Rainy River Fishing Report

[hnd]

since we were actually targeting walleye, we were just using jigs and minnows. they hit when you sat your pole in the holder for a break.

[jwmiller33]

i was using 3 ounce no roll sinkers are they were working great. 18 inch leader with a gamakatsu circle hook. i was putting a crawler, then a shiner, then a rainbow, and finish with one more crawler. i had my luck near wheelers point in 26 fow or so, but i was anchored right on the inside bend of a break, and it was 32 feet deep or so at the deepest part of the break. was marking tonnns and tonnns of fish all night on the graph. there were definitely a bunch of active fish moving up the river at that spot. here are some of the fish i graphed while just anchored up.

as you can see, i was graphing a lot of fish slowly moving up the river...it was happening all night and mostly on the bottom, or bottom 5 feet or so.

here is a pic of my bait

[Boar]

Always had my best luck with very little jigging just keeping contact with the bottom, a little pop every so often. the always hit at the bottom rest. baor

[CANOPY SAM]

JWM. Those are some mighty big "hooks" in that first pic. Very cool! Is it possible that the following pics are of large bait schools swimming thru, rather than a large single fish? Just curious.

Love your bait presentation! Throw on a couple leeches and you'd have a four course meal! Been night fishing sturg for years. Just like doing big cats - only colder!

[KCWalleye]

Just got back from an extended weekend of fishing on the Rainy. Lets just say the river fishing was slow. A few walleyes in each spot was about the best we could hope for. More numbers were around the gap and we had increased success on the big lake. We fished around pine island in anywhere from 16-21 feet with good success for smaller fish and zippel bay and out in 30+ fow were good also. Limits were caught on the big lake each day if the weather cooperated. We tried for bigger fish in the river but to no avail for our group, with 25 being the biggest. I watched a 30 and a 30.5 inch caught by boats within 50 yards of us on the same evening. There was no problem getting bait, and we seemed to do best on golds and pinks. Good luck.

[rooz]

we are going up thursday fri and sat. hopefully i will have some pix to share of some hogs.

[jwmiller33]

KCwalleye- so were most of the guys still fishing the lake? or were there a lot of guys on the river too? did you see those big ones caught on the river? you would think it would be starting to turn on any day now, with the water temps getting lower and lower...

[CANOPY SAM]

Had a good friend up this last weekend. The wind nearly killed a few people late last week.

Huge clouds of bait outside of the gap. Most fish still staged out in the main lake. The shiners are ready to run, just need the river temp to drop a few degrees and it should be game on. Our last warm-up pushed it back a couple weeks.

While most are sitting in stand, we should be pounding walleyes in the river!

[KCWalleye]

JWM - I think the most success was on the lake for numbers, a 26 incher was the biggest I heard of on the lake at our resort. There was some strong NW/N/NE winds a few of the days that limited a lot of boats from the big water. There was a ton of boats in the gap and the first few river bends. We found some fish everywhere we went in the river, just few and far between. I did personally see the 30 and 30.5 inchers caught, pictures taken, one was released, and one was kept. They were impressive looking fish. I was just a touch envious since one was caught 30 yards north of us and one was 50 yards south of us, all within 1 hour in the evening. Happy fishing!

[rooz]

well as far as the trip went i would give it an A- for everyone and a D for myself. if you want to catch big fish, the river is the place to be. if you are looking for eaters then head out to the lake. many boats in the gaps but we had good luck out further. the only highlight of my trip was 5 fish in 3 minutes on 5 drops of my jig. they were in the 12 to 14 range but still fun. with the exception of a 25", all the big fish came on artificial, with the biggest at 28.5 for our group. looks like the weather will be amazing this week so this weekend may be the one that starts the run.

[jwmiller33]

rooz-so were there still a lot of people out fishing the lake? i would think with the huge drop in water temps over the last few days, the big shiner run would have started and pushed a lot of fish into the lake.

im heading up on wednesday and i think we will be fishing the river.

anyone have any suggestions as to where to go on the river? i'm thinking about staying close to wheelers pt until the big shiner run starts at least

[rooz]

lots of boats fishing the lake still looking for quantity over quality. if you ask me, the river is where you are gonna have your best chance for a big one. we caught some fish near wheelers by the docks as well as down the river past sportsmans staying closer to the shore in 20'. cant say what the magic color is but i am sure you will find that out. on the lake gold was the ticket and on the river orange did well for us. the water temp was at 46 deg...still kind of warm. FYI dont waste your money on the frozen shiners. good luck, let me know how you guys did.

[CANOPY SAM]

We caught slot fish in both the river, and the lake. The fish are definately scattered following the powerful storm that rocked the lake last week. The wind blew so hard it pushed up the water level 2-4 feet in places in the river - inland tide!

There were good numbers in Morris Gap in the clean water, with lots of nice eater sized sauger to boot. You do have to sort a bit though.

I agree on the frozen shiner comment. Once thawed they turn to mush. The key for us was live, large shiners. They're starting to lift nice sized bait out of the Morris Gap area. Fishing should be good for the next few weeks in the river - if we don't get anymore wild weather.

Also, Curt commented on another thread about the fish bite changing with wind direction changes. We experienced this as well. It seems the lake and river are very sensative to weather changes. If we can string together a few days of nice weather, with no significant changes, the fishing should be awesome!

[Mike Stark]

fished the river with my dad wed, thurs, and friday morning. we caught fish. nothing real crazy. lots of nice eaters and lots of slot fish. biggest was 26in 7lb. also got a fat 23.5incher. lots in the low 20's. fun time on the river. 11-16fow. reel bait flashers were the ticket.

[jwmiller33]

Mike, sounds like you got into the identical type of fishing that we got into last weekend. Lots of nice eaters. Did you fish around wheelers pt? or did you try farther up river by like frontier?

[Mike Stark]

fished by the wind sock.

[jwmiller33]

I was just going to say, it looks like that top pic is by the windsock! you beat me to it

[Mike Stark]

we only fished a couple other places with little luck. fish were moving through that area.

[Rodbldr4fun]

Fished Wed afternoon and Thurs. Very slow after the cold front. Lots of layers of clothes to stay comfy. Ended up with a 17" Wed afternoon and 2 eyes (one 24") and a sauger Thurs morning. After the morning bite we lost a number from short strikes. They would take the minnow and tug, but we would end up with fish lips. We were marking lots of fish at windsock and church hole, but they were not cooperative. Non the less we had a great time.

[jwmiller33]

thanks for the report. did you guys try using stinger hooks at all for those short bites? were the bites coming on shiners?

[Rodbldr4fun]

Forgot to bring stingers along (not too smart). They were biting on live rainbows. Had frozen shiners, but they didn't make a difference. Chartreuse and fire tiger and at least an ounce of lead to keep straight down. I tied on a spinner clip for my jig like a beatle spin and got more bites than my partner who used just a jig. I also used my HD-5 as a portable (buddy's boat) like ice fishing. The first fish for me was one suspended half way up the column.

[rcatcherman]

Is fairly reliable ice guide out there guiding yet or maybe his wife Rick from rockford Mn.

[rcatcherman]

Anybody seen or heard from Larry Bollig yet this ice season.

[uffdapete]

Talked to Larry last week as he was coming off the ice. Pretty sure he was out today too.

[gloomiseye]

Thinking about making a trip up there this spring. About when does the river open up? late March?

[goose89]

Different every year. Ballpark mid-late March. Kinda of a roll of the dice each year with all the factors. The star's aligned last spring for a couple of weeks!! Hopefully we'll have some of the same this year.

[ANYFISH2]

Anyone one know how thick the ice is so far this year.

[Jarrid Houston]

when is the time to be there for the open water annual spring gator fishing. Ive always wanted to get up there and do it, and am tentaitvely planning on it this yr..

[LindellProStaf]

I still have 24" of good ice just east of Baudette on the Rainy. I just started catching nice walleyes this week. It has been a slow winter on the river so it is a nice change to catch fish. It is colder this weekend but warm weather again Monday and all of next week. Monday night only down to 32. Things will happen fast when they start. We still have a good amount of snow on the river too. That should melt fast. I started digging a boat out of the snow piles the other day.

[ANYFISH2]

Thanks for the update, hope for the warm weather to stick around for while. A little anxious to fish the river in the boat.