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Planning a Rainy trip...

sonoranhope
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sonoranhope Apprentice

sonoranhope

Posted
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I am planning a trip to Rainy this weekend, Im taking my twin boys out for the first time (age 6). I know the temps here in the twin cities will be balmy.. How is it looking up near the Canadian border waters? What to use? (color of lures?) How does the ice look? Will my 4X4 Blazer make it off the beaten track? Im kinda nervous about the whole trip. SHould I bring the boat (just in case)? Any tips would be great... Thanks in advance.

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Rainydaze Rising Star

Rainydaze

Posted
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Hey Buddy,

I think you'll be coming at a nice time especially bringing some kids along due to the forecasted nice weather for this weekend. There is a lot of ice out there, but you will more than likely have some water on top of the ice due to the melting later this week. There will be plenty of vehicles out on the ice surely. I would recommend fishing off the edges of mid lake humps in 32-38 feet of water during the daytime, and pop some holes up top of the humps for the early and late bite. Jigging raps, glow jigs, forage minnows, swedish pimples... All seem to be producing outstanding this year. In all honesty most everything tried has produced! I like gold, chartruesse, and glow colors. Pick up some golden shiners and chubs for bait selection. I have also had some real great success on emerald shiners. When I take kids out on the ice I like to set them up with a split shot, and forage minnow set up under a nuetrally bouyant slip bobber. They can fairly easily grasp the concept of popping the bobber and letting it sit. If the bobber heads down Wack em! I like to use a minnow head while doing this for them. This way any bobber movement they know it is a fish. Throw some tip ups out also for some big pike. Suspend a good 10 feet off the bottom as they most always feed upwards! Good Fishing! Pack your sweatshirt and little grill it is going to be awesome this weekend! Good Fishing!

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Fish&Fowl Experienced

Fish&Fowl

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Great post RD, only forgot one thing...

Bring the rubber boots! Should be a great weekend to fish with the kids. Good luck!

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tearin' lips Mentor

tearin' lips

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I would just like to add that the evening bite in sand bay should be kickin, it was already starting when I was home last weekend. We were in 22-26' of water on the east side of birch point. Picked off some nice eaters there, 13-14 inches. This bite usually starts at about 6:00 and goes until dark with the last half an hour being the best.

Take Care and Good Luck Fishing!!

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hawgeye Collaborator

hawgeye

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Was out last weekend and found our best fishing on the main lake reefs. tons of ice and driving conditions were awesome, could go anywhere we wanted. Had a real tough time finding good bait. Rainy lake one stop was out of shiners and the other place just had really small shiners. We got large shiners in I-falls and it seemed to make a difference. Good luck

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sonoranhope Apprentice

sonoranhope

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Excellent replies... Thank you so much for the info. I will be sure to check back again before printing this out and bringing it along. Hope to come back with a good report, and some 'eyes smile.gif

Wil

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CaptJohnWI Community Regular

CaptJohnWI

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Rainy2007-03-21.jpg I fished the North Arm all day yesterday. Wasn't really that warm (mid 30s) and foggy but snow on top of ice was melting like mad. You did not have to drill a hole to see how deep it was. Sonar worked just fine through 40 inches of ice because of all the water. In fact I could even see my lure without putting the transducer in the hole! Made it easy to check spots without all the trouble of drilling.

Lots of water on top of ice when we came in. And quite deep at the landing. I drove my big 4x4 truck all over but won't be going back out in that.

There is still plenty of ice (saw one gravel truck hauling a load to an island yesterday) but all that water is running down the holes and cracks. It will be eating them up and if you should happen to drive across one, you could get stuck. It is only going to be worse today with full sun right now.

The river above the dam is purrty much wide up all the way to Ranier. Open water under railroad bridges has almost made it to the Causeway.

I have fished big lakes when water started running down the holes before. Holes that were 8 inches in morning were big enough to swallow a Volkswagon by day's end.

I would not be surprised if they block the MN accesses to trucks. The Canadian side will probably be open but I am not going to risk it. Done ice fishing fer this year.

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Mooseart Enthusiast

Mooseart

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The ice on the North arm is perfect. It's lightly flooded, but not yet "Up". It's thick and clear. There is little chance that it will go bad by the week-end. It's unlikely go go bad in the next two weeks. You should have excellent fishing!

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fishmeister_86 Veteran

fishmeister_86

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HEY MOOSEFART,

YOU BEEN TO YOUR SHALLOW WATER HONEY HOLE YET, SURE WAS FUN THE LAST TIME I DID THAT NEXT TO YOU. IF SO ARE YOU SLEDDING THERE??? MAYBE I'LL CALL JOE UP & HEAD UP THERE. I'LL BRING YOU A BURGER!!!

SINCERELY,

FISHMEISTER

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Mooseart Enthusiast

Mooseart

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Yep.. same ole' story... I've only made it up there eight or nine days a week since Summer has hit. The bite and size has been exceptional. Now with the snow cover gone, it might take a day to find them again.

The word is that there will be too many folks there this week-end. I am probably going to lay low until next week.

I see that you're advertising a sale on fish burgers??????

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