March 26th, 2018:
Today has been a mixture of snow and rain but it isn’t stopping our guests from fishing. This morning Cathy shared with us that the river is open 6 miles west of Birchdale. We also saw one Facebook from Jason Groll Fishing Guide that the county was down there breaking open Birchdale Landing. Thank you so much to the county!
March 24th, 2018:
There is open water about a mile west of Birchdale Landing. There is shore ice at the landing in Birchdale but you are able to push a boat over it. We did see a few boats out fishing when we stopped by before checking the landing in Pelland. The Kuttes Landing in Pelland is open for all boats. Pictures are of Birchdale Landing looking to the west and the open landing is Kuttes in Pelland.
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March 24th, 2018:
Jason Groll Fishing Guide shared a video of open water at Birchdale this morning and said you can push a boat off the shore ice. We will be checking the river later this afternoon to see if it opens up anymore.
Only a few days at the beginning of April and then again after the season closes for all the guys trying for a big sturgeon.
March 22nd, 2018:
We checked the river around 5:30pm and the temperature was 40 degrees. We were surprised that the river is just about 1.5 miles east of Birchdale Landing. You can see open water to the east (where the river bends) while standing on Birchdale Landing. At Franz Jevene there is about 50 yards of shore ice. We did see one boat out fishing west of those rapids (we are not sure where they put the boat in). Rainy Lake tourism posted on their Facebook page that people have been walking down and fishing off shore at Kuttes Landing in Pelland (this access has not been plowed)
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March 20th, 2018:
Cathy sent this picture tonight from Franz Jevne. We saw the channel was open on Sunday at Franz Jevne but was froze up to the east. We will be checking the river Wednesday or Thursday night. There are a few roads off of Highway 11 we drive down to get a better look at the river but right now there is about 2 miles we can’t see the river.
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March 18th, 2018:
Grant I just got back from checking the river. The river is open 7.1 miles east of Birchdale Landing. We took a picture of where the open water ended and at the Manitou Rapids. We are suppose to stay in the low 30s for our high temps this coming week and the teens for lows. We will share posts from Cathy as we get them and will probably check the river again Wednesday or Thursday afternoon.
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March 14th, 2018:
Our friend Cathy shared with us this picture of open water 13 miles east of Birchdale.
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I did just start our yearly spring forum that we have been doing the past few years. We probably won’t get back to check the river until this weekend. I try to share information we get from others and share FB posts of others results.
March 21st, 2017:
Grant and I were able to go check the river around 4:30pm and found that there is open water 1.8 miles West of Vidas Landing. We are thinking by tomorrow evening we should have open water in front of our house (4.3 miles away from our house). The county did not open up Frontier today so hopefully tomorrow or Thursday they will be able to get in there and open it up. We did hear that Kuttes Landing by Pelland Junction is also open for bigger boats and of course Birchdale Landing is open for all boats.
If the weather stays nice it could be open to Wheelers access before we know it. I would say within the next week it should be open there.
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March 20th, 2017:
March 20th, 2017:
Grant talked to his cousin who knows the guy that works for the county and said they opened up Birchdale Landing this morning. We did see a picture that Lake of the Woods Tourism posted on Facebook showing the landing was open for all boats. Grant’s cousin also this guy said the plan is to hopefully get Frontier Landing open for all boats tomorrow. We had some projects that we had to get done around here before a busy weekend so we were not able to get to Birchdale today. We are hoping to go tomorrow afternoon and will have pictures to share of Frontier and Birchdale Landings along with where the river is open to.
For the ramp, most people tend to put in at the one they are going to be fishing by. Timber Mill Park (City park in Baudette) is very steep but I think the others to the east of us are pretty good. I am not sure if they put docks out or not this early for boats. We typically stop checking the landings once they are open for all boats. Sorry I do not know the answer for sure. Hopefully someone else will be able to answer it better than me.
March 19th, 2017:
Grant and I went and checked the river just before 4:00pm and the temperature was about 52 degrees. It has been windy most of the day which helped get the ice moving also. We figured it would be to Frontier today and when we checked we found out that it is open about 3 miles west of Frontier Landing. Birchdale Landing looks the same still with the shore ice there but there were a few vehicles at both landings that had pushed off the ice. We talked to one group that was just heading out to meet up with some of their friends and they had said they were having good luck.
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March 18th, 2017:
Grant and I went and checked the river today about 3:30pm and the temperature was right around 30 degrees. Grant was surprised how much it opened up since Thursday when he went and checked it. It is now open 4.6 miles west of Birchdale Landing before it is locked up again and then to the west of that spot there are some open holes also. We are thinking that tomorrow it could make it all the way to Frontier by the end of the day with the forecast being 52 degrees for a high. We did see some boats out fishing today and there is some shore ice that boats have to push over with about a 2 foot drop from the top of ice to the water.
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March 16th, 2017:
We finally had a chance to check the river again between being so busy, the cold weather, and we both caught a bad cold. The river is not opening up quite as fast as we hoped it would. It actually looks worse than the last time we checked. It was just above 40 degrees here today and hopefully we will get some warmer weather that will help the river open up faster.
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March 6th, 2017:
With the warm temperatures the last few days we were hoping that Birchdale would be open to all boats. Unfortunately Birchdale Landing is not open as of this afternoon. Possibly in a few days but it is hard to tell with the cold weather that is suppose to be coming. We try and check the landing again at the end of the week.
Here is a picture that Grant took of Birchdale Landing when he checked the river today
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April 14th is the last day to fish for walleye until it opens again in May.
March 2nd, 2017:
This morning I saw someone that posted a picture of -10 degrees near Baudette. Tonight is suppose to get to -11 degrees and then start warming up again. Looks like it is going to be a gorgeous weekend with temps in the in the 40s for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Grant asked a student to take some pictures at Birchdale today on their way home and send them to us as we are not able to get there today also. We will hopefully check the river tomorrow afternoon or Saturday for sure. These pictures are from Birchdale Landing.
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February 27th, 2017:
We just got back from checking the river about 4:30pm and the temperature was around 28 degrees. They are calling for some colder temps at night for the next few nights and we noticed with this change of weather it has caused the open water at Birchdale to freeze back up. I could not see much open water when looking east at the Birchdale Landing. When we went to Franz Jevne the water seemed to be moving pretty fast and it was still open there.
The photos where you can’t see water is Birchdale Landing showing it froze back up and the ones with water are from Franz Jevne
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April 8th, 2016:
Talked to a group that left this morning and had fished the past 2 days over by Birchdale. They said they caught about 30 fish each day, the water clarity was about 15-18 inches, and they had a water temperature of 37 degrees yesterday. They did not mention any big ones but sounds like the bite is starting to pick up in some spots. They did say that you couldn’t be aggressive with jigging and had to be very slow for them to bite.
April 6th, 2016:
Talked to a guy that fished over by Birchdale today and he said the water clarity was about 12-13 inches and was a lot better than in front of our place. He fished for a few hours and caught 3 fish all weighing between 5-7.8 pounds. Other groups said the fishing was very slow and some guys in the groups never even caught a fish.
April 5th, 2016:
The last couple of days have been slow for all our groups. We did hear of a few in the mid 20s being caught but sounds like most boats averaged about 5-10 fish a day. The water clarity according to a few different groups is between 12-15 inches. We did get some snow this evening.
I am not sure how the access is at Frontier I haven’t had any guests say anything about it so I am assuming it is better now.
That’s crazy about the Big Fork cause when I drove over it on Tuesday it was shore to shore ice…. Maybe it wasn’t very thick ice. Good to see pictures that it is open. Thank you
Latest Fishing Reports:
April 3rd, 2016:
Most of groups headed home today and we got a few new ones that checked in. We talked to one group that caught a walleye up by the International bridge and then they tried by the Rapids and lost one. They said they had a water temperature of 34 degrees. We had a few snow flurries here today that didn’t amount to anything. Let’s hope for some warmer weather!
April 2nd, 2016:
We woke up to some snow this morning and most groups were slow to get out fishing as it was cold and very windy again. The water temperature went down to 35 degrees a group told us. We heard of a few sturgeon being caught and one group had caught 3 walleyes for the day. No one had told us they thought the river was dirty.
April 1st, 2016:
Today was windy but that didn’t stop the groups from going out fishing. We talked to a few groups and it sounded like fishing was pretty slow. One group had only caught 1 walleye and another group had 10 walleyes for the day. Sounded like heading east was better than out by the gap.
March 31st, 2016:
There was one group that tried by Frontier and all over that area and ended up only catching one walleye. They said the water temp was 38 degrees. Another group headed to the gap and said it was still slow today and caught 5 for the day. Another group reported 17 walleyes they caught near Frontier.
We did see a Canadian game warden yesterday go by our place so they are out there. I would make sure you have all the documentation as my husband had been called in before and the Canadian warden was there in no time to check him. Since we live on the river and like to fish both sides we always have our Ontario license and the RABC on us. And remember when fishing on the Canadian side you can’t have any live bait, alcohol, or fish for sturgeon. I am sure I am missing some other big rules they have but those are ones that I hear the most from people that have gotten tickets.
Latest Fishing Reports we have
March 30th, 2016:
I did not get any fishing reports
March 29th, 2016:
The few groups we had in fishing did a lot better today and boated about 15-20 fish for the day and no big ones. They were pretty excited to finally get a fish. One boat watched another group catch quite a few that were in the slot. Water temperature was about 37 degrees and the clarity was still the same. I had to run to International Falls and the Big Fork was froze shore to shore for as far as I could see from Highway 11. The Little Fork was open with some ice by the Rainy River from what I could tell off of Highway 11.
March 28th, 2016:
Walleye fishing was very slow for the few groups we had out fishing. Water temperature was 35 degrees one groups said and clarity was the same (15 inches or so).
March 27th, 2016:
We have talked to one group that just got in about 7:00 pm that fished by Birchdale and Frontier and said that fishing was slow for them. They also said they could see about 15 inches down so the water clarity is getting a little better. This same group said one boat they talked to was fishing in Canada and ended up catching 11 walleyes for the day. A different group went and fished up by the dam and ended up with their limit and caught some northern and bass.
March 26th, 2016:
We didn’t hear of any walleyes being caught and that sturgeon fishing become very slow in the afternoon. Some people said the water clarity was getting better by Birchdale.
March 24th, 2016:
We had a group that went fishing up by Pelland today and they ended up with their limits. All the fish they caught were under 20 inches and no big ones. Some group tried for walleyes in this area and didn’t have any luck. We had lots of reports of sturgeons being caught today out by the main lake.
We ended up with about 10-11 inches of snow here yesterday (March 16th) when we talked to one group about 6:00 pm they told us that Birchdale had a lot less snow than here. Sorry I wasn’t able to get on here yesterday it was a crazy day.
March 16th, 2016:
We have open water at our place and it is just starting to snow a little before 9:00 am. The dock still has ice around it. We did hear that Vidas Landing is open to all boats and we weren’t able to get out and check on the landing today. We had one group that fished in the snow and they caught 3 walleyes and the biggest was 23.5 and they said all the other boats around them did about the same. It sounds like it was a slow day but they still had some fun. They did not say anything about the rain or snow affecting the water clarity.
March 17th, 2016:
We probably got about 10-11 inches of snow. Grant went and checked Vidas Landing about 10:30am and it is open to all boats. We will try and report more if we hear from the groups that were fishing today. A friend sent us a picture of Timber Mill’s Landing about 3:45pm and they were working on it. Grant went and checked about 5:00 pm and the road is plowed but there is still shore ice so boats are only able to push off there at this point. We still haven’t heard or had time to go check on Frontier Landing to see if it is open to all boats. At this time we believe they are still pushing off at Frontier.
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March 15th, 2016:
We checked the river about 12:30pm today and found open water in front of Vidas Landing and it is open a few miles west of that landing. The only access that was open for all boats is still Birchdale Landing. It has been raining for most of the day and looks like tomorrow we could have some more rain and snow.
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March 14th, 2016:
We went and checked the river today and were able to get in a few hours of fishing in the 60 degree weather (check the fishing report and the Spring Fishing pictures). Birchdale is open to all boats as of early this morning and there is talk that the county is going to go in on Wednesday and open up Frontier. If you wanted to you could push a boat off the shore ice at Frontier. We checked at Vidas Landing and it is getting close to having open water but it is still froze. We are not sure how far the river is west of Frontier but it was open from the last point you could see the river from the highway. Tomorrow they are calling for a high of 47 degrees and 90% chance of rain and then on Wednesday a high of 36 degrees and 80% chance of rain/snow.
Fishing Report: March 14th, 2016:
Birchdale Landing is open to all boats and since today was in the low 60s, Grant and I, decided to take advantage of the one day we could both go fishing for a few hours. We were out just a little over 2 hours and had our limit in about an hour. We caught 9 walleyes total: we kept 4 walleyes about 15 inches, let 3 keepers go, Grant caught a 21 inch walleye that was released, I caught a 23 inch walleye that was released, and I also caught a 20 inch northern. For the few hours we were out there we saw some other people from Baudette catch some nice walleyes in the mid to higher- 20s. Yesterday, we had a group that went out of Graceton Beach ice fishing and they said they had a slower day but caught a nice 27 1/2 inch walleye that made up for the bite.
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March 13th, 2016:
Grant’s dad went and checked the river today and said there was open water 2.7 miles east of Frontier Landing. Birchdale is open for boats to push over the shore ice but as of noon today no one had pushed boats in yet. We have had some misting rain and little down pour today as of 4:00pm.
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March 12th, 2016:
Grant and a friend went and checked the river around 3:00 pm today there was some open water but not a lot in front of the landing at Birchdale. There were boats that had pushed over the shore ice at Franz Jevne and Grant figures there is probably about 10 yards of shore ice. The boats were not able to get all the way to the landing as there was some ice in the way yet. We were in the high 50s today and now tomorrow they are calling for a high of 47 degrees and rain.
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I agree I think you should be fine the 22nd thru the 26th. The ground is soaking up a lot of water and we don’t have a lot of snow this year so we are thinking there won’t be too much run off either.
Here is the new update on the river!
March 10th, 2016:
We checked the river later this afternoon and found open water about 3 miles east of Birchdale Landing. We believe it might be closer to 2 miles from Birchdale as it looks like it could be open all the way to Franz Jevne now but it was hard to tell for sure. It was cloudy for most of the morning but we ended up seeing some sun later in the day and the temperature was 40 degrees when we went to check the river. When we went to Birchdale Landing you could not see any open water to the east so it wasn’t quite there yet but after these next few warm days we are hoping it will be open to Birchdale or even past there.
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March 9th, 2016:
I went and checked the river around noon today and the temperature was anywhere between 29 degrees and 31 degrees and has been cloudy so far today. We did get some rain yesterday but the ground has soaked up all the water puddles in the yard. As of this afternoon the river is open about 7 miles east of Birchdale Landing. The pictures I took are at 7.4 miles and you could see open water close to the plant on the Canadian side. There are a few miles where you can’t see the river or really get down to it so I am guessing it is around 7 miles. For those wondering about pushing their boats off the ice at Franz Jevne the river is open to the east less than a mile as I found the river frozen exactly a mile east of Franz Jevne. The river is open about 5 miles east of Franz Jevne. Today’s forecast is cloudy with a high of 34 degrees and a low of 18 degrees tonight. Tomorrow (March 10th) looks to be nice as it is going to be partly cloudy with a high of 46 degrees and a low of 32 degrees tomorrow night. This weekend they are predicting we are suppose to get in the 50s so that will help open up the river.
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