Rainy River Fishing Report

[JacobG]

Just thought I would share this pic with you guys since it directly relates to what you are talking about. This is a pic of a fish I caught on 4/20/2008 The fish was 74" long with a 35" girth. The MN DNR estimated the fish to be approx 70 years old and 120-130 lbs. Contrary to whay you guys are saying, I caught this fish on 17 lb P line with a 6'6" thorne bros custom musky rod. I was able to land the fish in about 20 mins, far less than the hour some of you believe it would take. The fact is that the moment you set the hook on a fish this strong and powerful, your tackle ( line, hook, knot) begins to deteriorate and become weaker. The longer you fight the fish the worse your tackle gets! saltwater fisherman retie on every big fish! And these guys catch 100 pounders daily! A spinning walleye rod is not the right tool for reeling in a fish like this. You need the right tackle to have a chance in most cases. It also takes a little bit of experience in fighting and catchingh large fish!

[jwmiller33]

Hello everybody it's my first post on this website. Hey it's my first time being up at the Rainy River and I'm 10 years old. My dad and his friend are coming. What bait have they been biting on? Any advice is helpful.

Welcome to FishingMN! Glad to see youngsters like yourself actively partaking in the fishing community. I assume you are talking about sturgeon, since walleye season closes in a couple days.

Last weekend, the sturgeon were on fire and were biting on everything from rainbow/fathead chubs and frozen shiners to crawlers. My pics from above with the 58 and 68 inchers I caught both came on a 5/0 circle hook with 2-3 nightcrawlers gobbed onto the hook and a 14-18 inch leader of 30lb braid. I usually add a rainbow chub or frozen shiner to my gob of crawlers and squeeze it to get some guts exposed for the scent trail.

As for weight, it really depends where you are going to be fishing. If your going to be in the river you going to need a little more weight than you would if your going to be fishing in four mile bay (where I was fishing last weekend). I was using 2 ounce pyramid style sinkers for a while last week but with all the boat traffic going by, when their wakes hit your boat and can cause your rod to bounce a little bit and as a result, the weight will bounce off the bottom with each wave from the wake, and when that happens you are kicking up a ton of sediment on the bottom which is not ideal. I've found it is best to hold your hold and give some slack when you see the boat is going to start rocking from a wake, to ensure your not banging your weight on the bottom and kicking up a ton of sediment. 3 ounce no roll sinkers were great last weekend in 4 mile bay, but with the forks breaking loose, current will pick up and you might need more.

A lot of people just throw their rods in the rod holder and wait for the tell tail signs of a bite. I have learned that you will be surprised how many bites you miss if you aren't holding onto your rod. It works even better if you use your index finger to hold onto the line (similar to like your about to make a cast) and it will give you the best bite detection possible. Bite detection is the most important part of the equation in my opinion, and I'd recommend holding onto the rod rather than putting it in the rod holder, especially if fishing is anything but on fire.

Having a good anchor is another extremely important piece to the puzzle. I'd recommend having 2 good anchors in the boat. First, tie the bigger/better anchor up on the bow and let out enough line that you have a good hold and aren't slipping at all. Then, take another anchor and throw it out the back of the boat. On this second anchor you don't have to let out much more line than the depth your fishing, as this second anchors sole purpose is to keep the boat from swaying from the wakes of other boats passing by you.

Lastly, circle hooks are your friend and I wouldn't recommend using anything other than circle hooks for sturgeon fishing.

Good luck!

[DTro]

Good point Jake, that trick works especially well when it's windy and the boat is bouncing, glass calm days or light wind, the difference is minimal.

When it's windy, I'll hold my rod and try to keep my bait on the bottom at all times. Your arm/wrist makes a much better shock absorber than the boat or rod holder.

You would be surprised how well you can feel them sucking on your bait with a loop of braid wrapped around your index finger.

[Tyler Holm]

Great info Jake.

[Effie07]

We fished 3/4 of a mile out of the Gap on the main lake yesterday in 8 to 10 feet of water. Caught one 18 inch walleye, saw three others and two sturgeon caught. Little to no current (could have used a 1/16 oz jig) and water clarity near the ice was 2-3 feet. Boy did we get some color from the sun yesterday! Only heard of one walleye caught in the river the 2 days we were up.

[19Biff_Youn]

Thanks !

[city slicker]

Man that river is tuff! 4 days 15 walleyes 2 over a 21" and a 22". 3 suckers and a big sturgy around 54" that was pretty cool. 3 guys that was some hard fishing Thurs, Fri, Sat, a wet Sun, and impossible to fight the forks on Monday! Well I guess we can hope for next year

[DTro]

Just returned from our annual Sturgeon Trip. We had 9 guys in our cabin at WigWam and when all was said and done, we probably got around 30-35 fish.......but we worked hard at those with LONG days in the boat.

The river was pretty much unfishable when we arrived. 15oz to stay down and crud everywhere. We ran out to the gap and it wasn't much better out there. The only place we found that was sort of OK was right near the Canadian line out in the bay. Even then it still took about 6oz to stay on the bottom.

The best bite seemed to be in the morning with midday being ultra slow. The average size was very good and I bet our average was in the high 40's. Our biggest in our boat was 55 and our group was 60.

This morning was brutal with 2-3ft rollers and frozen spray covering the boat. We didn't fish too long before hittin the road home.

All in all pretty slow, but we had a lot of fun and toughed out the conditions.

[Barbelboy]

I agree, the weather was brutal. But we managed some good sized fish in the river. Needed a lot of weight to keep the rigs down. We even had some excitement when we had a fish on and a log had floated down and tangled our anchor lines. Talk about a cluster.

It was our first year up there, I can only hope that the weather is better next year. Heck, how can it get worse!

[jiggin9]

Two of us fished sturgeon for the first time yesterday. Ended up with 3 in the boat and missed that many more. Buddy had one on for 10-15 seconds that probably would of topped our biggest at 45". Morning bite seemed better. Man that wind was cold and tough. We tried both the river and the bay with limited results. It was much nicer in the river but boy that current is tough. We used 8 oz to hold in the bay and 8-12 in the river. Our best luck was just off the red marker on the way out to the bay. We also saw several sturgeon jumping out of the water. Anyone have any idea as to why they do that? We could of netted two of them they were that close to the boat. Looked like most people were out in the bay braving the elements but we didn't see any fish being pulled in. All in all I think we were both hooked and will be back up to try it again for some dinosaurs. Hopefully the weather cooperates better and we tie into some bigger ones. It's addicting!

[firefish_12]

Dtro

Awesome video. The Dino fish sure are fun to catch. Next year I may but a rod and reel combo and actually target them

How heavy pound test do u use?

[Big Country]

Sweet vid dtro. Next year, at least get some minor league throwers in the boat BC

[aanderud]

What you don't realize from the video is that our boat was throwing against the wind. Yeah, that's it Ha. Snowball fights on the lake. My first time ever for that, and hopefully we don't make it a common occurrence.

[Gordie]

Sweet vid dtro. Next year, at least get some minor league throwers in the boat BC

yea after the drive by Big country I looked at the others in the boat and said We didnt even hit them..

I guess it was the thought that counts

[elusivecrappiecatcher]

We had 3 fish that made it into our boat from Thursday through Saturady. Motor issues slowed us down. Came to find out the border bait gas was junk! We pumped some fuel from the boat tank into a water bottle and let it sit. We had a good half inch of water settle at the bottom of the bottle! It ran good the whole trip till we filled up there. Luckily the little kicker tank was still had a full good tank of fuel to get us back to the lodge at the end of the day.

Caught 1 47.5" out at the gap on Thursday afternoon. Friday mid day I caught a 50" up river by the church bay. And my buddy caught a 36". I was glad he caught one since it was his bachelor party.

Each of us caught one and it was the first sturgeon for each of us so it was fun.

We only were using 5oz no roles so maybe that was our problem. Saw lots of sturgeon jumping by our boat up river hence why we stayed. Funny thing was the boats around us seemed to be realing fish in all over!. Even had a double going behind use maybe 20 yards lol.

I will be back next year but probably earlier though. BTW we did see the Sturgeon Excursion boat go right past us. Who had the boat that had Hotspotoutdoors.com on the side?

[Gordie]

If it was a gray lund that was Harveylee

[elusivecrappiecatcher]

If it was a gray lund that was Harveylee

Couldn't remember what type of boat it was but it was a darker colored boat. Might have been grey.

[Surface Tension]

elusivecrappiecatcher, bummer about the gas. Were you at Wheelers?

My report is much the same.

Cold and windy.

Friday's east wind was stiff and cold.

Good part is we we're sheltered behind the island in Four Mile Bay so the waves were tolerable.

4 oz of weight in 17' of water was enough for us.

We boated 9 sturgeon 47-57" and lost 3.

Sat. morning started out by shoveling the snow out of the boat then headed back to Four Mile.

North wind & driving sleet right down the pipe and there were waves.

A brutal morning and no fish on.

We headed to the river for better conditions.

8 oz of lead and the debris was OK.

No fish there and didn't see any boated either.

Finished up the day back at Four Mile hoping the wind would die, it didn't and no fish on.

Sunday, checked outside and the wind was still out of the North and it was colder.

We eat a big breakfast, packed up and headed home.

All in all a fun trip and can't wait till next time.

Frank Jr & Nate's Double.

[elusivecrappiecatcher]

Surface Tension, we stayed at Sportsmans Lodge...

BTW that little red Lund runabout behind your boat in the picture... It seemed like every time I turned around they had another fish on!

[Gordie]

That red lund is what Mrs boilerman caught on Friday

[fishuhalik]

We had an absolutely terrible weekend, as far as the fishing goes. We ended up with 1 46" in the boat between 9 guys, and I lost one that was a high 40-low 50" fish at the boat. Horrible weather, horrible current, horrible debris, horrible fishing, great bunch of guys was about the sum of the weekend

[holmsvc]

I am going to be fishing out of Sportsman's on Friday and Saturday. Has anyone been out in that area? Is the current getting better? Is the river clearing up at all?

[CraigM]

I was up last the last two weekends. The water has cleared up a lot, very little debris. Current has also slowed. We only needed 6 to 8 oz. to hold bottom. Fishing has been very slow. Saw very few being caught.

[topcat3820]

Quote:

Fishing has been very slow. Saw very few being caught.

I respectfully disagree, everyone I saw was hooked up, including us ...

... there were more, but you get the idea .

I do agree with your statements about the current, clarity & debris, though... 6 oz. was plenty of lead wherever we fished, too .

[holmsvc]

topcat what depth was best for you?

[topcat3820]

All of them, actually... but mid-20' & deeper was where we found more numbers & the bigger fish .

[CraigM]

I guess I forgot to mention that we stayed out of Canadian waters. Seemed like there were more boats fishing in Canada than in US waters.

[topcat3820]

So did we and all the Americans around us, but we're Canadians anyway .

P.S., the big one's were all around Wheeler's, but what do I know ??? Dandy bite right in front of Sportsman's too, judging by all the nets out & other indicators when we pulled in to tie up every night .

[jiggin9]

Went on a last minute trip up to the river. The wind was moving and so was the current. The rain showed up around 4 so we bailed early. We didn't boat any sturgeon but managed a 20" eye and a small burbot. I laughed when I attempted to unhook the walleye. He took a mess of crawlers and frozen shiners on a 5/0 circle hook but didnt even hook himself. The size of the hook and bait kind of took up all the room in his mouth and couldn't spit it. Either that or he wasn't giving up on the large meal. The only highlight of the day was the boat next to us that boated a 66.5". It took him and his buddy a long time but they finally got the beast in. It was very entertaining to watch. His chart put it at around 98# and 37 years old. I only saw 5 or so boats out in the bay and a couple in the river by the resorts. Pretty quiet out there. I only saw two nets come out counting the big one.

[KCWalleye]

Made it up from KC today. Hit the river mainly, pretty slow, and 24 inches was largest we saw caught. Our boats largest was only 18. Our best success was in 22-24 feet with pink colors. Anyone else having better luck on the river? Anyone seeing a big push of walleyes yet up river?