2014 Rainy River Conditions by Royal Dutchman

[RoyalDutchman]

March 16th, 2014:

My mom (Alyse's mom) and I (Alyse) ventured to International Falls today to check on the River Conditions. From where you can tell the River is open at Big Fork and to the west of there. For sure the river is open 25.8 miles east of Birchdale Landing. But you can tell the River is open to the west of the Big Fork so at Loman Rest Stop I walked to thru the hard snow up to my knees to see if I could see open water, the snow was yellow and slushy looking. So making a guess it is open somewhere between 21.6 to 25.8 miles east of Birchdale Landing there just was no where to stop for picture or that you could see the River from the road. Also we just wanted to remind everyone we won't be doing daily checks yet because it is just over 100 miles round trip.

Here is what it looked like at Loman Rest Stop which is 21.6 miles east of Birchdale Landing:

Here is a what it looked like at the Big Fork River right off the bridge which is 25.8 miles east of Birchdale:

This is showing how wide the river is open which is just another 1.9 miles east of Big Fork River:

[ac777]

Hey thanks for the updates we sure appreciate them! especially when you come from 6 hours away to go fishing, it would be hard to plan otherwise!

[mikeg1]

how does this compare to the river last year?

[JacobG]

we are surely ahead of last year! Bring on the open water

[uffdapete]

You can search for a variety of date ranges and data from this site:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/usa/nwis/uv?site_no=05133500

[fiskyknut]

Seems to me we are kinda behind last year, and the ice is thicker, and we're still forecast for some rather chilly weather. Hopefully the water coming from upstream will chew away at it but I dunno, it be a tough one to pick a date for folks coming from afar.

[certified jumbo]

I agree fisky, next ten days temp wise don't appear great and lots of ice....

[Fish Tales]

I also agree we look behind schedule. The only thing that looks good is water level is on the rise over the last week or 10 days. Are they letting more water out of Rainy Lake? That seems to be breaking the ice up . Previous discussions say anything over 10 degrees helps the melt. I would be real nervous if we were low on water level with this winter's river ice. It sure looks like it is going to be a later run for all us. Getting pumped great time of year.

[JacobG]

My 2 weeks off start on April 10. I am planning on fishing on days off and am certain I will be able to fish 3 weeks from now. If not, Id be very surprised. And the word I got is that they have opened the flow in I falls to compensate for the snowfall and runoff that the lake could receive here in the next few weeks.

[RoyalDutchman]

Just wanted to give everyone an update since we got a picture from a friend. Also to answer your question we are behind from last year when the ice went out....If you go to our website and look under River Conditions I have all reports from when we bought this place.

This year's report

March 19th, 2014:

We had some friends that drive from International Falls during the week and stopped to take a picture of the River for us. It means a lot to us and thank you so much guys! They said the river was open just west of Loman so which makes it about 20.5 miles East of Birchdale Landing.

Here is a picture showing the River:

The River is about 13 miles further east than it was last year at this time....I hope this report doesn't confuse anyone but just wanted to answer the question of if it was a head or behind last year

Last Year's Report

March 14th, 2013:

Grant went to take some pictures of the river around Noon today. The river is now open 7.7 miles East of the Birchdale Landing. It opened almost a mile in 3 days let's hope for some nice warm weather!

March 22nd, 2013:

We went and checked the River Conditions again and we hate to say it but it is still the exact same as the last time we went. It is open 7.7 miles east of Birchdale Landing and it is still froze up looking to the west. It was 21 degrees when we took the pictures today and the forecast is looking like we are going to have highs in the 30s for the at least the next 10 days!

[uffdapete]

Would also add that I crossed the Bigfork and Littlefork rivers on Hwy 11 at 2 this afternoon and they were both locked up tight. In fact there wasn't even a dark spot in either one right to the mouth. Also there was a UTV that appeared from the bridge to be near the edge of the ice at the mouth of the Bigfork. That they are tight should be a good thing if the Rainy becomes accessible and those tribs don't open up for a week or 2.

[RoyalDutchman]

March 23, 2014:

Around noon today we went and checked the river conditions. We have had many calls and questions wondering if we are really a head of last year as other places have told them this. I want to let everyone know that we are not a head of schedule compared to last year. The River is about 10 miles further east than it was in 2013 if you would like to view last year's River information just scroll down further on this page.

Now onto the information you are wanting for this year. We found open water that is 17.8 miles East of Birchdale Landing. The rapids at Franz Jevne had some open water.

Here is 17.8 miles east of Birchdale Landing and just to west it was froze up completely again:

Here is a picture of the rapids at Franz Jevne:

[RoyalDutchman]

March 26, 2014:

Grant went and checked the River just after 4PM today. He went back to the same spot that we took pictures which was 17.8 miles East of Birchdale Landing. He also went to the Kuttes Landing in Pelland, MN and took some pictures.

Here are some pictures at 17.8 miles East of Birchdale Landing:

Kuttes Landing in Pelland, MN:

[Derek Vos]

How much snow did you guys get up there? It was mostly rain down here in rapids but we still got 3-4 " of snow on top of it.

[fiskyknut]

Man I think it looks like we got about 12-14 inches here in Roseau anyhows. I could see grass in my yard out front on Sunday now that spot is covered with a 5ft+ drift. Dig dig dig.

Hopefully this'll be the last blast of winter ??

Weatherman says mid forties come Sunday, possible 60's next week.. Hooray !!

[RainyRat]

It seems like around 15 inches or so of snow. Its hard to say for sure with all of the drifting. I saw the weatherman said 17.2 inches in Roseau so maybe we were closer to that?

[fiskyknut]

17 inches eh. I believe it and I don't like seeing it !!

[Guest]

looking at these posts it looks pretty safe to say birchdale will not be open this weekend????

hopefully we will at least get the last weekend, getting spring fever!

[fiskyknut]

I think you are safe in saying such.

Small boats over shore ice next week sometime sure would be nice.

But mutha nature not so nice this year so thats up in the air I'd reckon.

[Fish Head]

I had plans for Sun-Wed. It looks like I'll have to cancel. UGH!!! I was really looking forward to this after the long hard winter!

[DTro]

according to a report I just read, even with the snow, the river opened up 2 more miles.

[PerchJrkr]

Saw that too.. I dont trust the source after the last couple years though..

[fiskyknut]

So we gained 2-3 miles the past 2 days. Sure why not that current is eating away at it.

That stretch from the upper sault to the Manitou runs fairly shallow for that 6-7 miles so if/when !! the open water gets to the Manitou maybe the pace will pick up a tad with the warmer weather coming and the likely increase in flow/current.

Fish Head ya never know and if your bringing a small skiddable boat you may be good to go Sunday ??

The window of opportunity so short again this year.

[ProGuideEyes]

Hey guys. I fished 4 mile bay this weekend and the current seemed really strong. Does that mean anything as far as ice melting or ???

[RoyalDutchman]

April 1st, 2014:

We woke up this morning to at least 12 inches of fresh snow but the further east Grant drove the less snow they had gotten. Grant figures Birchdale got maybe about 6-9 inches of snow. But it is hard to tell because of the wind we had all day yesterday and most of today. Kuttes Landing in Pelland looked like it maybe got 2 inches of fresh snow. When Grant was plowing today he had seen it was 31 degrees and the sun was shinning but very windy today. Grant checked the River and it is open 8.7 miles east of Birchdale Landing. In 6 days the river opened 9.1 miles!! Kuttes Landing in Pelland has some thin shore ice that got blown in from the wind the last two days.

Here is a picture showing where the water stops at 8.7 miles east of Birchdale Landing:

Here is looking to the east at 8.7 miles East of Birchdale Landing:

Kuttes Landing in Pelland:

[Fish Head]

So we gained 2-3 miles the past 2 days. Sure why not that current is eating away at it.

That stretch from the upper sault to the Manitou runs fairly shallow for that 6-7 miles so if/when !! the open water gets to the Manitou maybe the pace will pick up a tad with the warmer weather coming and the likely increase in flow/current.

Fish Head ya never know and if your bringing a small skiddable boat you may be good to go Sunday ??

The window of opportunity so short again this year.

Unfortunately, I don't have a small skiddable boat. I'm still keeping the time blocked off on my work calendar, but it isn't looking good.

[RoyalDutchman]

April 3rd, 2014: We had temperatures in the high 30s today but it was cloudy most of the day. We went and checked the river about 4 PM and hate to inform everyone that it has maybe moved 2/10 of a mile making it 8.5 miles east of Birchdale Landing.

Here is a picture of the end at the Manitou Rapids:

[RoyalDutchman]

April 4th, 2014:

I made the trip east to check the river because we had calls asking if it was 5 miles east of Birchdale Landing. I hate to inform everyone I did go 5.1 miles east of Birchdale Landing and all I saw was snow and no signs of open water. These pictures were taken just before 4 PM and temperature was 38 degrees the whole time. I was able to see open water about 7.3 miles east of Birchdale Landing and then I wasn't able to see the river anymore. So it might be a little bit closer to Birchdale Landing but I know for sure there was still open water at this point.

I took this picture at 7.5 miles east of Birchdale Landing because it didn't have as many trees blocking my view:

Here is what it looked like at 5.1 miles east of Birchdale Landing. It's not the greatest picture but shows there is still snow and no signs of open water. I tried walking down the hill but the snow went above my knee was very wet. The river is right behind these trees:

[goose89]

The "reports" were 5 miles east of FJ...not Birchdale...ahhh, the hysteria!

[RoyalDutchman]

I only stated that because of phone calls I had that were asking if it was open 5 miles east of Birchdale.

April 6th, 2014:

We checked the river around 2:40 PM and went right back to the spot that was about 5 miles. There is open water there now!! There aren't many roads to go down to check the river between Franz Jevne and this spot but we did find one that got us close to the river. We found that the river ended just 3 miles east of Birchdale Landing so it opened up just over 4 miles in less than 48 hours. I am really sorry that the pictures aren't as good as they normally are but I (Alyse) forgot the SD card for our big camera in the computer and we had to use our cell phones.

Here is about 3 miles East of Birchdale Landing looking straight ahead:

Here is 3 miles looking to the west and you can barely see there is open water:

Here is about 5.1 miles east of Birchdale Landing where less than 48 hours was completely snow covered with no signs of open water: