Rainy River Fishing Report

[elusivecrappiecatcher]

Walleyes were slow today! We managed a limit for us 3 guys. And my dad got his personal best at 29". Great to see him catch that. Also got his first sturgeon and my buddy got a really nice 57 as his first sturgeon.

Fished from 7am to about 6:30pm and managed 7 sturgeon and 9 walleyes.

[meathunter]

Day 7 of 8 right on what tim a says the big fish are in packs. I have only boated 2 fish over 29" last monday was my best day when I boated a pile of fish over 25" the water clarity the past two days Thur and Fri is worse than its been and fishing has been tough for me as well. I boated one 29"

fri and found my fish tight to shore above frontier. I seen fish caught with cranks, spinners as well as plastics all week. Most fish have come going into the current. I have caught a bunch of walleye on ringworms and they totally inhale it compared to a jig and rainbow. I believe the water clarity down to about 8" today is playing a big role. I have heard good reports from the lake still but no big fish there and thats what Im after. The big fish are in pack and if you find them pound them. Water temp around 43 today. I don't want to go home!!!

[meathunter]

Seen jonny p a couple of times boating big sturgeon as well.

[Sackett]

I was there as well today. The river is somewhat murky in my opinion. Everyone we talked to had progressively slower fishing leading up to today. Current speed is plenty manageable. I dont think visibility was more than about 10 inches. We had only one small area that produced fish, was about 5 other boats and it looked that every boat got a few but no boat caught more than 20, most probably got 5-10 fish. We were out of Frontier.

[tearin' lips]

Fishing was the exact opposite for us and it is getting better every time we go. We solely caught and released looking for big dawgs today. My boat caught 67 fish today. None over 26", but a good majority were between 20-24".

Biggest key to our success is getting away from the people!! There are many locations to fish, find your own fish and spread out. I kept on finding the little spots on spots where we would pound fish, and low and behold all of a sudden boats would be trolling or anchoring within ten feet of us. Have some courteousy, spread out, and it will be better for everyone.

[ANYFISH2]

I finally convinced the wife to make a trip up today for a day trip. What a trip!

Late start, lost license, tempermental trolling motor, broken brake line while loading boat, closed hwy 72 because of wildfire, then blown trailer tire just south of Blackduck!

On the bright side the wife and I had a great time and were able to boat 3 fish from 8am-5pm(vidas). As well as catching 2 trolling cranks, a first for me on Rainy. As the jig and anchor bite we never found.

Btw, anyone know what Hubbard County plants in thier road right-of-way's? I'd love to know, I want to plant it in a plot as it sure holds a ton of deer! Seen over 50 between Kabekona corner to Aikley(each trip through), in the ditches, not counting in the fields. Good grief, they keep you on your toes.

[Akerman]

Alf-alf-a it's a new deer attraction blend that the county and insurance agents came up with to trigger more business for the auto body industry. Didn't you hear it was part of the economic recovery act!

[ccarlson]

2 of us were there just for the day yesterday. Started fishing up river (birchdale area around 10:30 and loaded for home at 6 PM. It was the best "Big Fish" fishing I've had on the rainy in a long time. I think we finally hit the water temp and run just right rather than being a day late or early like we find most years.

It was not fast and furious action as our numbers were not that high (didn't count and we heard people saying the 2 previous days had been better for numbers), but we caught a bunch of fish over 27" that had huge girth and about ripped the rod out of our hands when jigging.

Plastics got the biggest fish. We trolled for the fun of it for a while and our biggest single fish came doing that but I prefer to jig if they'll cooperate.

Some came from holes, others tight to shore. Just had to look and like others said, once you found a big one, hit the area hard and you picked up a bunch more until they moved through. Avoid traffic areas too.

It was a trip we almost decided not to make but glad we did even though it was 8 hours of roundtrip driving for the day.

ccarlson

[OUTDOOR_GUY01]

Just got back from there. We fished Thurs and Friday. 3 boats a total of 7 fishermen. We each boated about 15 on Thursday and even did worse on Friday. The water clarity was 12 inches at best. We had a great time, but not many fish. Most of the guys we talked to did about the same. The fish we caught were nice, most over 20 and the biggest was 28. With a week to go, not sure if the water will clear up at all. We fished the river the whole time, but we talked to guys who fished the gap and it didn't sound much better. Maybe next year it will be better.

[shaky legs2]

Meat Hunter, We were in Jonny's boat. Fishing was slow with all the ##@@xx in the water but thanks to Jonny I was able to catch a couple of nice sturgeon plus some nice walleyes.

[Lipriper84]

I was up with My buddy and his wife on Friday and Saturday. I guess they had let some water go from the dam in Ifalls before we came up so the current was a lot stronger than when i was there 2 weekends ago. We still managed some nice fish. Fished in closer to shore for the best action. My depth finder crapped out on me right aways So I'm guessing we were in 12-15ft of water. We got a 29.75 for the biggest with a few 27.5's, and a 26 and a bunch from 22-25. Also managed enough fish to eat and take home. Best jig by far was a 1/2 or 3/4 oz Knuckle Head jig in Pink/white. Also used Frozen Shinner and Rainbows. Rainbows out produced by far. and It seamed like the bigger the better.

We also Threw a rig out for Sturgeon and Everyone got one. 40, 43 and 56. We used a 3oz No Roll with about a 18-24 inch leader. #4 Circle hook gobbed with 3-4 Crawlers.

All in all it was a great trip, Stayed at the Royal Dutchman again. Boy is that slick being able to launch and then just tie off at the dock. Can't wait for next year.

[Mike Stark]

Fished Sun - Wed morning. Landed 149 fish. Not huge numbers but the quality of the fish were very good. Lots of fish over 27in. Tons of fish in the 22in-26in class. Most fish were over the slot. Biggest was 29.5 caught by my Dad. I also landed a 29.25 which is my personal best. We caught all of our fish on plastics. Glitter chartreuse and firecracker with chartreuse tail were the best colors. We would anchor and fan cast jigs. We had our best luck bringing the jigs back into the current. It was the best walleye fishing we have ever had. Crazy thing is that it can be even better. It was one for the books. Doesn't get any better than slaying huge walleye with your Dad.

29

29.5

29.25

29

28

[Walleyehooker]

Looks like you had a great time with your dad. Nice fish and nice pics.

[BartmanMN]

Wow those are some thick eyes. Good times

[LEECH21]

Wow! I'm jealous!

[gloomiseye]

Wow those are some tanks!

[onceacop]

Nice fish Mike!!! As hard as we tried 27" was our best.

[losthikingguide]

Fished Tuesday afternoon by Sportsman's fairly slow but two over 30". Went out of Vidas the next two days and just hammered them. They were shallow, 12-16 feet and rainbows were the hottest on orange and gold or gold and glitter blue (home made). We were able to catch a 32.25, 30.25 and about twelve between 27-29. The trick was they were biting very light so had to give them some time to "soak" when they hit the jig while anchoring (south of the landing). Had to go home for a funeral, would have loved to finish the season up there. Good luck to all..

[bobswag]

Since the river runs east and west at Vidas where would you think you were fishing east or west from Vidas?

[losthikingguide]

East, up river

[Big Country]

Any newer sturgeon reports out there? We are heading up early tomorrow morning and concentrating on 4 mile and the resorts for four day's. Hopeing the sturgies are still close by. Thanks! BC

[tearin' lips]

As far as I have heard they are catching them from 4-mile all the way up to the littlefork. There were alot of Sturgeon around that Birchdale/Frontier area on the final weekend of walleye season and the best is yet to come as more fish come up from the lake. So you should do well down in that area too.

[ducksnbucks]

We were up last weekend from thursday afternoon and fished through Saturday evening. We were blanked on Thursday but caught 19 sturgeon, 5 walleyes, 1 pike, and an eelpout for Friday and Saturday. Biggest fish was 64" x 31" estimated to be about 90 pounds.

[heartattack22]

Any reports coming from Wheeler's Point area? Coming up for a day trip on Sunday. Thanks!

[Jarnotski]

Oops, Missed the captain in those photos

[holmsvc]

I am heading up sturgeon fishing on Thursday. Has anyone been out fishing around Sportsman's/Wheelers Point lately?

[cbrooks]

Went up there Saturday fished the mouth of the Rainy mainly. I didn't catch any sturgeon, just some eel pout. Only saw maybe 5 sturgeon by other boats out of about a hundred boats so...it was slow that day I'm guessing. Hopefully you have better luck than me. Wish I could give you some helpful advice.

[marine_man]

A group of 6 of us were up and fished Friday - Sunday afternoon.. and had a total of 5 sturgeon, the biggest being about 40". I didn't see many others catching much of anything... not sure if the weather threw things off, or if the run is nearing it's end (suspecting the latter.. due to the early spring).

We tried out of Vidas, the Gap, 4 miles up river from Sportsmans, Sportsmans and at the blinker in front of Wigwam.

Hopefully there's a little better action for the Sturgeon Tournament this weekend.

marine_man

[iffwalleyes]

A group of 6 of us were up and fished Friday - Sunday afternoon.. and had a total of 5 sturgeon, the biggest being about 40". I didn't see many others catching much of anything... not sure if the weather threw things off, or if the run is nearing it's end (suspecting the latter.. due to the early spring).

We tried out of Vidas, the Gap, 4 miles up river from Sportsmans, Sportsmans and at the blinker in front of Wigwam.

Hopefully there's a little better action for the Sturgeon Tournament this weekend.

marine_man

49" thank you very much

[LOWinEYEin]

See my current report on topic "current river cond". Crawler seem to be the ticket for the sturgeon...wish i could make it up for opener. We seen some mpnsters. The river was up a few feet and we needed 3/4 oz to stay on bottom.