2018 Rainy River Ice Conditions

[ducksnbucks]

You need to have an outdoor card in order to get a Ontario license, they kind of go hand in hand. Once you have the card you just enter that number in each year to get your new license. If crossing in a boat, I presume you will still need a RABC permit as well like in the past.

[@kkellywalleyes]

He called Customs at the Baudette crossing I would call there to confirm.

[rschmidty]

Birchdale is being cleared this morning.

 

[Fish Tales]

 4 of us went on A day trip up to Rainy( Sunday). River was open west of Birchdale to the Island 1.75 miles from Birchdale landing. When we left at 6 pm last night, the river had opened past the island and had open spots up to blue silo on canadian shore. That will be open today. As far as fishing it is rainy river baby. I have a clicker in boat we caught 146 and lost many many more had absolute blast. 15 to 20 of them were 25 to 28.75 inches long, lots of 13 to 15 inchers. Cant wait for normal trip in a week or  2. Water clarity 3.5 to 4 ft. Current was easy could get 1/4 or 3/8 down very easy slip drifting  with current. 5 boats on the water yesterday talked to a couple of them they were also having good luck. I was in the black alumacraft if anyone I talked to reply's . 

[NRX>JTX]

any pictures Fish Tales?

[MinDak Hunter]

6 hours ago, Fish Tales said:

 4 of us went on A day trip up to Rainy( Sunday). River was open west of Birchdale to the Island 1.75 miles from Birchdale landing. When we left at 6 pm last night, the river had opened past the island and had open spots up to blue silo on canadian shore. That will be open today. As far as fishing it is rainy river baby. I have a clicker in boat we caught 146 and lost many many more had absolute blast. 15 to 20 of them were 25 to 28.75 inches long, lots of 13 to 15 inchers. Cant wait for normal trip in a week or  2. Water clarity 3.5 to 4 ft. Current was easy could get 1/4 or 3/8 down very easy slip drifting  with current. 5 boats on the water yesterday talked to a couple of them they were also having good luck. I was in the black alumacraft if anyone I talked to reply's . 

What's "slip drifting"?

[ProGuideEyes]

Soooooo who’s goin up tonight/tomorrow’???

any pics from anyone ? 

That last report sounded awesome

[ANYFISH2]

41 minutes ago, MinDak Hunter said:

What's "slip drifting"?

Drifting with the current, using your trolling motor too to control you speed to stay vertical or to stay slightly up stream of your jig.

[Doug87]

Sounds like a fish tale, fish tales. 

[dnovak]

Heading up tomorrow through Saturday.  I will have a wall tent at the Birchdale landing.  Going to be a little chilly towards the end of the week!

[MinDak Hunter]

1 hour ago, ANYFISH2 said:

Drifting with the current, using your trolling motor too to control you speed to stay vertical or to stay slightly up stream of your jig.

Thank you, I've never tried that... does that slow the presentation or something?

 

[Jeff Mensing]

Now that Birchdale landing is open does anybody have a fishing report. Thinking about going up there this weekend. 

[ANYFISH2]

1 hour ago, MinDak Hunter said:

Thank you, I've never tried that... does that slow the presentation or something?

 

You can control your drift, preset your jig more vertically and follow contours if you need.

[ProGuideEyes]

Any reports from today?

[SPUD BAR]

Ok guys, not to kick a dead horse here as far as the RABC permit. Talked to a very nice lady from customs in rainy river. She said you only need the outdoor card and an Ontario license to fish their side. Following the rules about anchoring, going ashore and hovering with another boat. She did say if there is an emergency or boat/motor issues and you land on their side it’s a $1000 fine. So.....$30 for a RABC permit is a insurance policy just in case. Probably not as big an issue on the river as it would be on the big lake. That said, I’ll be rolling the dice and saving the $30.  Good luck to all going up. Stay safe. I’ll be up April 10th

[Fish Tales]

Notes.exe

Just a couple of pics showing our adventure.

[ProGuideEyes]

Today or yesterday?

Looks fun!

How e was fishing overall?

[rschmidty]

1 hour ago, ProGuideEyes said:

Today or yesterday?

Looks fun!

How e was fishing overall?

I think he posted about their trip back on page 3. These are just the pictures to prove the story.

[Fish Tales]

rschmidty nailed it these were just a couple pics from Sunday the 25th.

[NRX>JTX]

very nice

[MinDak Hunter]

21 hours ago, Fish Tales said:

Notes.exe

Just a couple of pics showing our adventure.

Wow nice! Any tips on bait, depth? And also, did you manually winch your boat back up onto the trailer?  I’ve never seen that before...

Edited March 28, 2018 by MinDak Hunter

[rschmidty]

Saw a report this morning that there is very thin ice in front of the Frontier landing. Also, open water in picture below is from the Clementson bridge looking south at the rapid river.

[Fish Tales]

We were using fatheads depth was anywhere from 10 to 13 ft. I think depth had more to do with stretch of river that was open. Manually lowered boat off trailer and same for putting back on. It helped having the plow push snow down the ramp gave us a higher point of entry back on to trailer. Person letting boat off trailer must have firm grip on winch dont let go or could be very bad. I've watched some just let winch go when at its highest point yikes!!!!

[MinDak Hunter]

Thanks for info Fish Tales...

[LucasLongCaster]

I won't be up to the river until the 6th but I hope some of you are heading up this weekend and will post some good reports.

[MinDak Hunter]

Today at Frontier access.

Looking west from Frontier.

[ProGuideEyes]

Fished Wednesday from 8-4 . Caught 30-35 fish  smallest was about 14. Biggest was 19 1/4  almost all fish were 16-18”   Northland whistler and a B fish N tackle 4” green minnow were on fire. No big girls this trip. 

[Badger_55]

Any bets on when the Little Fork will go this year?  Seems like we are a week behind from the last couple years.

[SPUD BAR]

Looking at what the temps are gonna be up there, it might tighten the forks back up again and delay an extra week or more. 

[Uncle Rico]

I don't see how the forks will be any factor at all during walleye season.