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Floating the Big Fork River


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I am looking into a canoe trip on the Big Fork. Thinking 3 or 4 days. Would it be better to put in on the lower part of the river or more in the middle? Looking to fish muskies and walleyes mostly. Would love to do the whole thing but not sure how long that would take. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated.

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Wait 5 months.

grin

I'll be watching this thread with interest as I have wanted to do a multi-day fishing trip on the Bigfork as well.

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For a multi- day trip I would put in at either the first or second bridge on Hwy 6, or Little American Falls north of Effie, and float down to Big Falls. Been years since I've been through there, so I would recommend contacting the hardware store in Big Falls for details.

Be forewarned, the bugs will literally eat you alive in the height of the bug season, so my advice would be to pick a time later in the summer. Middle to the end of May would be okay if the bugs haven't come into full swing and the water levels aren't too high.

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Yup, timing is everything in that one - not something you would want to do when conditions aren't right.

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  • 1 month later...

Sorry MNBIGBEAR I haven't been paying attention lately. As Swamptiger said the area from the bridges on Hwy 6 to Big Falls is a good area for fishing what you want to fish for. Although if I where to fish it I would fish it from the end of June until the end of July, in the lowest water you can get. You are going to be eat alive with the horse fly's and Deer fly's but that is the best time to fish it. The upper end of the river is slower and deeper then that from Big Falls to the Rainy. That end of the river is better suited for walleye and bass all tough you can still catch muskies and northern there too. The trip between the bridges is a long one, slower and deeper water, from the first bridge from Big Falls to Johnson landing is about 8 miles and a full day if you fish it. Johnson landing is a good place to camp. From Johnson to Big Falls is a long one, it is a mixture of deep and shallow but not a lot of places to camp unless you just get out of the canoe an pull up where ever. Good Luck and have fun, because that river has produced some real big fish for me.

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I'm gonna give it a shot with a 14 foot boat and 25 horse motor and some bucktails this summer around Effie. I heard last summer was pretty good up there.

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A good resource to utilize is the river level guage on the DNR website. I kept a close eye on it prior to my float last year and was very accurate. Unfortunately, a day before I floated a decent rain dirtied the river up quite a bit and I didn't do so well. Let us know how you do!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Awesome info guys. Im looking forward to giving it a shot. Will definitely (or hopefully) post some pictures if we have some success. Cant wait to be casting on open water again!

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • JerkinLips
      41.6°F in Stuntz Bay Thursday morning.  Left my boat in the water to hopefully fish more before the lake freezes.  Caught four 9-11" walleyes in 2½ hours before I gave up due to the strong west wind.  Water level has not gone up more than a couple of inches at the most.  May be a good winter to jack my boathouse out of the water on the deep end.
    • Troy Smutka
      The calendar migrators from the Dakotas have been passing through central MN in trickles the past few weeks, and the recent cooler weather has some Canada ducks starting to show up. We have been harvesting mallards, pintails, gadwalls, wigeon, shovelers, greenwing teal, canvasbacks, redheads, bluebills, and ringnecks in decent numbers.
    • SkunkedAgain
      It doesn't look like the lake level has gone up at all. I was up a week ago and struggled to get my boat in and out of the public landing on the west end of Head O Lakes. I used my paddle to push the boat further out to deeper water. I could hear the hull moving over the sandy/muddy bottom near the launch.
    • JerkinLips
      Pretty tough.  Was catching about 2 walleyes per hour and the biggest was only 13".  Back up Thursday so I hope I have better success.
    • smurfy
      the kid and I always check our stands prior.......i'll go back to check the conditions of said stands before he gets there to see what we need. while i'm at it if i can i shoot at grouse with shells that appear to not have bb,s in them!!!!🙄
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the South Shore...  With unseasonably warm weather, there are still some anglers hitting the water and most have been rewarded.  Limits of walleyes and saugers being caught, and the forecast looking ahead is favorable. The best bite on the south end of LOW has been in 22-28 feet of water. Water temperatures are dropping and as the temps cool further, the bite has been excellent.     Vertical jigging with frozen emerald shiners has been the program for most anglers.  Bring plenty of bait, as you’ll need to sort through some smaller fish and short biters.  Plenty of eater fish to be had, just have to do a bit of sorting.  Anglers are also reporting very good numbers of jumbo perch and occasional pike mixed in with the walleyes.     For those fishing structure, if you slide up on top of a rock pile, don't be surprised to catch a big smallmouth bass, there are plenty around.   This week’s hot colors have been gold, gold/glow white, gold/chartreuse, gold/orange, and gold/glow white/pink.     One tip, a stinger hook on your jig will catch you more fish if you start missing too many fish. On the Rainy River...  Bait dealers are reporting good numbers of shiners in the river this past week.  Interesting, each night is different.  Some areas have the small shiners called pinheads.  Other areas have the larger minnows.     The river is producing some nice walleyes in various spots from Four Mile Bay to Wheeler's Point, to Baudette all the way to Birchdale.  There are 42 miles of navigable Rainy River from the mouth to Birchdale with plenty of public boat ramps along the way.     Walleyes are being caught in various depths, but 15-25 feet of water has been good.   Jigging with live or frozen emerald shiners has been highly effective. Some anglers are also trolling crankbaits to cover more ground and find fish. Both methods are producing solid results. Sturgeon fishing has been strong.  The catch-and-release sturgeon fishing is open into the spring when it changes to the "keep season" on April 24th. Up at the NW Angle...  Fall fishing continues to be excellent. Points, neck-down areas with current, shoreline breaks, and transition zones from rock to mud are all productive locations for walleye right now.   It is traditionally a mixed bag up around the many islands in this part of the lake and this fall is no different.  In addition to walleyes, pike, jumbo perch, and crappies are in the mix.  A jig and minnow has been the most effective presentation. Good muskie fishing is the norm during the fall of the year and area reports have been good.  In addition to casting, trolling shorelines, points and neckdown areas has been effective.  Muskies are often targeting schooling tullibees this time of year. The weather forecast for the next couple of weeks is conducive for fall fishing.  If you don't deer hunt, or if you have harvested your deer, consider some bonus walleye action before the ice forms.  The bite continues to be excellent.    
    • leech~~
    • gimruis
      I'm not one to leave that to chance the day I need it.  I always check on my stands prior to the season.  Just like I always shoot my rifle before the season and I always run my outboard motor before fishing opener.  Too many things to go wrong without confirming it ahead of time.   I guess it could have been beavers but the house itself didn't appear nearly big enough along one ditch.  It was about the size of chair.  I've seen beavers houses many times before and they appear much bigger than that.
    • leech~~
      Good thing you made a check run.  That would have really suked walking into opening day.  Why do you think muskrats and not beavers?  
    • gimruis
      Well I checked on stands over the weekend.  Kind of a disaster.   All the ditches are plum full and twice as wide becauase muskrats have clogged an area.  I spent an hour unclogging it and the water is slowly moving again, but our bridges and planks were underwater.  The back portion of the land where the best stand is was inaccessible.  Hopefully that changes by Saturday.  I have a feeling the muskrats are just going to clog it back up again.   Tons of standing corn still too.  They've started on it, but being so wet now with more rain coming, whatever's there will remain there for the foreseeable future.   All the grassland is completely flattened like a pancake due to 3-4 inches of heavy wet snow.  That eliminates about 75% of the pheasant habitat in this spot.  Total buzz kill.  And this specific spot was one of my better producers last season because the grass was intact and lush through December last year.
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