Rainy Lake Fishing Report: Walleye Patterns Emerging

Photo Courtesy Elisa Winterland

Walleye:

Pattern one: Walleyes are keying in on deeper weed structure right now.  Weedy bays or weedy shorelines where the wind is actively washing in have been most productive.  Walleye spinners (tipped with minnows or crawlers) or a 1/8 oz. jig and a minnow have been the go-to presentations.

Pattern two:  Some walleyes are beginning their transition to deeper structure.  Break lines or reef tops in the twenty to thirty-five range that are near spring spawning habitats are a good place to start looking with your electronics.  ¼ oz. jigs and lindy rigs are catching fish.  As always, areas of current have been producing fish.  Current fish are showing up in the twenty-five to thirty-five foot range.  

Smallmouth Bass:

With the cooler June weather some bass are amazingly still guarding nests.  Most of this activity is happening near the deeper colder parts of the lake.  In other parts of the lake bass are transitioning away from spawning and are actively feeding in shallow water.  Any boulders, points or rock-weed combinations are great places to target.  Two to six feet appears to be the range.  Plastics, twitch baits, top-waters, and in line spinners are working.

Crappie:

Some crappies continue to be caught using small jigs or slip bobbers in the four to six-foot range. Weeds or a combination of rock structure and weeds is often the ticket.  Other crappies are beginning to school up on break lines, points or sunken brush piles if you can find them. 

Northern Pike:

Weeds, weeds and more weeds.  The best pike action is coming from deeper weed lines (five to ten feet), especially windblown weeds or areas where the wind has been blowing for the past couple of days and is now calm.  Spinner-baits, buzz-baits, top-waters and spoons are great lures to work weedy structure with.  As always, windy points and shorelines fished with suspending twitch baits is a good option.  Like walleye, some of the pike are moving toward deeper water (15 to 30 feet) as they transition to summer forage.

This post was brought to you by Rainy Lake Guide Association.