Yesterday my friend, Kelly and I spent six hours out on Rainy Lake and had, what I would call a typical late spring day on the water. We caught nine nice walleyes from 18 to 26 inches long, 17 smallmouth from 12-18 inches and lost count of the number of small pike. We did have a near miss from a large one right at the boat. Not a bad day. I have had some much worse and yes, some even better days on the water.

We were casting crank baits, spinner baits, and jigs up into rocky shorelines, shallow humps, and points. All the fish came from less than 10 feet--some as shallow as one or two feet. There was very little wind and it was mostly sunny and still. The fish were shallow. The water on that portion of the lake is stained, however.

Lesson learned: Always check out the shallows especially on these stained, Canadian shield lakes any time you are fishing.