Wanting to take a trip up to Rainy River on the weekend of the 22nd of March. Was wondering if anyone has any idea when the ice is going to be off? I know this winter isn’t looking good for early ice off. Hoping for the best but I know it is probably not going to happen.
hard trip to plan.
Way to early to tell. Looking through my notes from past years and by the amount of snow and ice this year if you do go you may be dealing with the shore ice to launch over. But then again every time you think you have the rainy figured out you are way way off the next year.
My guess is that the 22nd might be a bit early, but like the others have stated…you never know. I am shooting for the first week of April or so… Its a love hate relationship. One year we hit it just right and the next year we miss it, if a guy lived right next the river that would be the way to go! Looking back at all my success it has been April 1st and beyond, last year fishing past the gap! You just never know… Keep an eye on Clementon’s resort website, they usually give good updates and check the river everyday almost.
Good luck,
Jake
You can go up there that weekend, but I’d bring ice gear for the lake. Check out snow depth reports for the Rainy watershed, if it goes, it’ll be a short window. Hopefully it will be a slow melt so we can get a couple good days.
Tough call. Right now 2 weeks looks too early but it can change quickly. The forecast looks favorable for the next 10 days. Gut feeling is there’s going to be a shorter window to fish open water this year on the river cause we’ve had over 73″ of snow and there’s currently 24 on the ground which translates into quite a bit of runoff from the Littlefork and Bigfork watersheds. When those 2 rivers go out it’s likely not going to clear quickly. With that said I don’t run the weather. Bottom line – stay tuned and plan to come on short notice if possible.
We were out on some lakes in the Margie and Northome area today doing oxygen checks and the smaller deeper lakes had LOTS of slush everywhere.
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Wanting to take a trip up to Rainy River on the weekend of the 22nd of March. Was wondering if anyone has any idea when the ice is going to be off? I know this winter isn’t looking good for early ice off. Hoping for the best but I know it is probably not going to happen.
The river is open to mile marker 168, so that puts open water within 12 miles of Birchdale. The ice went out about 7 miles in the last few days. We will be on the river on Monday the 25th of March. With the river going into ice up fairly low, hopefully we’ll get some good fishing this spring if we don’t get a major thaw all at one time. As usual, fingers crossed. The pulse-R’s are laced up & ready to work their magic. We fish Pool 4 all winter, so March on the Rainy is a piece of cake!!!!! Tight lines……. 
Ok…so it’s getting close. Just wondering if anyone knows of fishing in my boat on the 23Rd is a far shot? Hoping water flowing so I can go.
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Ok…so it’s getting close. Just wondering if anyone knows of fishing in my boat on the 23Rd is a far shot? Hoping water flowing so I can go.
You going to be pushing it. Literally. Maybe across the shore ice. How big is your boat?
1675 Lund. Nothing I’m pushing over ice.
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1675 Lund. Nothing I’m pushing over ice.
You’d be very surprised. 18′ boats go across the ice pretty easily.
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1675 Lund. Nothing I’m pushing over ice.
You’d be very surprised. 18′ boats go across the ice pretty easily.
Funny but true 
OK-Another question along the lines of this thread. If you had to peg a weekend right now to plan a trip what weekend would you pick based on current conditions and current forecasts (don’t worry I know you can’t predict the future-I won’t get mad at anyone).
Weekend of March 30th?
Weekend of April 6th?
Weekend of April 13th?
Just your guess/gut feeling.
Planning a trip on the Rainy…….now there’s a tough trip to plan. 1 day could make or break that deal
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OK-Another question along the lines of this thread. If you had to peg a weekend right now to plan a trip what weekend would you pick based on current conditions and current forecasts (don’t worry I know you can’t predict the future-I won’t get mad at anyone).
Weekend of March 30th?
Weekend of April 6th?
Weekend of April 13th?Just your guess/gut feeling.
I say, YES! 
Would I need to choose now or can I wait until right before leaving to head up there? 
Mike,
Let’s say you have to decide by tomorrow cause you have to take a day off work and beg your wife to let you go!!! 
gonna be late ice out….Id say April 5-7 or so
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Mike,
Let’s say you have to decide by tomorrow cause you have to take a day off work and beg your wife to let you go!!!
Dang thats rough. Tell the boss you are going to be calling in sick on short notice sometime in the near future. You still got plenty of time to smooth it over with the wife. If all else fails just tell her you are running to the store for something.
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Mike,
Let’s say you have to decide by tomorrow cause you have to take a day off work and beg your wife to let you go!!!
Dang thats rough. Tell the boss you are going to be calling in sick on short notice sometime in the near future. You still got plenty of time to smooth it over with the wife. If all else fails just tell her you are running to the store for something.
Just going to go fill the boat up with gas!
Flawless! 
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gonna be late ice out….Id say April 5-7 or so
The ice is going out about a mile a day right now and open water is within 5 miles of Birchdale. I WILL be on the river on Tues. the 25th of March, so let’s keep ‘er going!!! With a little weather luck, early fishing could be good. Fingers crossed!!
I’m curious about the process of pushing a boat out across the ice. How does one do that and then how does one get the boat loaded back on the trailer? Both seem like they would require some expertise, guts and perhaps some serious problem solving skills. There have to be some pretty entertaining stories out there amongst the actual best safe practices.
Getting back on the trailer? Didn’t even think about that. I’ll worry about that when the time comes.
Here’s a photo of boats on the ice at Frontier. One of them is a Fish Hawk 1750 like mine.
Biggill, when was that picture taken??
This was in 08. I wish I could tell you there were similarities between that year and this year, but I can’t. And that was a great year.
This year has a lot of similarities with 09, the year I was skunked.
I have plans to fish the 27th-30th and i am getting very nervous!
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