# Rice Lake, Canada



## Bluegillin' (Jan 28, 2009)

I am taking the family up to Rice Lake as part of our vacation the week of July 20. I have 2 younger girls so any recommendations on an area to hit where the action will be relatively steady? Panfish or perch are fine to keep them occupied. If I can get a walleye or two that would simply be a bonus. Any recommendations are appreciated as we are only going to be there 3 days so not a lot of time to learn the lake. I did find one site online with some suggested areas for bass and walleye.


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## Nate167 (May 1, 2009)

for panfish hit the mouth of the river. there are usually a ton there in the weeds.


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## Bluegillin' (Jan 28, 2009)

Thanks Nate


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## Whopper (Apr 28, 2006)

What part of the lake are you staying at?


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## Bluegillin' (Jan 28, 2009)

Whopper said:


> What part of the lake are you staying at?


Golden Beach Resort. From the map it looks to be about in the middle of the lake. on the southeast side


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

Lots of rockbass in that river too.

Take you a few earie dearies and nightcrawlers if you have access to a boat. It can get windy up there and if so, drift them into the weedbeds to tear up the walleye.1st trip there,we caught more walleye than we did bluegill.

The perch up there used to have black spots on them.Not sure if it's parasites. Some of those perch we got a hold of were almost solid black.Very few didn't have spots.


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## Whopper (Apr 28, 2006)

Bluegillin' I know exactly where you are staying. Right out in front is decent place to fish for walleyes, crankbaits and weight forward spinners with nightcrawlers will catch fish. Just south is an old railroad bed and most of it under water, there is a small island called Tick and there is a big weedbed on the east side of that and the old RR tracks that should hold a ton of panfish for your girls. fish the weed edges and holes with waxworms or pieces of night crawlers under slip bobbers. Up lake (east) there is an island called Sugar again big massive weed beds to fish like I stated above. Tons of places to fish but you have to fish the weeds. If you need any other info please feel free to pm me

Enjoy!


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## Nate167 (May 1, 2009)

yeah we have always done decent in front of golden beaches as well. thats where we are staying in aug


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## fishlogic (Apr 2, 2012)

Find some nice weedbeds, which is easy to do on Rice, and you'll catch panfish. As suggested, head west/southwest and fish around the islands and the river and you should catch a variety of fish. I've caught smallmouth, largemouth, walleye, perch, bluegill, sunfish and black crappie all over there. Just make sure you follow the channel over the railroad tracks. It's marked by buoys.


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## Bluegillin' (Jan 28, 2009)

Thanks for all the replies. I look forward to the trip and hopefully catch a few good ones for the girls. I will let everyone know how we do when I get back. I do plan to rent a boat so will definitely take the advice given. Thanks to all that responded.


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## Wmbuckeye557 (Apr 14, 2012)

Make sure you beat the docks to the left of golden beach's marina. Lots of nice bass. Tic island is load with bluegill. The crappie are the fattest ones I ever seen. I stopped fishing their when gas prices went up, but I miss it.


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## Bluegillin' (Jan 28, 2009)

well, the trip to Rice Lake was certainly not what I had hoped. I was there Monday-Wednesday and the wind was extremely strong. I had to save 3 teenagers that were in Kayaks about a half mile from their cabin. One of them had her kayak completely submerged and life jacket was not the right size. They were lucky we were in the area as very few boats were out. It could have ended in a bad way.

I tried Tic island, around the river, a couple of other islands. I tried Big Joshy's, worm harnesses, deep cranks, vibes, live leeches, minnows, night crawlers, and essentially caught very little. I was able to get the girls on some small gills and perch for a couple of hours one day just west of the railroad, but only one perch was close to a keeper. I guess the wind must have played havoc as very few people I talked to were catching anything. I had a pontoon with two anchors and wind was still pushing me all over. Good news is that I was fishing and not working so can't complain.


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## Whopper (Apr 28, 2006)

Bluegillin, I had a few friends there at same time you were. They are veterans of the lake, they said the same thing, the wind was brutal. There best fishing day was Friday. They stayed directly across the lake from where you did, it was the first year staying there, they usually stay up near the Indian River and can usually deal with the wind much better in that area vs the open water section.


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## dkunes (Sep 25, 2014)

Bluegillin' said:


> I am taking the family up to Rice Lake as part of our vacation the week of July 20. I have 2 younger girls so any recommendations on an area to hit where the action will be relatively steady? Panfish or perch are fine to keep them occupied. If I can get a walleye or two that would simply be a bonus. Any recommendations are appreciated as we are only going to be there 3 days so not a lot of time to learn the lake. I did find one site online with some suggested areas for bass and walleye.


I haven't been there since the 70,s but we used to tie up along the mouth of the river, left side heading out, and fish straight down for big bluegills. I used waxworms and maggots, but you can use worms. They also fish for walleye in the weedbeds in the lake not far from the mouth. Have fun!


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## miked913 (Feb 29, 2008)

I have been fortunate enough to fish in 26 states and 4 countries now and I can tell you that rice lake followed by reelfoot are the 2 worst I've ever been too!


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## Bluegillin' (Jan 28, 2009)

Crazy as I read all these articles/posts about Rice Lake and Reelfoot and how good they are. Admittedly, I am no professional angler but like to think I can catch a few decent fish from lakes that are supposed to be so good. Maybe I just hit a bad time, or maybe I just stink.


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## fished-out (Dec 20, 2005)

I've posted several times on Reelfoot here, always a negative review--I think it sucks. Rice, on the other hand, I've had many good trips for smallmouth, bluegills, and crappie.


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## miked913 (Feb 29, 2008)

I think you could have an OK day or so on any lake but, there are so many great places out there to go Rice lake should never make any "greatest" lists


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## fished-out (Dec 20, 2005)

miked913 said:


> I think you could have an OK day or so on any lake but, there are so many great places out there to go Rice lake should never make any "greatest" lists


Agreed. Rice is not your prototypical Canadian shield lake.


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## E72 (Apr 4, 2009)

Rice is one of those lakes that takes time to figure out just how to get into fish . For bigger Panfish they've been tougher to get to with the weeds being down . I paid attention to a couple old timers advice our first two years there and this our third had a great time on walleye . Some nice ones too , put em back...over slot size .


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## Erieangler51 (Sep 24, 2012)

My family had fished rice for 30+ years. We stopped after my grandpa passed in 2007. That lake produces fish and nice ones to boot. Just hard to figure out because there's so many places for them to be. But when you did figure it out its a very good lake. Many days filling livewells with eyes and big gills. We fished them in the same areas "weeds". Bobbers with maggots or worms for the gills. And 3 ft harness with a split shot casted over the tops of weeds produced the walleyes. Seen some absolutely slob Muskies come from there as well.


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## Nate167 (May 1, 2009)

I was just at rice lake last week and fishing was good sat and sun then the wind came and shut them down for us as well. One night the wind did a complete 180 in about 2 mins which was crazy. Never seen it just switch that fast. Dad and i got detained going into canada cause we both have ccws the officer said so 45 mins and a THROUGH search we were on our way. Comming back to U.S. we were detained again for no front plate and i forgot the registration for my trailer. Guy gave us hell for 30 mins acting like we were criminals. Between the border and Toronto traffic our fishing group agrees we are no longer going to rice lake.


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## saugmon (Jun 14, 2006)

We quit going after 9-11. We were actually north of there at lower buckhorn.Heck of a time getting back 5 days after the towers came down .1000's of port-a-jons for miles.


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## BMustang (Jul 27, 2004)

Glad to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that Reelfoot totally sucks.


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