Making my first trip on the Rainy River this Spring and was looking for some good insight and tips on place to stay or general areas to fish. I plan on fishing for about a week and looking to put my parents on some good fish and hopefully land a few trophy fish as well.
Any information is welcomed.
Thank you
You must be ice fishing? 
He may or may not be. You’ll be chasing the ice and any open water will probably be loaded with boats so I guess my pointer would be to get to the launch EARLY in the mornin or you may be waitin a few hours to launch.
This is a good start. http://www.idofishing.com/videos/viewvid.php/Number/989559/rainy-river-postspawn-giants
We vertical jig, drift and jig, cast plastics and troll 3-ways with stick baits. Ask at the lodge for finding out how far up river the fish have traveled to determine where you want to put in. Here’s a list of the boat ramps on the Rainy River. http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/areas/fisheries/baudette/rainy_river_2012_final.pdf
Lodging depends on what you are looking for. We stay at Schuster’s Resort which is now Slim’s Resort. $29 a night per person is tough to beat. Some of the lodges have more amenities but you can check them all out on the web just google Lake of the Woods Lodges. Several Lodges advertise here on IDO so check them out too.
One tip I would give you is to keep on eye on the water conditions. If the water turns muddy the walleye fishing turns off and there is really no point in going IMO.
Open water is just around the corner….
Dog 
It is really hit or miss on when to go. We don’t ever plan a day we just watch the conditions day by day. Clemnsons resort is good on posting conditions on there site day by day that time of year. When Frontier becomes launchable then we make the journey the next day. Birchdale has free camping if you have a camper. You better launch at day break or like we do is launch at night and beach our boats and tie them off its uncommon to wait 2 hours to launch during mid morning. Good luck and I can’t wait to hit the rainy!
Sounds like you will have either way a great trip! 
Quote:
It is really hit or miss on when to go. We don’t ever plan a day we just watch the conditions day by day. Clemnsons resort is good on posting conditions on there site day by day that time of year. When Frontier becomes launchable then we make the journey the next day. Birchdale has free camping if you have a camper. You better launch at day break or like we do is launch at night and beach our boats and tie them off its uncommon to wait 2 hours to launch during mid morning. Good luck and I can’t wait to hit the rainy!
Is clementson even open anymore? Tryed to book a cabin there a few times last year with no answer or call back. Kinda seemed as though the place was on their way out the door when I stàyed there fall 2011.
Quote:
Quote:
It is really hit or miss on when to go. We don’t ever plan a day we just watch the conditions day by day. Clemnsons resort is good on posting conditions on there site day by day that time of year. When Frontier becomes launchable then we make the journey the next day. Birchdale has free camping if you have a camper. You better launch at day break or like we do is launch at night and beach our boats and tie them off its uncommon to wait 2 hours to launch during mid morning. Good luck and I can’t wait to hit the rainy!
Is clementson even open anymore? Tryed to book a cabin there a few times last year with no answer or call back. Kinda seemed as though the place was on their way out the door when I stàyed there fall 2011.
Yes, Clementson is up & running. They are newly remodled and have been posting throughout the fall & winter. They are very good about keeping an eye on river conditions when it gets close to ice out & beyond. Make them one of your go to websites for up to the minute info. Geez, open water is only 2 months away. I will be there when it opens up. Not a lot of snow so far this winter, so it could be a good spring. Good luck everyone!! 
Thanks you for the information, pretty excited to get back in the boat soon.
thanks dr death. i like stayin down there its whole lot quieter then up by the lake. and its nice just leavin the boat on the sand in the little harbor. cant even get to the docks of most resorts the last couple years. cheap to for a cabin
Fishing on the river is all about the river conditions. To date we’ve had 55″ of snow, 20″ on the ground with more coming and conditions are similar through the Rainy watershed. So there’ll be more runoff than we’ve had the last couple years. It just depends on when that happens. If the Littlefork and Bigfork rivers go early to mid March the Rainy will hopefully settle down and be good by April. If they go out latter March it’ll like be tough. Chances are they will go out before season ends. Look at several 90 day weather outlooks, hope they’re right and that’ll give you a better idea what to expect. 2 of the past 4 years have been good. When it’s good a jig and minnow can be good and jigs and plastics can be better. Most important thing to remember – DON’T wander into the Canadian side of the river unless you have a Remote Access Border Crossing permit, non-res Ontario license and required boating safety equipment as required by Ontario and no minnows or liquor in the boat. Good news is there’s really no reason to be on that side but it is easy to wander over. If you have a GPS and chip of the river it shows the border, if you don’t just make sure you’re closer to the Minnesota side.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
