Rainy river ice out

We had a fun trip. Had to pack up early. Fished till 2 am last night and went to go back to camp and my starter needed a tap to get it to turn over. This morning it wouldn’t turn over at all. I have one being overnighted to my house. I’ll fix it tomorrow and come back up Wednesday again.
We didn’t catch any monsters 27 and a 26.5 back to back casts and that was really it for bigger walleye. Lots of 18 to 20 inch fish. We anchored in a spot yesterday evening after a really slow day, we caught 50 plus walleye , 7 sturgeon, 3 eel pout, and a sucker all in the one spot from 7ish pm to 230 am. It was a blast. Just dropped jigs to the bottom and put rods in the holders, fish just came and pinned them selves. We battled a 60 inch plush fish for 30 minutes on walleye gear we got it boat side and I broke the line trying to get the fish a hair more forward. It was depressing, my son was bummed. But we all seen it. The girth was huge.
That anchored spot last night salvaged the entire day for us as we struggled early on. Plastics were not the ticket for us, the last night bite was on frozen shiners and a bunch of chubs my kid found at the boat launch dumped in the snow. So who ever dumped the minnows we owe you a big thanks

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We brought a chain saw and the neighbor and us cut and split enough fire wood for both our group and him and his dad, it was sure nice sitting by a fire on the river. We ate great all weekend. Pork chops, venison, t bones, spaghetti, eggs, bacon, sausage. We slept in the one shack and dedicated the other to the cook house / hang out spots.
I love this trip and look forward to it every year. Can’t wait to come back in a few days.

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Atta boy BC!!!!

Nice catch! Hung in there.

Pretty good bite again today. Seeing more lake fish than last weekend. This week should get interesting!!

Well plans changed, I won’t be back up for walleye but I’ll be back for sturgeon. I’ll wait a couple weeks and try that rodeo. Have to focus on turkey for a week

Just got word from a coworker that the river muddied up and fishing tanked. Shot my morning plans in the a$$.

Red Eye wrote:

Just got word from a coworker that the river muddied up and fishing tanked. Shot my morning plans in the a$$.

Did the Fork’s let lose?

Francis K wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Red Eye wrote:</div>
Just got word from a coworker that the river muddied up and fishing tanked. Shot my morning plans in the a$$.

Did the Fork’s let lose?

Not sure but at 3:00 today he said 3 of them in the boat caught 2 missed 2.

The forks are still solid. We just drove over both a hour ago.

Found one nice one before the clarity dropped

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dbright wrote:

Found one nice one before the clarity dropped

That’s a beauty

All the small streams let loose yesterday and muddied up the river yesterday. Maybe 2′ clarity. We caught 6 this morning in a few hours before heading out.

Muddy and debris today. Maybe 6” of visibility at the end of the day. 16 fish for 3 guys in 10 hours of fishing. Visibility got worse as they day went on. It’s been tough all week for us compared to past trips but today set the bar.

They were still catchable out there out east but it was not as easy as two days ago. It’s not too muddy in some spots. Fish are still playing if you look enough. Certainly did not have a banner day but the quality was the best I have caught so far this year. Only one fish under 20” today, nothing over 28”. Won’t be back on that stretch until this fall.

Forks have a few days yet imo but the entire north side river bank is like a waterfall right now. Combine that with all the small tribs on the south side… not ideal that’s for sure.

We ground it out today and found a handful of eyes in my boat today. Clarity is about 6″ and lots of floating grass. Fishing shallow and out of the main flow helped.

Little fork is blowing out

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jon amundson wrote:

Little fork is blowing out

You would think this is true unless you drove over it a half hour ago and both forks are still holding. Will check again in the morning.

Agree its not to rainy river yet but on its way seen pictures of ice dams on way.

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That will get it moving.

BC, that pike’s facial expression says, unhand me, peasant!” Lol

Looks like an awesome trip