Wednesday May 22, 2013

Ice out on Rainy Lake was Thursday May 16^th. Our first guests left the bay on Friday May 17^th. We went from having a late ice out to having three days of intense low pressure. Winds were from the NE and fairly strong. The system dumped 5” of rain on Rainy Lake. 

The goods news on Sunday and Monday was the walleyes were pretty hungry with plenty of 15 – 16 1/2'’ walleyes for the fry pan with lots of 19-22” fish. There was not any thing fancy used to catch them. 1/8-ounce jigs tipped with a chub in 5-7 feet of water. We long lined the jigs about thirty feet back from the boat at about .5 to .7 mph.

In the current we used ¼ ounce jigs casting them into 5-6 feet of water or vertically jigged in 15-22 feet. I did not take the camera out in the heavy rain, so no pictures.

Todays target was northern pike. The day was beautiful sunny skies and warming up.  Often the day after the front leaves can be tough fishing. We started fishing points outside shallow weed bays. Nothing doing accept for a few hammer handles.  We moved into the weedy bays and mud areas one nice walleye no pike.  About 1:00 PM we moved out to the points on the big lake side of the bay.  Water temps wer 42 degrees. Pike will use the big lake sides of the island points when the water is cold. Ciscoes and white fish will be shallow on these spots. Pike love to eat them.

We found the pike, two were nice fat 36” fish others about 4 lbs. We caught walleys out there two. We went back into the bay for the last hour and a half. Sun does amazing things. Walleyes were really active. We caught several really nice one up to 27”.

We caught all of our fish on Rapala 12 cm Husky Jerks, firetiger and a new shad color with a chartreuse stripe on the side and it’s a killer! 12 lbs. monofilament with no leader or swivel is the best way to fish the Husky Jerk. Swivels and leaders affect the neutral buoyancy and action. We caught two fish with leaders , the rest with a direct tie to the lure.

Wednesday May 15 2013 Ice Out Conditions

Yesterday was quite warm with a strong westerly wind. Rainy Llake is ice free from from Rainy Lake Houseboats dock all the way one mile east of Brule Narrows. Seine Bay, Bleak Bay, Little Grassy, Grassy Lake and Shoal Lake are open.

One mile east of Bule Narrows there is a large ice pack blocking the route to Kettle Falls. We expect that ice pack to go out by this evening.

There are still a few good openings for Memorial Day weekend, possibly the best Memorial Day fishing ever!

Tuesday May 14, 2013 Ice Movement

What a difference a few hours make. The first picture is Tuesday morning at 6:00 AM. The second is 4:30 PM. We started out with sunny cool weather. It turned to rainy, cold, and windy, then sunny and 65 in mid afternoon.

The next pictures are out on the lake, I was test driving our rental fishing boats. The north side of Dryweed Island all the way up to the beautiful beach ob Sand Point Island.

The next is looking east towards Bushyhead Island. Bushyhead is the second island from the left of the four smaller islands. Ice was out well beyond the island.

The last is a picture of one of our pair of loons that have nested every year since I can remember. 

Tuesday Ice Movement

Tilson Bay at 5:30 PM Tuesday May 7th. Ice is going fast.

Black Bay going out fast, shot from Sha-Sha

Compared to yesterday lots of ice is gone!

Rainy Lake Ice Out Fishing 2013

Well we have had the winter that just won’t end like the rest of the Midwest. Spring has arrived, we had good rains on Saturday, and temperatures are going to hit the high 60’s to 70 degrees today. Sand Bay is about 25% open basically from Ranier to Birch Point, the Sha-Sha- area is also open.

Ice out is official on Rainy Lake when you can drive a boat from Ranier to Kettle Falls. Many areas of the lake will be open before official ice out. I look for total ice out to be May 17^th.

There will be areas to fish this Saturday, Sand Bay, Rainier Bridge to the boom logs by the paper mill, and the Shah-Sha area. The boat landing in Ranier is ice free as well as the Pat Roche Landing by Second Bridge and Voyageurs National Park Headquarters.

Houseboats start leaving the docks On Thursday May 16^th. Walleyes will be congregating outside of spawning areas, either outside bays or the rivers. If they have not spawns they like to locate on the 20-35 ft break lines or humps right outside of the bays. The same goes for rivers and current areas. Kettle River will be very good this year along with the Hitchcock Bay and Saginaw Bay areas.

Pike fishing should be very good. They congregate in the shallow bays seeking the warmest water in the bay. A good rule of thumb to follow for finding the warmest water is to fish the side of the bay where the wind is blowing into. Fish the area where the wind is directly blowing into.

I will have fishing reports for you in the office upon your arrival.

Spring is Here?

We have just started our last sport show left this winter, the Minneapolis Northwest Sport Show Thursday March 21 – Sunday March 24. It has been an excellent year for reservations. Of course there is usually a spot for you, just stop and see Tom and Joey Dougherty during the show, they were busy a beaver yesterday. You can’t play golf so you might as well come and check out summer fun!

The first day of spring was Wednesday March 20^th, as I look out over our bay there is absolutely no sign of that thing called spring, last year at this time it was 80 degrees and we were getting our fishing boats ready for an early, early spring. Not this year. I believe ice out will be around May 7^th.  May 7^th is not late more in line with normal ice out over the past 50 years.

Last year was the year of the drought. The drought has ended. During the middle of November we received a fair amount of rain that replenished our swamps, beaver dams, and lowlands. We have plenty of snow, now we need spring to show up and we will be on our way to another fabulous season on Rainy Lake. The Rainy Lake basin is a remarkable eco system. The four seasons of the year are extremely important to its health and vitality.  Consider Rainy Lake and it’s surroundings renewed.

Wednesday March 19, 2013

My predictions for the May fishing season are; Kettle River will be hotter than a pistol, Kempton Channel and Hitchcock Bay not far behind. The bays will hold there normal bevy of large pike and walleyes.  On the Ontario side Seine River will enjoy hey days once again.  There will be current and current draws walleyes!

June is going to be incredible. June historically provides the best shallow water fishing of the year. Walleyes, smallmouth bass, crappies, and northern will spend the whole month using the bays and current areas. Last year everything was accelerated, water warming up so fast that normal stages of the fishing season passed by in a few days rather than a couple weeks. This year Rainy Lake will go through much more normal progressions of pre spawn, spawn, post spawn, early summer, and peak summer fishing. 

Summer is coming!

We'll see you soon!

  

Winter Conditions Update

Winter has definitely settled in on Rainy Lake.  A normal old-fashioned winter has taken hold. Unlike the rest of Minnesota we have snow and and plenty of it. Snowmobiling is excellent on both the groomed lake and land trails.

Ice is as good as it has been in some time.  We have had some temperatures that have been a little on the extreme side -46 this past Saturday morning. The temp actually rose to +3 by noon. 

What does all this mean to you as far as spring and summer goes?  Rainy Lake should have a more normal ice out than 2010 and 2012. Both were set records as the earliest ice outs on record. Rainy Lake will be much more like it is supposed to be. Normal water flows from the incoming rivers and feeding watersheds. Ice out should occur in the normal range in late April or early May.

In flow from Namakan Lake into Rainy Lake at Kettle Falls

During a normal year the fish movements are much more predictable. The current flows through almost all of the bays on Rainy Lake. It is not always noticeable (more so with light winds) but it has an effect never the less.  Certain areas of the bays warm quicker than others. Sometimes you move to the shore with the wind blowing in and the temp is cooler. How so? The wind moves surface the fastest warming shoreline water on the windy side. Current tends to move all the water slowly but at the same time cooling the warmer water driven by wind.  Smallmouth can be very affected by the wind and current actions, mostly positively.

When the smallies nest in a bay you will find them in certain areas fanning beds. A week later in a different area there are new beds with smallies on them. All that has happened is a area with slow moving current has warmed sufficiently to stimulate the smallies to spawn. This is one of the reasons you see beds in the same place year after year. 

Nesting conditions for ducks, geese, loons, and swans are much better. Early ice-outs usually mean low water; normal ice out is usually an indicator of normal water levels.  Loons are really affected by water levels. They cannot walk on land and therefore nest extremely close to the waters edge. Once they go to nest it is important for the water levels to remain constant, if it goes up their nest flood and they must build new and lay eggs again. Normal hatching season for the loons is from July 1-6, and the signet swans about a week earlier.

Adult swans with two signets right behind them

Adult swan in flight, so majestic!

May and June reservations are flowing in very well. Many of our May and June customers come for the fishing experience. They are a lot like me, they love the normal spring and early summer season that we are used to after all these years. Hopefully the ultra warm early springs are not the norm. 

I could go on and on frankly I just can’t wait for ice out!