coarse-scale, physical lake characteristics (lake fetch, shoreline exposure, and littoral-zone slope) were investigated as to their ability to predict benthic macroinvertebrate communities and lake sturgeon feeding along shorelines in the southern portion of rainy lake. rainy lake is a large water body and hosts a fishery shared between minnesota, u.s.a. and ontario, canada. benthic samples were drawn from different sections the littoral zone during a period of three months in the summer of 2010 and in august 2011.