RAINY RIVER

Hope the weather is decent and water conditions are good because the big walleye will be waiting. That's right, the mighty Rainy River in northwestern Ontario, an impressive body of water that stretches some 96 kilometres from the town of Fort Francis to the Lake of the Woods, Ontario.

The upper reaches of this river, near Fort Francis open the earliest and in a normal year by the first week of April, the ice is almost off the entire stretch of river.

In this time period walleye from Lake of the Woods journey up the Rainy to spawn. Combine that with the fact that the Ontario walleye season doesn't close until the middle of April there is usually a small one to two week period to fish early season open water walleye. Since conditions vary so much from year to year we try and keep a handle on the situation through the Internet and the number of sites that provide up the minute fishing information. On the US side, there are a number of lodges that provide the service.

And what fishing it can be!

It's so good in fact, there has been a number of restrictions implemented to protect the fishery. For example all fish over 50 centimetres in length must be released between March 1 and April 14. There is also a reduced limit on this stretch but thats not what most anglers make the journey for. It's for the legitmate shot of catching a walleye over 10 pounds.

On a normal year, with clear water and fast but not dirty flow, drifting along the edge of the main river channel with a jig and minnow combination puts a lot of fish in the boat. The depth range can vary but 15 feet works pretty well.

In stable weather conditions, we drift using the front troll motor to adjust our position and slow us down. When the fish are aggressive use a jig with small spinner like a Northland Whisler. In clear water, natural colours are better, in dirty water big, bulky and bright is the way to go. There are times these fish will get up on the flats and actively feed. When that happens you will walleye angler will think they died and went to heaven. If you can fine tune location and presentation, forty to fifty fish days are not uncommon.

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