Be Aware of Your Surroundings

[Baseline]

On Monday and Tuesday a fishing buddy and I took a trip to Rainy River located on the Minnesota / Ontario border. We were there to fish for lake sturgeon with a plan B to fish for walleyes if the sturgeon didn't cooperate. At 8:00 am we arrived at the ramp and launched. We went down river about 1 mile and set up just below the confluence of the Little Fork River which is a tributary to the Rainy. The river was wide open and totally free of ice with the exception oOnf a occasional chunk floating out from the Little Fork. We anchored off on the Minnesota side of the river and set our lines. After about two hours we noticed that more and more ice was entering the river heading down stream. Most of the ice was being pushed to the middle and Canadian side of the river so we kept fishing. I decided I needed to keep an eye on the ice flow.

About noon the Little Fork opened up and began to let go of all its ice. It stays locked up in ice longer than the Rainy. There was a steady stream running down the middle and was now pushing toward us on the Minnesota side. The ice was running out of the river and down the river on a 6 MPH current which meant that if we didn't cross the flow and get up river on the Canadian side we would eventually had been pushed to the shore with no exit. It was time to get out of there.

We maneuvered the boat toward the ice flow and found several semi open gaps which we bounced through moving some chunks of ice and made to the safe side. We stopped just above where the flow was entering the Rainy and watched for about 1/2 an hour. By that time the entire river was full of large chunks of ice some 100 feet long 20 feet wide and two feet thick. The US side where we were fishing was completely blocked with large chunks of fast flowing ice. Had we not been watching the flow and got out of there the only choice we would have had would be to pull to the shore and exit the boat. We would have had to abandon the boat and who know what kind of beating it would have taken.


The first picture is what the river looked like when we arrived.

The second picture show what the river looked like when we exited and got upstream.

The third picture show what the river looked like 1/2 hour later. That spot of open water on the far side is where the were fishing.

[Bobby Winds]

OK Margie . . .. . . . How did it go.

[Baseline]

Set the computer down for one minute and left the room. My granddaughter grabbed it and started texting her friends.

[Bobby Winds]

I knew something wasn't right there . . . LOL

[mjayn]

Any fish?