Jigging Shadow Rap Walleyes by Lindner's Angling Edge

Video Transcript

Oh well that feels good. This is just kind of a dead, that kind of just big weight feels like a Yeah, yeah, it just feels like a big, yeah, this one. Yeah, if you don't mind, I'm just kind of snapping off the back here. Yeah, we've been marking just staying down just alright. I don't have a drug like super tight. Yeah. Yeah, it's feeling now it's starting to wake up before. It was just kind of, I've marked on marking them under us here. I'm marking some good ones. Yeah, I knew there was doubt that works.
We are on a nice sunny day. Mhm nice sunny day. That is a Nice one. No question about that. Look at that one, you can see we've got slick conditions. Normally I'd be throwing a topwater for smallmouth. But up here in these conditions you can get nice walleye on flat, calm, sunny, hot days.
Wait, my item here, Troy and I are fishing one of my favorite lakes in Canada and I got a lot of them were in such that country on Rainy Lake and I don't know how many years I've been fishing up here. It's an amazing body of water. You know, it's like 200-140,000 acres of water. Some of it's in the U. S. Most of it is on on the Canadian side and it's a phenomenal fishing trophy fishing for everything. You've got big walleyes. Like we're fishing right now and of course the pike get much bigger than this, but when we're talking about walleye, this is a really, really good one. Look at that. You got pike, you got muskies, you've got huge smallmouth bass, you got a growing population of crappie, you know, it's a heck of a heck of a lake and we're gonna be up here for a few days and you know, we might do a little hiking in between walleye fishingng, but it's that, it's the middle of august and what does that mean up here?
It means a lot of these big main leg, deep pumps like this draw a lot of fish, everything pike, walleye. We purchased Camp Fire Island in February of 2022 when we bought it, water levels were increasing probably three inches a day, four inches a day. And at one point it overreached the 1950 record level. So this year was the highest the water has been since 1952. It was roughly seven ft. higher than normal. We, I'd say 60% of the cabins lost their docks, their decks, anything that was within seven ft from the waterline at normal. It was pretty well gone. Thousands [of dollars] of damage.
We can accommodate up to 16 guests at a time. And we have an eight bed cabin, a four bed cabin and an additional four bed cabin.
Yeah, I loved to fish. Obviously born and raised in Fort Frances. My parents had a cabin on Rainy Lake. So I grew up, grew up in the central zone of the lake and love meeting new people. So it's uh, it's kind of an honor to show people the lake that don't get to see it every, every day. Some of the bonuses is, you don't, you don't get to see the vehicles and the everyday traffic, you would at a drive to lodge. Um, you still get the fly-in feel here, but you're only five minutes from town. So that's kind of the upside to it where we're located.
Back when I was a young kid, my dad raised me growing up catching Crappie. So the Crappie fishery around here, it's, it's sparse, but the ones you do find are nice and it kind of hits close to home when it comes to Crappie fishing. Got into smallmouth fishing and started doing tournaments probably back in 2012 we specialized in pike, smallmouth and Crappie at Camp Fire Island. So depending on the time of year we can pretty well target all those. Rainy Lake is, is pretty well from what I've seen one of the better walleye fisheries in Northwestern Ontario. It's another nice one. Yeah. Um, from, from getting fish fry eaters up to 28 to 31 inch trophies for social media. I got to take pictures, Rainy Lake pretty well has it all when it comes to trophy fishing, especially in the walleye, we are walleye fishing right now.
But these structures hold both walleye and pike and depending on what we're seeing on the screen. I got my pike rod rigged up as you can see this has, this has been chewed a little bit. So when we mark some bigger marks on there, I'll throw back, I'll snap jig this and then if it looks like walleye, you know, I'll throw out the Jigging Shadow Rap and occasionally, you know, a big walleye will hit a big swimbait like this.
I've been seeing fish all running dead up on the front has Mega Live on, which is great for him up in the front, kind of scanning in front and out away from the boat when I'm dragging and snapping off the back, it's great to have on this screen the map. I get to see the structure, the layout, position of the boat and over here. Most of the time I'm snap jigging off the back of the boat. So I want to see what's directly down. So I have the sonar and then I have the down imaging, which makes it an even clear a picture of what I'm seeing there.
So I can identify fish and the structure and see the separation even more in the imaging. And also the sonar is really nice for just the overall structure, bottom composition as well. You know, when you're out on these Canadian lakes, starting around no easily by mid-August and will go all the way to really late in the season.
The main lake humps like we're on, you can look all around me were not near shore anywhere. We're out in the middle of the lake and these lakes, you look at your map, you run around, you get these deep, deep pumps and this lake's got smelt, you know, so that's a plus in there. But these big walleyes in these lakes love these main lake humps and they like what we refer to those transition areas. You come off the top, it'll go down like this and pretty soon you'll see the bottom start to lighten up a little bit. And let's say it might be 30 ft. and all of a sudden it gets really soft 30-33 ft. of water. It might be 20 ft. depending on the basin, but the transition area and the base of that transition is the area that those big fish really like to live in.
Yeah. To see those transitions back here, that's where the sonar is nice. The harder bottom, that's going to be your dark red and then when it goes to orange yellow, that's your softer bottom. And that's sometimes difficult to see on down imaging. But on 2D sonar that's where that can really shine identifying the hard bottom too soft bottom transitions there.
Got him got him Oh, that was, that was out as I say, I'm kind of out there kind of far. Take me a second to reel this one in. This was like two snaps out there and then that's when this one hit. Yeah, I'm getting to be a good net man, I'm telling you a good net man. I don't know if this, this might be a little bigger than the last one. They kind of wake up when they get near the boat, I can see that that's a yes, They like to sit in that nice shade of the boat when they come in here, this is bigger than the other ones. I'm saying this is this is maybe a 28 in. That that would be my biggest of the season season when you see that head shake like that, that's a big fish baby. Yeah, I got the drag actually is moderately tight on this one. So they said, I got the drag is not loose as soon as we get this in, I'll tell you what these fish are doing and how they position on these Oh yeah, big one. Look at that one, that's a big one.
Oh, okay. Oh man. Oh, oh my God, look at this, This is this is it's all yours man.
Oh man, Another monster. Holy smokes. He's been cleaning my clock on these big ones, man. And that's what, that's what we came up here for. This is the, this is the next size up from the other one that I caught boy, they, when they hit, they can get so aggressive. Even like I said, this nice, calm, sunny weather, they put on the feedback, they really strike the bait hard. That's a lot of fun. This is a beautiful fish. I don't know, it's a nice fish.
Well what I'm throwing here, this is the Rapala Jigging Shadow Rap and this style of bait from Rapala, like the regular Jigging Rap and the flat jig. This differentiates a little bit from those and can apply to different situations and catch big fish just like I caught here and this has different characteristics that separate it from the other baits in the Rapala family.
The Rapala Jigging Shadow Rap is truly unique compared to its brothers. The Jigging Rap, Snap Rap or Jigging Shad Rap. First off, it has a durable plastic construction with a broad silhouette. It's a lead-free zinc weighted lure. The 3.5 inch bait weighs five eights of an ounce. So basically it has the length and profile of the number nine Jigging Rap, but the weight of the number seven. The fall rate between the Jigging Shadow Rap and a Jigging Rap is dramatically different. The Jigging Rap drops like a rock after it's snapped. The Jigging Shadow Rap bunches up and forward aggressively. Then it has a slight hang time before diving down in a way. The larger profile, modern finishes and belly flash action are ideal for targeting big guys.
It's opened many anglers eyes to fishing this style of lure in colder, shallower water where a traditional jig and metal is often used. This one of a kind bait takes a different twist on the idea of pop jigging.
You know, when we're fishing reaction baits like this. I personally cast, I'm casting it probably 50% of the time. Yeah. You know, working towards fish, I'm seeing them on Mega. There's big fish under me here. And the other method that we use another 40% of the time about is pulling, you know, like you don't like, you'd be pulling a spinner or a Lindy Rig site and that's what Troy's doing. So I'm casting specifically to a couple of areas that you got him? He's got another one. This was dragging way out back. Dragging way out back. Yeah, It don't look big. We're just, this is when they wake up when they get near the boat.
So this is uh, got a little bit of weight to it. Did it wake up? I don't know, I mean when you're pulling oh yeah, she's pulling away. Yeah. So casting out. Yeah, I'm casting out away from the boat and then when I'm marking, I'm throwing back, so I'm dragging off the back, you know, when we mark those fishing occasionally throwing way up a lot bigger. It was just that one in, oh yeah. You know, there's some giants out here.
But I tell you what, you need them, this size to be able to grow them to those trophy size years later. And these definitely make up the majority of the classic memory maker shore lunches that I think anybody that comes up to Ontario absolutely loves.
Enough is enough. I gotta change colors. He's got, got something really snapping. I gotta get something that's got a little snap to it here to get their attention. You know, it's amazing even on a reaction bait like this every once in a while. Yeah, you'll see that color is the whole, the whole enchilada. And I mean he's just been smoking me back there with him. Kind of a real hot color. But I'm gonna, I'm gonna play catch up with this baby. Yeah. This bait darts around a lot. You can see like the last fish I caught you hook these fish sometimes on the, on the side of the face underneath. Just like you would like with the jerkbait, the fish is moving around, the bait is moving around and they're just making a move at it. So sometimes you don't always hook them directly. They don't always chop it like this sometimes underneath or on the side of the mouth. But regardless this gets him in the boat. Got him Troy. That's a good one. All right. Let me reel up.
She's one of the big dogs. I gotta mark this mark this corner here. Alright, I actually got this, I can actually get him back here at the pike. Big pike. All right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nice pike. I want my bait back. Yeah, she's nice. Oh yeah, There we go. Nice extended handle on this net, which is kind of sit back here and Oh boy, she took my really good. But yeah, she really chomped it.
Well, I'm gonna get casting. His dad's working with that fish. Not a bad one. I thought she was a good walleye. I really did get her back there down there on the same humps. Get some big picks along with some big eyeballs. Oh, that was out there again away from the boat. Kind of a longer longer cast. Sometimes they can be keen with that kind of locks down some areas and kind of fan casting around.
I don't know the size of this one. But they all, they all feel good even though it's not pulling like one of them. It's just not throwing like a big fish. Alright. So he says it's not a big one that we all need it myself then. How about that? I'll just do a net myself that it's not it's not a big one you say. It's a pretty nice one. Yeah. Really boy that jumped out of there like a bass. Yeah, he really choked. I didn't even see the bait. Looks like he really, really choked us chomp down on it. Oh yeah, he really is a good one. Got him that time. They're nice one. Well you really, you really, really chomped that. that's so much fun and this size you get them up to here and bigger boy, that is such a great time to get this fish back. There you go. Time to go back and grow bigger. Yeah, you never know what you're going to catch up here.
Well we know it's going to be wallye but they could be smaller walleye, they can also be gigantic walleye. And right now I want to show you a rod setup. That is perfect for this style of fishing. This is a St Croix legend tournament walleye Jig-N-Rap model. Now this is a 7'1" medium power, moderate fast action. So it does have the backbone has a nice comfortable cork handle but that moderate fast action is really great to allow the bait like this to be able to fall. So you want it to snap up and you want it to fall. So you don't want the rod tip to be too fast.
So you want that moderate fast action that really balanced as well for the reel, this is a Daiwa Procyon LT 3000 CXH. And this is a size 3000 which is great. You can use a size 2500 or size 3000 split up with braid size 3000 is going to hold a little bit more line. And this series from Daiwa was a really nice kind of in between. This is in between their value reel and also their high end stuff. So it's a nice kind of medium priced reel that pairs really well with the St Croix Jig-N-Rap rod.
This was actually, I just landed that one came off next to the boat and my next cast out is this one. So yeah, I get a net on this one. I'm messing with the Mega Live to look at at it here. He's sitting the back, you're just setting the hook. Yeah, this is my next, this is actually the second. Ready? A little one. Oh yeah, you never know on the side. I can flip this one.
Yeah, well this is, they all feel pretty good. That one kind of chomped right in the side like that. Alright, time to let this one go back, try to get a bigger one. Just spot lock here. Once I want to work it over, you know, each, each one of the different styles of this type of bait is unique in itself. The action is different and you fish them slightly different in this case. I started off with monofilament and I wasn't moving the bait right? And Troy was catching fish after fish after fish behind me with braid. You got Sufix braid with a sub 10 pound test fluorocarbon leader and you're able to fish the bait so much different.
Remember this bait's got a lot of hang time, it's not as fast as any of the other baits. That's a good one there. It's not as fast as a lot of the other baits, so performs way, way better with braid than mono. Oh, oh, that was right underneath the boat. Really fishing a little different than we did yesterday.
I'm kind of spot you had that school of fish here. The pot of fish. I just spot like the windows laying right working fan cast that area. I don't know how many fish. It's another one casting out kind of a were marking the fish underneath the boat. And occasionally this is the second fish here. I've been throwing out away from the boat. I'll take her. There was a whole pod of these. I missed one. It was boom boom, boom, Yeah, yeah. All right.
I'm going to put on a new leader spooled up here.
I have 10 pound Sufix 131 braid and then I'm using Sufix Advance Fluorocarbon for the leader. This is 8 pound you can use 10 pound as well. And I use a barrel swivel and this is very important because this bait, it spins around, it darts to the side and this helps prevent line twists and this barrel swivel. This is absolutely key and then you'll get more bites when you're fishing this on a nice fluorocarbon like Sufix Advance. This is abrasion resistant and also with the 8 pound or 10 pound you know that that clarity in the water when it's down there, the fish don't see it as easily as they would see braid. You're going to get a lot more bites.
Oh Troy, I'm sorry to interrupt but I got a fish just when you finish saying that and it feels pretty good. I'm not sure yet. I think so. He, he was just giving you a little chit chat there and I'm just trying to get positioned here like about like this feels like a pretty good one. Yeah, fish.
You know these humps that we got in here? We found this is one area humps and when you get in a part of the lake where you get on one basin, you know all of them humps can have a pod of fish in them. Like this should be a good one. Oh man it is. That's the biggest one of the day. Got it. Oh boy, biggest fish is the day I think. Troy. I know for me. Oh my gosh, is this a big one? Hang on, hang on, hang on. I gotta get you get, oh my gosh. Oh wow, look at that one. Look at that fish, man, what a walleye.
This is why why people come up to magnificent Rainy Lake. I mean you talk about King Kong, these are fish baby. These are walleyes that are, these are great lakes sized walleye. Oh man, what a beauty.
Oh, I haven't had a walleye like that in a long time. You know what Troy? I'm not even going to make a second cast. I'm so hungry. I'm gonna release this baby and we're gonna go in and come back out tomorrow and maybe chase some northern pike.
Oh, that's a wrap.