2018 Rainy River Ice Conditions

[eyeguy 54]

thats a dandy ! ! 

[Rick]

Nice Rainy River walleye!

[IceHawk]

Nice fish guys best place and time to catch a true trophy!

[LucasLongCaster]

Well that's a wrap. Was a great time this year fishing sounds like everyone did very well. But hopefully next year the river is open for all boat launches. Good luck this summer and tight lines.

[Doug87]

How far is the river open now?

[Pbrenn]

Last Saturday it was very close to Clementson.

[Rocky]

With the late river season and late ice out this year, would the rainy be a better than normal option for opener???

[Bigfatbert]

1 hour ago, Rocky said:

With the late river season and late ice out this year, would the rainy be a better than normal option for opener???

Indeed !!

[LoonASea]

Might be one of the few areas with open water for this seasons opener ,,, The St Louis River here in Duluth will probably be real busy this opener 

[Merrill Pavlovich]

Are the Littlefork and Bigfork Rivers open and free of ice?  

[elkhuntingfan]

We drove over them on Sunday, and they were still locked up.

[Boaty McBoatface]

Fished yesterday, river low and clear. Caught a few sturgeon. Launched out of Frontier, ice is out past Clementson but I don’t think the launch is open yet. Not 100% on that though. Forks and dam still locked down.

[Doug87]

Anyone know if Vidas is open?

[Surface Tension]

Last I heard there is an ice shelf that needs to be cleared away at Vidas.  Hopefully they get that taken care of soon.

[holmsvc]

6 hours ago, Surface Tension said:

Last I heard there is an ice shelf that needs to be cleared away at Vidas.  Hopefully they get that taken care of soon.

Given all the money brought into the area from spring fishing it is really pathetic that this wasn't done a couple days ago.  Sturgeon fishing has got more popular and there are a lot of people up there spending money!

Edited April 19, 2018 by holmsvc

[ANYFISH2]

Vidas rarely if ever is mechanically cleared.  Over the years of going up there, I have unloaded on the ice shelf and loaded out of water everytime.  Usually clears itself within a day, being it is on a point. That being said, maybe water levels and current prevented that this year.

I also do not find it pathetic, to not waste tax payer money to open something up that will do it itself, when other accesses are already open.  I do not live in Koochiching Cty, they need not cater to me.  If there is shore ice before I leave, I bring my small boat to land over ice!  I am responsible, to have gear and plan accordingly to the conditions I my encounter, not any one else.  The entire community Along the river and lake take great care of the fisherman day in and day out, if one access is not open, I guess you could just use one of the other 2 and just enjoy fishing sturgeon!!

[Surface Tension]

Vidas is.now open. The self of ice on the ramp would have taken a long time to melt.

[Razzle]

Are crawlers readily available up there?

[Boaty McBoatface]

Lucky Steve's had a decent amount Monday, Outdoors Again had sold out in the morning.

[Wes Peterson]

On 4/19/2018 at 10:49 AM, holmsvc said:

Given all the money brought into the area from spring fishing it is really pathetic that this wasn't done a couple days ago.  Sturgeon fishing has got more popular and there are a lot of people up there spending money!

That might be oversimplifying it. The county usually doesn't open the Upper Sault access cause it's risky. I'm not a backhoe or heavy equipment operator but have talked to county maintenance and if they say it's too risky I trust their judgement. Not sure but that might be the case with Vidas too.

 

[Surface Tension]

Timber Mill is open.  I think Wheeler's Point could be open by the weekend.   Getting the landings open is advantageous to anglers coming up and more so to the businesses in Baudette and Wheeler's Point. 

[Ballyhoo]

Vidas landing is in the very northwestern part of Koochiching county.  There is no  county shop near by and the county does not benefit a lot from that landing so that is why they probably don't clear it like the others.  Birchdale has a shop and they benefit from having the landing open.  Don't know that for a fact but that is my perception.

[holmsvc]

On 4/19/2018 at 5:42 PM, ANYFISH2 said:

I also do not find it pathetic, to not waste tax payer money to open something up that will do it itself, when other accesses are already open.  I do not live in Koochiching Cty, they need not cater to me.  If there is shore ice before I leave, I bring my small boat to land over ice!  I am responsible, to have gear and plan accordingly to the conditions I my encounter, not any one else.  The entire community Along the river and lake take great care of the fisherman day in and day out, if one access is not open, I guess you could just use one of the other 2 and just enjoy fishing sturgeon!!

How much money is brought into that area from people coming up to fish?  People spend an awful lot of on gas, lodging, food, beer, and bait!  So yes when people are up there spending money they do need to do a little catering or they may find less people at the lodges, hotels, gas stations, bait shops, bars, and restaurants.    

[rschmidty]

Wheelers access was opened today so all launches are now open.

Any word on the forks? They have to be getting close to letting loose.

[ANYFISH2]

4 hours ago, holmsvc said:

How much money is brought into that area from people coming up to fish?  People spend an awful lot of on gas, lodging, food, beer, and bait!  So yes when people are up there spending money they do need to do a little catering or they may find less people at the lodges, hotels, gas stations, bait shops, bars, and restaurants.    

They do! Every spring since about 2003.  We should thank them and not criticise when they dont get to it on our time frame! They need not do it at all.  

I remember when we started going in the 90's we would chisel the ice free if it was close to going out.  sometimes it close to 2 ft thick 20 ft out from the ramp.

I am just happy, the opportunity fish up there is available me.  I am also Happy I need not fish just in the comforts of my big boat.  I have a small 14ft boat I can load over ice and fish if need be.

As a side note, they financial benefit Koochiching cty gets is a drop in the bucket compared to Lake of the Woods cty as the vast majority of people stay in Baudette and on Wheelers point.  

I apologize if I offend you, I really dont agree it is PATHETIC that the vidas access wasnt cleared the day it opened or at all.  There were still 2 accesses open to all sized boats.  Access was not a problem.  Boating down river from Frontier is not a bad ride.

Have a great spring, I wish you the best of luck.  Look forward to your reports.

[ducksnbucks]

I was up fishing last week from T-TH, I will second that although it would have been nice for the Vidas Access to be open it really wasn't a bad ride from Frontier and if you didn't want to make the run from Frontier, fish were being caught up there as well.

Overall, sturgeon fishing was slow for us with very few fish using the holes. We ended up finding our fish up on flats in much shallower water than we are used to fishing. But, we talked to a few guys over the weekend that caught fish in the same holes we tried so maybe it was just our bad timing. Biggest fish were 61" and 62".

Lastly, I will say I was disappointed and frustrated at the number of people fishing blatantly fishing walleyes even though the season was closed. There must have been 6-8 boats in a group around Pinewood jigging for walleyes and then a few random boats here and there pitching jigs through the rest of the river. Several would put their rods down as we would come boating by and then when they realized we were not the CO they would pick them up and start jigging again. Saw several boat/net walleyes with a walleye sized net so clearly they came up to target them. Pretty crappy that they can't just come up a couple days early and follow the rules.

Will be back up for sturgies in 1.5 weeks, good luck! 

[folke2000]

Our group of 6 fished this past weekend, Sat-Mon.  Fishing was good for us with a couple of 63" fish as our biggest.  Fished off of Vidas Landing  Saturday, Timber Mill on Sunday.  Monday morning while getting ready to head back to Timber Mill, the fine people at Adrian's Resort cleared the access at Wheeler's Point (we were the first to launch there).   A BIG THANK YOU to Adrian's Resort folks.  Apparently we hit the "sweet spot" of timing this year to fish many areas of the river just before the Big and Little Fork rivers let go.

[holmsvc]

On 4/25/2018 at 8:42 AM, ducksnbucks said:

Lastly, I will say I was disappointed and frustrated at the number of people fishing blatantly fishing walleyes even though the season was closed. There must have been 6-8 boats in a group around Pinewood jigging for walleyes and then a few random boats here and there pitching jigs through the rest of the river. Several would put their rods down as we would come boating by and then when they realized we were not the CO they would pick them up and start jigging again. Saw several boat/net walleyes with a walleye sized net so clearly they came up to target them. Pretty crappy that they can't just come up a couple days early and follow the rules.

Had some buddies up there and they noticed the same thing.  I think the problem is caused because they have the out of tell the CO they are fishing for smallmouth or pike since they are open to fishing year round.  It would be really tough to tickets someone pitching plastics, but it would be interesting to hear how the conversation would go with the boats vertical jigging.