Rainy River Ice Out

Don’t forget to grease those wheel bearings! Good luck to those hitting the Rainy!

Headed out, nice Thursday and Friday.

buckybadger wrote:

March 25th at 8:26am

Bucky you were only a day off!
We won’t get into the details on time. lol

Wish I would have brought the boat up to the cabin. That escalated quickly.

Rivers always do. Shore to shore ice to wide open in a little over a day. Think I’m headed up Sunday morning and staying til the end of the season. Fishing solo next week.

I wish that was the case for me. I got lucky and landed a bunch of time off all this week and till next Monday but after that it’s back to just 3 and 4 day weekends off. I won’t bother going on a Friday-Sunday. Might have to burn some of that sick and safe time

Looks like some crappy weather moving in for this weekend.

I’ll make sure to spread the word the rainy is open on the pool 4 Facebook page haha

Mike thought you started a new job, how do you get 2 weeks off just like that? Are they hiring? lol

Mike W wrote:

Rivers always do. Shore to shore ice to wide open in a little over a day. Think I’m headed up Sunday morning and staying til the end of the season. Fishing solo next week.

You pick the right job. And they are always hiring for utility work.

Mike W wrote:

You pick the right job. And they are always hiring for utility work.

Charlie has been trying to hire me on for years. Yesterday he told me if I take his offer, rainy will be considered a paid saftey meeting week. If I hadn’t been with this company for 15 years and 0 lay offs I’d take him on it.

I thought layoff was a job benefit. At NPL our season doesn’t really get going til April 15 so getting two weeks off now was no problem.

Meanwhile on the lake

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Mike W wrote:

I thought layoff was a job benefit. At NPL our season doesn’t really get going til April 15 so getting two weeks off now was no problem.

I wouldn’t hardly call a layoff a benefit. There’s nothing good that comes with that uncertainty of trying to support a family when you’re out of a job.

Ill be available to discuss this the next two weeks while I’m floating around on the river.

if any of you guys are the ones out there fishing already how about a report on the bite and size of jigs needed. Thanks

fins wrote:

I wouldn’t hardly call a layoff a benefit. There’s nothing good that comes with that uncertainty of trying to support a family when you’re out of a job.

My buddies in construction that ice fish 5 days a week all winter would disagree.

Looking forward to seeing some reports and pics start rolling in!

I don’t like lay offs. I want my time off when I ask for it off. But I can ask for a couple weeks lay off instead of vacation and then be eligible for unemployment. That i like. But not a actual lay off.

One fall I took a 3 month lay off since they wouldn’t let me take 3 months time off unpaid.
I drew a Utah deer tag, Co deer tag and Co elk tag. Plus I had a Ne antelope tag and 2 Ne deer tags.
It was an awesome fall.
Not all lay offs are bad.

grizzly wrote:

if any of you guys are the ones out there fishing already how about a report on the bite and size of jigs needed. Thanks

Will try to do a report tomorrow evening. Made it to the farm tonight north of Mille lacs. Hoping to hit Birchdale by 10 tomorrow. More than excited about this.

The Dutchman has a video from Frontier and a channel is open in front of the access.
He could also see a couple of boats from the access as well.

Full draw wrote:

One fall I took a 3 month lay off since they wouldn’t let me take 3 months time off unpaid.
I drew a Utah deer tag, Co deer tag and Co elk tag. Plus I had a Ne antelope tag and 2 Ne deer tags.
It was an awesome fall.
Not all lay offs are bad.

Oh absolutely, but dang that sounds like a great fall

Mike W wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>grizzly wrote:</div>
if any of you guys are the ones out there fishing already how about a report on the bite and size of jigs needed. Thanks

Will try to do a report tomorrow evening. Made it to the farm tonight north of Mille lacs. Hoping to hit Birchdale by 10 tomorrow. More than excited about this.

Looking forward to a report Mike.

Cant wait to see a good report Mike, good luck fishing and stay safe

Fished a few hours this afternoon. Water temp 34 and just tickled 35 by the time I left. Caught one fish on a moxi and the rest on ringworms. Sloooooooow was the only way I got bit – essentially hovering.

Slick roads on the way up this morning. Not fun watching the boat fish tailing in the rear view mirror but slowed er down and got here in one piece.

Water temps like Charlie said pushing towards 35. We checked a fair amount of spots today and found most spots had fish you just had to work them to get bit. Not surprised with the cold water temps. Water clarity is still good and water levels are on the low side.

Ended the day with 36 walleyes and a 28″ for big fish. Not a great first day on the Rainy but not terrible either.

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Nice fish Mike.
Thank you for the reports guys.
Hopefully we get some warmer temps and the water temp climbs some.

Thank you for taking the time to post a report Mike. It is appreciated by many of us,

thanks for the reports guys.heading up next Thursday hopefully, what was current like and what size of jigs were best?

Water levels are on the low side. Current lite. Jig size is going to vary depending on depth and where you ate fishing. I fish from 1/8 to 5/8s today.

Guessing Frontier should get opened up tomorrow or Tuesday. we could not get to the end of the open water today due to jammed up ice but would think its opened down to near Pinewood.

45 walleyes today. 27.75 for big fish.