Rainy River Fishing Report

[Tim_Anderson]

Looks like things are improving a little at a time. Word is that the Rainy has dropped about a foot in the past two days. Little fork has dropped about two feet, and is still locked up. Current is slowing. I heard of visibility a couple of days ago that was only 6 inches. Now I'm hearing more like 18-24 inches consistently. Guys out at the lake are doing well ice fishing. As the current drops and the water starts warming, those fish are going to start moving up.

Time for me to come up and find out for myself I guess. My pards are stubborn and won't seem to take "no" for an answer.

I don't see much changing over the next couple of days though, as far as fishing reports. Wind, cold and snow is going to make it tough on the fishermen. It's going to take some good fishermen and some hard core dudes to have success on Tuesday and Wednesday. But we're going to come up on Thursday evening just on the prospect of improving river conditions and very slowly warming temps.

I really hope that we will be able to provide everyone with some good news on the bite, and some good pictures as well.

[fishuhalik]

Thanks for the update Tim! It sounds like my trip may be salvaged after all. Sounds like it won't be primetime or anything, but I have a feeling we may be able to scrounge something up.

BTW, the walleye season close this weekend, right? Also, if the river bite is off, do you think it would be worth it to try icefishing the lake if nothing's going on the river?

[fiskyknut]

Season closes 4/14. The lake bite has been very good in spots. I was on Muskeg yesterday fishing Walleye and the bite was great. Some of the rockpiles out of Babblers have been good also as of late, reliable bite with a tough day thrown in now and then. I've heard the gap bite is off due to dirty water pouring out of the river? Not sure as I have'nt been eastside on recent trips. Access on the eastside via P/U may be a problem also.

Steve you out there? Whats the scoop over your way these days??

[jonahsauter]

we got back on monday from birchdale and it wasn't the greatest fishing but our group of 4 guys caught 24 walleye,2 measuring 25 1/2 inches,1 sucker,1 55" sturgeon and 1 eelpout over our 3 day trip.Mostly fished as close to shore as we could.Didn't seem to matter what size of jig we were using either.My 2 buddies in our group were using 1/8oz and 1/4oz jigs and my buddy and i were using 3/8oz and 1/2oz jigs and we were catching fish within 10-20ft from each other,orange and pink fireballs seemed to be the colors that worked the best for us so hopefully it picks up a bit for you guys going up there.

[Tim_Anderson]

Sure is nice to hear something positive. You don't sound thrilled, but this is the best report I've heard. Thank you!

[goingdeep]

Thats the most positive report I have heard lets all keep are chins up!!!!!

[Boar]

One thing We did when we had high water two Fall seasons ago when it was really high, we tied in a barrel swivel two feet upfrom the jig, an it caught most of the debrie from getting to our jig, we ofcourse had to clean of the barrel swivel but not nearly as often as the jig. any thing that you can tie inline without effecting your rig will work. We also found 6 feet of water along a bull rushy shoreline on an inside turn held more an bigger fish, two catch them we had to rip jig back to the boat, cast out, find bottom then rip jig back to the boat, man did we catch fish, well I did my brother could only watch. I'm sure spring is entirely different than fall. But hey, who knows? Boar

[Royal Dutchman]

Fishing report so far today has not been great.

Wind picked up a bit and made fishing tough but some walleyes & sturgeon reported. Have a group yet to come in and late bite has been best so far.

Clarity has made amazing improvement from early in the week. I am excited about fishing tomorrow for the first time this spring!

Open water on the North 1/2 at Clementson today and should open a mile or so below tonight.

Guys reported flow significantly slower today. Appears that river has dropped a good 2 feet.

Watched a 17.5' boat load at Frontier tonight and plan to launch there tomorrow. Snow has not been cleared from drive, ramp, or parking but ramp is clear of ice & ramp monitor gal was to call county today.

May not sleep tonight.

[Tim_Anderson]

Headed north late this afternoon. I am happy and expectant about the improving river conditions. Clarity sounds adequate, and I am suspecting that river water temps could reach mid to upper thirties by this weekend.

I hopefully will be staying up there for a week or ten days...as long as it remains clear and the Little Fork holds. I'll be staying at the park/access, but will eventually have to come in, gas up, and get a hot meal. Probably freshen up as well! If I get anything going, and catch some nice fish, I will try to stop somewhere and hook up my laptop and put a report on here.

Good luck to all. See ya on the river!

[fishuhalik]

Good luck to you tim! I hope to see ya out there. Looks like we're still going this weekend. Figure we might as well give it a shot, you know what they say about a bad day fishing....

[fishuhalik]

Another thing I should ask, do you think it will be a problem launching a 17' lund in the river on Saturday? Any idea if the ramps are gonna be cleaned up by then?

[heartattack22]

No problem launching at Birchdale...

[HawgHauler]

fishuhalik--the Birchdale ramp will be no problem for you. might even be able to launch at Frontier as well.

[Eyewitness]

So does anyone know if the county has cleared any of the ramps yet? If so, which ones?

[para1911]

RD, please let us know when the county opens up Frontier. That saves a lot of boat travel time if I were to launch at there vs. Birchdale. Many Thanks!!!

[@kkellywalleyes]

Launched my 620 Ranger no problem at Frontier today. Saw one boat push over the ice at Vidas. Still shore ice there. Temp on my boat today didn't get over 31.5 degrees. Saw one walleye & one sturgeon caught the whole day of all boats. Talked to multiple people and DNR and many people only had bites and few fish. We had one nice fish get away. Fished to Vidas, shallow or deep didn't matter. Didn't mark many fish. Was cloudy all day today. Current was a little strong, clarity ok. Fishing was very slow. Hopefully better tomorrow. We need SUN.

[Royal Dutchman]

Haven't been to Birchdale for several days so others can fill that in but it was open for 1 ramp a week ago.

Frontier parking area has been plowed and ramp near water line is clear but drive area above ramp is kind of a mess. Took us 3 tries to get the Smoker out with the old Explorer. Saw several trucks with more aggressive tires do it with no problem.

Didn't make it down to Vidas but also heard boats pushed over there.

Open water about a mile below Rapid River where it is jammed up. Open holes all the way down to the Dutchman and several miles could open soon. Be sure to b careful of the rockpiles on the US side between the Rapid River & Silver Creek!

Fished below Frontier with no luck. Moved down to Pinewood bend and Carl & I had 2 fish on in 2 minutes. Thought we had found the spot. Fished till 7 PM at various locations without another bite.

Can't figure this out. Don't believe for a second that "the fish aren't up yet". Have caught well at temps from 32.5 up and my temp showed 35.5 yesterday. If temp was 31.5, water would be a bit crunchy. The clarity was a solid 18" even with heavy cloud cover & have caught good when worse.

All of our people caught some fish and saw 2 friers set up in parking area last night. Saw several hook-ups and several nets out during the day.

We'll be out there again today to see if we can figure it out.

[LEECH21]

Your group plans on heading up on the 18th. We will miss out on the walleyes this year, so hopefully the sturgeon are hot by then!

Good luck everybody!

[jeepguy]

Royal Dutchman, good to hear some promising news. We are leaving saturday night to fish sun, mon and tuesday, hopefully it just keeps getting better.

[fishuhalik]

Looking forward to it! Great to hear some better reports coming in. I'm guessing it's either gonna be a boom or bust this weekend. Either way, it'll feel good to get the long rods out!

[heartattack22]

From recent report on Clementson's website, things are definetly picking up...hopefully be up on Sunday!!!

[BeezeHound]

I'm taking off tonight! Have a couple friends fishing up there right now who called to tell me get my azz up there. They aren't hammering them yet, but said they have caught 34 in a little over 4 hours, couple dandy's too. I can't even think at work right now, lol. I just have to make sure I don't forget my rod in my mad rush to leave. See ya on the Rainy!

[PerchJrkr]

Can anyone substantiate these claims!?!?

[computerboy]

Well, I just got off the phone with a few of my buddies that are in two separate groups and their reports weren't nearly as glowing. They both confirmed that the water level had been dropping down steadily this past week and is clearing, but the current is still strong and the river seems to be leveling off a bit. While they have managed to pop a couple, they really had to work for them and it was an all day affair. They've also talked to numerous groups that haven't caught anything. Most guys they talked to seemed shocked when my buddies told them they caught a couple. There's a lot of open water though so who knows...the bite (if there really is one) might be very localized.

It's definitely good to hear that a few guys are catching something instead of no one catching anything. But based on all of the reports I've gotten from people I spoke to over the past few days, overall fishing success is still far from "good" by Rainy River standards.

While I'm hopeful, I'm a bit skeptical myself PerchJrkr.

[EyeGuide]

The reports are pretty spot on with the first hand reports I got yesterday. The water is clear but fast and if you put in a hard day’s work you'll yield around 10-20 walleye. They also reported getting a few hogs already. I'm headed up next week to enjoy some of that sunshine that's forcasted Good luck eveyone!

[PerchJrkr]

I love how this forum goes from 0-60 and back to zero in about 3 seconds flat this spring...

[@kkellywalleyes]

We fished from above Vidas to below the Rapids. We saw 2 fish caught the whole day and saw one boat with 3. No hook ups. We had one nice fish on and one sturgeon. I believe it may be locallized. My guage said 32 today but that must be off some or down in the water more than others. Many boats were pushing over Vidas today and some were backing in. No big boats yet. Talked to a few people at frontier and the hotel and they said they got a few when the sun came out othes said one or none. We went directly to Vidas area from Frontier. Maybe they were doing better back toward Frontier. Hopefully others will report in. We tried shallow, deep, slow, fast, with current and against, heavier, lighter, jig minnow, plastics and both. Must have been in the wrong place based on the reports above.

[Hot-n-Tot]

It just seems to me that the last 3-4 days of the season are going to be the best. Doubt the bite will be as good as previous years. Lottsa COLD snow to melt yet and the temp doesn't look like its going to get above 40 there for all next week. Who knows!! Lets face it...its been a snowy winter...more snow than other years....and it hasn't warmed up near enough yet. Late springs delay spring walleye runs!! Might still plan the trip over Easter but the reports have to get better in order for me to make the haul.

[Ivy]

Well for those of you waiting to go and those up there I will give you my report for 4 days of fishing. We fished Mon, Tues, Wed, Thursday and drove 10 hours home today. This was the 9th year the three of us have fished the spring season and this spring was tough to say the least. On Monday we started at the Blue Silo and worked down to about a mile from Frontier with no fish. We headed back up to an area very close to the Birchdale ramp and found some slack water and caught 8 really nice fish in a 150 yard strech of the river. Tuesday was a snow storm so we stayed right around the same area that was partly protected from the howling winds and caught 12 fish all day. Wed we put in at Frontier and fished many spots but ended up returning to the same slck water at Birchdale and caught 12 more. Thursday we fished that same strech for 4 hours and caught 10 fish in there. We did venture down to the Blue Silo to see if some fish had moved up but after an hour with no hits we moved back to the small area that had fish in and caught 7 more. The water really cleared up in the four days of fishing and the current went down considerably. The water temp on my boat was 34.5 on Mon, down to 32.1 on Tues and Wed and up to 33.9 on Thursday. You talk to 10 people and you'll get 10 different reason why the fishing is bad. The fact is the fishing was bad. If not for one spot on the river we might not have caught a fish. I think it will get better but don't wold me to it. Godd luck to all there and those going.

Roger

Doug at Royal Dutchman, sorry I missed you the other night, enjoy what I left.

[computerboy]

Well it can't get much worse I'm afraid (unless the Little Fork breaks of course). Fishing the Rainy River this time of year is not for the faint of heart, and if they aren't snapping it's hard to justify a run up. I think you may be right Hot-n-Tot...it looks like we might just see a flurry of activity on the last weekend of the season. I was planning on making a run this weekend and hit it for a few days, but I'm not liking the looks of the weather or the sound of these reports. It's bad enough when the bite's not going, but it's down right awful when the wind is howling 30MPH to boot.

Thanks for the honest report Ivy. I've cleared my calendar for late next week so we'll see how it goes.