2016 Rainy River Conditions

March 27th, 2016:
We have talked to one group that just got in about 7:00 pm that fished by Birchdale and Frontier and said that fishing was slow for them. They also said they could see about 15 inches down so the water clarity is getting a little better. This same group said one boat they talked to was fishing in Canada and ended up catching 11 walleyes for the day. A different group went and fished up by the dam and ended up with their limit and caught some northern and bass.

March 26th, 2016:
We didn’t hear of any walleyes being caught and that sturgeon fishing become very slow in the afternoon. Some people said the water clarity was getting better by Birchdale.

March 24th, 2016:
We had a group that went fishing up by Pelland today and they ended up with their limits. All the fish they caught were under 20 inches and no big ones. Some group tried for walleyes in this area and didn’t have any luck. We had lots of reports of sturgeons being caught today out by the main lake.

Forks are intact.

Very little debris. 4 mile bay area

You mean the forks haven’t let go yet?? The water levels went up quite a bit and then dropped. I assumed they let go and started to stabilize. The rise coincided with the dirty water in the Rainy.

Still frozen

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

Still frozen

Rainydaze posted a video on FB, showing the big fork wide open and roaring from 3-24-16. And the Little fork was supposedly out on 3/21….

I have no idea just reporting what I’ve heard/seen.

Little Fork Data:
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mn/nwis/uv?site_no=05131500

I would like to know for sure. This graph makes it look like it happened.

Look at the discharge chart. It’s a solid blue line which indicates that it’s effected by ice.

This was taken by a friend last week in the town of Little Fork. Not sure if it is still jammed up or not. Would assume the Big Fork also has ice jams. A buddy drove over the forks today and said they are still intact.

Flow rate says it’s affected by ice.

Is it, isn’t it, aghhh. Lol

is the fishing any good by international falls?

I hear people are catching limits, just not the big girls yet

When the little fork breaks free what will it do the water….more debris and mud?

Yes it can muck it up good. Visability doun to several inches. Wrecking the wallete bite to the point some just head home. You can switch to sturgeon but leaves and grass can collect on your line. You may have to reel up and clean it off every 5 min.

The walleye are biting at the dam,a few sturgy are being caught too.Anyone wanting more info on the dam fishing just give me a call.Kelly….1 800 328 8435.
BB1

Gauges for both the Little and Big fork are showing a discharge rate now. Both look to be flowing well above average.

what is the rule on limits…….
if you fish the lake and launch in the river…..how does that work?

walinutz wrote:

what is the rule on limits…….
if you fish the lake and launch in the river…..how does that work?

Can not stop in the river on your way out or way in. Must do a continuous travel. Atleast that’s what the DNR had told us a few years ago…

Latest Fishing Reports we have

March 30th, 2016:
I did not get any fishing reports

March 29th, 2016:
The few groups we had in fishing did a lot better today and boated about 15-20 fish for the day and no big ones. They were pretty excited to finally get a fish. One boat watched another group catch quite a few that were in the slot. Water temperature was about 37 degrees and the clarity was still the same. I had to run to International Falls and the Big Fork was froze shore to shore for as far as I could see from Highway 11. The Little Fork was open with some ice by the Rainy River from what I could tell off of Highway 11.

March 28th, 2016:
Walleye fishing was very slow for the few groups we had out fishing. Water temperature was 35 degrees one groups said and clarity was the same (15 inches or so).

In another IDO LOTW thead both forks were wide open on the 30th.

This is almost as bad as “do I need to bring my extension”

I would trust the Royal Dutchman….. If they say the river was still frozen, I tend to believe them. And also judging by the picture up higher, I solidifies the statement that its probably frozen still. It’s going to let loose sometime next week though.

I was up there when the river turned chocolatey. “The Forks busted loose” is what the word was, and I’m sure it was true. There was tons of junk in the river the weekend of the 20th. When you crossed the rivers on the highway, though, they were still iced up as far as you could see either way. So, clearly, what you can see from the road is a bit different than what is happening in the water. It looks as though the ice leaving the surface of the river is less important than whatever else it is that happens. What the H is going on there? Anybody know? FBRM, keep us posted.

Here is the thread that FBRM started on his way back from his recent sturgeon trip. I’m assuming the pictures are taken from hwy 11 which runs parallel to the Rainy. His pics are from a day later than Royal Dutchman and it’s been fairly warm up there so I think the debate is done. They are open.

https://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/forks/

She done.

I guess we learned something here. The term the forks letting loose doesn’t necessarly mean going ice free. It usually does. Maybe we should adopt the term the Forks flushed. The graph shows the peak run off occured with ice still in place. The junk and dirty water coincided with that peak. We should be golden. Thare is no more snow to add to the runoff. The forks flow is low and steady. The Rainy should just get clearer every day. The temp at Wheelers is going up about a degree every day. That should slow this weekend. But we should see mid 40’s before the end of the season. I would like to see a little more flow in the Rainy. I love pitchin the seams. But careful what you wish for.

Gizmo hit it on the head. The forks rose big time and flushed everyhing out. If you look at the reports on multiple sites the debris and muddy water coincided with the graphs rising. Reports now talk about it clearing more with each day and debtis has pretty much vanished. However, flows are still high because the gates must be open at the dam. A fairly good rain event would muddy it up again. Now the choice becomes a gamble on waiting for warmer temps (which aren’t going to happen in the next few days), but knowing one storm could end the season. Gotta love the “Spring Rainy Lotto”.

Latest Fishing Reports:

April 3rd, 2016:
Most of groups headed home today and we got a few new ones that checked in. We talked to one group that caught a walleye up by the International bridge and then they tried by the Rapids and lost one. They said they had a water temperature of 34 degrees. We had a few snow flurries here today that didn’t amount to anything. Let’s hope for some warmer weather!

April 2nd, 2016:
We woke up to some snow this morning and most groups were slow to get out fishing as it was cold and very windy again. The water temperature went down to 35 degrees a group told us. We heard of a few sturgeon being caught and one group had caught 3 walleyes for the day. No one had told us they thought the river was dirty.

April 1st, 2016:
Today was windy but that didn’t stop the groups from going out fishing. We talked to a few groups and it sounded like fishing was pretty slow. One group had only caught 1 walleye and another group had 10 walleyes for the day. Sounded like heading east was better than out by the gap.

March 31st, 2016:
There was one group that tried by Frontier and all over that area and ended up only catching one walleye. They said the water temp was 38 degrees. Another group headed to the gap and said it was still slow today and caught 5 for the day. Another group reported 17 walleyes they caught near Frontier.

Does anyone know how the access at Frontier is this year? It has been a few years since I have launched there and last time I remembered it has a huge hole off the back if you go down too far.

April 8th, 2016:
Talked to a group that left this morning and had fished the past 2 days over by Birchdale. They said they caught about 30 fish each day, the water clarity was about 15-18 inches, and they had a water temperature of 37 degrees yesterday. They did not mention any big ones but sounds like the bite is starting to pick up in some spots. They did say that you couldn’t be aggressive with jigging and had to be very slow for them to bite.

April 6th, 2016:
Talked to a guy that fished over by Birchdale today and he said the water clarity was about 12-13 inches and was a lot better than in front of our place. He fished for a few hours and caught 3 fish all weighing between 5-7.8 pounds. Other groups said the fishing was very slow and some guys in the groups never even caught a fish.

April 5th, 2016:
The last couple of days have been slow for all our groups. We did hear of a few in the mid 20s being caught but sounds like most boats averaged about 5-10 fish a day. The water clarity according to a few different groups is between 12-15 inches. We did get some snow this evening.

I am not sure how the access is at Frontier I haven’t had any guests say anything about it so I am assuming it is better now.