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Rainy River Fishing Report


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September 30th, 2012:

Grant and I decided we better go out fishing tonight since the weather was so beautiful up here and they are forecasting cooler temperatures this week. Also today is the last day of Sturgeon fishing so Grant really wanted to try and catch one to keep and smoke. Let's just say for the 1 hour and half we were out there he did not get his sturgeon. I fished for walleye and saugers and ended up catching some keepers and a lot of small walleyes. Grant and I laughed at the one walleye I caught because it was so small and I was having trouble keeping the fish hooked tonight.

September 29th, 2012:

Fishing for walleyes seemed to be a little slower tonight than the past few nights. But the sturgeon were biting with 2 different groups being able to catch some nice ones. One group did get one that was over 45 inches and kept it. I can't believe that the weather has been so nice out and perfect for fishing.

September 28th, 2012:

Grant and I went fishing this evening for about 2 hours.....we caught a lot of small walleyes and some nice saugers. We ended up keeping 2 walleye and 3 saugers. I also caught the first fish and the first keeper not bad for my second time on the river this year. Other groups also had some good luck catching fish with a lot of small walleyes being caught throughout the evening. There were some sturgeon caught today but no big numbers a group said they lost some due to the line breaking.

September 26th, 2012:

Grant and his cousin Sam went out fishing for a few hours this evening and they said, "we slayed the fish!" So I decided that I had to go fishing on my next available day to see if this was true. They said they caught a lot of small walleyes and had a lot of fun. They ended up keeping 10 fish total.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hey RD wats the condition up there like? river shinners ectt. im sure theres hardly any flow an really low, shinners moving in some?

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fished out of Vidas.

the front really slid the fish out into the channel and deeper holes and gave them some lockjaw the first part of the week. they would turn on a bit but it wasn't amazing but if you worked and moved around alot you'd pick them off here or there. but that all ended wed evening. we ended up boating over the next 2.5 days over 13-14 slot fish about 6 over 25. (best year we've had in 5 years for slot fish) tons of dinks and many 16-17's. the 18's were hard to come by. we fished 90% of the time those days in teh 24' holes right off the landing. if you weren't in 24' of water, you weren't catching fish. guys were doing well near clementson bay in 20-21 ' of water. we were surprised they nevver really slid into the 16-18' of water they usually reside this time of year.

pics forthcoming!

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there is a couple 26's a 27 and a 28 i think. now onto my prize. thought i had a massive walleye on. it was about 28-30 inches and i think it is a whitefish but not sure. never caught one up there before. i assume thats a big size for whatever it might of been.

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Yesterday the weather was cooler and today now its in the high 50s. I watched 5 boats fish in front of us today. One group we have staying here right now has been able to find a keepers to eat for supper. We haven't heard of anything big being caught yet. As for the river it is low, the shiners haven't really been at our dock yet. Grant said the other night there were a bunch of pinners down there but nothing to get excited about yet.

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Oh my goodness! That had to be a record of some kind! That's 3-4 times bigger than the biggest whitefish I've EVER seen!

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Nice pics and report! Have never caught a whitey either, and if it is one, you could have caught a record. Just looked it up and the record is around 12 1/2 lbs and 28.5 x 20......that one is more believable than the "guide" from last year claiming the 32 inch 14 lb walleye or whatever it said it was.....

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yeah we didn't put tape or scale to him. he was bleeding pretty good even though he was lip hooked. he didn't make it either. a boat down river scooped it up. he shouted at me what i had caught i told him i wasn't sure. he scooped it and was like. i think its a shad..the biggest shad he'd ever seen.

apparently that was just the beginning as the big fish are starting to be caught real well now.

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That bottom pic looks like it could be a Whitefish but I've never seen them that big.

Are there whitefish in LOTW? Much less in the river?

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Chock full of whitefish! That's primarily why there's so many huge pike in LOW.

I wonder if you maybe just let go of a record book fish? Was it over 12 lbs.? Maybe not?

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October 19th, 2012:

Grant and some friends fished for an hour and half this evening and caught 28 fish, kept their limits and caught 2 slot fish. One fish was 24 inches and the other was 26 inches visit the fall fishing pictures. Grant was fishing near our place in the same spot he always fishes.

Another group caught enough fish so they could enjoy a fish fry tonight overall it sounds like the fishing has picked up and everyone had a good day.

We also just had some guys check in that made it to the river in time to fish for about a half hour before dark and they caught 4 fish near Clementson.

Caught a nice 26 inch walleye

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Caught a nice 24 inch walleye

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Sitting here at work wondering what to expect this year... Heading up tomorrow, through the weekend..

What are we in for.... What is the water levels like? current? fishing?

Just wondering if anyone has any info to help in my current state of fishing fever... 2c

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One more question...

Is there a supply of Emerald Shiners in the bait shops in Baudetter or Blackduck..????

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My husband said the water is about average or just a little on the low side for this time of year. The current is very slow in front of our place and can get by using a 3/8 oz jig with no problems. There are a lot of fish being caught lately they are smaller walleyes with a lot of low to mid 20s slot fish. People are catching some nice ones to eat and have fish frys.

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Fish last weekend on da river....Pelland access...wind Friday, wind with snow Saturday, calm and cloudy on Sunday....lots of little fish with a few big girls mixed in...caught fish..it wasn't fast and furious.

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Got back Sunday evening and had a decent trip... The water levels were a little low but not bad and the fishing was good, but not the best Ive had up there...

We did catch a lot of fish just under the slot and thus came home with our limit of 18-19" walleyes... The big girls were far and few, caught only 4 of them, with the biggest being 24"... It was fun and the action was continuous, with few breaks... Too me it seemed as the fish were coming and for those of you who make it this week or later, you'll do good... Gold 3/8 oz jigs with emerald shiners did the trick for us...and all fish we caught were huggy the breaks from 14-17' next to the deep holes...

The water surface temp was 39.4 F when we left Sunday.

We did find one dead head and thus the reason for having an exta prop when running the Rainy... nothing happened to motor just folded over a blade..

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ND2 - You wouldn't by chance have a Black Lund with a Honda outboard, would ya? If so, I think I saw your bent prop at the Baudette Motel. smile We were skeptical of the low conditions also and luckily didn't find any 'hidden treasures'.

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  • 2 months later...

Max I have been thinking the same thing! Already lined up my flat of crawlers. Im a sturgeon nut tho, but doesnt matter ice out is ice out! Im hoping for a quick warm up like last year. but with little snow so far this year the ice wont be giving up very easily

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  • 2 weeks later...

I am getting the boat urge too. It won't be long now. We do have some snow on the ice so maybe that will insulate it so the ice doesn't get too thick. Might make for more runoff too. That could be good or bad.

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I think the word urge is an understatement as far as I'm concerned .not to mention i got the new boat blues and its wearing a hole in my mind lol

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We just had 2 days of wind and quite a bit of snow. Lots of drifts on the river by my fishhouse. Some are over 2' deep. Just looked at the forecast and after Thursday we should have temps in the upper 20's and lower 30's for at least 8 days. That will feel great!

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  • 1 month later...

I think it's time we start talking spring river fishing!!! Anyone got any info or anything to share?

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How about some first hand reports. Coming up Friday and got a second hand report today saying fishing was pretty slow today at least

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Here is my report for the 4th thru the 6th. The river itself is very low. the current is slow and the clarity is rather good. I was able to put in at Birchdale and drive down to Frontier without any issues of ice or deadheads.

The river was open about 6 miles west of frontier when I left yesterday. There were several boats out with just a few fishing sturgeon, the species I was targeting.

As for the fishing, it was slow and very challenging and frustrating for us. We saw many sturgeon hooked and many caught by walleye fisherman. They were caught all over the river, from shore to shore. We caught fish from 9 FOW to 17FOW. There was no real pattern to the small success we had. we did however catch walleyes from every spot we fished.

We ended up catching 16 sturgeon for the 2 1/2 days we fished. 9 of which were over 50" and two of those were over 60" (pair of 62's) one of which held a 27" girth which would have weighed near the 60 pound mark.

3 oz of lead was more than enough to keep us on bottom with the light current. I will be back up in a few weeks to try my luck again.

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Thanks! Thats the kind of report I was looking for. smile

A pair of 60's is never a bad trip.

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