After much planning through the last couple of weeks, my great friend RyanK and I headed North to the Rum River. Our day started at 5:00am; pack the cars, make sure all of our tackle was in order, and north we headed. RyanK and I have been fishing the Rum River for many years now, from Princeton all the way down to Anoka. We have put in countless hours in both the canoe and fishing from shore. This day, was not like all of the rest. We arrived at the launch around 5:45am and unpacked our gear for our 10 hour float down the river. With clouds over head, we secured our rain gear tightly in the canoe and were on the river by 6:00am.
Once in the canoe the debate started on what colors should be used in the low light conditions we had for the day. After much deliberation I decided I would stay with a bright #7 clown rapala, Ryan opted for a darker and smaller rapala, a #5 perch. We started by working the shore lines and quickly discovered that it didn’t matter what color we were throwing at these fish, they were on a total frenzy. The first fish was caught by Ryan within the first 10 minutes on the water; a 20” smallmouth was a great way to start the day. It never ceases to amaze me how much of a fight these fish put up. A quick high five and back to pitching for these bad boys we went.
Knowing we had a great opportunity for some big pike, we decided our first spot to stop was a known weed bed we had hit many times before. This bed sits in about 2 FOW and drops in the main channel to 5 or 6 FOW. We worked the edge of the weed bed for only a couple of minutes until hooking into a 31” bruiser pike. After this catch we knew we had something good going for the day. Cast after cast was followed by fish after fish. Most of the small mouths were holding on edges adjacent to deeper water, while the pike were holding up close to shore and under cover.
We worked the river for over 10 hours on this day and it rewarded us big time. 62 fish was the total count with 6 smallmouth’s over 20”, 6 pike over 25", and two doubles.
If you haven’t made a trip up to the Rum River, now is the time. The smallmouth action is some of the best you can find within 30 minutes of the cities, the pike are always hungry, and the scenery of this small river system is incredible.
Some additional pictures from the trip.
Those smallies are so pretty!
Looks like you guys hit the weather and the fishing just perfect!
Nice report and I haven’t seen one on the Rum for a long time.
A great day on the water!
Nice looking fish. That is a lot of big small mouth.
Saw some boys dumping a canoe in on the Crow the other day. I wondered if it was you boys??
Great fish!!!!
I wish!! Been way too long since I’ve fished that river!
Awesome outing Jake! We’ve gotta do it again soon only this time we need to land one of those 36″+ pike that are swimming around in there!!!
Those are some tank skinny water smallies.
You can say that again!
Great job Guys!
Wow! You have my attention, Jakob!
looks like a blast i love canoeing that stretch of river it never dissapoints!
Great fishing guys. Wish I could’ve been there with ya! Looks like you hit all the spots!
TO YOU!
great report and pics, guys
brings back memories of the float trips of my yout
Great report! It’s refreshing to see a river canoe report, especially with such great results.
Great report guys!
That brings back a lot of memories for me. I grew up fishing the Rum. I’m surprised you didn’t get into any walleyes. Hit it again in about two months and have jigs with plastics and/or minnows. How bad were the bugs? This time of the year the deer flies can be insane.
dd
Ugggh! Deer Flies on the river…Brings back a horrible memory. My brother, a friend, and I canoed the Sunrise River years back. Plopped the canoe in, got about a mile downstream, and arrived in hell…Deerfly swarms rivaling any horror movie involving bugs tried their damndest to murder us by buzz and bite torture. We paddled as fast as humanly possible to the next county road and made a break for it. My brothers face was swollen from bites and we had to walk four miles back to the car as we didn’t make it to our final destination. Barely even wet a line…Worst part is there was a group of tubers just starting out when we arrived back at the car. They were just out of earshot so they didn’t hear our warning. I’m sure their trip made ours seem like a pleasure cruise.
They weren’t too bad. In a few of the really shallow areas there were a few but nothing like we’ve seen in years past. We’ve done a run or two where it was next to impossible to keep them away – NOT FUN AT ALL!!!
PS – A lot of the success we’ve had on the Rum River over the last few years is due to advice we’ve recieved from members on this site. I know drewsdad, Mike W and many others have answered TONS of questions about this system and I know I speak for both Jakob and I when I say we truly appreciate all the tips and info!
He’s finally done it folks!! Welcome to the posting side of IDO Ben!
I’m envious right now, theres nothing like a good smallie bite on a nice river.
Great looking SMB, awesome day…
thanks,
Jack