Rainy River Ice Out

Red Eye wrote:

Sunday we stuck to Canadian side with all plastics out of vidas.

Did the Mounties mess with you at all? Saw them buzzing some people in a helicopter which seems pretty over the top and slightly dangerous.

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Red Eye wrote:</div>
Sunday we stuck to Canadian side with all plastics out of vidas.

Did the Mounties mess with you at all? Saw them buzzing some people in a helicopter which seems pretty over the top and slightly dangerous.

They are ripping up and down the river but we only seen them twice .
As for the bite. The kid stuck 5 in a row yesterday before I was even rigged , thought we were on them but that ended up being a grind. We have definitely worked for our fish. This morning we got on to a nice pod for about a hour at 7am but that went away as fast as we found them. We’ve probably picked up 15 to 20 today but very tough. Down sizing to small jigs and 3 inch plastics. Did hit a big fat 26 but that’s our nicest of the trip so far. I think I’ve fished every color combo jigs and plastics i have. Hopefully it turns around. We have kept to the mn side because we keep forgetting to drop the minnow bait station off at camp. But tomorrow we are going to remember and fish the other side.
We are drying up right now and then headed out for a sturgeon excursion this evening. This snow is extra wet lol

Did the Mounties mess with you at all? Saw them buzzing some people in a helicopter which seems pretty over the top and slightly dangerous.

They are ripping up and down the river but we only seen them twice .
As for the bite. The kid stuck 5 in a row yesterday before I was even rigged , thought we were on them but that ended up being a grind. We have definitely worked for our fish. This morning we got on to a nice pod for about a hour at 7am but that went away as fast as we found them. We’ve probably picked up 15 to 20 today but very tough. Down sizing to small jigs and 3 inch plastics. Did hit a big fat 26 but that’s our nicest of the trip so far. I think I’ve fished every color combo jigs and plastics i have. Hopefully it turns around. We have kept to the mn side because we keep forgetting to drop the minnow bait station off at camp. But tomorrow we are going to remember and fish the other side.
We are drying up right now and then headed out for a sturgeon excursion this evening. This snow is extra wet lol
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Thanks for the report BC. I’m trying to talk my girls into going this weekend but they aren’t really having it at this point. Mom hates the parking situation and the 5 year old would rather go ice fishing so I’m kinda out voted at this point. We get checked out by the helicopter nearly every time we are on the ice. They keep pretty close tabs on things.

Went up with a buddy and fished Monday-Wednesday.

As mentioned it was a pretty tough bite. Normally when the water is clean and slower in the spring it’s lights out fishing.

I’ve been fishing the river for 25 years, and the traffic and amount of people just keeps getting worse and worse.

Birchdale used to have a handful of people camping in the old part, now it’s packed end to end all week even with the addition.

When RABCs were required you could have some great spots to yourself, especially mid-week.

Now there’s a dozen boats crammed in the tiny area of the rapids on a fricken Wednesday…

I hate crowds and boat traffic…and it’s seriously gotten ridiculous.

Maybe I’m just getting old, but the river isn’t nearly as fun as it used to be.

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We’ve been doing this for 15ish years. Definitely way busier on a Tuesday and Wednesday then I expected. This was probably the second worst day I’ve had up here ever as far as catching went, but I spent the hole day on the river with just my kid and it was great. Birchdale is the busiest I’ve ever seen it as far as camping goes. Next year I’ll be figuring something else out, but this is good cheap entertainment. Ribeyes and taters tonight always makes camp better

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B-man wrote:

Went up with a buddy and fished Monday-Wednesday.

As mentioned it was a pretty tough bite. Normally when the water is clean and slower in the spring it’s lights out fishing.

I’ve been fishing the river for 25 years, and the traffic and amount of people just keeps getting worse and worse.

Birchdale used to have a handful of people camping in the old part, now it’s packed end to end all week even with the addition.

When RABCs were required you could have some great spots to yourself, especially mid-week.

Now there’s a dozen boats crammed in the tiny area of the rapids on a fricken Wednesday…

I hate crowds and boat traffic…and it’s seriously gotten ridiculous.

Maybe I’m just getting old, but the river isn’t nearly as fun as it used to be.

I hear ya on that one Bman. The girls don’t want to go this weekend and honestly I’m not that upset about it. I also hate crowds. I think I honestly might be done with the spring thing over there. Tons of fond memories of the past that don’t need to get clouded by what things are like now. Oh the good old days!

It’s a slower, colder, shorter season following one of the longest, warmest, best seasons. Reset the expectations, the sky is not falling.

Charlie W wrote:

It’s a slower, colder, shorter season following one of the longest, warmest, best seasons. Reset the expectations, the sky is not falling.

I didn’t mean to come across that the sky is falling because of one slow trip.

Wasn’t complaining about the bite (slow bites happen), but just how stupid busy it’s gotten with so many more people and the RABC requirements dropped.

I personally don’t think boat traffic affects the fish as much as most people think, but the boat traffic affects me

Even more so when they have a tripod, a mustache, and a mullet…blabbing about followers on YouTube and Instagram, like catching walleyes on Rainy River is some crazy feat. We fished next to one yesterday…the whole time I was kinda hoping he would just fall in the river lol

As for actual noise affecting fish, we lost our biggest of the trip (28″+) right before the net, 75 yards in front of the landing lol

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Red Eye wrote:</div>
Sunday we stuck to Canadian side with all plastics out of vidas.

Did the Mounties mess with you at all? Saw them buzzing some people in a helicopter which seems pretty over the top and slightly dangerous.

We got checked by Canadian wardens on Sunday. The one asking the questions was very nice. Checked licenses asked if we had bait then asked if we were keeping fish? We said no then asked if we could? Said we could keep 2 in canada but he was sure about bringing them back across the river. We weren’t going to keep any anyway. The other guy that was driving never said a word. As far as the helicopter. We seen it on Monday but we were on the MN side and didn’t see them harassing anyone. Guys are saying they were mounties but has there been any confirmation on this? From the video I seen of them hovering over a boat I hope someone called them into MN dnr? Faa? Doesn’t seem legit?

Started the day with a 26 and 26.5. They want that bait moved slow slow slow

Does anyone have an update on the Forks?

We are going to the Junction for lunch and beers tomorrow, I’ll take a look while I’m over there. Have to get tickets for the sturgeon tournament.

Does anyone know on the status of the Timbermill landing in town?

B-man wrote:

Went up with a buddy and fished Monday-Wednesday.

As mentioned it was a pretty tough bite. Normally when the water is clean and slower in the spring it’s lights out fishing.

I’ve been fishing the river for 25 years, and the traffic and amount of people just keeps getting worse and worse.

Birchdale used to have a handful of people camping in the old part, now it’s packed end to end all week even with the addition.

When RABCs were required you could have some great spots to yourself, especially mid-week.

Now there’s a dozen boats crammed in the tiny area of the rapids on a fricken Wednesday…

I hate crowds and boat traffic…and it’s seriously gotten ridiculous.

Maybe I’m just getting old, but the river isn’t nearly as fun as it used to be.

I think you just figured out you’re getting older.

Francis K wrote:

Does anyone have an update on the Forks?

They look great. I bet it’s a week out.

Wow you guys are not kidding on the bite.
We got on the water around 1:30 today and fished till 7 tonight. The 2 of us boated 16 walleyes.
Everything came on minnows for us today. With the 2 biggest going 25 and 25.5”.
Going to leave the minnows on shore tomorrow and fish the Canadian side.

This evening/ night bite has been fire. River all to our selves and fish are hungry. We are sturgeon fishing but hitting walleye and sturgeon the kid just pulled in a 50. We probably caught 15 walleye after dinner and 8 sturgeon so far. 1 eelpout.

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blank wrote:

Does anyone know on the status of the Timbermill landing in town?

Still closed today and lots of people confused why the city won’t open it.

Glad to hear you are getting into them Bearcat.

way to go Bearcat!!!

Fished to midnight.
Caught so many walleye while sturgeon fishing it made my mind wonder on why we weren’t pulling stick baits after dark. So that’ll be the plan tonight, and if that doesn’t work we will go back to sturgeon fishing. Ended the night with 14 sturgeon few eel pout and a butt load of eyes. Pretty good for a 7pm to midnight fish.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Fished to midnight.
Caught so many <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye while sturgeon fishing it made my mind wonder on why we weren’t pulling stick baits after dark. So that’ll be the plan tonight, and if that doesn’t work we will go back to sturgeon fishing. Ended the night with 14 sturgeon few eel pout and a butt load of eyes. Pretty good for a 7pm to midnight fish.

Keep us posted on how that goes. I’ve always thought about if the stick bait at night thing would work like it does at Green Bay. Good luck!

Well I had quite the day.
Went up to the rapids this morning.
We fished there till noon. On the way out I hit a rock. Curled the prop over pretty good. We ran to Bemidji to get a new prop quick.
Unfortunately I still have a bunch of vibration still. I am guessing I bent my prop shaft.
First 3 fish of the day were a 26”, 23” and a 26”.

Water temps this evening on my boat read 39.1 degrees. Getting close to the magical 40 degree mark.

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Bearcat89 wrote:

Caught so many walleye while sturgeon fishing it made my mind wonder on why we weren’t pulling stick baits after dark. So that’ll be the plan tonight,

About 6 years ago three of us fished the Fox River in early April with a well known guide outfit. We fished from 3:30-11:30 pm since he had a good trolling bite after dark. Trolled the outer edge of flats with planar boards so some baits were on the edge and some were up on the flat. The fish in my avatar is from that trip.

We saw a few guys hit rocks in the rapids yesterday. Actually every time we are in there we see rocks get hit.

Still doesn’t seem like a lot of lake fish in the system yet. there are plenty of fish around but have to work for them.

My made first trip ever to Rainy River. Arrived late afternoon on Wednesday but with the weather just was not interested in hitting the water till Thursday morning.

We went out of Birchdale and my first impressions is OMG on the number of boats. After this experience when I go to the Mississippi in Red Wing or Green bay even on the busiest day it will seem quiet in comparison. When we left yesterday afternoon it was astonishing seeing the trailers parked along the road all the way back and on to 11. If you want to reduce the number of boats you just have to not allow people giving rides back and forth from parking to the launch….

Fished mainly the Canadian side. Used 1/4 oz jigs and plastics. Fished Thursday and Friday during the day. I was not counting but my partner was and had us down at 24 walleyes yesterday with the biggest at 27 5/8″. I do not know the count from Thursday but it seemed about the same with the largest just under 27″. Seemed like the average size for us was a bit larger on Thursday.

Never fishing this system before, to me it seemed like a lot of walleyes biting for the extreme number of boats. Based on some of the other comments it looked like I missed out on some really good fishing in prior years.

Also seemed a bit of a cluster fu** in the camping area. It would not take much to make this quite a bit nicer.

Who ever yelled my name i seen ya but it didn’t register you said bearcat until I boated off. But I seen ya lol. Had a pretty hood start to the day caught a couple bigger size fish and kept that bite going until about 1045 now having lunch and re grouping. The kid didn’t feel good this morning so he’s been sleeping at camp.

The boy and i came out of birchdale about 8:30 this morning. Fishing down just past the island. Caught 12. 22” biggest.

This spring river bite is a big boom to the local economy. Remember bring your trash home with you and have patience.

Up 18. Boy stuck a 27.25.

We caught alot of fish today. Best day of the trip by far. Took some dialing to figure it out, but after a while we were catching fish both dragging, and flowing down river vertical. And we would find a pod spot lock and pitch to them. Was a great day. The kid finally felt better at about 3 and came in the boat. Lots and lots of 25s and 26s caught today