questions for spring walleye on the rainy

new to the spring walleye fishing on the rainy river, planning on going up there with a few buddies and enjoying the potential for fish being caught.

my questions are what time is the best to fish? i do not understand the talk about “big and little fork breaking”.

what types of structure are guys fishing? i have fished the river in the fall and we did very well.

our group can kinda go relatively last minute maybe like a week or two in advance so any info on the best times to head up would be appreciated. thanks in advance!

Ill let others more experienced chime in with the timing.

As far as the Big & Little Fork rivers, they are locked tight through winter, and when the thaw occurs the ice jams and debris in there let loose into the Rainy, causing muddy water with zero clarity and instant water temp drops due to inflow of ice.

Ill be up there the 27th of March, and if the pattern holds correct, you’ll want to get up there the week before!

I took a ride this morning. The river is open from International Falls to just east of Birchdale.

Little & Big Fork are still locked but with the expected weather this week it won’t be long.

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I will be up Thursday night. Set up camp and hope to get on some fat walleye

It’s a very unique situation with a river opening early (either due to warm weather or forced controlled flow from the dam in ‘IFalls) and the fishing season ending late. The walleyes stage out in the main lake and as the water warms, they begin to head up river to spawn. Flow and clarity is crucial to fishing success and as mentioned, the Little Fork and Big Fork rivers do no normally thaw at the same rate as the Rainy, but when they do finally flush out it can spell trouble for fishing for several days, but it can also be a non-event. Mostly depends on the amount of water and ice coming out. This is a sort of trip where a lot of people have their finger on the “Go” button and any hard dates scheduled trips can be hit or miss. If you can be flexible and ready to go (or not go) at the last minute, it can help a lot. Depending on ice conditions and the number of launches that are open due to ice or snow, wait times can vary from minutes to hours to launch your boat (and find a parking spot). Plan for lots of waiting and walking. Be sure to pack a Sturgeon rod, it’s been known to save a few walleye trips when they are tight lipped or conditions are not ideal.

Others have talked about the Fork’s and letting lose.

My experience has been that fishing before the Fork’s let lose is a numbers game of nice sized fish up to 22″ with larger ones mixed in. After the Fork’s let lose, there seems to be more 25″+ fish in the system.

tanner voeller wrote:

what types of structure are guys fishing? i have fished the river in the fall and we did very well.

I agree with the others on your Forks questions. Generally don’t really fish structure, with a minor exception for deeper holes, sometimes they will produce in them or on the edges. Generally we are slipping the current down stream vertical jigging or a slight angle down stream jigging. Any color as long as it’s gold. The bigger the minnow the better. Plastics work too.

We fish more current seams over any structure

thanks for all the input guys, it’s much appreciated! hopefully will be able to make the trip up from the cities soon.

are there any resort facebook pages that give good updates on the river up there? only one that i have found is royal dutchman.

Not much river talk yet, but there will be. Here are some face book pages.

https://www.facebook.com/grollfishing/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/154535645285898/

https://www.facebook.com/ChrisGranrudFishing/?ref=py_c

https://www.facebook.com/firstcityguide/?ref=py_c

https://www.facebook.com/WesHarderGuideService/?ref=py_c

It won’t be much longer now. Both the Lost Dutchman and Sportsman had posts about there being open water at Birchdale.

And so it begins.
The Royal Dutchman just posted a video of Birchdale access being wide open.

Thoughts on the low water/flow affecting the migration up river.

steve-o wrote:

Thoughts on the low water/flow affecting the migration up river.

I dont think that effects much for the fish pushing up. A few reports I had from buddies were very good.

Never been up for spring fishing on the Rainy, but sure wish I was now with the current weather forecast. Can’t imagine what a madhouse it will be if it isn’t already.

Heading up early tomorrow, hoping Frontier opens up to disperse traffic.

I’ve got 2 friends up there right now. They have done fairly well with a lot of medium sized fish in the low 20s with afternoons being substantially better than the morning. They are leaving for home tomorrow morning to avoid the ensuing zoo this weekend. They mentioned a 40 minute launch wait on a Wednesday morning. I cannot imagine what that will look like this weekend. Best of luck to those heading up, and don’t forget to pack the “Minnesota Nice” and ample supplies of patience.

Too bad we won’t be able to fish the Canadian side, I usually spend 90% of my time over there. Oh well, just happy the County is letting us fish this year.

I understand that the fishing action on the Rainy River can be impacted by discharges from the Forks Rivers. Does anyone know what to expect from the Forks this spring? I would think that with less snow this winter, there will be less surface runoff thus thus less water in the Forks. Thoughts?

The Royal Dutchman had a post about the forks the other day.
He was thinking there wouldn’t be much of a blow. With the snow cover all gone and the water levels so low. He was thinking the ice from them would not even make it to the Rainy.

On a side note the river is open 2.5 miles west of Frontier as of today. They could see boats to the east of the frontier landing.

I rolled down to Birchdale today and I could see 10-15 boats on the river. Beautiful day to be on the water.

Dutchboy wrote:

I rolled down to Birchdale today and I could see 10-15 boats on the river. Beautiful day to be on the water.

how many rigs parked in the lot or down the road do you think?

grizzly wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Dutchboy wrote:</div>
I rolled down to Birchdale today and I could see 10-15 boats on the river. Beautiful day to be on the water.

how many rigs parked in the lot or down the road do you think?

Everyone must have launched West of Birchdale. There weren’t any rigs in the lots when I was there.

Has anybody looked at the forks lately

Still froze up as of 1pm today.

Lots of boats on the river, they were parking across the Hwy at the Frontier launch.

Of the ramps that are open which is the better one for a 20 ft fiberglass boat? Or do you guys think more will be open by next weekend?

grizzly wrote:

Of the ramps that are open which is the better one for a 20 ft fiberglass boat? Or do you guys think more will be open by next weekend?

More will be open. It keeps opening every day.

Vidas was open this evening. If a guy heads down river out of birchdale do not hug the Canadian shoreline about a half mile down. Watched plenty of guys hit a sandbar over the weekend.

I was planning on coming next weekend but with the low water I’m not sure I want to bring my 20′ glass boat up.

Got home last night, we launched out of Frontier Fri-Sun. I have a 20 glass and had no issues at the ramp or otherwise. Numbers were good, size not so much, biggest was 23″. Lots of sturgeon (not targeted), our biggest was 67″. Water temps were 38, and the river is opening at a fast rate.