Monday evening a severe storm passed through the area--heavy rain and some hail covered much of Rainy Lake.

Tuesday morning I checked out a bay in which I had spotted a bunch of smallmouth up on beds. The water temperature at that time was 65 degrees just two days prior to the storm. I was shocked to see that the water temperature was now at 55 degrees--a 10 degree drop just because of all the cold rain.

As far as I could tell, the bass had gone off the beds. Spawning success depends on stable weather conditions. Will they try again? I think they will--simply because it is still early. Had this happened later in the year, they probably would not.

The fishing up here, for all species, still seems to be good on an every-other-day basis.