2014 Rainy River Conditons for Spring Fishing!

My mom (Alyse’s mom) and I ventured to International Falls today to check on the River Conditions. From where you can tell the River is open at Big Fork and to the west of there. For sure the river is open 25.8 miles east of Birchdale Landing. But you can tell the River is open to the west of the Big Fork so at Loman Rest Stop I walked to thru the hard snow up to my knees to see if I could see open water, the snow was yellow and slushy looking. So making a guess it is open somewhere between 21.6 to 25.8 miles east of Birchdale Landing there just was no where to stop for picture or that you could see the River from the road. Also we just wanted to remind everyone we won’t be doing daily checks yet because it is just over 100 miles round trip.
This picture is taken at Loman in the rest area which is 21.6 miles east of Birchdale Landing

The first picture with more snow and the water looks further away was taken on the Big Fork River bridge which is 25.8 miles east of Birchdale Landing.

The second picture was taken 1.9 miles east of the Big Fork River to show how open the river is

I’m hoping it opens a little sooner then last year so we are not all there at the same time again! It is all good though. Thanks for the update, keep ’em coming!

The river is 7.8 feet deep going over the manitou rapids and rising,this is a very good sign with that volume of water running it won’t take long for the river to open up.

Temp+Flow=

Thanks for the updates.

Thank you again this year for keeping us updated with pictures. I got the itch to get up there asap.

Topic of the day yesterday on the river down here was when the rainy was opening up and who was going. Pretty fun drifting by boats that would holler over “you going to the Rainy”.

March 23, 2014:
Around noon today we went and checked the river conditions. We have had many calls and questions wondering if we are really a head of last year as other places have told them this. I want to let everyone know that we are not a head of schedule compared to last year. The River is about 10 miles further east than it was in 2013 if you would like to view last year’s River information just scroll down further on this page.
Now onto the information you are wanting for this year. We found open water that is 17.8 miles East of Birchdale Landing. The rapids at Franz Jevne had some open water.

The first picture is 17.8 miles east of Birchdale and the second picture is showing the open water at the rapids at Franz Jevne

March 26, 2014:
Grant went and checked the River just after 4PM today. He went back to the same spot that we took pictures which was 17.8 miles East of Birchdale Landing. He also went to the Kuttes Landing in Pelland, MN which is 30.5 miles east of Birchdale and took some pictures.

The first picture is 17.8 miles east of Birchdale and the second picture is the Kuttes Landing which is 30.5 miles east of Birchdale

April 1st, 2014:
We woke up this morning to at least 12 inches of fresh snow but the further east Grant drove the less snow they had gotten. Grant figures Birchdale got maybe about 6-9 inches of snow. But it is hard to tell because of the wind we had all day yesterday and most of today. Kuttes Landing in Pelland looked like it maybe got 2 inches of fresh snow. When Grant was plowing today he had seen it was 31 degrees and the sun was shinning but very windy today. Grant checked the River and it is open 8.7 miles east of Birchdale Landing. In 6 days the river opened 9.1 miles!! Kuttes Landing in Pelland has some thin shore ice that got blown in from the wind the last two days.

1st picture is showing where the water ended at 8.7 miles east of Birchdale Landing… 2nd picture is of Kuttes Landing in Pelland

April 3rd, 2014: We had temperatures in the high 30s today but it was cloudy most of the day. We went and checked the river about 4 PM and hate to inform everyone that it has maybe moved 2/10 of a mile making it 8.5 miles east of Birchdale Landing.
The picture is the end at the Manitou Rapids:

April 4th, 2014:
I made the trip east to check the river because we had calls asking if it was 5 miles east of Birchdale Landing. I hate to inform everyone I did go 5.1 miles east of Birchdale Landing and all I saw was snow and no signs of open water. These pictures were taken just before 4 PM and temperature was 38 degrees the whole time. I was able to see open water about 7.3 miles east of Birchdale Landing and then I wasn’t able to see the river anymore. So it might be a little bit closer to Birchdale Landing but I know for sure there was still open water at this point.

The first picture I took this picture at 7.5 miles east of Birchdale Landing because it didn’t have as many trees blocking my view. The second picture is what it looked like at 5.1 miles east of Birchdale Landing. It’s not the greatest picture but shows there is still snow and no signs of open water. I tried walking down the hill but the snow went above my knee was very wet. The river is right behind these trees.

April 6th, 2014:
We checked the river around 2:40 PM and went right back to the spot that was about 5 miles. There is open water there now!! There aren’t many roads to go down to check the river between Franz Jevne and this spot but we did find one that got us close to the river. We found that the river ended just 3 miles east of Birchdale Landing so it opened up just over 4 miles in less than 48 hours. I am really sorry that the pictures aren’t as good as they normally are but I (Alyse) forgot the SD card for our big camera in the computer and we had to use our cell phones.

1st picture is 3 miles east of Birchdale Landing and is looking straight ahead. 2nd picture is taken 5 miles east of Birchdale Landing where there was snow less than 48 hours ago and now there’s open water.

Thanks for the updates. Talked to a few people that are getting boats reading and hoping to head up later this week.

Thanks Alyse for the updates! I am crushed that I wont be able to fish the river this spring but I will be there this fall!! See you and Grant in October!

Cory

Thanks Cory!

Thank you guys! I know people get so excited when the River starts getting closer to Birchdale and it is fun to hear the stories about how they do it every year

April 7th, 2014:
We checked the river just before 4 PM and there is open water in front of Birchdale Landing! The temperature when we got there was 42 degrees and the sun is shining. On our weather station at home said it was in the low 50s today. You can see the end of the open water just to the west of Birchdale Landing. We talked to a guy from Birchdale that said Koochiching County is going try to bring a bigger hoe and break up the shore ice at Birchdale Landing tomorrow. There are people pushing small boats off the shore ice at Franz Jevne. We will go back tomorrow mid-morning or early afternoon and see if they were able to open the Landing at Birchdale. Also the back parking lot and some campsites were plowed out today.

1st picture is looking straight out from the ramp at the Birchdale Landing to show the open water and shore ice.
2nd picture is looking to the east at Birchdale Landing.
3rd picture is looking to the west at Birchdale Landing to show where the open water ended.
4th picture is showing that small boats are pushing off the shore ice at Franz Jevne.

April 8th, 2014:
Just got word from our cousin at about 11:20AM that small boats can get in at Birchdale Landing (pushing off the shore ice) and that the guy opening the access is hoping by the end of today it will be open for big boats! We will wait until later this evening to go check the river and the access so we can have pictures of what it looks like when they are done clearing it out. Thank you to the Koochiching County worker for clearing out the access!
We were able to check the River around 4 PM today after we had received word that the Birchdale Landing is open to all boats! The River is open about 3 miles west of Birchdale Landing and has about 5 miles til it is in front of Frontier Landing.

The picture is of the Birchdale Landing all cleared out and ready for all boats

April 10th, 2014:
Sorry we weren’t able to get out and take pictures of the River yesterday we both were busy and didn’t want to leave with all the check-ins. Grant was able to go just before noon and check it out. The temperature was in the mid 40s and it has been windy all day. The River is open just less than a mile west of Frontier and the ramp isn’t open to big boats as of noon today. Grant said that he met the back hoe and he was attempting to break it up but couldn’t quite do it. Thank you everyone and hope you have a great time fishing!
1st picture is of Frontier Landing. 2nd picture is just less than a mile west of Frontier Landing showing where the open water ended. These were taken just before noon today

April 11th, 2014:
The Frontier Landing is now open to all boats!! Grant checked the River about 1:45 PM and it is about 4 miles West of Frontier just in front of the White Church on the Canadian side. The sun is shinning this afternoon after being cloudy most of the day.

Last night some of the guests told us that fishing was slower today (April 10th) than on Wednesday. Still some nice ones caught with many in the mid 20s still. Also some groups reported catching some sturgeon while fishing for walleyes.

1st picture is Frontier Landing open for all boats. The second picture is about 4 miles West of Frontier Landing near the White Church

Open water getting to Vidas yet?

Quote:

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Open water getting to Vidas yet?

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The most recent post from the clementson resort site:

Vidas landing now has open water. There’s about 10 feet of shore ice to break off, but the landing is clear. Open water reaches west of Clementson now. The bay is beginning to open as well.

Thanks Timmy. Heading up next Sunday or Monday for the week. Got a feeling we will be trailering the boats up river to fish that week. Who knows. Maybe Wheelers point will open while we are up. Either way its going to be a fun trip.

April 14th, 2014:
Sorry we weren’t able to get out to get pictures at Vidas it was a very busy weekend but we can see open water at the Royal Dutchman which is 6 miles West of Vidas Landing. Today is the last day of Walleye Fishing until the opener in May! We would like to thank everyone for the kind words and having fun even if fishing was slow most of the days. Now it’s time to think about Sturgeon Fishing which is catch and release right now and the season is open April 24-May 7!

Open water will be in front of our docks soon!

Do you guys still have a lot of snow on the ground up there? Im sure this week will be nice conditions for sturgeon fishing other than a little cool. Just trying to get a feeling for what we might be in for next week once warmer temps hit.

Thanks for all the reports.

I fished Th, Fri & Sat. We landed a 29.5″ (I think that came on an orange twister tail- no meat) on Th and a pair of 24’s, along with a few box fish. Some of our guys fished minnows on a jig (3/8). I only fished plastics, yellow/orange core pulsars, and did as good or better than everyone in the group. Dragging them on bottom in 8-11 fow. We also got a picture of a young guy from Albert Lea that was fishing alone and needed some help getting a photo of his trophy walleye, which measured: 32.75″ length x 17.5″ girth. What a great fish!

The walleye fishing go a lot slower on Fri and was dead for us on Sat.

For us the highlight was the sturgeon fishing, the sturgeon fishing was on fire. We fished the deepest holes we could find (21 fow).

Some of the notable fish caught over the weekend
71″ length x 29″ girth sturgeon – Andy Fronek (this one measured larger than the state record)
61″ sturgeon – Austin O’Kane
60″ sturgeon – Austin O’Kane
56″ sturgeon – Patrick O’Kane
55.5″ sturgeon – Tom Wrobel
Plus a handful of other 50″-55″ sturgeon
2 tagged sturgeon (both in the mid 40″s) Pete Brinkman & Joe O’Kane

Side note – I don’t fish with circle hooks, except when fishing in the spring on the Rainy River for sturgeon. Somehow it escaped me that you don’t need to set the hook, as I like to when bass fishing. We lost several sturgeon that first day due to hook sets. Once we just started reeling the line in and let the hook do the setting we started having a ton of fun.

As you can see from the pictures there is still snow on the ground.

You will see a picture in there of a 60″ sturgeon with a great shot of the ice. That is my nephew Austin, who was fishing with his dad (Joe O’Kane). They fought that fish for 30 minutes and when they finally landed and returned the fish to the water they were shocked to realize that they were surrounded by large floating chunks of ice. I understand there where some tense moments as they looked up stream and saw a large volume of ice continuing to come at them. It took them a long time to pick their way out of that ice pack. To say that they feared for their lives is not an exaggeration. I tell that story in the hopes that we can save some other poor souls from making that same mistake.

To end the story on a positive note, Andy tells me that he had never caught a fish large enough to warrant measuring it. So needless to say, landing that giant sturgeon was a real shocker. Way to go Andy!

What a great fishery! I can not wait to get back up there.

Congrats in the 71. WOW Awesome fish!!!

-J.

I see your story made the Strib sports page. Nice job.

5 days and counting. Can’t wait to do the sturgeon dance again!

-J.

Paul from Rivers Bend put up a photo yesterday from the ramp in town showing open spots out front.

Mike, I hope you tie into a 75″+ one!