rainy river ice out

The wind was horrible today. But my new lithium batteries running my motorguide was sweet. Didn’t eat through hardly any battery and I was spot locked all day.

Are they parking way out on Hwy. 11

Not even close yet but then there is always tomorrow. Monday night I was the only boat at the motel. Tonight there is 8 or more. Still fished pretty much alone today.

29.5″ For my big fish today.

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Nice work.

Mike W wrote:

29.5″ For my big fish today.

I’ve been going up there for 26 years straight in the fall and winter and I have 3 10 pounders and cannot quite break the 30″ mark!

Heading out now. Weather forecast looks great.
Nice fish Mike W!

Nice fish MW! Congrats!

Was thinking of driving up late friday night or early Saturday morning. Either way, me and 2 buddies are planning on sleeping in my truck and boat. Is this allowed at the boat launches? I heard Birchdale allows camping but not 100% sure. Any advice would be great

Good bite today.
29.25 biggest so far

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Dandy. Looks like a pretty nice day out there too.

NICE,

Nice fish BC and Mike.

Nice fish!

I’m freakin jealous!
Nice job guys.

Don’t be a d bag fisherman. We have been having great luck with people until today. Some guys in a nitroz71 pull up spot lock 25ft from us and just mug on us the entire time. Parked right on what I was pitching to, but they watched that big fish come in and decided they wanted to park right on it. Then bitch when I pitch 2 inches off their boats and to there jigs. Pretty sad if that’s how you operate. At least stay casting length away from some one if they are pitching.

yes very nice fish guys!!! and I agree BC stay back and be a good neighbor on the water too!!!

Bearcat89 wrote:

Some guys in a nitroz71 pull up spot lock 25ft from us

Had a fairly well known Bemidji guide do that one time, just unnecessary! The river is full of walleyes, go find some. Also as an FYI spot lock/anchoring is totally different (worse) than getting close to another boat slipping the current.

Also, I need to stop checking this thread before I just shut off the computer, don’t tell my wife and start heading north.

nice fish guys, be safe and have fun. hopefully see you in a couple days keep up the reports on the fishing and where the ice is

Nice fish guys and agree with the comments about keeping distance. Guarantee it was a citiot I am sure. Maybe not, but total douche move.

Unfortunately, more and more people think it’s all about them and they could care less about others. Not how I was raised.

AK Guy wrote:

Not how I was raised.

Same.

Did you end up launching at vidas? If so is the water deep enough to float a boat off a bunk trailer?

Nice fish BC.
Yes douchebag season never ends.

Last I heard open water at timber mill but access still has ice in front of it.
Went by Vidas around 1:30 and the vehicles were half way or better to the highway. Frontier had a dozen or so trucks and trailers at it. It looked like a few were tandem axle bunk trailers.
Ended up putting in at Birchdale and dropped my first line at 2:00 pm. 2 minutes later a fat 20” was coming top side.
Set the depth offset at -5’ on lake master mapping. That got me really close to matching up what the depth finder was reading.
Ended up with 27 on the clicker.
Biggest I got was this 23”. But seen a dozen mid to upper 20’s caught.

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Slower day for me. Think the clicker said 35. Tried getting yesterday’s bite to go again it kept me just busy enough to waste the day away. The bite is still very good. Guys in the room next to me caught 160 today just fishing minnows. 27.5 was my big fish of the day. Fished vidas again but headed back up to birchdale tomorrow.

We quit counting at 50 some fish. Had a pretty good day. 29.25 was biggest fish. Had pretty solid all day action. Fished the shallower waters 8 to 11 ft. The kid out fished me 4 or 5 to 1 for half the day on the same jig and plastic that I had. We used plastics all day. Minnows produced small fish so we stuck with artificial. Minnows were getting eaten immediately

We drove up today and launched out of Vidas this afternoon for a few hours. Lots of rigs almost to the highway when we pulled up at 3 pm. Caught about 40 for our group. Mostly smaller males with a 24” and 27”. Minnows caught most fish but did catch some on plastics too. The end of the ramp is fairly steep but doable. Thinking about checking birchdale out tomorrow

Will be leaving home in a minute or two. Quick stop in Blackduck for minnows then on to Birchdale. Got a report from buddy yesterday. They had 171 on the clicker for 2 guys and a kid. Can’t resist. Fish today, sleep in bed of my truck somewhere tonight and fish tomorrow then home.

Uhhhhh the rainy river boat curse strikes again. I don’t think I have ever not had a boat issue on this river. My starter decided to try its self just after dark last night so I anchored to shore and had a buddy pick the kid and I up on 11 after hiking through some unknown land.
Running to birchdale now, does any one know if there is any other marine parts shops other then lake of the woods marine.
Either way I’ll be fishing, towed out till I can run my trolling motor or anchored. But I hope I can find a starter