Rainy River Questions

I’ve never been up to the Rainy and have a few questions. A buddy was up last year for the first time and they ended up hitting a rock and splitting their boat open, so I’d like to not do that. I’ve been looking at Navionics and it look from approximately the Manitou falls going west towards the Frontier landing is a bit sketchy with rapids, shallow water and timber. Is this a correct assumption? I’ll be buying the Lakemaster, but those don’t always have everything marked. I know it’s completely weather dependent, but should a guy wait and fish the western part closer to Baudette or eastern by I’Falls? I’m sure I’ll be staying at a resort and can get info from them closer to when I’d be going, but never hurts to have a starting point. Option 2 is to just wing it.

I haven’t fished the river but I think in the spring everybody stays west towards LOTW. In the summer & fall people fish smallmouth on the east end by I -Falls.

Water depth on the river is dictated by how much water they release from the dam in International Falls. That amount is determined by the snowfall & rainfall.

There’s ramps above and below the rapids so you don’t have to mess with them. Lakemaster chip helps but like you said it doesn’t show everything and it’s river fishing so there’s always something new to watch out for. The fishing always depends upon how far the ice has opened up. When we went in 2012 it was open to the lake and that is unusual. Most people fish from Wheeler’s Point, if it’s open, to Birchdale. Birchdale is usually the first ramp open and is used the most. Clementson Resort and Royal Dutchman usually post updates on river conditions and what ramps are open.

The entire river has walleye in it ,the dam at I falls can be a great spot for numbers,the mouth of the Little Fork river down to 8 mile marker has very good walleye fishing all season long.The earlier the river opens it seems ,the farther up the river ,lake fish come.The rivers depth has something to do with it too.Birchdale seems to be one of the best spots,but you get the crowds there. There are enough landings along the river that one can move around and check different areas along the river,I start at IFalls and work my way west,that’s just because I live in the Falls.
Checked river today it is open bank to bank at the Falls landing and has opened up a great deal at the Pelland landing,with the forecasts they are predicting the river is gonna open fast.
Won’t be long now!
BB2

Terry, what can you tell me about the Loman area of the river? Depth, flow fishing. I’m not looking for spring reports just a over-all of the area. Seems there is always land for sale around there and I’m wondering why.

Well the Loman area is where the Black river dumps into the Rainy,there is one nice hole there.The river kind of flattens out so to speak from there down stream for a ways.I haven’t had a lot of luck in this part of the river ,there does not seem to be anything in that stretch to hold many fish.Although there is a nice channel running down the Canadian side for a lttle ways.The area around Loman is where the land starts to transition from woods to farm ground,it is a great area to hunt,as far as the land for sale I don’t know why.Its a very wild part of our state ,south of Loman is very heavily wooded.I have seen nice bull moose ,wolves and shot some good bears in that area too.

Thank you, is there adequate water depth for running boats in the area or is it shallow?

Yes there is you just need to be carefull when the river is low.