Fall Rainy River Trip – Water Level Concerns

Heading to the Rainy in Mid-Sept with some friends for a Sturgeon Trip. We are bringing two boats – both 18 ft aluminum deep hulls (A 2003 Lund Pro-V and 2015 Crestliner Superhawk). This is the first year the guys that own these boats are going, but I’ve made the trip several times in groups with similar boats. We’ve fished low-water years before but nothing like this year is shaping up to be. A lot can change between then and now and I know the water level in the Rainy is somewhat controlled. But should we be concerned with boats that size if the dry spell continues into the fall? I should also add that all my past trips have been out of Frontier Landing but this time we’re staying at the Royal Dutchman just outside Baudette. I’m not as familiar with that part of the river. Can anyone provide any input on the water level, potential hazards in that area or we need to re-think things with those sized boats?

It depends a lot on how far you want to travel. We stayed at the Dutchman and launched at Vidas/Clementson this spring and ended up towing a guy back to the landing who hit a tree a little further down river. I would not run much further west of the Rapid River on Rainy on plane, as there’s a lot of trouble areas even in a regular year between there and Baudette. Further up toward IFalls there’s a number of bad spots as well. But from basically the Rapid River up river to Birchdale is usually pretty good, I’d just be very cautious at first to get a good lay of the land.

BigWerm wrote:

It depends a lot on how far you want to travel. We stayed at the Dutchman and launched at Vidas/Clementson this spring and ended up towing a guy back to the landing who hit a tree a little further down river. I would not run much further west of the Rapid River on Rainy on plane, as there’s a lot of trouble areas even in a regular year between there and Baudette. Further up toward IFalls there’s a number of bad spots as well. But from basically the Rapid River up river to Birchdale is usually pretty good, I’d just be very cautious at first to get a good lay of the land.

Werm,
Did you tie up at the Dutchman at all or did you take in and out every time? I was hoping we could use Timber Mill park as our put-in and take-out but sounds like it’s best to stay east of the Rapid River. No biggie all within a few miles I guess.

ThunderLund78 wrote:

Werm,
Did you tie up at the Dutchman at all or did you take in and out every time?

We didn’t tie up there, but I know people do. I’m sure if you gave them a ring they would give you an idea on river levels and the like.

BigWerm wrote:

We didn’t tie up there, but I know people do. I’m sure if you gave them a ring they would give you an idea on river levels and the like.

Yes, I plan on doing just that closer to the date, but I’m wondering if there’s any general concerns with the water level to the point of where we might want to explore other options, plan B’s, etc for our trip. Appreciate your insight. man!

The Rainy Bass Championship is August 28th this year I think. They run the river so if a Bass guy can do it you can do it.

Check the flow through the Dam here in I-Falls.

I fish Rainy Lake in early October each year. Fall of 2019, the fishing was tough and the wind we tougher and we had heard that the walleye bite was on in the River by Birchdale so we went there on the last 2 days of our trip and did pretty good.

Fast forward to October 2020, we fished Rainy Lake for the whole trip as we had heard that the river was too low for a 17ft boat.

Just wondering if the area around Birchdale is usually deep enough with a few holes to fish pretty much all the time. If I recall, most of the depths I graphed were 10ft to 15ft from the launch going upriver. Does the river very by 5ft or more? I am aware of the website to see the level of Rainy Lake and the flow of the river, just wasnt sure of the level of the river

You must have traveled down stream of birchdale as up stream is shallow rapids 1/2 mile up for 1/2 mile + in fast shallow rapids. Have passed through them many times but not recommended if you haven’t already done it. Definitely some world class fish in this system. Here’s one of the many Caught by my boat this spring.

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We got east (upstream) of Birchdale on one sturgeon trip, and I wouldn’t recommend it even with normal or higher water. Not very deep, lots of rocks and they come up quick. Had a strong wind going against the current which made it very choppy, too. Surprised the prop survived that adventure. I’m most familiar with the area between Frontier and Vidas. Under normal conditions you can go on-plane down the middle without worries between those two landings.

What are those stumps that stick out every half mile or so going down each shoreline? I’ve heard they’re remnants of the logging days, but not really sure what their function was? Those things make me paranoid, we brushed one on one year, thankfully it was a glancing blow and it was just a bump, could’ve been a bad situation.

The extend of my travel upstream from Birchdale was only to just downstream of the Franz Jevne State Park. Most of that stretch seemed to be 10+ if I recall but I think there was was spot we could see a large boulder out 50 to 75ft from shore. We went slow thru there until we had a safe path on the graph