It's been way to many years, since Tina & I took a week to fish, and actually have anything to report. I'm a little out of practice, hope you enjoy LOL!
We had to make a 2 day stop in Iron Bridge, Ontario for a friends wedding. Then on Sunday, October 9th we hit the road for Rainy Lake, Minnesota!
I have always wanted to fish Lake of the Woods & Rainy Lake. We got to Thunderbird Lodge around dinner time, Thunderbird Lodges was one of the nicest cottages we ever stayed at.
Our Cottage for the week
Me and the dogs relaxing after driving 12 hours and unpacking hehe!
Rainy Lake really lived up to it's rep as a walleye factory! The first day we fishing by ourselves, we didn't travel far from the lodge under 30 mins from the lodge.
We caught walleye ranging from 14 to 25 inches in every spot we hit. If you could put fish on the screen and stay on them you would get
bite..First day on the lake ever and end we filled our limit, which all were released because I couldn't remember the slot HAHAHA! AWESOME!
Here's a few shots of our first day
We caught a bunch of these:
The big one for the day 25"
Our second day was spent with Chris of RainyDaze Guide Service. Let me tell you, Chris is a top
notch guide with top notch gear.
Our boat for the day a Skeeter WX2190 with 300 yamaha! What an awesome boat, I seriously have
two foot-itis now for sure! Running the large expanse of Rainy Lake in 20mph winds and you could
hardly feel the waves! So cool!
Here is a shot of Chris looking for fish.
![Image](http://ontariofishingcommunity.com/forums/"https://ly8vcq-dm2306.files.1drv.com/y3mNKb_morNpf8Q9-1x403ZpIOF0Eqm5txb5oULpvLfCZOeW6RFlBbNGt5flJPsJBpufwW2iJvdKUn3BwiX-iKCqzOXfjHxPLczPxGNzkodeW4avSQOX-vHWFgYmS8Do9oRcVwimUrskIY8exPCqk-AVGlswrkWUN1ny3S39FZx6s4?width=480&height=270&cropmode=none")
The bait moved and his fish scattered, so we were not sitting on
big schools of walleyes. He explained that once the ciscos move to spawn
they can be very hard to locate on Rainy Lake. Still, he really figured them out.
We enjoyed this way more as we got to watch and learn how he found and worked them!
We would find small groups of 5 to 10 fish and got fish from every group all day!
We were using custom made rods designed by him and his guides, apparently
they are made in the same factory as the G Loomis NRX rods. I gotta say
they were the nicest jigging rods I have ever used.. feather light and super
sensitive. I could feel bottom in 30' of water with a 3/16 jig/ minnow combo!
Needless to say we came home with a new pair of jigging rods! If you looking for a nice
cheap but very smooth reel. A Pflueger President is the ticket. WE LOVED THESE REELS!
Here is a sample of the fish we caught with RainyDaze Guide Service (Chris Granrud)
Tina out fished both myself and Chris. She filled both our limits and still caught some in the
top of the slot!
Although I did get the biggest eyes, all my fish bounced between 20- 25 inches, yes were
competitive with each other LOL!
It was an amazing day! We will be making the drive again to Rainy Lake some day for sure. It's only 18 hrs from us HAHA!
The rest of our week was pretty tough as the winds didn't seem to let up 15 mph and 20 mph westerly winds are not
friendly on Rainy, so we never ventured to far from the lodge. We did manage to round up some more walleye but
nothing over 17". We did break in our new JTX Mag Med-LT Custom rods with 2 PB's!
Tina with her PB Smallie! 4.5lb
And me with my PB Pike 38.5" AWESOME!!!
And finnally Tango likes to help me detect the light walleye bite! She spent the week perched just like this watching for fish HAHA!
Last one is for Tango!
Hope you enjoyed!
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