Campfire Island - Rainy Lake - Smallmouth Bass Fishing

Fishing on Rainy Lake - Canada's Best!

The word is out...
Rainy Lake offers truly World-Class Fishing.


Rainy Lake Trophy Walleye Fishing Rainy Lake Smallmouth Bass Northern Pike - Rainy Lake - Campfire Island

Rainy Lake, being one of the largest lakes (some 250,000 acres of water) in Northwestern Ontario, has endless angling opportunities for all Campfire Island guests. The three species of fish that anglers and guides target are big northern pike, walleye, and of course the hardest pound-for-pound fighters, smallmouth bass. Whether it be anglers targeting a specific species or multi-species anglers, Rainy Lake and Campfire Island are considered a trophy-fishery destination for all.

The best way to describe the basic layout of Rainy Lake is the letter “L”. The vertical part of this runs north-south (The North Arm). The horizontal part runs south east (The South Arm). Both the North and South arms of the lake have many long fingers that run off the main basin of the lake to the shallower back bays. The bays have many rivers and small streams running into them which allows for excellent spawning habitat for all species. The unique feature to Rainy Lake is the North Arm and South Arm are totally different from each other. While the South Arm has dark stained water similar to the colour of tea, the North Arm has much clearer water.

South Arm: The dark water of Rainy Lake’s South Arm warms up quicker than that of the North Arm. This earlier warming moves fish to spawning areas faster. Some years depending on wind and weather, spawning in the south will start up to 10 days sooner than in the north.

North Arm: This section of the lake, being clearer water than in the south, takes longer to warm, and the fish move to the shallows a little later in the season.

Spring Northern Pike Fishing

At Campfire Island, we fish all of the North Arm basin and two of the five large water basins that make up the South Arm. These basins have hundreds of large shallow weedy bays and small islands. Combine this with miles of open water, boulder shoals mixed with sand and cabbage weed, makes for excellent habitat for all fish. This allows our guests access to the very best in smallmouth bass fishing, big northern pike fishing, and trophy walleye fishing all season long.

Both Campfire Island guides and guests will agree, the most important criteria for catching trophy fish of any kind is ... location. If you are not fishing where these fish are, you cannot possibly catch them. Rainy Lake’s Campfire Island Camp is the perfect location, the only Ontario camp with easy access to both Rainy Lake’s North Arm and South Arm – literally just around the corner of the island. By angling both South and North, we are able to extend the amount of time that we can catch northern pike and smallmouth bass with top-water and fly-fishing presentations.

After a hot breakfast in our dining room, it’s a short walk to the dock where your boat and guide await you. Jump aboard, sit back, and let us take you on an awesome angling adventure on Rainy Lake.

See you there!



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