Rainy River Ice Out

I’m guessing lots of it froze last night and into this morning. It was super cold last night and until about noon today. Right around 0 all morning and never got above freezing. I think lots will hinge on what happens this weekend if we get snow or rain. Come next Tuesday it will be much easier to make an educated guess. We’ve gotten a warm day here and there but nothing that’s going to really make it start burning up miles of ice. I’d say somewhere in that first week of April is a pretty safe bet… maybe.

grizzly

As a general rule the Detroit River peaks around the 10th of April. It really depends on the spring weather and ice out of the lakes. The fishing will be very good usually a week on either side of that date.
If you go plan on jigs of half to 1oz. Some areas are VERY SNAGGY.
When you hit it right it’s a big fish bonanza.

mxskeeter wrote:

grizzly

As a general rule the Detroit River peaks around the 10th of April. It really depends on the spring weather and ice out of the lakes. The fishing will be very good usually a week on either side of that date.
If you go plan on jigs of half to 1oz. Some areas are VERY SNAGGY.
When you hit it right it’s a big fish bonanza.

Thanks. been talking to a bait shop up there and they are catching a few fish already,sounds like its going to be a zoo up there at the boat ramp. one ramp is closed and there not thinking it will open in time for the rush. so just waiting to see what happens with the rainy or maybe going to port clinton and fish the big water, that is just starting now also.to many decisions LOL, got to be back in port Clinton the 27th of April for a 3 week trip. All this stress over these walleye

Full draw wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
March 25th at 8:26am

Can two have that date and time? That would be my guess too.

Woooo. There are 364 other days you can pick. I don’t want to split the $0 IDO prize 2 ways

Well dang Bucky I guess I will change my date and go with the 28th. It’s a Friday just in time for the weekend crowd to use one access.

Haha just kidding.

I think you’re about spot on though. I’d say that weekend probably too now if I was allowed to change. I might be a few days early

If it’s a rain day Saturday and we can’t fish I’ll take a ride over that way and get some eyes on what’s going on for you guys. For people that already have time off set in stone, if it doesn’t happen there are other options than just birchdale. I wouldn’t cancel your trip if you have it planned and can’t move your time off.

That would be great if you could do that Fins.
I am hearing comments about 36” of ice at Birchdale. I just have a hard time believing there would be that much ice there.
Do you know what kind of ice thickness is on the river?

I haven’t heard much about how much ice is on the river. One thing that did strike me as kind of weird was in that video that royal dutchman put out a while back is that there was no open hole off to the right at birchdale. Usually that opens as soon as it warms up or sometimes in the middle of winter. Hopefully that’s not a bad sign but I thought it was kinda suspect.

Full draw wrote:

That would be great if you could do that Fins.
I am hearing comments about 36” of ice at Birchdale. I just have a hard time believing there would be that much ice there.
Do you know what kind of ice thickness is on the river?

We used to ice fishing the river heavily, I don’t think I’ve ever seen more then 20 inches on that river. That was more so towards baudette and not birchdale but 36 inches is a bit more then I’d guess.

Rivers Bend 5 days ago reported 19″ in front of their resort.

Looking at NOAA for Baudette it’s looking like mostly rain.
Wunderground for Baudette is showing almost 3/4” of rain for Friday and an inch mix on Saturday. They are also showing 49 for next Saturday.

The weather app on my phone seems a bit more conservative. Upper 20’s, low 30’s all week. High of 37 Saturday. Really hoping we don’t get a bunch of rain. Nobody wins if that happens. I think it’s really hard for that water to get a full head of steam when it’s been so cold at night.

report from the Dutchman there is open water at Indus school. Is there some where to look at the river flow?

I usually just google rainy river flow data and there’s all kinds of chats and flow data to look at.

grizzly wrote:

report from the Dutchman there is open water at Indus school. Is there some where to look at the river flow?

That is 9.62 miles from Birchdale.

Everyone has to keep in mind that there’s a ton of ice on the river this year. I’d assume it’s to the point now where it’s starting to get into the thicker stuff where it will start to slow down if it hasn’t already. I think this weekend will be the determining factor in how long our very short season will be this year.

Stopped at the ramp in International falls on the way to the grocery store. Looks like it should be useable by the end of the day.

Dutchman has a good report today

Wunderground is showing 65 in Baudette right now with 51 by next Sunday.
They are showing 6” of snow now for tonight and tomorrow.

Pretty crazy thunderstorm here last night. Still drizzling but it’s starting to turn to snow.

fins wrote:

Pretty crazy thunderstorm here last night. Still drizzling but it’s starting to turn to snow.

Did you get much rain ? buddy of mine lives in Warroad and didnt think he got anything

We definitely got some. It wasn’t like a crazy downpour but a pretty steady rain all morning till it turned to snow

Wunderground for Baudette is showing by 3 pm the snow will have moved on.

Looks like most of the water on the lake has froze now. If it would have been this windy yesterday it really would have helped chew up that river ice. It’s like a hurricane up here today. Definitely won’t be using the hub house.

Back to a winter wonderland up here. We left the lake around noon and it was still coming down heavy! Probably had 8 inches when we left.

heard close to a ft. up east around rainy lake.

After the weather this weekend and the forecast going forward I’m starting to have my doubts about it even happening by the time the season closes. Hope I’m wrong but it just doesn’t look good. Guess there’s always sturgeon once it does.

fins wrote:

After the weather this weekend and the forecast going forward I’m starting to have my doubts about it even happening by the time the season closes. Hope I’m wrong but it just doesn’t look good. Guess there’s always sturgeon once it does.

Well that’s not the weather we are hoping for. But we can keep hoping for the best. I have those 2 weeks requested off and can fly on any given day. Fingers crossed, we will be fishing it before walleye closes.

fins wrote:

After the weather this weekend and the forecast going forward I’m starting to have my doubts about it even happening by the time the season closes. Hope I’m wrong but it just doesn’t look good. Guess there’s always sturgeon once it does.

The snow should help. A little flow goes a long ways, and doubt we need to worry about the forks this year without much of a snowpack. I bet it’s still early April and at least a week of season to fish it. Southern half of MN will be open this week, northern half a week or two after.