rainy river ice out

Early Spring? will it open early this year. missed it last year cause we went to lake Erie early. would like to fish the river early this year before we go to Erie. come on mother nature

Yes.

The Rainy has a history of doing the exact opposite of what we expect. These record temps could simply be an outlier in the mean.

I like the optimism but it’s not quite as nice on the border as it is down south, and it will take these above average temps sticking around through February to really make a discernable difference. If we get regular or colder weather end of Feb/start of March we will likely be back on the usual time frame.

I think the lack of snow up there will have a big effect. Melting snow really gets things going. They have more snow than we do, but that isnt really saying much.

We have a few inches of snow up here now. Was about double a couple days ago.

Having less ice on the river this year than the last few will be the biggest factor after temps and wind. February and March can still turn this winter around. Don’t get hopes up too high yet.

Another potential scenario I thought of is a longer fishable open water period with relatively clean water prior to the season closing. Warmer average temps, less ice, and less snow for runoff. Maybe the forks won’t play as big a part?? Like others pointed out, it will all depend on what happens over the next several weeks.

open at the rapids already.will see what the cold weather does to it now

grizzly wrote:

open at the rapids already.will see what the cold weather does to it now

We’ve been spoiled that the “cold weather” in the forecast is simply average temperatures for this time of the year.

has the river opened up any at all or did the cold weather freeze it back up? looks like some warmer weather coming again

Drove past today, there was a pocket open below birchdale by the split island. Lots of open above franz.

Any updates on how far the river is open?

Adam Gertken wrote:

Any updates on how far the river is open?

been wondering the same

Jason Groll posted on FB today that it’s open to mile marker 153. He was at Nelson landing there was just shore ice left. Need the county to their thing again.

Adam Gertken wrote:

Any updates on how far the river is open?

The Dutchman just posted an updated. Open water at Franz, just would need to slide down the landing and across quite a bit of shore ice. Still locked up east and west of Frontier. Forecast looks pretty good for the forseeable future, so I’d bet we are looking at fishing the Rainy by mid-March.

well so much for the early spring ice out. looking like maybe about the normal time again unless it really warms up quik.boat is ready and waiting to go,come on open water

I’m looking forward to going this year. Hopefully the weather warms up soon and the ice clears out.

The Dutchman just posted a video from Nelson landing. It’s wide open. He mentioned the county could be out there tomorrow to break up the little bit of shore ice. He also mentioned it’s starting to open up in front of Frontier as well.

Frontier looks like a day or two away and visit from the county. Load em up and truck em! It’s go time!

The Dutchman just posted the county is at Birchdale.

Jason Groll posted a pic of the county at Frontier.

Michael Best wrote:

The Dutchman just posted the county is at Birchdale.

Jason Groll posted a pic of the county at Frontier.

And Groll is out there catching this morning! Man I wish I could get up there. Looking at the extended forecast other than the next few days, it doesn’t look like we can expect real balmy conditions anytime soon.

My buddy Charlie and his old lady are up there killing it. We are heading up in a couple days to spend the week.

Fished for 7 hours today. Boated somewhere around 60. Largest went 29”. Lots of 20-26”

next week weather looks a little tough. not going to fight the crowd and slick ramps,gonna wait for it to open up farther down.a lot of time left before it closes in April.Wife would not like it there next week LOL so going to Sd. for a week first. good luck guys and keep posting reports please and be safe

Charlie W wrote:

Fished for 7 hours today. Boated somewhere around 60. Largest went 29”. Lots of 20-26”

That’s slaying rigt der!!

Dam,
Never fished the river. I gotta get up there, sounds like a blast.

Water was 38 degrees and very low and slow. Im sure the temp will drop a few this next week and change.

We caught them all dragging. 1/4oz was all you needed. There was only two other boats on the same stretch as us and they were fishing deeper; I would not doubt if they caught 150+ fish. They had someone reeling one in constantly but it looked like more little ones as we did not see them net any nicer fish. My buddy and I had plenty of doubles.

Drove from Baudette to Franz Jevne today, two small boats launched at the state park. Nobody at Birchdale, 1 trailer at frontier and 2 trailers at Vidas. They had to work to get out there 90% of the river was ice and it didn’t look thin.

GB wrote:

Drove from Baudette to Franz Jevne today, two small boats launched at the state park. Nobody at Birchdale, 1 trailer at frontier and 2 trailers at Vidas. They had to work to get out there 90% of the river was ice and it didn’t look thin.

Yup we pushed going up back a week because of that.

Charlie W wrote:

Fished for 7 hours today. Boated somewhere around 60. Largest went 29”. Lots of 20-26”

That’s one still on my bucket list…would love to do it one of these years.