Lodging Options/Boat Landings (MN or Canada)

[BJP]

I am heading up next week (Thur-Sat) and have checked with a couple resorts but they are already booked. Does anyone have any advice for places to stay - either in MN of Ontario as we already have Canadian licenses. Also are there any decent boat ramps to use on the Canadian side. Thanks and good luck to those who get out this weekend.

Brett

[gorrilla]

Check mapquest for Barwick or Emo Ontario. There are ramps at each. Emo has a motel ($87/night though). I'm not sure on the shoreline ice conditions or depth of the accesses, since its been years since I was there. They don't cater to the early guys and mother nature needs to melt them or you can slide a smaller boat over. Some other options are the motel across the border at Baudette in Rainy River or I can't believe more people don't stay in International Falls since Birchdale is dang near halfway between Baudette and IFalls.

[SM1]

Naturally the further you go from the MN ramps the easier it is to find a place to stay. I would guess most everything in Baudette is booked.

If you go west of Baudette closer to four mi bay you should be able to find a place. Many of the resorts over there dont have much for icefishermen anymore. I did a last second booking over that way and got a big cabin for my whole group. It was only around $30/guy/night. Plus they fried our days catch for us in the bar-tasted very good after a day on the water.

[TKO_PUNCH]

BJP,

I just had to make a cancelation for 2 of us at Clementson Resort. You may want to give Gail a call if you havn't found any place yet, as this will go fast. My reservations were from Sunday April 1st through Saturday morning April 7th this coming week. Hope this works out for you

[BJP]

Thanks guys. I did call Gail and will hopefully hear back soon. Does having both a Canadian and MN license open up any better places to fish? It seems like most people launch out of Birchdale - is that because the fishing is historically better in that area?

[srj]

BJP, you can put your Canadian license to use if you also have the Canadian remote border crossing permit and the U.S. I-68 form. They are available at the respective customs stations. And yes, the fishing is very good going out of Birchdale, but kinda icey currently.

Good luck.

[BJP]

Since the latest reports on ice conditions do not sound very promising for the week, does anyone have any input/thoughts on what a good plan of attack would be if we can't launch at Birchdale? We have reservations that can't be cancelled so we are going up regardless of the ice conditions. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Maybe bring the ice fishing gear...

Thanks.

Brett

[fiskyknut]

Sounds like some folks are getting out at Birchdale now.

[gorrilla]

Birchdale is a go...

Its cloudy/muddy though and predictions don't look to be drying out anytime soon. I did hear of one ten pound walleye caught yesterday there, but I talked to more guys who didn't even get a walleye. The sturgeon are still cooperative though, we caught a 46" and 62" yesterday out of Pelland. We only saw two other rigs on the river near us and had a blast watching otters, eagles, goldeneyes, geese, and swans while being pulled downstream about 1.6 miles by a very large sturgeon(62") on 8# Trilene XL.

Which, when we were done should have said X-tra coily and stretched...

If you guys are wondering weather to go or not, I can't wait to get back up there and chase those big Sucker-Mouths again! My fishing partner also caught his personal biggest fish yesterday on our heavier gear(42"). I do recommend the large gear for these cool prehistoric creatures. Its a lot easier on my Musky rods with 80# braided then the chase 'em around method of 8# on a spinning combo in backreel.

Look out for shallow water EVERYWHERE though. In the 6 mile run downstream, we varied from 15 to 3.4 feet deep with numerous rocks you could see. You can do it with a large boat, but be careful on that throttle this year and don't be afraid to tilt up and slow down, it looks more like the Mississippi than the Rainy this year.