Rainy Summer Sturgeon

  • fulvescens
    Posts: 30
    July 23, 2007 at 1:23 pm #1220608

    We hit the Rainy River below the dam at International Falls last Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday morning. The water was up from last year. Fish at the dam were running smaller than last year. I think with the higher water the sturgeon are more scattered in the river. We caught 24 sturgeon. Small walleyes and suckers were a problem. They would strip your crawlers as soon as it hit the bottom. We moved to deeper water (35-50 feet) and that problem was greatly reduced. We used a crawler/shiner minnow combo for bait. We cut the shiner minnows into pieces. It seemed to work better than whole minnows. Our largest fish was 59 inches/44 lbs. A lot of the sturgeon were in the 27-32 inch range. We had several jumpers which is always a blast!

    Brian Klawitter
    Keymaster
    Minnesota/Wisconsin Mississippi River
    Posts: 59992
    July 23, 2007 at 1:55 pm #592885

    Oh man! I was hoping I wouldn’t see a report like yours for a month or so yet… The sturegeon bug has been gnawing at me!

    Sounds like you had a great time!

    When I saw your photo, I was thinking it wasn’t from LOTW as it seems thiner than the normal LOTWs Sturgeon. Must be a resedent Int Falls dam fish??

    What’s the access like in that area? Never been there but it’s on my list of areas to fish.

    bradg
    Posts: 507
    July 23, 2007 at 4:21 pm #592968

    Nice report!!! looks like a lot of fun

    Brian,

    Yes there is a nice launch in I falls, they have a dock out there and room for quite a few vehicles.

    The water gets to about 60 fow near the dam (give or take) I fished the dam this spring for prespawn eyes,
    It is a pretty nice area, BUT the water in was quite low in end of March/begin April. There are some shallow areas and rocks you have to go through to get there. When the water was low this spring a submerged rock added a new bilge pump inlet in the bottom of my Ranger and I was only going the speed of the current. But once you get up there the fishing is good for sturgeon!!

    Brian Klawitter
    Keymaster
    Minnesota/Wisconsin Mississippi River
    Posts: 59992
    July 23, 2007 at 9:26 pm #593152

    Thanks!

    Don’t need anymore bilge holes!

    FYI ~

    The LOTW’s/Rainy Lake Sturgeon season open July 1 and runs through Sept 30th.

    bradg
    Posts: 507
    July 24, 2007 at 2:09 am #593228

    I don’t know what the level of the water was then, but it would only take about a foot to foot and a half higher to navigate freely through the area, it was only about a hundred yard of having a spotter, then it was deeper again. On another note, we were not legal to enter Canada, so the Canadian side of the channel may offer easier navigation up to the dam. Once you get there the fishing is good

    audemp
    Wi
    Posts: 721
    July 24, 2007 at 9:06 pm #593564

    Man I got to get up there!

    bret_clark
    Sparta, WI
    Posts: 9362
    July 24, 2007 at 10:44 pm #593599

    Great Report, Cool picture

    They sure move water when they come to the top

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