A Rainy River Walleye Fishing Retreat
The walleye fishing season officially closes on inland Minnesota lakes on the last weekend in February. For most walleye anglers, this leaves an agonizing 75 day gap in the walleye fishing schedule. Fortunately, there are some options for those who wish to make a drive to one of a few fisheries that lay on state or national borders. For us, this means a relatively short 100 mile drive to the river that forms a major portion of the border between the United States and Canada. Since Junior had no classes today, I decided to take a day off and we made the trek north to avoid the weekend crowds.
The Rainy River flows about 85 miles from Rainy Lake near International Falls and meanders it’s way west and north to Lake of the Woods near Baudette. Every year around the end of March the ice covering the river begins to break apart and by early April there are generally two or three boat landings open to allow walleye anglers one last shot at some open water fishing before the door finally closes on April 14. By this time of year, walleyes come pouring out of Lake of the Woods to make their yearly spawning trek up river. While constant action is by no means guaranteed. Under the right conditions the fishing can be phenomenal, and opportunites to hook a large female abound.
We headed out from Bemidji around 6:30 a.m. with temps around 29 degrees. By the time we hit the Birchdale landing we were above 30 with the promise of warmer temps as the day grew on. The morning started with a bang as Winzor, the new pup, decided she wanted to jump ship while Junior waited for me to get back from parking the truck. When I got to the boat, she was soaking wet and so too was Junior’s arm.
Being our first trek to the river, our game plan was pretty simple. Armed with jigs and minnows, we puttered west looking for holes that were 13 feet and deeper. The water temperature was between 36 and 37 degrees… cold by any fishing standards, and the bite was definitely not hot and heavy. We located our first candidate spot and drifted down river without any bites. Spot number two was a bit more promising as I latched into a nice fat 17 incher. After returning the fish to the water we made another swing through the hole with no further action. We continued the pattern as we slowly moved west. I made the switch to a white twister tail and almost immediately hooked into another walleye. Encouraged by the strategy change we made another swing through. Junior, sticking to his guns with the jig and minnow, soon boated a walleye of his own to demonstrate the folly of the white twister tail theory.
There were plenty of boats on the water and it was apparent that most boats were approaching the fishing in much the same way. Most would drift across a deeper hole, make their way back east to the upriver edge of the hole, and drift back again. A few boats were anchored, but regardless of the method it was apparent that the the action was slow to say the least. I finally managed to boat a decent 20 inch fish and our conversation soon turned to talk of quality versus quantity. This was obviously not going to be a 60 fish day, but the chance of hooking into a good fish was still entirely possible.
It was about this time, as we drifted ever closer to the Frontier landing, that we drifted past a nice bunch of folks in a Ranger. We learned that they were from Bemidji as well and that they were experiencing the same slow fishing. When we had passed them by about 20 yards Junior set the hook on what appeared to be a fish of substance. When he had it half way to the boat, there was no doubt that is was a good fish. The water on the Rainy has a copper tint to it that makes visibility much more than a couple of feet nearly impossible. It wasn’t until the fish was fully next to the boat that we could see that it was a pig. I slipped the net under her and took a snapshot of Junior and a fat 28 inch Rainy River walleye:
To be quite honest, we could have gone home then and there. That one fish was worth the drive. A second pass through the same hole produced another nice 25 inch fish:
As it turns out, this was the last fish we caught today. We spent a couple more hours drifting down to the Frontier landing and then making our way back without another bite. Neither of us seemed the least bit bothered by the slow action. We got a nice open water fix… enough to hold us until the regular opener in May, and Junior added another hog to the photo gallery. A successful trek all the way around. Hopefully this is a good omen for the season to come.
nice hog… one the inland lakes close up there… come over and fish the Detroit river. The action is just starting up.
Greg
Nice fish!
I went up on the 11th the forks had broken loose, the river didnt produce much for us. Poor timing!
Back to Pool 4 as soon as the ramps open again.
I saw pictures after the Forks opened up. What a mess. Hard to imagine the water coming up that high that fast. They were pounding the sturgeon hard just before that happened.