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2017 Rainy River Conditions


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For those fishing river. Be mindful of Canadian boarder and laws. Many boats are getting busted for being on the wrong side without proper paper work and liscense. The boarder IS NOT the middle of the river. You are not allowed to fish both sides of river without a rbac and i68 form with Canadian fishing liscenses. It can be over 1000$ fine and possible confiscation of gear if busted. Mnro, dnr and customs are patrolling river. Be mindful of this. Just because a group of boats are on the north shore doesn't mean you can fish there. They most likely have paper work you don't have. Also, if you fish Canadian side with live bait in boat get ready to get slammed too. Just a heads up as I know they're out there this last weekend through week. 

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Not having much luck near ice in low. River is slow too. Still stained bad. Early am was better. Sturgeon okay in gap

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Caught about 20 fish off shore today my uncle caught a 29 in walleye and a couple small sturgeons try an get right in current right off shore

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Was at Birchdale Friday night thru today early afternoon.  There was slightly less than 1' of visibility today, about the same as yesterday.  Still quite a bit of leaves, grass and crap fouling on the line.  Water level is falling steadily.  Water temp was 38-39.5 F.  Still quite a bit of current.  Was using a 3/4 oz.  Walleye were not interested in aggressive jigging of any sort.  There are quite a few sturgeon around that area.  Lots of sturgeon hookups fishing for walleye.  Fishing was a little slow by comparison to other years but not too bad.  Except for the minor cold front the last days of the season are shaping up nicely.  I would not hesitate to go up there again if I could.  As soon as it clears up a bit more it should be really good.   

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Tony that is exactly what I am doing, going to fishing Thursday and Friday .  I was up there b4 the river went bad. We did really well. Did you slip drift or anchor. Were the males milting or females dropping eggs.

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Heading up there tonight. Fishing Tuesday thru Friday. Thinkin its gonna get good. HAS TO!!  Lol

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Up there this weekend. Friday was slow, dirty water, caught not many eyes at all but big sturgeon. Sat and Sunday caught a lot of eyes in the river, cleaner water moved in and we caught a lot of numbers .  Average keepers were 18 inchers..biggest 3 @ 26 inches in the group..

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I have fished the river in spring and fall but never from june - Sept. How is the fishing on the river in the summer? I always head out on the lake.

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SPUD BAR,

The water is still pretty cold (39 F).  All the fish were tight (not spewing forth any sex products).  The drifters were not catching fish this past weekend.  Moving way too fast even slip drifting with the trolling motor.  The only way to get a bite was to anchor up and fish dead slow.  I literally put the rod down and just watch the tip for bites when it's like that.  They were picking it up off the bottom.  As the water clears up and warms up a few degrees I would fish more aggressively.  A chartreuse Whistler can be deadly when the fish are active.  That's my tip of the week. 

 

Lucas Longcaster,

Fishing the river in summer for Walleye can be work.  It's not the easy spring or fall fishing the Rainy is known for.  Early June could still be pretty good.  I used to confine my Walleye effort to dawn and dusk during the summer and spent most time fishing for smallies, which is excellent in the summer and to a lesser extent sturgeon.  I used to have the river to myself between Birchdale and Manitou in the summer.  Not saying a guy couldn't figure out a good Walleye pattern in the summer on the river, just sayin' it was more work than I wanted to put into it.  Dawn and dusk you could count on catching a few walleye/sauger, which is alright.  I can only remember 1 year that a bunch of fish were in the river up around Birchdale by late Aug./early Sept (2004). 

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Spud bar we got on them right out front of Wabanica Lutheran church caught fish in 13-17 feet anchored jigging, wont take you long to find out where the fish are we were the first 2 boats there in the morning and by mid afternoon there were probably 20 boats lined up. If you find boats lined up chances are someone has been catching fish.

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Lots of big females today pitching white plastics to rocky shorelines. Super slow was key last 2 days, not as much today. This one went 30.5"@ 11.5lbs

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20170410_145856.jpg

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23 hours ago, LucasLongCaster said:

I have fished the river in spring and fall but never from june - Sept. How is the fishing on the river in the summer? I always head out on the lake.

Depends who you ask. June to July I'm out there often and fish for bass/northern and walleye as evening approaches. It's a fantastic fishery year round. Just have to fish deep holes in summer or swift current. Some of my biggest smallies come from the river.  

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I am driving up tomorrow night to fish the last day.  Any suggestions on what landing to launch on or what part of the river is best to fish or is it good all along it?  Thanks for any suggestions.

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Birchdale landings are reporting well. There has been lots of reports of limits of eaters and slot fish being caught. Water clarity is improving everyday. Sturgeon and eyes are abundant. Beautiful weather should make for an excellent weekend. Rainbow chubs for live bait. Gold jigs. Orange and yellow jigs. Plastics in white or darker colors like blue or brown mix have been well. 

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Got off the couch last Friday and fished the last day with my Son.  Caught 35fish. quite a few over the 20" range. Several nice fish. Heard many reports of 100fish days. Fished for sturgeon on Saturday and all we could catch was Walleyes on our Sturgy rigs. Which was fine!  Thanks to all of you who posted true and honest reports this year. I really felt my best information came from Steve's Lucky bait and Log Cabin bait.  Those two guys are straight shooters good or bad(or negative like some folks say). Thank you to them guys especially! Buy your Bait from them folks!!!

 

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Nice to hear the reports from everyone and conditions! Planning on taking off a good part of that last week of fishing next year that it's open in April with a buddy. Every year is different but seems the key is to be up in that last week.

 

Debating on giving the Sturgeon fishing a try in the next month.

 

Ryan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Heading up tomorrow looking for recommendations on which landing go go out of. I hear all the resorts are booked by the lake so thinking it might be a lot of boats down by the lake. 

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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