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Rainy River Fishing Report


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Hey Doug what kind of boat were you running in yesterday?

We had a tough bite also but moved around a bit and found fish on a few spots. A spot we finished on put out 2 good keepers and a low slotter in short order, had we been able to hang out there a bit longer we would've certainly pulled more gooduns. Todd pulled one about 25-26 inches early in the day and we saw a few other good 'Eyes caught by other boats. He also managed to get a 54+ inch tagged Sturgeon into the boat on his jig rod. He really leaned on this fish all the way with that little jig rod and I did the tail grab after about 15-20 minutes.

All in all a good day fishing. Just enough Walleye activity to keep us from dragging out our Sturgeonfish gear. Lotsa time for those things the after walleye season ends eh. Plenty of those things being caught and we saw a father/son team with a giant hooked up.. Kid was justa screaming whent they got it boatside! Another boat came to help them land it but it popped off.

6 days left.. Still time for things to get crazy!!

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I was anchored just upstream sturgeon fishing of where the father / screaming son had that sturgeon on. Was wondering if they got it in, couldn't quite see that far. Too bad it broke off. We ended up with 6 sturgeon out of that hole but nothing over 46 inches or so. Didn't try for walleyes as my son didn't want to fish for them but I did see some caught but it didn't look fast and furious. Canadian CO's made two patrolling passes about 4 hours apart.

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I probably said 'hello' to you yersterday Silverscale!

Well they got it to the boat anyhow.. I was about 100yds downstream as we had slip drifted thru that area and when boatside I saw it roll a coupla times and it looked to be easily a good 5 foot+ very rotund white belly model. As we slipped thru that pack at that same time a bit further up was a crew of 3 in a black Lund that were following a monster, one of the fellers hooked up on a jig rod, last I saw of them he was still hooked up about a 1/4 mile upstream of where they had been! Wonder if they ever got that beast in?

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Fiskyknut.

Probably did talk to you. What sort of boat were you in? Had alot of folks drift by and make small talk.

I also talked to some guys in a crestliner at Birchdale landing that had a monster up to the boat three times, jig snagged in the fin. Played it for 1 1/2 hours and then they parted ways. At least they got a look at it. It sounded like one I'd like to get a hook in.....

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Todd's swanky Red Triton w/mercs, we only slipped thru that spot the one time. Maybe I'm mixed up it may have been a black c-liner that was hooked up for so long. Went upstream from there to the salt block and watched a crew of 3 anchor their bass boat down, toss lines and one of them hooked up within about 2 minutes time.

Todd was hooked up with Sturgeonfish 3 or 4 other times but they came off as he put the backbone to em so as to not waste precious jiggin time!!

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Yea I remember the red triton.

The guys I talked to at Birchdale had a cream / green crestliner. Had the fish on by the church.

The forks looked really tight yet when I drove over them.

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Fisky, You'll see me in a 175 Ultima Smokercraft, blue on white with 115 Merc. You weren't fishing the Rapid confluence yesterday were you?

Not sure what I was thinkin' but agreed to help a friend build a garage so won't be out again till Friday PM. Think I was drinking at the time.

Only talked with 1 group so far and they had 15 for 2 in a short day.

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Ahh once again...2 ships that pass in the nite! Saw one of you 2 pull a pretty dandy lookin fish. Soft lite nudging bite yesterday, and I was a bit off my game it seemed as my bite to hookup ratio was not so good. The only hard bites I had I wiffed.. Probably because of sheer surprise resulting in delayed reaction.

Ya man what were you thinkin/drinkin.. Plenty of time for garage building after the spring Wally fling!!! Darn nice of you though so the Wally gods will reward you for good deeds yet this season!

Gonna give her a whirl again tomorrow, armed with a refreshed optomism.. This is fishing and those lake fish can move 20-30 miles in a short time when they're on a mission.

Regards....Norm

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Looking to head up on Sunday... Whats the word on the forks? with this warmmer weather on the way are they going to hold until the season ends???? That sure would be nice......

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Anybody have a fishing report up by the ice, or anywhere west of baudette, covered 25 miles of river or better today, but didnt go all the way west hardly any boats between clementson and baudette, best luck east of vidas, small numbers but a couple pigs

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Guess we been dodging each other for about 8 years now. Holler if you see the Smoker.

Isn't it bizarre how those guys can slam and be gone. Even with the hard hits, still catching 90% on the stinger (Carl calls it a "cheater"). Had some that would hit & run with it. Almost got in the troller a couple of times.

Gotta hope "the Forks" hold out. Even with nice highs it is still freezing each night so slows things down a bit.

Only had 1 report from the ice break area and wasn't anything glowing. Did hear it was all the way to Lighthouse Gap. We might get to the island by May 1st after all!

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We fished Tues, Wed and Thursday. Fishing was slow, but I think we may have had better luck than most. I talked to a lot of guys who were either skunked, or only caught a few for the group.

On Tuesday we started fishing around 1:30 or 2:00. With just 2 of us, we caught 5 in the first half hour, all between 21 & 22 inches. Than it just shut down for the rest of the day and only caught one more fish.

On Wednesday we had 3 guys in my boat. We fished all day and we caught probably 25-30 with the largest at 27". Mostly working different spots from church to Vidas ramp.

On Thursday (with 3 guys) we got on the water about 9:00 and we caught 11 fish in the first hour, than it shut down again. We fished until about 1:00 without catching another fish, than left for home in the Twin Cities.

We used primarily 1/2 to 3/4 oz jigs with rainbows. Best colors seem to be pink and white.

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Heres my report, just home, what a wonderful day to be back in the boat listening to the growl of the optimax once again! A beautiful day, no wind to speak of, lots of sunshine, walleyes were scarce indeed though! Fished between vidas and the church, 3 of us, 4 walleyes and a sturgeon. Saw very very few walleyes boated, I doubt more then a half dozen or so, sturgeon were on a rampage, everywher you looked soomebody was going toe to toe with one! Water was quite clear, got by with 3/8oz jigs. It was very crowded, those who were not early had to park way out on the highway, and you know how long that drive in is! Water was 35 degrees on my lowrance. I'll be back, way too much fun, and some days you hit it and some days not! who cares after this long winter, did not see Al Gore and his global warming cronies anywhere. grin

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Thought I would add 1 more item, if you are not aware of all the boating rules, read them! the wardens are out and they are checking, although I was not checked today, plenty were, and tickets are being issued. The rules make sense and they are for your own safety, they are treating people fairly, but it could make a big hurt on your pocketbook! also remember if you cross that imaginary line between Minn and canada, watch out! a whole new set of boating regs come into play

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Good Report Dave in Walker.... We fished the same area and did great catching walleyes, the group I was with we boated over 15 walleyes.... which included several overs and caught our limit of eyes averaging 17-18's with 3 of us fishing .... It was a wonderful day on the river.... as Dave stated....WE did see a couple of 25 plus walleyes boated.... the limit we cleaned were all males..... with bellies of fatheads in them..... our key was rainbows with 1/2 oz jigs .. no color preference... vertical line presentation... I had a blast on the water.... by the way we had motor issues and we went to shore and the place we stopped helped us out.... Thanks Tim .... All in ALL great day to be on the open water for the first time this year.....

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just made it home from the river and had a great day fishing with tim on the river...52 eyes, 16 sturgeon, 2 northerns, 1 eelpout, and 1 sucker. The wind was almost not there and I got a nice sunburn. Still having motor issues but didn't need the motor much. Thanks for the great day of fishing tim and don't be suprised if you get a call next fall to reserve for next spring. Good luck the rest of the season.

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maddowg, brother bro where did you guys go out of? thinking of heading up mon tues for the last 2 days and wondering where is best to go. also wouldnt mind catching a sturgeon neither me or the buddy has ever done it

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we went out the first landing vidas?? walked and waited to land boat after fishing .... plus we did get check by the DNR CO's good luck

Brother Bro

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Three of us, Jim, Ray and Roy had similiar results. Fished 1/2 day Wed all day Thurs and 1/2 Fri. Out of Vidas and fished short distance north of the landing and the church. Total 38 WE (3 over, lgst 25.5) 3 sturgeon boated (lgst 46) others couldn't get up. 1 Sucker.

Best luck drifting with heavy jigs and rainbows.

Good trip, ate a great meal of fresh EYEs and brought home limits!

We'll be back!

Fishnut

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Two of us fished the 8th and 9th. First day put in at Frontier and caught 30 walleye on the Canadian side. Our presentation was drifting and trying to stay vertical, however the wind was blowing out of the west, restricting the boat from drifting at the same speed as the current. So we actually had to back troll with the current to stay vertical. Caught two 22" that day for big. We were using dead rainbows and 3/4 oz. jigs. The second day was better thanks to my partner. After one drift starting about a mile down from Pinewood, and catching two walleye he said no more of this and put on a 2 oz. bottom bouncer with spinner and myself a number nine tail dancer. We trolled at .08 mph into the current and caught another 32 fish. The bottom bouncer caught 21.5,21.5,24,26.5 and another thirteen fish. The Rapala a total of fifteen fish caught with big being 26.25, 26.5, 27.25, and a 30 on the nose weighing 10.2 lbs. We both caught our career best that day, not alot of numbers but still the greatest day fishing of our lives.

P4080559600x45030incher.jpg

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After following all the reports coming in from rainy river I will have to say that I will be making every effort to go next year. Just couldn't work it out to go this year. Thanks for all the great fishing reports. I can't believe that I've never been involved in a forum before and I'm liking this. I can't wait to get to know a few of you out there. Nice picture Wally sounds like you did all right.

Mike

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Fished out of Vidas on Fri the 10th. Landed 16 W'eyes and no sturgeon. 3 decent (22" to 24.5") and 6 in the 14 to 18 in range. The rest were smaller. Had better luck before the wind picked up. 3/8 oz jigs seemed to out produce 1/2 oz jigs when conditions permitted using them.

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We have been getting into a few decent Sturgies. Bigger fish have really been spot on spot specific with short leads and light sinkers.

Jonny P with a FAT low sixties fish with a estimated weight of seventy lbs!

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Jon from Marcum/Nature Vision and Joel Nelson with doubles!

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Joel with one of many high forty/low fifty fish.

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Jonny P with a 62

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Jon showing the off the wiskers.

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Joel with a 60 inch fish estimated at 63lbs

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(All weights are estimated per the DNR length/girth chart. No fish was out of the water long enough to go through the weighing process)

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Was out with Carl and Doug (dutchmen) and had a good time as usual. We caught plenty of fish. Brought home a nice meal and let the others go. Some over 20..

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