Rainy River Bite

We just got back on Tuesday from the Rainy River, so I thought I would leave a post. We started fishing on Saturday morning, launching over 10′ of shore ice at Birchdale. Talk about a scary/weird situation, half of your truck and all of your trailer is literally on the shore ice. It made cranking the boat out a real chore. Anyways, we fished mostly about 2.5 miles east of Frontier (this was about as far as the ice was out). The majority of the fish seemed too be in 12-15′ just off of some shallower flats. Anywhere you could find a decent sized drop, you found fish. We changed colors/baits constantly all day and a chartreuse jig seemed to be the ticket tipped with a fathead, chub or yes, a ringworm! We had some pretty good results with the ringworms, although I would really like to see how they do in the coming week as the big females arrive. We caught about 50 fish for 5 guys on Saturday, almost every one being native male river walleyes. On Sunday, the graph was showing some signs of walleyes migrating through. We managed about 30 fish, with the largest being 8 lbs, and a few in the 23-25″ range. About half of our fish were LOW walleyes. Monday the fishing was better for numbers again, but no real hogs. The river did open down past Frontier and we heard some reports of larger fish arriving. All I can say, is if you are headed up for this final weekend, you will be in for the time of your life. A big run of lake walleyes should be getting there soon and the size of the fish should increase dramatically. Water temps hovered around 33-34 and it was fairly cloudy/windy each day with the exception of Sunday afternoon. If any body else has been up or has any tips that have worked in the past, feel free to share them, it’s pretty much all catch and release up there anyway! Good luck to anybody headed up and make sure to post your results.

what are the regs for the river, is it all catch and release and when would the best time to take a trip up to fish the river.

labsrule,

Good question. Anytime is a good time to come up and experience this world class fishery. What would you like to do? Catch a lot of fish? Catch a lot of big fish? Or catch a trophy? That’ll make a difference on when I would recommend coming up here. Here are the regs….

Mar1-Apr 14, 2 walleyes-none over 19.5″

May11-Feb28, 6 walleyes-only one over 19.5″

You can catch a lot of fish all year but your best chance for big fish occurs every spring and every fall.

map_guide,

thanks for the info, that is what i was looking for. I would like the opportunity to catch a bigger walleye and not necessarily keep it. So it looks like just about anytime will work except the two weeks in april that I think you said it was closed. thanx

labsrule

dont forget the lake. During the spring when everybody is fighting to get on the river, the lake can be just as good if not better for numbers and size. You will appreciate that ten plus when it comes through a hole in the ice a lot more then in open water. tHe limits stay the same on the lake all year..meaning that you can keep one fish over 19.5 until the season closes in april. I have caught bigger fish and more fish on the lake when the river has been open..without the thousand boats. Graceton reef can be good, but is a very large area so you might have to do some investigating. Also the area off long point is also excllent. The gap area is also a perrenial favorite for eyes running up river, but can be crowded. Morris point resort area and the morris point gap also have produced huge eyes in the spring for us. Monster pike roam these areas also so bring youir tip ups and stay the day. The eyes tend to be early morning and eve. biters on the lake.