Roger Cormier shares some of the reasons for his love of Rainy Lake.

Rainy Lake, a quarter-million-acre shield lake on the Minnesota/Ontario border, is one of my favorite fisheries anywhere. From the first visit here in the mid-1990s on my inaugural MWO TV trip to the lake, I fell in love with a spiritual place, a body of water with a personality unlike any other I’ve ever fished. Nestled in Voyageur’s National Park in a spectacularly beautiful region of Minnesota, Rainy Lake is a special place.

Fishermen who are passing through, many of them on annual treks to their same favorite destinations to the north, drive through I-Falls to stock up on supplies and fuel to continue their journey across the Rainy River (the international border), traveling onward to their own fishing hotspots. For those that head eastward in Canada on Highway 11 toward Atikokan and points beyond, they cross the expansive bridge spanning the lower basin of Rainy Lake’s north arm that features a spectacular view of the expansive lake. But this is a mere sliver of its vastness and beauty.

When those many anglers ask me the question, “Where ya fishin’?” and I answer “Rainy. Right here,” their response more often than not has been, “Rainy Lake? I didn’t know there was good fishing on this lake.” If they only knew what they have been missing!

To virtually every angler who has fished here, Rainy Lake’s productivity as a multi-species fishery is hard to top anywhere. Already rated one of Minnesota’s top walleye lakes (in a crowded field of excellent options), it also offers world-class smallmouth bass, monstrous northern pike, a few secretive giant muskies and some of the biggest crappies you will catch anywhere. If you add the productive Rainy River itself, downstream from the I-Falls/Fort Frances dam, flowing 100 miles west to Baudette and famous Lake of the Woods, you can also catch sturgeon.

A strong lineup of resorts and other lodging options are available for folks planning visits here. A variety of accommodations offering lakeside cabins, boat rental and launching/docking, dining facilities—as well as two houseboat rental operations—offer vacationers every option. Fishing guides can help you learn the waters and local techniques, and GPS mapping chips offer detailed outlines of every contour and reef.

In the communities of Fort Frances and International Falls, hotels and motels are geared to accommodate anglers and families, and all amenities from bait shops to groceries and various dining establishments provide a host of options. As a border water, boaters can choose to stay in U.S. waters the entire time or purchase the necessary Ontario fishing license and fish both sides of the border, which runs down the middle of the lake’s eastern arm, where all of the U.S. resorts are located.

Recently, relaxed regulations on border boaters allow folks to cross into Ontario by water, and as long as you don’t touch land or drop an anchor in Ontario waters, you’re technically not entering Canada and not required to register with Canadian authorities. This gives you the flexibility to fish both the more-popular U.S. side of the lake, while also venturing into the remote northern reaches of the lake where fewer boats typically travel. It would take one hundred lifetimes to fish all the excellent hotspots on this amazing fishery.

Thinking of trying a new fishing destination this year? You’ll find plenty of suggestions in every issue of MidWest Outdoors, available by subscribing on our website.