Fishing Rainy Lake in the Spring
| Month | Avg. Air Temps °F Highs | Avg. Air Temps °F Lows |
| March | 34° | 15° |
| April | 50° | 29° |
| May | 66° | 42° |
Rainy Lake is an awesome lake to fish in the spring. With most of the fish relating to the shallows, you can go from bay to bay and point to point and catch walleye, smallmouth bass and northern pike. Depending on what part of the lake you are on, you may also run into some crappie or perch.
It’s truly an amazing fishery and when the fish move into the shallows in huge numbers, the fishing can be quite easy compared to summer and fall. Fish the wind blown shorelines and find the bays that have the warmer water and you’ll do better. The newly-formed green weeds will also attract plenty of fish.
Fishing Rainy Lake in the Summer
| Month | Avg. Air Temps °F Highs | Avg. Air Temps °F Lows |
| June | 73° | 52° |
| July | 78° | 57° |
| August | 75° | 54° |
Rainy lake is a little tougher to fish in the summer if you don’t know how to fish deeper water. If you do know how to fish deep, you should still be able to do well here on a summer trip. You can always find some fish in the shallows. The bays with weeds will hold plenty of smaller pike with an occasional big fish mixed in. The points and rocky shorelines still hold some smallmouth bass, pike and walleye, however, the better fish will usually be found much deeper. Learn to fish the many reefs and islands here if you’re looking to score big.
Fishing Rainy Lake in the Fall
| Month | Avg. Air Temps °F Highs | Avg. Air Temps °F Lows |
| September | 64° | 45° |
| October | 51° | 35° |
| November | 32° | 20° |
The fall is transition time. Some fish are deep, some fish move shallow. As the water temperatures cool, you can usually find plenty of pike that will move into the shallower water. The bays that have weeds in the 5 to 10 foot range will hold a lot of pike and the big pike can be found here again. Some smallmouth bass will move shallower, however, many of them will stay schooled up over deeper water. Some walleye can be found shallower, while plenty of fish will be deeper as well. As water temperatures cool towards the end of fall, the better bite will almost always be deeper. Anglers usually fish from 20 to 35 feet down as they target smallies, northern pike and walleye.
Fishing Rainy Lake in the Winter (Ice Fishing)
| Month | Avg. Air Temps °F Highs | Avg. Air Temps °F Lows |
| December | 18° | 2° |
| January | 13° | -5° |
| February | 20° | 1° |
Rainy Lake does offer some good ice fishing, however, we highly recommend finding an outfitter that caters to ice fishing out there. Or at the very least, go out there with someone who knows what they are doing. Ice fishing is more popular on the U.S. side. Anglers will target northern pike, walleye, crappie and perch through the ice.
