2016 Rainy River Ice Out Date

It has been a mild winter.

I want to book a week of vacation to chase sturgeon on the rainy river, and figure with a week I can cover some ground and find em.

Wanting to book that trip in advance, and I can’t be as flexible as I want.

I’m looking for guess the date.

I’d like to be on the river before 4 mile bay ices out.

Any guesses?

Let’s hear em

Sliding Boats across the ice on March 22nd, Birchdale opens on March 25th.

Seems like a mild winter so far, I’d love to say March 10th but I would be dreaming!

I’ve been keeping this screenshot around for my own reference every year, maybe it’ll be of some help to you. As you can tell, ice out on the Rainy is very inconsistent.

And if you are focusing on sturgeon fishing, from my personal experience, I would try and hit it as four mIle bay is opening up. There tends to be more of a crowd, but for sturgeon I’d rather fish just a little warner water, rather than colder water. Seems for my group and I to be more productive for the dinosaurs.

I would plan the end of April first part of May for Sturgeon. First part of May would most likely be better right at 4 mile bay.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

It has been a mild winter.

I want to book a week of vacation to chase sturgeon on the rainy river, and figure with a week I can cover some ground and find em.

Wanting to book that trip in advance, and I can’t be as flexible as I want.

I’m looking for guess the date.

I’d like to be on the river before 4 mile bay ices out.

Any guesses?

Let’s hear em

I have always heard that for best results, be relatively as close to the ice as you can as it goes out.

Our group always heads up the Wednesday night the walleye season ends and stay through that Sunday. That way we don’t have to deal with as much boat traffic and launch lines. This year it’s the 13th which would be the earliest I have been up since we started going 5 years ago. In 2013 and 2014, we dealt with average to below average winters and springs and ice was barely pushing through Baudette around mid April.

Last year ice was out fairly early with the warm spring and it seems like the weather of March has a bigger impact on ice out than the winter itself so hard to predict at this point. With that said, it shouldn’t take a crazy warm spring to move the ice out when we aren’t even talking 2 feet of ice up there when there has been close to 3 feet in other yeas. I’m thinking by April 3rd, the ice will be out in Baudette and April 7th in 4 mile bay.

One more thing to add, we usually fish from the Baudette bridge to Clementson most years and launch out of Baudette. Looking back at my notes, ice out for Baudette landing was roughly:

4/01/15 Slighly above average winter, warm spring
4/17/14 Coldest winter in my lifetime and cold spring
4/16/13 Average winter but cold spring
3/24/12 Warmest recorder spring in MN
3/28/11 Warm spring

At this point ice is moving out around 3 miles a day so within a 3-4 days it is out at 4 mile bay.

By all reports I’ve seen of the river this winter, it didn’t get a ton of ice. Add to that the warmer winter, and I think we are looking for a year similar to 2010 and 2011. So my guess is March 19th.

First two weekends of April I can’t go. Probably the optimum time.

I think I’m going to have to pick easter weekend+ following week for a trip and hope for the best.

Thanks everyone. Feel free to keep posting guesses

My guess is March 25 at Baudette.

I’ll be up the 2nd weekend of April. Plan on walleye fishing for part of the day and then sturgeon fishing some as well. It will be my first spring trip to the Rainy River, really looking forward to it!

Ryan Speers wrote:

My guess is March 25 at Baudette.

I’ll be up the 2nd weekend of April. Plan on <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye fishing for part of the day and then sturgeon fishing some as well. It will be my first spring trip to the Rainy River, really looking forward to it!

I might have to lean closer to your prediction with the warm weather we have coming up. A couple of upper 30’s days up there will get some snow melting and runoff started.

I’m gonna guess March 17th. It’s gonna go really fast this year.

I’ve never been there in early April but I can’t make it in March this year. Any reason I couldn’t get into the walleyes that time of year? Does the water clarity become too big a factor that time of year? Thanks for the info in advance. I lost my old login so I’m starting over with a new identity I guess.

biggill wrote:

I’m gonna guess March 17th. It’s gonna go really fast this year.

I’m surprised to be the earliest prediction. I honestly think big boats in at birchdale by 3/14 and open in baudette by 3/17.

Small boats in at birchdale by this weekend.

I think big boats will be in birchdale by the weekend.

Birchdale might be pushing it, but Franz Jevne should be real soon! Anyone seen an updated report from someone up there? Here is a good map for reference on the landings for anyone interested or unfamiliar:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=zriHlHwdlJ7o.kZEtRC3AX7dU&ie=UTF&msa=0

biggill wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>biggill wrote:</div>
I’m gonna guess March 17th. It’s gonna go really fast this year.

I’m surprised to be the earliest prediction. I honestly think big boats in at birchdale by 3/14 and open in baudette by 3/17.

Small boats in at birchdale by this weekend.

I agree with March 17th, as that is the day my first trip up this year will start.

Hope to get up 2 or possibly 3 times this year.

Just heard birchdale is open

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

First two weekends of April I can’t go. Probably the optimum time.

I think I’m going to have to pick easter weekend+ following week for a trip and hope for the best.

Thanks everyone. Feel free to keep posting guesses

Did you decide what weekend you will be going up?

March 25-30

Nice…good luck! We’ll be up two weeks after that.