rainy river report

hey all,

just thought i give a report on my recent trip up to the rainy river.

i fished the river around birchdale for 4 1/2 days. i’ve never been up to the rainy in the summer before and i was in for a real suprise. as soon as we put the boat in on the first day i noticed big fish jumping all around me. it wasn’t until we had one just about jump into the boat that i realized what they were. STURGEON !!! it was unbelievable to me to watch fish up to 7′ long, jump 2-3′ out of the water, only 10′ away from the boat. i new they jumped, but i didn’t realize they jumped so often. at times you couldn’t go 10 seconds without one jumping around you. it was really neat to see, but also VERY FRUSTRATING . after that first 1/2 day i decided that all my attention was going to be put forth to try and catch one of these prehistoric beast. through out the next 4 days, i went through 14 dozen worms, as i tried and tried and tried to get one. but by the trips end, i never caught one. i did have one on for about 6-7 seconds, but it came loose . i cried myself to sleep that night . it was extreemly difficult keeping the little walleye (12-14″) and suckers off.

we also did a little bit of casting cranks hoping for some larger northern. it seemed like anywhere there were 2 weeds in the same spot you’d catch a little shaker. i only caught one nicer fish at 31″, all the rest were dinks . i also got 2 15″ smallies doing this.

i didn’t know this, but it seemed like the lamprays are quite a problem up there . almost half the northerns we caught had at least one scar from them, if not several still hang on when we brought them to the boat. the 31″er i caught had 3 lamprays and 5-6 more little round scar on it. it looked to be in pretty rough shape. we also could see the lamprys hanging on to the sturgeon when they would jump out of the water. we saw one big one that must have had 10 lampry’s on it.

anyway, it was a fun trip, even if i didn’t get my sturgeon. at least there were other fish to be caught. i don’t know if i’d go up there agian in the summer time again or not. it seems like you probably have just as good of chance to catch a beast in april while you could be jigging for momma walleye .

Hey Jake,

thanks for the report, to bad you did not have a video camera with you when those STURGEONwere jumping out of the water. I can’t wait to get back up there in Oct. Heading up Oct 18 to Oct 25. Here is a pic of the biggest walley caught in our group last year

i certainly would have had a video camera if i would have known what i was in for. i did try to take a few “mid air” shots with my disposable, but i don’t know how well those will turn out .

Hope they turn out so you can post them here

Jake,
I know this is a little late in responding but,
your trip to Rainy just jarred a memory I had tucked away in my head that was very similair to your findings with the sturgeon jumping. About 8 years ago, I grabbed my lab and I and we went up to Rainy in the first week in September and stayed at Lucky’s bait. (That was an experience…) Anyway, my first ten minutes on the water fishing for walleyes and this huge dark shadow jumped real close to the boat. I am about fell overboard as I thought.. “What on earth was that?” A few minutes went by and another one jumped behind and by the time I swung my head around to see what it was it gone again? At this point, I ruled out carp due to the size of the splash in the water. Then I finally saw the sturgeon jump near the boat. WOW!!!

Thaks for the report. Our best luck up there came pulling stickbaits close to shore (5-8 foot of water). Walleyes, smallies, and pike all fell for this presentation. Unfortunately no real big sized fish came from our couple day adventure, but plenty of fish to catch. Some areas I did not get more than 15-20 feet without a strike.

yep, that’s exactly the way it happend for me too. those first couple scared the living bejeebers out of me.

i also found that you could catch a lot of little walleye and northern by pulling cranks, but nothing with any size. i decided that i could catch little walleye and northern down here, but a gaint sturgeon would be a once in a lifetime type of deal .

Good point Jake. You probably know this already but spring time (late March and early April) is prime time for putting a big sturgeon in the boat while jigging for eyes. Most 3-4 days trips in the early spring produces 6-7 sturgeon. Size is pretty impressive as well. One or two of these brutes we boat are in the mid to high 50″.
I can’t imagine getting one of these monsters on in the mid summer when the fish in their peak fighting capabilities and not lethargic like they can be in the early spring time.