payson Island on the way to Saginaw coming from the Brule (although it was early October)
We will be there June 7th-12th this will be our 7th year in a row.
We spend most of our time fishing the shores on and around Hitchcock Island. The mainland just just south if the island fish there down to the houseboat mourning beach which would be back towards the west that is a great shoreline. We also fished the points of Marion Bay as well and done very well. I have not used a Minnie in 2 years all I use now is B Fishin Moxies and Paddle tails. Best bites have been on white and Pink.
3 years ago we struggled to catch fish and a boat came by our camp site and literally caught 3 fish right in front of our site using them. I ran down to the dock asking what they were using and that’s what it was. Now that is all I use.
All of the islands around campsite kempton entrance east produce fish too. That’s where we camp and it’s nice we can be on fish very quickly last year we used less than a half a tank of gas. Spent 90% of our time just running the trolling motor.
Good luck and leave a few for us.
Eau Claire boys!
eauclaireboys we will be arriving on the 13th so save some for us 
A couple years back we stayed on Kemption Is E site, found good walleye around the small island just N of 3 Sisters Is, especially when the wind was pounding it. Slip bobbers and leaches worked well. Are you pitching jigs with B Fishin tails or trolling? We stayed at Anderson Bay last year further west and we got on a good bite last year further east around the green #39 buoy and the Red buoy just west of it pulling spinners behind bottom bouncers with leaches. It’s a long run but worth it.
Good luck and have fun! Rainy is an amazing place!
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Hey Scott,
We have really only used 2 different techniques in the past 11 years. Either vertical jigging live bait. Which is our typical tactic when we go in July out on the reefs. I personally prefer casting and fishing shallow. So we moved our trips from July when the fish are deep to as early in June as we can. The earlier we go the more fish we seem to be able to find shallow and never even have to go out into the lake.
90% of our fishing this coming week I plan to get on B Fishin Paddle tails. My best colors have always been white or pink. We are pitching these jigs up along all of the shore lines and slowly bring it back to the boat. I’d say most fish are within 10 feet of the shorelines. As always the wind does play a factor. But only if it’s coming out of the north as we do not fish the Canadian side.
Just got back from Rainy. Very different this spring , low water, no flow out of the Kettle. Hitchcock was slow, not to bad in the evening. Slip bobber or jig and minnow cast towards shore. Best fishing was shallow bays where the wind had been blowing into them for a day two. Best method was trolling gold spinner with long shank hook and minnow. Did really good lots of 17 inchers one 39 inch pike.
Small blade best, tried larger blade and hits were on blade instead of minnow. Wind is your friend!!!!!!
Wayne
Thanks Wayne and Travis for the info! We are all excited to get up there!
Thanks for the reports! Our end of June/Early July trip is fast approaching and I appreciate the info. Getting anxious already!
What site are you staying at?
What site are you staying at?
We are houseboating and we usually go pretty far down lake, at least at first. Kempton, Anderson, Marion and Saginaw are all areas we’ve stayed previously. This is the 10 year anniversary of our High School buddies trip with Rainy Lake HB, it’s always a blast and despite my best intentions usually end up playing more games of 500 and cribbage than hard core fishing. Maybe this year will be the year of 12 hour days in the boat… 
What site are you staying at?
I stay at Thunderbird Lodge. I will be back July 6th for 4 days.
I expect by then we will be fishing mid-lake reefs with jig and minnows. Also will slow troll bottom bouncer / crawler combos.
Hopefully the border will be open and spots in Canada can also be fished. Thunderbird was only able to serve food and drinks on the outside deck since June 1st. Hopefully the bar and restaurant will be open. I have stayed there for 3 weeks each of the last 10 years. Very good food, awesome service. New owners last year who are trying hard to make improvements. This past winter they remodeled 3 cabins and did some work on the docks. Plans are a new fish cleaning house and finish remodeling the other cabins. With all of the shutdown their efforts are really challenging.
Wayne
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>scottaheller wrote:</div>
What site are you staying at?I stay at Thunderbird Lodge. I will be back July 6th for 4 days.
I expect by then we will be fishing mid-lake reefs with jig and minnows. Also will slow troll bottom bouncer / crawler combos.Hopefully the border will be open and spots in Canada can also be fished. Thunderbird was only able to serve food and drinks on the outside deck since June 1st. Hopefully the bar and restaurant will be open. I have stayed there for 3 weeks each of the last 10 years. Very good food, awesome service. New owners last year who are trying hard to make improvements. This past winter they remodeled 3 cabins and did some work on the docks. Plans are a new fish cleaning house and finish remodeling the other cabins. With all of the shutdown their efforts are really challenging.
Wayne
How far of a run is it from Thunderbird to Brule Narrows?
We are still enjoying the camping and challenges that come with it but I can certainly see us in several years looking for cabins to stay at.
Every get all the way east into Red Gut Bay? I see there is a boat in canadian resort/fish camp that looks interesting.
Thanks again for the info!
Scott
I think its about 12 miles or so from the Thunderbird to the Brule
It is about 12 or 14 miles. There is a “inside passage” that will keep you out of open water. Tricky route if new to Lake! Rainy has lots of rocks.
I fish Red Gut in July and August that is a long run from US side, at least 20 miles. The route is shown on Lakemaster map chip.
Hey Scott, we talked last year about Rainy and Kempton Entrance campsite. I’ll be back there the last week of July for the reef fishing this year.
Last year we were there for the week July 5-11. One day we decided to check out all the campsites in all of Saginaw. We fished our way from Frank island to Payson to the furthest campsite east in Sag. Then fished a few spots on our way over to the Finlander islands, and finally to Nelson island before heading back to Kempton East. We got a few off Payson and one here and there but no pattern. Now I will say it was an 80+ degree day, and by that time our best fishing was on the reefs. My guess is you will find fish on those good looking spots.
From the NPS dock it was 16.5 miles to Kempton East campsite for us.
I have fished Redgut, Seine and Swell bays in the past, mostly in July and done very well. A friends Dad from the Falls has a cabin In Swell. Lots of walleyes and some really nice pike. Remember the Moose island area being a good spot usually in July.
Good luck to you and the eauclaireboys up there the next couple weeks! I’ll hope to whackem on the reefs come late July 
Good point Explorer, in August the Seine Bay can be very good. And it isn’t all that far from Brule Narrows, beautiful area. Good Walleye and very good trolling for big Pike.
Wayne
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Good point Explorer, in August the Seine Bay can be very good. And it isn’t all that far from Brule Narrows, beautiful area. Good <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>Walleye and very good trolling for big Pike.
Wayne
Good point Explorer, in August the Seine Bay can be very good. And it isn’t all that far from Brule Narrows, beautiful area. Good <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>Walleye and very good trolling for big Pike.
Wayne
Good point Explorer, in August the Seine Bay can be very good. And it isn’t all that far from Brule Narrows, beautiful area. Good <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>Walleye and very good trolling for big Pike.
Wayne
Good point Explorer, in August the Seine Bay can be very good. And it isn’t all that far from Brule Narrows, beautiful area. Good <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>Walleye and very good trolling for big Pike.
Wayne
We were going to get Ontario licenses and explore that area of Seine bay but I guess that is on hold until next year for our group.
Good luck to all of you! 5 more days until we head N!
Our group will be up there june 17-21. Camp in lost bay. We always see a lot of boats headed east. Guide boats? We haven’t fished much past the Brule narrows. Question is are we missing something? Is the fishing really that much better past the narrows? Is the 5-10 more miles worth it?
Our group will be up there june 17-21. Camp in lost bay. We always see a lot of boats headed east. Guide boats? We haven’t fished much past the Brule narrows. Question is are we missing something? Is the fishing really that much better past the narrows? Is the 5-10 more miles worth it?
Yes, mostly guide boats and locals I think. I don’t think you are missing anything unless you struggle east of the Brule. I’ve had good fishing on both sides, the further east of the Brule you go the less traffic imo. If you have a boat capable of making the run in 10-15 minutes, I’d say it’s worth a day of exploring, just watch out for rocks like always!
Yup pumped to get up there with BW and the crew. At least we will get one full day of fishing in BW! A few of us are heading up early to get a day in of fishing before the rest of the gang shows up. As BW said, we usually spend a lot of time playing cards but we always find some fish and get a fry out of the deal.
Going to be a loooong week Weedis!
Wind wind and more wind! Fishing was ok for us but really couldn’t put together any patterns until later in the week after the wind calmed down. We found some fish around Hitchcock Island and the rock bar north of it pulling spinners w/leaches, cranks (perch color) and slip bobbers during the evenings. We made a run to the east and found good fish around the red 38 buoy, actually the hump just east of the buoy was better. We found lots of small pike in shallow weedy bays but I did manage a nice 38″ pike out of one of those bays. We had a tough time with bass too. We got lots of little ones and one 19″ but no solid pattern with them either.
Bugs weren’t bad until we got he hot weather on Tuesday and Wednesday then the flies came out in full force. I have never seen so many flies in my life! And they all wanted a chunk of meat out of my ackles!
Water temp was 58 to 64 in the spots we fished. That made for a really quick cold bath!
3 Sisters camp site was very nice! Very level with minimal rocks to trip over and the dock is ample for 4 boats.
Overall we had a great trip/adventure! We are ready to start planning for next year!
Nice report Scott, sounds like a good time. That’s the beauty of a lake like rainy, usually something biting somewhere, just have to figure it out.
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