Arvid’s Fishing Report

My friend, Chuck, is back in Minnesota for a visit with family and friends. He fished with his brother for a few days around the Ottertail area before making his way north to visit his sister and then to our place. We got in two days of fishing; Thursday, a very nice sunny day and Friday, a day of light rain. Fishing on the river wasn’t great, but good enough to keep us happy. We fished the middle of the river in 18-19 feet of water in the middle of the day, then fished the shoreline in 11-12 feet an hour of so before dark. We caught numerous little fish each time out and enough eaters for two nice lunches and a limit for him to go home with. We caught five nice walleyes in the slot that were from 19″ to 23″, but no big fish. We also caught three sturgeon from 30″-36″. Once we each had one on at the same time; that proved to be interesting and it was suprising that the line tangle was no worse than it was.

Chuck with a nice 23″ walleye; big fish for the two days

Last Saturday, Terry and Bev came up for the day. Diane and Bev spent the day at the church bazaar while Terry and I did some work out by the deer stands. Later in the afternoon Terry and I fished the river for about three hours. We fished five different locations at various depths and caught fish every place we stopped. We must have caught thirty or more;  walleye, sauger, perch and a northern; a little bit of everything, but nothing big enough to keep.

Sunday, I fished for a little over an hour before dark, thinking that a couple fish for a fresh meal would be nice. Like the evening before, the action was steady and I did catch a nice 17″ walleye and a small sauger to bring home.

On Tuesday, after a trip to Bemidji to take care of some Senior Center business, I fished for a while before dark. I started out fishing the middle of the river in nineteen feet and caught several small walleyes and sauger; then moved near shore in about eleven feet of water. I caught and released two walleyes, 19″ and 21-1/2″, kept three nice eaters and a couple small perch. It appears that a few nicer fish have moved up river; fishing was good.

An October evening on the Rainy

A nice 19″ Walleye

We old fogies sometimes wonder about these next generations, but what would we do without them? A couple of weeks ago I sat down to write a post, low and behold, I had no access to the server that my fishing report resided on. Nor could anybody else access the report. Well, thanks to Jonathan and a friend of his, we are almost back to where we were and who knows what the cause of the problem was.

Fall fishing has been slow to heat up. We haven’t had a good frost yet and the water temperature has not cooled off. Some shiner minnows have showed up in the river, but there is not much current to draw the fish in. The report I was going to post a couple weeks ago was when Willard and I went out one afternoon. We caught a few small saugers; a couple nice walleyes and I caught a 55 inch sturgeon. It was quite a fish and took nearly thirty minutes to land it.

I have been out once since then and fished near town. I caught a half dozen small saugers; a large perch, a small sturgeon, and two nice walleyes 16″ and a 24-1/2″. All the reports I’ve heard since have not been very good.

A 55″ Sturgeon (The chart would have it at about 40 lbs. and 28 years old)

Willard with a nice Fall walleye