I’m not ashamed to put up a third report for the same area in as many days!!
One word…to describe this fishing? No one word could even come close to give this bite Justice!
First of all I need to give credit where credit is due. Calvin- Thanks so much for inviting us up and having your group show us the ropes! Jerry, Craig, Greg, and Mark- You guys are all class acts, and Marshal and I already have this trip in the books with you guys for as long as we are all alive!!! Thank you so much guys!!
Easter Sunday is when this trip began, although the planning had started three weeks prior on a recommendation from my uncle Cam, and Calvin. We loaded up the ranger, and headed north again for the fourth time in two months. I think Marshal and I could drive to LOTW blindfolded by now. The americann inn in Baudette is our home away from home, logging more than three weeks in that hotel, ice fishing and this trip.
Our LOTW ice fishing trips were filled with great memories and fun times on the ice, but don’t even begin to compare to this open water trip.
We started fishing monday afternoon, after arriving in Baudette, early am monday morning, and getting our sleep. Within 3 minutes of dropping our lines in spot Jerry told us to fish, Marshal landed a 26" and 28" back to back. Before either of us could quit laughing like school kids, we landed more, and more, and more big walleyes than we could dream of.
In the afternoon, we would pitch blades while drifting down stream. Sometimes casting them into three FOW. Best colors were the BFT 1/8 ounce green glow tiger, orange glow tiger, or glow pink. Thanks Cal! I owe you some blades!
During the day, we would pull 1/2 or 5/8 ounce BFT jigs, or Marshal’s uncles Jeff’s Jigs, rigged with K-grubs, upstream at 1.0 mph. Best color was firetiger. The fish would literally rip the rod out of your hand if your weren’t holding on. Marshal about lost his GLX hanging over the side, as he was helping me net a fish!!!
We found that ten feet was the magic number during the day, and as the sun set, the fish would move shallow.
During the day, we learned that the bigger females would be at the furthest part upstream of a the channel, before the depth came up. In other words, they weren’t at the back 3/4 of the hole.
Where else can you go and catch countless numbers of 28" plus fish, not to mention countless numbers of everything under 28"??? I don’t think anywhere else but the rainy river. The victory cigars were in full fashion this trip!!
If I could take one fishing vacation a year for the rest of my life, this would be the one!! This trip will be a trip to remember for the rest of our lives, and it was about time Marshal and I got to drive away from a body of water with smiles on our faces for the entire drive home!!
Marshal and I had a friendly bet going for big fish of the trip, and he had me beat with a 29 1/2" on the last day. I don’t know what happened but at 630 pm, I was pitching the "last cast" in the last day, and I had the big momma smoke a blade in six FOW. That fish saved my tail taping at barely 30" WOOOHOOO!!
Marshal, Thanks for everything, can we go back!?!?!
pictures
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Holy Cow
Great Report Luke
There are no words to describe the pics
Congrats on a spectacular trip
hey that looks fun, they must have a pretty good hatchery up there, went to rathbun nail a 29 and a 22. looks like a fun time
Those are some nice fish men
You know it’s a good trip when you fill up a 4GB SD card with pics of quality fish!
Holy cow, that’s a lot of big walleyes!
Great report and congrats on all the big fish Luke & Marshal.
Nice pictures Luke.
Now that’s a trip! Great report Luke and congrats on the hard earned fish
Purely amazing!!
Yes, it was awesome.
. You two were a blast. 
I can think of one word to describe how I felt after looking at all those pictures…. JEALOUS!!! Congrats on what looks like a trip of a lifetime. Just outa curiosity, was this your first year up there? If so, all the more impressive. Atta Boy!
Erik Osberg
218-251-8306
[email protected]
Yes, it was the first trip for both of us. Even though Cal has been on me and marshal for about four years to come up and join his group. We just missed Cal, but his Dad, Mark, Craig, and Greg, really really helped us out.
Luke,
Awesome trip and super Walleyes,
Jack
Nice report Luke….Sure was a hard work week for me when you kept calling everynight. Nice to see a trip finally panned out for the two of you.
Holy Fish Luke! Awesome pictures and great report.
I’ve gotta plan a spring trip up there one of these years…
Hey Luke, Look farmiliar! LOL. Was up there on Saturday, fish the same area when my brother hooked into it.
That lamprey was BIG. Too bad it wasnt a better picture of it.
That doesn’t look like any fun
Great fish
Great report Luke! Looks like a trip of a life time!
Impressive to say the least!
BTW – did u get a new boat? Looks like different engines that I recall…
-ted
Lol…nope Ted! That’s marshal’s boat…
We were up there fri-sat. before easter and the big fish bite was awesome. Went back last weekend and much slower but still a fun trip. Could be years before we have a spring that perfect for fishing the river!
Yeah it was beautiful weather wasn’t it? Glad this report got the first post out of you!!
Welcome to the posting side of IDO-
This was my first year fishing the spring run, and from what friends have told me, normally you can’t fish late at night because your guides will freeze-? I loved the night bite, especially in the warm weather…
Those lampreys are nasty!! I heard you are supposed to take them off, and cut them into pieces? If you google them, they have teeth like a shark…three layers of teeth…I won’t ever swim in the rainy…guaranteed!
Nice fish Luke, wish I could have been up there with you. I’ll make sure to keep my calendar open next year.
I bet marshal had to deal with the Lamprey while you were on top of the motor!!!!!
Great pics!
sweet
Haha, Bob, We both were a little spooked of it, but I will admit, Marhal was the one who cut the thing in half…It still wouldn’t let go of the fish very easily, even after it was knifed up..