All walleye, all the time: A return to Rainy Lake

Karen with her biggest walleye. Notice the greenish coloring on the bottom of the gill plate.

Karen and I returned to Rainy Lake on the Minnesota-Canada border as part of the fishing trip portion of our annual "road trip" vacation.  We came here in 2019 and then again two years ago and caught a variety each time including walleye, northern pike, smallmouth bass and crappie.

This time it was all walleye, all the time.

As in the previous two trips, I again reached out to RainyDaze Guide Service. Due to the massiveness of open water, renting a boat or fishing from shore would be a futile attempt to find fish. Hiring a guide to put us on the good spots is a no-brainer.

This year, Jeff Plath would be our guide. He actually has his own guiding business -- J.P.E.P Guide Service -- but since he lives in the same 'hood as the owner of RainyDaze, he fills in from time to time.

Like in 2021, we made reservations to stay at the Thunderbird Lodge on the Minnesota side in International Falls. It has an old-school lodge feel with real room keys instead of key cards, four cable channels, dining for all three meals, and a bar. Guides can also slip into the the lodge's docks to meet clients. Meeting guides at the dock makes for sleeping in an extra half hour instead of driving somewhere to another part of the lake!

Jeff was waiting for us around 7:30 a.m., and after hopping in the boat, we skimmed across the water. Forecast called for 20mph+ winds, and I was worried it was going to be like 2021 where the surface was almost unbearably choppy.  

In 2021, it was almost impossible for guides to get work visas to work the Canadian side of Rainy Lake. This time, there was more of the same Canadian bureaucracy. Jeff said he sent in a request for a work visa in December, paid all the fees along the way, yet still Canada was slow-boating putting an actual work visa in his hands. Maybe they are bitter at the U.S. run of winning NHL Stanley Cups?

The lake has extremely deep sections reaching over 90 feet. However, the walleye (and some northern pike) favor humps and plateaus in 30-foot depths. This was the strategy for the last two trips -- find one of those spots and jig minnows or leaches off the bottom -- and it was the same this time. We "anchored" letting the trolling motor keep the boat hovering as we dropped bait over the side of the boat.

I was first on the board with a monster walleye.

First fish of the day, a micro walleye!

"Get the net!" Strangely, this would be the theme of the day -- super dink walleye that we should have let swim around to entice big northern pike.

I caught a bigger fish -- measuring 21-3/4" -- right after that, so that gave us hope bigger fish would follow.

First non-keeper size walleye, just under 22 inches.

But the micro-walleye brigade mounted a parade, mostly finding their way to the end of my line. Meanwhile, Karen was putting food on the table catching a few ideal eater-size 12- to 16-inch walleye.

The winds eventually died down, as did the bite. We trekked to a few locations, spotting tons of fish hovering in 30-feet of water, but mainly enticing the dinks and a few eaters.

Even though we missed an elusive trophy or even a bonus northern pike, it was still a fantastic experience. Karen and I must have boated 50-plus walleye between us. We caught a handful over the 18-inch maximum -- I had the two biggest fish (one just shy of 24 inches) and Karen got a couple in the 19- to 20-inch range. The day flew by, and 2:30 p.m. snuck up fast!

The sub-24-inch fish I caught might have been the hardest fighting walleye I had ever caught. Pulling on the rod, made a few dives underneath the boat. I thought it was a pike at first feeling how it was resisting.

It turned out, the kitchen staff at Thunderbird Lodge offers to cook the fish guests catch, so Karen and I hunkered up to the bar later and dined on a few of our walleye fingers, while the rest of our (or maybe all her) fish went into the lodge's freezer.

Thunderbird Lodge kitchen staff cooked our walleye.

Since Rainy Lake is now reserved for odd-numbered years, I'm brainstorming where to fish next year. I've always wanted fly-fish a western trout stream or try for beast smallmouth bass. Not going to lie, when we pulled up to the dock on Thursday, the RainyDaze guide from our 2019 trip, Chris Zahn, was just leaving. He said he and his clients hooked into topwater smallmouth all day with fish in the three- and four-pound range. 

Let me say that again, topwater smallmouth all day.

Bonus pictures:

One of Karen's too beaucoup walleye.

Jeff's boat docked at Thunderbird Lodge. Meeting the guide at the lodge's boat dock means sleeping in a little extra!

Meet Stephen the seagull. This opportunistic and aggressive flying rat shadowed us between at least three spots hoping to steal discarded baitfish. At one point, he swiped one of Karen's minnows while it was still on the hook!

For more photos from our road trip, click on the Badlands' bighorns: