Early Spring Rainy Trip

I’ve made the decision to stay home this year. I’m not going to drive 600 mikes to be cold and miserable only to come home and be miserable (angry FW).

Have fun boys! Go get em!

Matt, we will see if you change your mind after the photos start showing up on your phone.

I’m sure I’ll be jealous, but my hands will probably get cold looking at the photos.

biggill wrote:

I’ve made the decision to stay home this year. I’m not going to drive 600 mikes to be cold and miserable only to come home and be miserable (angry FW).

Have fun boys! Go get em!

x2 although my decision was made when my FW booked a trip to AZ months ago, and then the weather made her decision look like the second best one she’s ever made (after marrying me of course ). Look forward to the reports, it could be an epic end of the season, but maybe bring your augers and ice gear just in case!

Anybody thats heading up next week have any worry about what those nighttime lows are going to do to the motors?

jonesry09 wrote:

Anybody thats heading up next week have any worry about what those nighttime lows are going to do to the motors?

I guess I’m not too concerned. We are heading up on Wednesday. Night time lows will be in the mid to upper teens. As long as you drain the water out when leaving the ramp, it should be fine. If we had lows near zero or below zero, I would be more concerned.

There’s been enough west wind today to keep the ice under control and keep boats not so under control. One word description of fishing, temps and wind today at Birchdale…brutal. +17 after a low of +3 and a 18-30 mph wind. In fact the last 8 days have somewhat to very challenging.

Another thing to note is the river is quite low right now so some new danger spots. Rocks are visible now that weren’t even 4-5 days ago.

Good news is weather forecast is looking better for the last week starting tomorrow and it’s highly unlikely the Forks will be out before April 14. There’s a chance for the start of the sturgeon season on April 24 we could see a few days of good clarity yet. Of course a unforseen heavy rain event could change that.

Thanks for all the reports guys. Glad we cancelled I guess. We ended up going on a snowmobile trip instead. Still sad we missed the Rainy but most reports have sounded pretty brutal.

What does ‘FW’ stand for?

lindyrig79 wrote:

What does ‘FW’ stand for?

Favorite Wife, it’s a BK-ism I believe. Looks like it will be a cold end of the season!

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>lindyrig79 wrote:</div>
What does ‘FW’ stand for?

Favorite Wife, it’s a BK-ism I believe. Looks like it will be a cold end of the season!

LOL – no wonder I’ve never been able to figure that out myself!

lindyrig79 wrote:

Thanks for all the reports guys. Glad we cancelled I guess. We ended up going on a snowmobile trip instead. Still sad we missed the Rainy but most reports have sounded pretty brutal.

What does ‘FW’ stand for?

lindyrig79, Where did you go snowmobiling? I have been itching to get one more ride in.

arcticm1000 wrote:

lindyrig79, Where did you go snowmobiling? I have been itching to get one more ride in.

North side of Mille Lacs. Rode around the lake and some ditches. Then trailered up North of Aitkin there was some public land and trail systems that were decent. The trails around Malmo were closed though, plenty of snow but gates shut.

Thanks lindyrig79. I drove up Reed’s in Onamia last Wednesday. Lots of tracks in the ditch along 169. It looked like a few people had some fun riding. Crazy to be able to ride in April. Might as well go snowmobiling if the river fishing isn’t going to be very good this year.

We fished yesterday (8th) out of frontier landing. Ice moving down and piling up on the river made it difficult to even throw a jig into the water half the day, only had a small snake to show for the day. Saw very few fish caught. Today we launched out of birchdale and it was clear of ice completely, caught about 20 ‘eyes, 3 over 25″ with a 26.5″ being the biggest. All boats we saw were getting at least a few. Water temp hit 36 degrees today.

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Whats the ticket or whats been working for you guys? Vertical jigging, pitching plastics or trolling cranks? Seems like everyone that I have heard from is all over the board on whats been working. Hoping these next few days will produce a pattern for a solid end to the season!

Fishtrekker wrote:

Whats the ticket or whats been working for you guys? Vertical jigging, pitching plastics or trolling cranks? Seems like everyone that I have heard from is all over the board on whats been working. Hoping these next few days will produce a pattern for a solid end to the season!

Personally, my best luck was on a 3/8 oz. “wonderbread” colored flasher jig with a silver blade tipped with a minnow, and the other half of our fish came on a chart./orange core moxi with a 3/8 head. The wind would drift us upriver so we gave it a good cast out, and just dragged the jigs with a short hop once in ahwile, and let the blade or plastic just work it’s magic with a little current. We got a couple hits on cranks but nothing much.

Nice fish! What was the traffic at the landings like when you guys were there?

TMF89 wrote:

Nice fish! What was the traffic at the landings like when you guys were there?

Frontier was quite a bit of traffic yesterday since that was the only open landing and the poor conditions at that spot in general. With birchdale being totally open today and two sides, there was only a 15 minute wait to put in, and there were plenty of good, low traffic spots out there for getting drifts and casts in without playing bumper boats all day. The site workers at birchdale were doing an excellent job with keeping things moving and keeping the landing in excellent condition despite the very low water. One thing to take major precautions for is all of the rock shoals/boulders that are only a foot underwater right now.

I see a few IDO members FB’s are putting the smack down on quality fish.

2 more wake ups until I join the party.

Headed up tmrw!! So pumped