Check out Gazelle tents. They are hub tents, set up in under 2 minutes. Very well made with a storage bag that the tent actually fits into. I have the T4, it’s 8′ x 8′ and over 6′ tall. Can easily put 2 cots in it with room to move.
I’ve used it a couple years during our trips to Voyageurs and last year in Montana. Only downfall is it’s big, probably 5′ long in the bag and 40#.

I found mine on ebay for under $200. I like it so much I picked up a Gazelle screen tent too. Same hub design I can set up in under a couple minutes by myself.

mazak500 wrote:

Not sure on your location but I have a Golden Hawk canoe I would part with cheap. I believe it is 10′ in length. SW Michigan

I just came across the Golden Hawk canoes, they look very nice and would fit all my needs and wants. I’m in NW Wisconsin, a little too far from you. Plus I’m leaning toward the 12’9″ square back model. Put a trolling motor on it and away I go chasing fish, ducks and who knows what else.

NW Wi, Danbury – Webster area.

Slow rolling a double colorado blade spinnerbait with a paddle tail plastic threaded onto the hook. I’ve incredable days the past couple springs in WI fishing shallow with this setup. Best color for me has been bluegill colors on the skirt and paddle tail.

G – raff seems to me I tried this a couple years back as a suggestion from Springfield, it didn’t work and i submitted a warranty claim, they sent new pedestals. Pretty sure they have a 5 year warranty on these items.

I will try adjusting the pedestals and see what it does. Hope it works but I do have a message out to Springfield too.

Thanks!

Slough – yes those are pedestals I have. I did a warranty claim about 2-3 years ago because of the same problem. Springfield did replace these quickly but I’m in the situation again.

Where did you find these? I’m always looking for different rigs that are more productive.

dbright wrote:

There has been a large increase in pressure over the last 4-5 years and fishing has definitely declined. It is still a fun stretch to be on regardless. Pansy, Thayes, norway point, nelsons, fox, and soderbeck are all on the Wisconsin side. I have spent alot of time up there other then the fox landing. I would add sturgeon to your list along with channel cats.

I would not have thought there’d be channel cats up there but now I’m more excited to fish it!

Erik Swenson wrote:

You’ll be fine if you’re familiar with navigation cans. Otherwise, once on the Rainy side you could to go up the Canadian channel. It’s a bit further around, but less tricky than the American. Just don’t stop or anything until you cross back over into the States of course.

We’ve done the American channel several time and yes my buddy put his brand new boat onto a rock because he went on the wrong side of the red can. I might look into the Canadian channel if there are less hazards. Only thing with having the boats packed with camping gear, food and booze I’m not sure we want to venture too deep into Canada.

St. Croix makes some great rods at affordable prices. I really like the Premier line of rods which are American/Wisconsin made, great warranty and very durable. https://stcroixrods.com/

In the past couple years I’ve upgraded all my rods to St. Croix and have been very happy with them.

Our best shore line action was rocks with reeds/weedlines, it seemed the shorelines with just rocks didn’t hold nearly as many fish as those with weeds adjacent to them. The back bays South of the Brule Narrows held a lot of fish for us, again find the weeds and rocks and there were fish there. There were a lot of small bass and pike but some nice ones mixed in too and the occasional walleye too.

Fishing was amazing for us last week. The rock piles outside Lost bay held a lot of fish.

We had a great week on Rainy! Fishing was the best we’ve had in the 6 years we’ve been going there. Mid lake humps held lots of hungry walleyes, both eaters and bigger fish on slip bobbers and dropshots. Shorelines held lots of bass and pike, a lot of smaller fish but fantastic action. Original Rapala floaters twitched and jerked, gold/org and perch colors worked best. Topwater bite was good too in shallow bays for pike and bass, that was a lot of fun.

We did a day on the Canadian side somewhere in the Rat River bay, wow! Probably one of the best days fishing I can remember. Multiple smallmouth 17-9″, pike 30″, several nice walleyes and more small bass and pike than we could count! Primarily on jerk baits again with the occasional spinnerbait or topwater. Amazing the difference a couple miles across an imaginary line makes but in 6 hours fishing that area we never saw another boat either.

Bugs were very bad, luckily we brought a screen tent that saved the trip.

We usually do the 3rd week of June somewhere on Rainy camping at a VNP site. Bigwerm’s suggestion is dead on, finding current and wind blown points/shorelines are usually good starting points. We have also found walleyes stacked on offshore structure, good electronics helps locate these fish.

Lindy rigging is too slow for the young lads in our group. Slip bobbers and a few beers is more their speed, at least for walleyes.
The stick baits with a tokyo rig, kind of a mini bottom bouncer? How long of leader and what speed to you pull them at?

Thanks for the report, how is the water level looking? We are 18 days out for our annual trip to Rainy. Getting a bit excited to go!
I can imagine the bugs are bad there like everywhere else?

Using count-down type jerk baits with Livescope to fish on structure. Trying to get those baits directly in the fishes strike zone and trying to learn the fish behavior depending on how they respond.

Wayne Daul wrote:

All those bays can be very good ,post spawn. Problem now is no bait is legal ,not live or dead . Makes for tougher bite.

We ran into that last year on Sandpoint Lake. I experimented with Berkly Gulp or Powerbait crawlers, minnows and leeches and did pretty well. Not as good as live bait but an acceptable alternative when the fish are active.

I used livescope last year for the first time and it was very clear that when the fish are neutral they would take a slow, finesse leech (drop shot) but wouldn’t take the artificial baits.

Perfect, now I have to find a deal on a 106.

Thank you BDR!

catmando wrote:

Check out Excalibur nothing to go wrong, no cables no cams, You can change a string in about a minute. guaranteed for life.

I would echo this comment plus the great customer service! I got a Excalibur Mag 340 last year from Crossbow Experts in Hudson WI. Good pricing and fantastic service too. Although I haven’t actually shot at any deer yet I have done extensive practice shooting and this thing is a tack driver! Main reason I got this model is that it’s pretty light weight, less than 8 lbs with scope and quiver plus its short and narrow so easy to navigate through the woods and treestands.

Namakan Lake dandy!

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I honestly didn’t know about any gills in Namakan. I heard about some nice crappies in Sand Point and we did find some sporadically there wasn’t any consistency.
That gill fishing will be one of those moments I’ll never forget.

We could have taken that shortcut but I’m not very familiar with that water so I stuck to the main navigation route. I figured 25 miles from our site in Browns Bay to the water falls each way. But we had light winds and little boat traffic so not a bad ride. I really wanted to get back there mid week but the wind and weather just didn’t cooperate. Until next year I guess.

Recap from our trip, yea the water was high, about 2′ over the dock at our site when we got there on 6/11 but it did drop about 8″ during the week. Our site was nice once we got everything to the top of the hill. Thankfully we had 7 young men to help us old guys get our stuff up there. The weather seemed to be constantly changing except for the E to SE winds and I found out my tent is no longer waterproof! But all the adversity is part of the challenge and I think it helps pull our group of dads and sons together and make a better experience.

Fishing was tough. Shoreline fishing was basically non-existent. We would get a small pike, bass or walleye here or there but no consistency. We had our best luck in current eddy’s. The outlet of Steges bay into Grassy bay was the most consistent spot. Slip bobbers, bottom bouncers with spinners n leaches, vertical jigging and snap jigging Jigging Raps all produced consistently.

We did make a run to Namakan and got some dandy walleye on slip bobbers and stumbled on an amazing bluegills in the eddy of a current break. Once we found them we were getting 9″ gills consistently until we got tired of catching them. We kept 10 for supper and threw the rest back. Well worth the ride.

Even with the tough fishing and high water we had a great trip and are already talking about planning our 2023 trip to VNP.

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When we arrived at our campsite on 6/11 the water was 2′ above the dock. when we left on 6/17 the water dropped 8″ or so. That sure was a curve ball for fishing.

Dutchboy wrote:

There is some video of the Dam at Kettle Falls. Thats the discharge from Kab & Namakan into Rainy. It’s spectacular the amount of water. You should be able to google it.

Dutchboy – I have seen that video all over social media, that is a tremendous amount of water running through there!

grubson wrote:

The water is starting to come down. It’s going to take a while though. It looks to be dropping about .5-1″ every day. The lakes are still about 5ft above what normal full pool would be.

Wow that will take a while. Thanks for the update!

Walleyeguy34 wrote:

Pine point lodge on crane lake is a great place to get bait/beer/ice. You can pull up to it by boat and get everything you need right there at the dock.

Sand point is a very deep lake. Have only fished it while traveling to namakan but we’ve had some luck before on the mid lake humps/reefs north of Harrison narrows and west of border line.

Thanks Walleye!

thanks grubson!