Rainy River Walleyes in the snow!

Well even though reports stated that the access lines would be long we headed up to Rainy River in search of the great walleye. We had a mountain bike in the boat just to be prepared. We fished Saturday and Sunday in the snow and cold. We got to the landing around 5am on Saturday and we only had a 15 minute wait with 4 boats ahead of us. The early bird gets the worm I guess. We dropped in at Frontier- NOTE jacknife your trailer to the northwest of the access and will not drop off the concrete and wreck your trailer. We fished until 4pm Saturday and only had 10 fish to show for it with 5 guys. Water temps were barely 37 degrees and it was cold. All of the fish we caught seemed to be biting on a early am feed from 5:30am-9:00am, which was still not a fast and furious bite but it seemed to be the norm with exception to a few big fishing being netted around here and there.

Saturday mid morning brought in some weather changes that included some of the biggest snow flakes I have ever seen. The Ranger was soon a combination of a strikemaster Ice auger barge and an Otter Outdoors portable fishhouse that was attempting to navigate through the winter wonderland snow globe! The fish seemed to slow down after the snow came through. Fish were hitting a 1/4 oz jig tipped with a moxi-paddle tail plastic or a rainbow chub. I must note that the rainbows this year are very small, I called every bait shop and wholesaler in the whole state if seemed like to hear the same results- too much ice and nobody has big rainbows. There is not such thing as a typical year on Rainy and this year was no different, the fish were scattered in pods and if you could stay on them you would pick up fish. Comparing to other years of no walleyes to be seen or hundreds of walleyes, you just never know unless you go. We were prepared for cold weather with ski goggles- it may look crazy but it makes for driving down the river much easier.

Sunday morning came early as we dropped the boat in again at Frontier at 5am a bit earlier than the day before. Once again we were able to beat the crowds at the landing and we had front row parking. The early morning bite proved to be effective once again fishing in 16-18 feet of water with a steady bite putting 31 fish in the boat by 10am. We were able to pick up our slot fish and the fish fry was already being planned. I must note that the spot-lock electric anchor feature on the Minn Kota I-pilot is an amazing tool especially when there is a little current in a river setting. We stayed in the same place and with the current, the boat did not spin a bit. This was a great feature to utilize for our group, however other groups could not figure out why we were not moving with no anchor rope out, so this caused numerous boats to come within 1 foot of our boat and then look at me like it was my fault. I explained to a few what I was doing and how it worked and then they figured out that it their boat that was moving. Majority of the fish were caught going vertical straight up and down in slow jigging pattern. We attempted to work shallower water casting plastics and jigs with a minnow. I call this technique the Rainy River “Pull Back”. We typically cast up the river and pull back very slowly with the current keeping the jig on the bottom. In the past this has been a killer technique which also allows us to cover more water. The biggest fish of the trip 26″ was caught this way in 11 feet of water on a gravely flat bottom.

While we did not hit the 28-30″ mark on the walleyes we caught plenty of fish to have a good time. The battle of the Rainy River, some years its nothing and others is spoils a guy. This year I could not complain, the boats right next to us caught the big walleyes, we may have just been one spot away from the biggin! We did manage to catch a 52 inch bonus sturgeon and numerous others on which provide a big fight for newcomers to the Rainy River and sturgeon world. My advice to anyone taking on the Rainy River is do your homework and prepare ahead of time to make the most of your fishing experience. The ski-goggles, mountain bike, clothing, sand may all sound crazy but if you have to use it, you will be glad you brought it. Good luck fishing Rainy this year, from what I am hearing the bite has picked up and the river is opening up farther each day.