Rainy river don't even bother

[Guest]

Yep, we tried still fishing, no luck. I tried any/every presentation I knew of. After ya talk to 20 boats, and they all say fishing is not good, you get frustrated.

I'm sure the fish are hungry, but they can't find the bait/lures. Like I said, it is murkier than I've ever seen on the red. Somebody compared the water to chocolate milk, yep thats what it looks like.

[White-tips]

Shoulda spent more time at Pelland. We didn't exactly kill'em but we sure caught some nice fish. Most in the 22-28" range. Fish are much shallower than one would expect up there. Orange jigs and rainbows did just fine, but I sure wish I would have had some trolling gear along to pull plugs. I think a person could do real well up there pulling some #5's or some Ripshads. Two of my buddies set personal bests, one with a 26" and the other with a 28". That stretch of river from I. Falls to Pelland has saved more than one planned trip to the Rainy for my friends and I. Some guys were having luck up by the dam also, I guess, but we can't ever seem to get fish to bite up by the dam. I think fishing is only gonna get better up there as fish continue to swim upstream in search of clearer water. Good luck.
P.S. Border Patrol and DNR are everywhere so be careful. Lots of boats getting pinched, especially on the canadian hole just down river from the landing. Sucks too, because there's always big fish in that hole.;-)

[Guest]

My buddy and I fished Sunday-Tuesday 4-6th.

3 Walleys total combined weight of appx. 24lbs!

Sunday got to the River mid-day and put in at Vidas--my heart sank to see the muddy water. My buddy picked up 1-18 incher.

Monday we caught wind that 4 mile bay was open so we headed out there and finally got into the big fish. We also fished the ice edge and managed 2--a nine pounder and my buddy got the Walleye of his lifetime 12 lbs.

We turned the lemons into lemonade and don't regret the trip one bit.

My kindest regards to the 3 DNR CO's who checked us--I hadn't renewed my Boat registration when they checked me Sunday and they were really cool giving me a warning.

I renewed the registration Monday morning in Baudette in under 5 minutes--that was worth the 5 hour drive alone! No waiting

How can you complain about 55 degrees, Sunny, almost zero wind, nice people and 2 huge Walleyes?

------------------
Chells

[Dr. Bob]

Sounds like an awesome trip - thank you for the report!

[Fish Head]

Went up to the River on Tuesday. Fished 5 hours without a bite. Wednesday it was raining hard all day, so we decided to head back to the Twin Cities a day early. Not the best trip but it was nice to get out in the boat anyway.