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Full Report on The Rainy


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Hello to you all. I've been up on the Rainy now for four days, with about 4 more to go. Fishing has been pretty darn good, with good numbers and some big fish as well.

Wednesday afternoon, 4 of us caught very close to 120 walleyes, with a few sturgeon, pike, and suckers. Biggest walleye of the day was 29.5 inches. Fish were biting on jig and minnow.

We were able to do well with 1/4 oz. or 3/8 at the most. Wind was tough, and made boat control tough, but we did well by anchoring and pitching jigs around the boat and working them back very slowly.

Thursday was pretty much a ditto of Wednesday. Windy, but we had a full day to fish, which was great. Again, 110 walleyes in the boat. We stopped to sturgeon fish, and caught 10, the biggest being inches. Big walleye of the day was 31 inches and 11 pounds. We also had a 28, and numerous 25-26.

Friday the walleyes were "off" a bit compared to Wed. and Thurs. It started out slow, so we moved to the sturgeon, and man were they biting! Client Tony Hanson caught 37 sturgeon in about 4 1/2 hours...no kidding. His biggest (and the biggest ever in my boat) was 67 inches with a 29 inch girth. He had two over 60 inches, about a dozen over 50, just a few under 40, and the rest were all 40 somethings. Sunburn, windburn, and a very tired body...but Tony was one happy dude. We also caught around 30 walleye in the morning and evening.

Saturday, two new guys joined me. Today we fished mostly walleye. The morning started out slow, so we switched to sturgeon. Steve Holbrook caught a 61 incher, and then a really fat 60, his first sturgeon ever. We caught a couple smaller ones, and then went back after the walleye. It was Steve's lucky day as he then caught his new PB walleye, a 29.5 incher. After that, they turned on so that we were catching fish almost every cast. We started out counting, but lost track...I'm guessing about 125-150 walleye in the boat.

Conditions have been pretty great, other than the wind. Water is about the clearest I have ever seen...two to three feet. It appeared slightly more muddy this morning, but I'm not really worried about it. All the tributaries are still frozen solid by the looks of things. Not much going for runoff, and so far the only precip up here has been snow. We got about 5 inches on Wed. morning, and a couple more dustings since then. All that has melted.

The river is open now close to Pinewood (I didn't go down quite that far today but suspect it is that far). Birchdale is open for two lanes, but Frontier is still only open for boats over the ice as of Saturday night. Lines at Birchdale have been unbelievable...the worst I have ever seen. I arrived on Thursday morning at 8:00, and waited in line for an hour and a half. Friday morning, I thought I would get there earlier, so got there at 7:00...same thing. Line this morning was not as bad, but taking out the boat was again an hour and a half wait. The only thing I can blame this on is sheer numbers of people..more up there than I have ever seen in the eight or so years I have been going up here.

Water temps were 34 when we arrived on Wednesday. We saw 37 today around Birchdale, but 35 down by the ice. We're finding a fussy bite in the morning but progressively better throughout the day. So we're usuing jigs and minnows, but by evening, they're nailing the plastics pretty well. It doesn't seem to matter what color...we've caught them on pink, chartreuse, blue, yellow, orange...and today we did well on white. Ringworms and twister tails are working well. Pitching jigs has been good for me, but vertical jigging has been good for others in the boat as well. We've had our best luck in 9-12 fow.

It will be interesting to see what tomorrow brings. Winter weather advisory is in effect, and they're predicting 20-30 mph winds and up to a foot of snow. Not sure what we can do but wait and see.

Two guys coming up from Chicago for Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Will try to report on how we do. Staying at Adrians Resort right now, and they were kind enough to let me use their computer so I could post this report. Sorry I couldn't get any pictures up, but I've got some great ones to post when I get home.

I expect fishing to be great for some time yet with the slow sustained melt we have going.

If anyone wants a trip, I have Thursday and Friday open of this coming week. You can reach me on my cell at 218-232-6067.

Well, hopefully that about covers it. Good luck to all fishing. If you see me on the water, stop and say "hi". Watch for the pictures when I get home next weekend.

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Tim Fished by you yesterday (Friday), I was with 2 buddies in an old blue 14 ft Crestliner, we anchored just to the east of you in the afternoon.

We did well also, Friday we caught 126 walleye, 2 sauger, 2 northern, 2 suckers, and 8 sturgeon. We couldn't seem to find the females though (biggest 26"). Our biggest sturgeon was 54" on friday.

Saturday was a short day as we left at 3:00pm. We caught 73 walleye, 11 sauger, and 3 sturgeon. Our largest today we 23" walleye and 64 1/2" sturgeon.

This was by far the best year that we have had as far as numbers, but the size was not there for us. No color perfernce with us either. Today we did better with a twister tail tip with minnows (dead or alive). It was the busiest I have ever seen it also, non-stop boats from Frontier to the ice on friday, today wasn't as bad it seemed. All in all a great year it was fun and good luck to all the remainder of the year.

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Tim,

thanks for the report. Hope to bump (not literally) into you while I'm up there next week. (Thurs-Sun). Sounds like you may be done by then though. I've got a fellow musky "nut" coming with me. I saw the pix on your site. Nice fish and nice site. We may have to look you up for a "marathon" day in the future.

We've never "intentionally" fished for sturgeon until this year. We gonna give it a try for part of the time this trip.

I've searched past threads and how a pretty good idea of what to do as far as rigging. If you could give some simple rigging directions / advice / tips / general types of water to look for, we'd appreciate it. thanks in advance.

goose

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Well, I'm home now; but still sore from Friday. What a day. This was my 1st time fishing sturgeon, but will not be the last. After Tim got us set up, it couldn't have been 10 minutes before I caught my 1st, a nice 56 incher. We were only able to snap 1 quick picture because there was already another one on, this 54 incher.

54-inch_web-view.jpg

It only got better from there, here is the big beast of the day, a fat 67 incher that took about a half hour to land on heavy muskie tackle.

67-inch_web-view.jpg

We then moved to chase walleyes for a while to give my arms a break, but the sturgeon bug bit me again & we set up for another run at them, capping the day off with this hefty 63 incher.

63-inch_web-view.jpg

I don't know if I've ever been so sore & tired in my life, but what an unbelievable day on the water. If anyone is thinking of trying sturgeon fishing for the first time; do it. The fight these things put up is unreal. Thanks for a great day on the water Tim; now off to find the tylenol again.

Tony

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Unreal guys! Thanks for the report, pictures, and making me even more excited. Is it the 17th yet???

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I tell you what. I have a hard time looking at those pictures.

Great report.

Can't wait to get up there!

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Oh my flippin Gaud. Awesome fish and thanks for sharing. I'm gonna have to thin the blood daily for the next 1.5 weeks so I can sleep at night.

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Dude you have to be kidding me. Wow, what a report, and the pics are amazing. 67 inches?!!? Geez, I would want a break too!

Maybe next year instead of sturgeon excursion I'll have to come up earlier when the 'eyes are legal targets as well. Sounds like a blast!

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It's now Sunday night. Another great day on the water.

First of all, we dodged a bullet as the storm tracked just south of here...No snow or rain here on the river, just more wind. We heard Bemidji got about a foot or so...lots of messy trucks and boat trailers coming north! However, the lines at the access weren't nearly what they have been this morning. I think many got scared and headed home, or just laid low and didn't go fishing. Not nearly as many folks on the river.

We fished walleyes hard all day. Three of us counted 122 fish. What was great was that the big ones started showing up. We have been getting maybe one big fish a day, until today. Steve Holbrook got a 29 incher, Matt Holbrook got a 30 incher and a 28 incher, and I had to settle for a 26.5 as myy biggest. We didn't fish sturgeon intentionally, but each of the guys hooked into fish while walleye fishing. We landed both, and they were 52 and 61 inches, a really good average, huh? Matt and Steve went home happy and tired this afternoon. Now it's time to clean up and prepare for the next crew, and hopefully get a little time to relax.

Same story on the bite. Minnows and jig were better in the morning. Plastics in the afternoon and evening. For plastics, we got them on all colors...chartreuse, blue, purple, oyster, and white. We did well in 9-14 fow. Pitching the jigs was best. Water temp was 36. We did the best between Frontier and Pinewood. Not sure how far the river is open now as I didn't go past pinewood, but it has to be getting down toward Clementson quite a ways by now. At frontier, it's still boats over ice.

Thanks Tony for posting the pics. Your 67 is still the record!

Someone was asking about rigging for the sturgies? Standard musky gear is great. We were using Stren Superbraid. A two or three ounce weight is sufficient, above a heavy swivel. I like flat "no roll" sinkers. Then a short leash of maybe 8-12 inches. The short leash makes it so the bait doesn't sway back and forth in the current as much, so the sturgies can find it easier. Then, a number 3 Kahle hook, or circle hooks work well too. For bait, a bunch of minnows...alive or dead, it doesn't matter. Crawlers worked too. The fish were really schooled and concentrated Wed thru Fri, but appear to be more dispersed now.

Think that about covers it. See you on the water!

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Tim- i think we fished next to you a little on Friday, you guys were gettin those sturgy's about every 5-10 minutes! looked like a blast! I never did get a nicer one in the boat till sunday. Funny you had good fishing on sunday cause that was our slowest day. Saturday was our best with over 100 fish and probably over a dozen that were over 25". a 30, a 29, 2 28.5's and quite a few in the 25-27 range, and pics to prove it!!

AWESOME FISHING!

049.jpg

027.jpg

any for naysayers that think im holding that fish way out, you can see my elbows bent under the fish!! 30"!

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Nice report Tim and nice fish perchjrkr. I think I was fishing that area where you caught that walleye a lot, east of the church row of houses.I was in a maroon and gold Skeeter. We didn't get any over 27" till Monday morning I caught a 29.5". On Saturday we did slam the eyes though. The area east of the church was incredible around 10-2:00. We finished the day Saturday with 153 on the clicker. The last hour we fished we caught 42 fish it was awesome. No sturgeon for us though we use all plastic and I think they don,t hit them as much. If the Forks hold till next weekend it will be awesome fishing I wish I could stay the whole week like some of those guys get to.

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Tim, that's a hog. Obviously a legite 30". Anyone who says it's not and that you are holding the fish out is crazy!! You can always tell a legite 30" because there fins are so much more spaced out and lengthy and the tail section seems like it goes on forever. Nice fish man!!! cool.gif

GE

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ya it was ugly. all those big ones over 25-26" just look weird!

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Man, I still can't get over the girth on that 67"er. That thing has to be the size of a 5 gal pail or bigger. Maybe a 55gal drum.. Man-alive..!

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You should have tried holding the d@mn thing, I'm still sore. That fish actually pulled Tim's boat (anchored) about 150 yards down the river & the 2 of us had a heck of a time lifting the thing in the boat. Was definitely an unforgettable day on the water. I'm now "hooked" on the sturgeon, wish I had my boat ready to go, I'd head up there this weekend.

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i wonder how much a fish like that would weigh? around 75-90 lbs?

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i showed some of the guys at work and they thought the little one i had was a monster until i showed em yours! i also told em i cut mine up into steaks and grilled it.. mmm mmmm almost as good as bald eagle burritos.

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