Recent Reports?

Heading up 1 week from tonight to fish Thursday thru Sunday (10/6 thru 10/10) for walleyes mostly. Staying at the Rainy River Resort. This will be our first time fishing this area, we have been fishing Rainy Lake in early October for the past 8 or 10 years with the exception of a few day trips downriver to Birchdale

Has anyone been out in the river or LOTW recently? the little info I can find sounds like the shiners are starting to run up the river and the bite is picking up some and watching the webcam out of Borderview, there seems to be a few boats anchored up daily in the river (not sure if they are going for walleye or sturgeon though)

I’m interested in the shiner run. I might have to give it a go.
Is it as busy as the ice off time ?

Guide Jason Groll on FB posted a report from the river, full of shiners and caught some pigs the other day.

BigWerm wrote:

Guide Jason Groll on FB posted a report from the river, full of shiners and caught some pigs the other day.

I like the sound of that!

Bearcat89 wrote:

I’m interested in the shiner run. I might have to give it a go.
Is it as busy as the ice off time ?

I’ve never fished it in the spring, only heard stories. I would say it’s not nearly as busy in the fall. My brother and I will be up there Oct. 13-18

Just got back from there.Fished river for a day as lake was very rough.Some fish caught in river,but was slow for us. Better fishing north of Garden if you can get there.

Bearcat89 wrote:

I’m interested in the shiner run. I might have to give it a go.
Is it as busy as the ice off time ?

Not even close.

Been making this trip for 20 some years in October between the 15th -30th, we fish the river only when we cant get on the big water. When we can, we run out to Knights or Garden, or straight out from the gap and look for fish all the way out to 30′. We fish from the gap over to Long Point and everywhere in between. We have hit “The Hot Bite” in the river but not often. The fall is a different animal vs the spring bite. If you’re not finding/catching fish make a run. Gold or silver jig with a frozen shiner has always produced. we’ll be up the 15th this year, good luck!

Our plan was to fish the big water is the wind allows, and we will pay close attention to the wind forecast since it looks to be about a 21mi run from the gap to Garden (16mi or so to Knight).

that is the nice part about staying on the river, if the winds is up, we can stay in the river. We have been used to fishing Rainy Lake and wen the wind is up, its a slow ride to and from the resorts to the east end

Like others have said, I’d be running to the islands unless you know there is a bite in the river. Just know the winds and understand your limits to tolerate a bumpy ride.

When the water is below 60 we start to go pretty shallow. If there is wind blowing onto the shorelines we’ll throw cranks. The jig bite is always good but people overlook other methods.

If you get a north wind don’t be afraid to troll the south shore in 6-12’.

Matt Moen wrote:

Like others have said, I’d be running to the islands unless you know there is a bite in the river. Just know the winds and understand your limits to tolerate a bumpy ride.

When the water is below 60 we start to go pretty shallow. If there is wind blowing onto the shorelines we’ll throw cranks. The jig bite is always good but people overlook other methods.

If you get a north wind don’t be afraid to troll the south shore in 6-12’.

Thanks for the info!

bring a good anchor if you plan on fishing the river. we caught more fish using an anchor vs. spotlock last few trips out there in the fall. always use stingers as those frozen shiners can pull off pretty easy. if it snows, it is magical out there……….enjoy! i will be back again someday so save some for me.

i can’t believe that anyone travels all the way to those islands. we been going off and on for 20 years and never go further than the gap. i can’t remember a bad trip ever to LOW in the fall. there have been some gigantic swells and you get to fish the river but that’s it. if you can get out to the lake, hit the gap or around pine island at first light. gold jig, frozen shiner and rip some lips! actually orange is my favorite. the trophy fish will likely come out of the river and you can fill the box in the lake.

BigWerm wrote:

Guide Jason Groll on FB posted a report from the river, full of shiners and caught some pigs the other day.

Jason is the man, and his brother Jerry is awesome as well.

Any reports in the last week or so? We head up Thursday

I fished Friday and Saturday on the River. Was a slower bite. Saw plenty of shiners on the graphs and even a few decent schools of fish roll through on the live scope. Managed my limit of walleyes Friday with a cpl of overs. Even got 2 crappies in the River about 8 miles apart

Fished Thursday late morning thru Sunday night. With the weather on Thursday (blasting wind from the north right down the river from the lake and a few snow flurries) we voted to go to Birchdale to fish out of the wind. Fished 5hrs, ended with a few keepers, 1 slot at 24in, a few small northerns and walleye

Friday was better, too windy to go on the big lake but we made out first trip to the gap, fished there for a bit with only smaller fish and a 20in smallie to show. Went back to river and got into some better fish with the late afternoon being pretty good

Saturday we started at the gap again but after a couple of small walleyes, we went back to the river (too windy for us to get out on the lake again). We worked our way down to Baudette hitting a few spots on the way. The bite was a bit tougher than Friday, but we still got some fish and saw others catching a few too. There were schools of shiners by the bridges too

Sunday was calm enough to make it out on the big lake. It was our best day for quantity and quality with a couple big perch mixed in (who knew perch would go for a shiner on a jig?)

This was our first trip to the LOTW and downriver section of the river and we will be back next year.

Iowaboy 0 with frozen dingleberries

Fish 1