Winter held on for as long as it could, but the seasons are changing quickly now. We made a trip up to the Rainy River and fished on Monday. We launched at Frontier Landing and headed west to the Clementson area. The county opened up the Vidas Landing while we were there, so this should alleviate some pressure off of the other accesses.
The water temps were around 38 when we started and shot up to 40 before we were done. We caught most of our walleyes in 19 to 21 feet of water using 3/8oz jigs pulled downriver at about .8 mph. We were using sucker minnows, which seemed to limit our catch of some of the smaller fish with a lot of short bites removing skin from the tails of our minnows. We did get into some really nice walleyes, with the biggest being 27 1/2 inches. We caught a bunch of small pike in the mix as well, even pulled one into the boat that didn't even have the hook in its mouth, it just grabbed the tail of the minnow and wouldn't let go.
We did put in some time for sturgeon but only managed to hook into a giant white sucker that got off at the boat. There were lots of boats catching sturgeon, you just have to put in the time.
Friday, April 14th is the last day to target walleyes on the Rainy River and fishing should be great right up until the end. You can still target sturgeon beyond that, just make sure to check regulations for when you want to fish. There are lots of people eager to get out on the water so bring your patience and wait your turn.
Get out there and give it a shot. If you would like more information or to book a trip contact us at:
J Rev Outdoors
320-761-0685
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