We caught alot of fish today. Best day of the trip by far. Took some dialing to figure it out, but after a while we were catching fish both dragging, and flowing down river vertical. And we would find a pod spot lock and pitch to them. Was a great day. The kid finally felt better at about 3 and came in the boat. Lots and lots of 25s and 26s caught today
Well i guess i just suck.
I’ll be back up that way tomorrow..
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
We caught alot of fish today. Best day of the trip by far. Took some dialing to figure it out, but after a while we were catching fish both dragging, and flowing down river vertical. And we would find a pod spot lock and pitch to them. Was a great day. The kid finally felt better at about 3 and came in the boat. Lots and lots of 25s and 26s caught todayWell i guess i just suck.
It took us a few days to figure this out. I shared the info with full draw, he and his buddy are up camping next to us. All 4 of us were able to stay on the bite all day and get it really dialed in. I wish I was fishing tomorrow, but that’s how it goes.
Did you guys see the canadian conservation officers in the red Lund? They rolled up on me with 2 rods out, I thought they were dragging jigs way to close, turned out they were being real sneaky. But they were as nice as they could get with me. I never seen the fishing rod trick before
Pretty good bite the last few days. Water is a couple degrees warmer than the last two weekends and it showed.
PSA that might get some hate here – quit fighting the snagged sturgeon for so long. If you want to catch them, then actually target them with heavy enough gear – they are sweet fish and a blast on real sturgeon equipment.
Idk how many we saw just yesterday alone but a lot of guys out there fight them forever. You know it’s not a walleye after a few seconds so just pull on the line and more often than not the jig will bend out. Watching guys fight these things for 20, 40, 60, 80+ minutes is not a good look and also tough on those fish. Yes, they are resilient but they’re not invincible. Ok carry on.
Pretty good bite the last few days. Water is a couple degrees warmer than the last two weekends and it showed.
PSA that might get some hate here – quit fighting the snagged sturgeon for so long. If you want to catch them, then actually target them with heavy enough gear – they are sweet fish and a blast on real sturgeon equipment.
Idk how many we saw just yesterday alone but a lot of guys out there fight them forever. You know it’s not a walleye after a few seconds so just pull on the line and more often than not the jig will bend out. Watching guys fight these things for 20, 40, 60, 80+ minutes is not a good look and also tough on those fish. Yes, they are resilient but they’re not invincible. Ok carry on.
X2
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Charlie W wrote:</div>
Pretty good bite the last few days. Water is a couple degrees warmer than the last two weekends and it showed.PSA that might get some hate here – quit fighting the snagged sturgeon for so long. If you want to catch them, then actually target them with heavy enough gear – they are sweet fish and a blast on real sturgeon equipment.
Idk how many we saw just yesterday alone but a lot of guys out there fight them forever. You know it’s not a walleye after a few seconds so just pull on the line and more often than not the jig will bend out. Watching guys fight these things for 20, 40, 60, 80+ minutes is not a good look and also tough on those fish. Yes, they are resilient but they’re not invincible. Ok carry on.
X2
X3
Other than the rock episode we had an awesome trip.
The prop shaft was bent to a .149 thousandth’s. My dad was able to get it straightened back to .003 thousandth’s. Took it for a spin on the lake and everything appears to be good to go.
We didn’t land a lot of fish in total but a lot of what we caught was in the 24 to 26”. It’s going to be fun when that year class or two is 28 to 30”.
We struggled getting a good consistent pitching bite going. We ended up pulling jigs and paddle tails upstream and slipping the current with a split tail plastic. Unfortunately I didn’t think of using the split tail until an hour or so left in the day yesterday.
We had a blast camping with Bearcat, his son and friends. I am already looking forward till next year.
I couldn’t believe how few of boats there was there this morning when we left.
Next year will be a blast mike! I’ll bring the roast again!
Next year will be a blast mike! I’ll bring the roast again!
Heck yeah it will.
That sounds great.
I kid you not that roast you made last night was awesome!
Other than the rock episode we had an awesome trip.
The prop shaft was bent to a .149 thousandth’s. My dad was able to get it straightened back to .003 thousandth’s. Took it for a spin on the lake and everything appears to be good to go.We didn’t land a lot of fish in total but a lot of what we caught was in the 24 to 26”. It’s going to be fun when that year class or two is 28 to 30”.
We struggled getting a good consistent pitching bite going. We ended up pulling jigs and paddle tails upstream and slipping the current with a split tail plastic. Unfortunately I didn’t think of using the split tail until an hour or so left in the day yesterday.We had a blast camping with Bearcat, his son and friends. I am already looking forward till next year.
I couldn’t believe how few of boats there was there this morning when we left.
How did you straighten the prop shaft? I hit a rock at about 5 mph 2 falls ago and the stainless prop bent the shaft. Insurance paid about $6k for a new lower unit and I bought it back for $75. Would be nice to get it good enough to be a spare.
First time ever being up there for me and it was sad to see the amount of people fishing the Canadian side with minnows. We bought Canadian license and exclusively fished plastics. Friday fishing in one area watching a boat behind us catching fish they got close and I decided we were leaving. The gentleman in the bow goes you don’t have to leave because of us, my buddy says it’s slow in the area, I ask are you guys using minnows?? 15 second pause, boat driver says quietly yeah, I tell him he can’t have minnows on the Canadian side, he replies with its close enough (150′ past the line according to my map), besides we haven’t seen the chopper yet today!!!
One more day to go. Where did everyone go today. Birchdale was a ghost town by noon. By dark there was maybe 6 boats on the water. Guessing tomorrow parking shouldn’t be an issue.
First time ever being up there for me and it was sad to see the amount of people fishing the Canadian side with minnows. We bought Canadian license and exclusively fished plastics. Friday fishing in one area watching a boat behind us catching fish they got close and I decided we were leaving. The gentleman in the bow goes you don’t have to leave because of us, my buddy says it’s slow in the area, I ask are you guys using minnows?? 15 second pause, boat driver says quietly yeah, I tell him he can’t have minnows on the Canadian side, he replies with its close enough (150′ past the line according to my map), besides we haven’t seen the chopper yet today!!!
Let em get busted and pay the fines. Minnows are so over rated. We buy them to have for sturgeon fishing but ditch them for plastics on the walleye. But we made the same comment. Lots of minnows past that line.
One more day to go. Where did everyone go today. Birchdale was a ghost town by noon. By dark there was maybe 6 boats on the water. Guessing tomorrow parking shouldn’t be an issue.
How’d the bite turn out in that area Mike?
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Johnston wrote:</div>
Next year will be a blast mike! I’ll bring the roast again!Heck yeah it will.
That sounds great.
I kid you not that roast you made last night was awesome!
Venison roasts in the tent always are delicious. But those bone in shoulders really are the ticket.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Full draw wrote:</div>
Other than the rock episode we had an awesome trip.
The prop shaft was bent to a .149 thousandth’s. My dad was able to get it straightened back to .003 thousandth’s. Took it for a spin on the lake and everything appears to be good to go.We didn’t land a lot of fish in total but a lot of what we caught was in the 24 to 26”. It’s going to be fun when that year class or two is 28 to 30”.
We struggled getting a good consistent pitching bite going. We ended up pulling jigs and paddle tails upstream and slipping the current with a split tail plastic. Unfortunately I didn’t think of using the split tail until an hour or so left in the day yesterday.We had a blast camping with Bearcat, his son and friends. I am already looking forward till next year.
I couldn’t believe how few of boats there was there this morning when we left.
How did you straighten the prop shaft? I hit a rock at about 5 mph 2 falls ago and the stainless prop bent the shaft. Insurance paid about $6k for a new lower unit and I bought it back for $75. Would be nice to get it good enough to be a spare.
We used a bottle jack and pressed on the prop nut. We put a 3/8” steel plate against the cavitation plate.
We also has a digital dial indicator. We would find the low spot and the high spot. Then press on the high spot. We worked it slow. A little each time. Took us about 20 times to get it back into spec.
Did you guys see the canadian conservation officers in the red Lund? They rolled up on me with 2 rods out, I thought they were dragging jigs way to close, turned out they were being real sneaky. But they were as nice as they could get with me. I never seen the fishing rod trick before
Reminds me of a time me and a buddy got checked duck hunting. After we were done hunting and picking up, I look over and there was a guy paddling over in a kayak with a decoy bag and a black lab, didn’t think much of it until I saw his boy scout uniform. They can be quite tricky.
Was going to fish this weekend but unfortunately had a funeral to go to. Maybe next year.
BTW, the chopper flying around was in response to Trumps claims (and resulting tariffs) that fentanyl and migrants are pouring out of Canada into the US.
The boy and I fished for a couple hours Sunday morning before we took off for home. I missed one, lost one and caught 1. But the one I did put in the boat was 28 3/8” so made that bite count.
The boy and I fished for a couple hours Sunday morning before we took off for home. I missed one, lost one and caught 1. But the one I did put in the boat was 28 3/8” so made that bite count.
That’s a great fish. We headed out first thing Sunday morning.
Was going to fish this weekend but unfortunately had a funeral to go to. Maybe next year.
BTW, the chopper flying around was in response to Trumps claims (and resulting tariffs) that fentanyl and migrants are pouring out of Canada into the US.
There was choppers flying both sides of the river….
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Sam Menard wrote:</div>
Was going to fish this weekend but unfortunately had a funeral to go to. Maybe next year.BTW, the chopper flying around was in response to Trumps claims (and resulting tariffs) that fentanyl and migrants are pouring out of Canada into the US.
There was choppers flying both sides of the river….
Claims? That’s pure facts!
Surprised there aren’t more pics in here.
Was just me and kiddos and fished all day Friday and Saturday. Weather was incredible. Honestly, some of my favorite trips were made so much better because of the weather.
We tallied 32 fish on Friday and 30 on Saturday. When we got the boat in on Friday, I tied a pink and white jig on the boy’s line and pitched it out to test the weight. As soon as it hit the bottom the bare jig got hit by a 20” walleye. Nice way to start. He proceeded to nab a 26 a couple hours later. Then his sister got a 27 1/2 a few minutes after that. A few minutes after that I stuck a 28.
Saturday started out very similarly when I got a 24 on the first cast. Saturday was more of a grind so we spent a little more time sturgeon fishing. While soaking some crushed fatheads on one rod, she set the hook on a 56” sturgeon on her 5’6 light action rod. Took probably 15 minutes to get it in. We horsed it as much as we could so hopefully that’s acceptable to some of you. I wasn’t going to tell my 10 y/o to just break the line. She managed to snag a couple more smaller ones later in the day on this same setup.
We managed a couple on the sturgeon rig, one of which went 62” and I imagine it had to go 80#+. I originally handed the rod to the boy but after watching him struggle I had to grab the rod to see how big it was and I couldn’t move this thing off the bottom so I knew it was a horse. We’re calling it a team effort so we’re sharing this one.
I’d say about 2/3 to 3/4 of the walleyes came on minnows and the rest on plastics. I prefer plastics but when they aren’t working I’m not going to force the kids to use them. Considering the majority of my time was keeping the kids in the strike zone I thought we did really really well compared to most adults on the water. Aggressively pitching jigs simply wasn’t working. Dragging and slipping was really effective as was spot lock and lift and drop. Slow was definitely the key.
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Fished Rainy for the first time last weekend. Fished the Canadian side with plastics, but I was also surprised by the number of risky people fishing minnows awfully far from the US shore and close to the Canada shore.
First day we had a great pitching bite with fluke tail plastics. Avg size was smaller than we expected, mostly males, but it was a good numbers bite. The next day the water dirtied up quite a bit, flow increased a touch, and had a much harder time pitching. We bounced around a bit, but ended up going back to where we fished the day prior and tried dragging paddle tails up stream, real slow, at 0.2 mph. This was the ticket. Numbers weren’t quite the same but we got into some real good fish. Several 24-26, handful of 28.5, and I was able to pull my first 30″!!
Fun to see as many boats as there were but seemed like most were able to get on a pretty good bite. Appreciate all the reports and tips I read from everyone in this thread!
It’s been awhile since I fished the Rainy, but we use to bring dead bait (frozen or preserved minnows) to the Canadian side. Is this still legal? I also remember a year we launched on the Canadian side, bought minnows in Canada, and never crossed in to Minnesota to fish. A few boats thought we transported live bait across the border.
It’s been awhile since I fished the Rainy, but we use to bring dead bait (frozen or preserved minnows) to the Canadian side. Is this still legal? I also remember a year we launched on the Canadian side, bought minnows in Canada, and never crossed in to Minnesota to fish. A few boats thought we transported live bait across the border.
Unfortunately that isnt legal anymore. No bait or bait products. When we were checked by Canadian COs we did ask about crossing the border, staying in Canada, buying bait in canada, and fishing the canadian side with bait. They said perfectly legal as long as you keep the bait receipt with you in the boat and never step foot on the US shore. If multiple boats in your group, have multiple receipts.
It’s been awhile since I fished the Rainy, but we use to bring dead bait (frozen or preserved minnows) to the Canadian side. Is this still legal? I also remember a year we launched on the Canadian side, bought minnows in Canada, and never crossed in to Minnesota to fish. A few boats thought we transported live bait across the border.
Any live or dead bait is not allowed across the border. We also have put in on the Canadian side so we can keep fish.
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