Rainy River Fishing Report

[reinhard1]

great pictures of the fish and a nice day also. thanks. good luck.

[Fish Tales]

3 of us fished Thursday 3/31 thru Sunday 11AM Avg. 50 fish a day. we had 23 between 25" and 28 1/2". We used both plastics and dead minnows jigging and casting. Jigging caught more fish than casting with plastics or minnows colors didn't matter. Saturday was absolutely insane with people we didnt get of river at frontier until 9:30pm on Friday.So we didnt even try to land there on Saturday. Landing at Vidas has a 1 foot ice shelf tough for bigger boats. Water is fishable to royal dutchmen motel as of noon today. The weather was crazy this morning rain then snow than ice pellets but fishable. We would get close to Canada shore within 25 yards and water clarity was less than 1 foot but when out in the middle of river and clarity was 2 and 1/2 feet. We didn't fish close to U.S. side but I think shore run off is issue not Little fork river. When we loaded for home at frontier landing water was running down the landing that was muddy.Ditches are full of water. We had both big river fish dark and big lake fish white in color. Cant wait for next year to come.

[matt_shermoen]

What can I say, the river season is full steam ahead. I didn't fish down by Frontier. Heard that it was very busy from boats coming up by Birchdale. I focused on water from the Sioux west about 3 miles west of the Birchdale landing. Friday was slower but Saturday fishing picked up with the rise in water temps and nicer weather. Friday we boater about 10 fish in the 4 hours we fished. Saturday I was joined by my best fishing partner, Molly (my yellow lab) so i only had one rod going but fishing was very good. I started at the Sioux but only saw one fish caught in an hour. Went west of the landing and did much better. Caught a few on regular round jig heads, pink and white worked best. Northland's Thumper jig worked best, didn't seem to matter if it was a chub or rainbow. boater 3 fish over 27, 29 being the biggest 25 fish boater in total. Water temps were 37.5 Plan to fish again Tuesday or wednsday.

Thank you all of those who offered rides to those walking to and from their vehicles.

[gotum]

Does anyone know how far up the river it is free of ice? Could a guy fish from shore at the kuttes landing this week or in town Ifalls?

[Wiskers]

What is the report on the boat ramp conditions? Franz Jevne? Anyone know if the ramp is useable?

[Tim_Anderson]

Just got home from a few days on the Rainy. Got my first sunburn on Saturday. Got soaked and cold on Sunday. Got my first serious windburn today.

For those of you who are chomping at the bit to get up there, you are not missing out on too much as of yet. We caught 30-50 fish a day, with some big ones mixed in up to 29.5 inches. Really had to work for them though.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of fish in the river yet, IMO. Fishing for us was better the farther west we went. The fish got bigger too.

Perhaps the fish were in a "funk." I don't know. But I can say this - I have caught a heck of a lot more fish earlier than this, under the same, or even WAY worse conditions.

River conditions are decent. Some mud-line near the shore, especially on inside corners, but 18 or 20 inches of clarity in the main river. No debris yet. Ditches are full of water tho, and running in. I didn't observe the Little Fork.

The hard part today was that the wind was blowing us upstream at over a mile an hour in some of our more productive spots, so it made presentation pretty difficult. Tough to drift. Tough to pitch. Calmer spots and scouting didn't produce much. Everyone I talked to struggled today.

Yesterday was rain and snow all day. Not too many people on the river. In fact, many stayed in camp - or just packed up and left. We hit the river at 9:30 after some pancakes, and fished till dark. Got soaked, but stuck it out the whole day and had a good time - believe it or not, it was our best day. Topped off with a huge ribeye - think I'd do it again.

Interesting night - three guys trying to cook and dry out in a small pop-up camper.

Water temp was 37-38 on Saturday and Sunday, but had dropped back to 35-36 today.

Birchdale not too busy. Frontier REALLY busy. Vidas close to ready I think, but wasn't actually there. River is open way down by Baudette, but still lots of shore ice down there.

Let see... what else. We saw lots of different fish attitude. Some very subtle bites. Some typical bites. Some really violent bites... just like usual. With the river conditions and water temps being positive, I was surprised fishing was as slow as it was. That's what makes me believe that they just aren't there yet.

Current is pretty slow for the most part. River seems to be rising a bit. We easily fished with 3/8 ounce or less. Color didn't seem to matter. Stinger hooks helped. Minnows worked best, but still caught a few fish on plastic. We moved very slowly - sometimes right under the boat, and sometimes long-lining. It's funny to observe how each guy doing different things seem to go on "hot streaks", and when the other two tried to duplicate - they couldn't. Everyone was "in the zone" at one time or another, doing what they do best.

I have a friend that caught close to 50 fish by himself on Saturday, so there are pockets with better numbers of fish. He had been there for five days though, so had done plenty of searching.

If I was going up very soon, I'd put in at Frontier or Vidas, run west, and look for better numbers of fish. I believe they are on the way.

Hopefully she stays clear. May get up again before it's all done. Good luck to all headed up...

Tim Anderson

[Random guy]

Thanks Tim, great report.

[jwmiller33]

Yesterday was rain and snow all day. Not too many people on the river. In fact, many stayed in camp - or just packed up and left. We hit the river at 9:30 after some pancakes, and fished till dark. Got soaked, but stuck it out the whole day and had a good time - believe it or not, it was our best day.

I had a feeling Sunday would have been a lot better fishing than Fri and Sat with the big storm overhead. I wanted to fish Sunday but everyone was really tired and worn out and didn't want to go out in the heavy snow so we just went and got a nice hot breakfast at the Wigwam and talked to Jean Paul for about an hr. I bet it was nice not having nearly as many people out there to deal with. I'm going up again this weekend and hope the push starts to come from the lake with numbers of bigger fish. Thanks for the detailed report.

[WallEYES]

Thanks Mr. Anderson great report....while you guys arefishing the river there vis plenty of ice on the Big Lake

[FishinAddiction]

This will be our second trip to the river and this time we're staying on the Canadian side. We have a fly-in scheduled for July so why not spend the extra money and get the license for the year. I won't miss the traffic and the long lines at the boat ramp!

We're staying in the town of Rainy River and plan on fishing TH night until sunset on Sat. Looking forward to another great trip.

[walleyeguy13]

First trip ever today. Lived in Bemidji 25 years and never made the trek! Anyway... started at Birchdale and got right in. There were about 15-20 rigs parked at the landing and down the road. We stuck with jig and minnow and just worked our way west looking for deeper holes. Water temp was 36-37. Slow seemed to be the theme for most boats on the way down. We managed only 8 walleyes total, most on jig and minnow, a couple on white twister... but I would take that with a grain of salt considering our relative lack of knowledge with respect to this body of water. However... of the 8 fish, this one made the whole trip worthwhile:

[HOT SPOT]

went out for 3 hrs lastnight and tonight. Both night were slow for us. we did catch fish but not the normal number. The water clarity has goten worse everday. Hopefully It remains so we can finish the year out with a bang. For us it seemed like when you found fish you got a few then it was dead. very spoty.

[Random guy]

Fishzilla

[Northlander]

How big is that one. Ill take a shot in the dark and say 30.25"er?

[reinhard1]

what a beauty!!! great work. good luck.

[jwmiller33]

I'm going to say 28

[ac777]

it's a nice fish but not as big as the picture makes it look. Look how big his fingers are.

[Traxxx]

A 64" & 62" from yesterday

[Ice_Fishin07]

it's a nice fish but not as big as the picture makes it look. Look how big his fingers are.

Good point.

I am hoping to catch one of those, heading up there after work tonight.

[jwmiller33]

HOGS!

[reinhard1]

those are huge!! never got a sturgeon even close to that size. great work. good luck.

[JacobG]

nice sturgeon, be up thursday for my 10th year of sturgeon fishing! 2001 seems like yesterday. Def. some quality fish.

[shefland]

Just returned from the day on the Rainy, it was a very slow day, at least for the anglers between vidas and the church, LOTS of boats, very few nets out, we caught 3. Water was 36 to 37 degrees and getting brown, very little current, surprises me to have dirty water with such little current, must be run off from ditches? Heard reports of you should have been here yesterday, doesn't bother me it was so great to get out. Good luck to all. 38 degrees and light rain when we left and 57 and fair in Bemidji when we got home.

[bmc]

Same results as shefland today. 3 of us fished from the Vidas landing to the east a few miles. Very slooooooow day on the river. We ended up boating 5 fish, 4 keepers, and a few misses in 4.5 hrs of fishing. Just when the action picked up, it started raining and no bites what so ever. The rain didn't look like it was going to lighten up or quit, so we left. Warmest water temp we saw was 35.1 degrees..........too cold IMO.

I caught 3 eater fish on a white or chartruse bucktails jigs w/ a rainbow and a stinger hook.

We saw very few fish boated, but did see a couple sturgeon caught right in front of the Vidas landing.

Brian

[thatoneguy]

Just returned from the day on the Rainy, it was a very slow day, at least for the anglers between vidas and the church, LOTS of boats, very few nets out, we caught 3. Water was 36 to 37 degrees and getting brown, very little current, surprises me to have dirty water with such little current, must be run off from ditches? Heard reports of you should have been here yesterday, doesn't bother me it was so great to get out. Good luck to all. 38 degrees and light rain when we left and 57 and fair in Bemidji when we got home.

Give me a call or stop by if you head up again. I'll take a day off to fish anytime!

[hill7410]

This was the last day, pretty slow goin for the walleyes so we started to fish for sturgeons. Sure was a good trip just wish the walleyes were bitting better. Used mimic minnow perch and that out fished rainbows 2 to 1. Morning was better than evening. 16 to 20 feet seemed to work the best and stay as verticle as possible. Good luck to everybody that comes up and rip some lips for me!

[Sportland_Bait]

We got back yesterday afternoon from 2 full days and a couple hours yesterday morning on the river. Dropping in was smooth and easy, not much waiting in line. Maybe 4-5 rigs at any one time. We fished from Birchdale down almost to Vidas. Fishing pretty much the same everywhere. There were a couple of stretches that held a few more fish from what I could tell. Water temps were 35-37 degrees and the water was stained but not muddy. We fished 3/8 ounce jigs the whole time, mostly minnows. Some plastics with a minnow. Seems like the fish just aren't there yet in full force. Most of our fish were males, 14-17 inchers. We did end up with a 30 incher along with a 25 and a couple of 23s. We never did run into a mother load but we were able to grind out a fish or two per drift. Boated 22 on Tuesday and 25 on Wednesday for 3 guys. Saw more Sturgies caught than walleyes. Nice weather though. Hoping to see some better reports from this weekend.

Jason Erlandson

[Fish Head]

We were up Monday to Wednesday. My report wouldn't be much different than what other are saying. I don't think the majority of the lake fish are up in the river yet. 3/8 ounce was fine. Water temp was around 37. Color didn't seem to matter. Monday & Tuesday our biggest was only 22. We did get into larger ones Wednesday, catching a 27 1/2, 24,23,22, along with the eaters.

[just_jig]

Just got off the river, water clarity around 6 inches, boat drifted down stream around 1.50 mph. Very few Walley being caught, Sturgen going strong. Water temp 36-37 degrees. Drove over Little fork - solid and holding strong. Was informed clartiy down due to I-Fall released water from Dam. I amd fishing partner were skunked.

[walleyeguy13]

Northlander-- 28 on the nose.