Take 30 guys, add in 5 houseboats, 9 fishing boats, one of the best fishing lakes in the midwest AND absolutely perfect weather conditions…. and the results are a truly fantastic trip that I personally cannot wait to repeat.
The boarding of the houseboats went very smoothly to the point that the staff at Rainy Lake Houseboats commented multiple times on how smoothly the trip started. We started loading boats as a group shortly after 9 AM. After a quick walk through on how to use all the houseboat equipment we were on the water and headed for our destination site.
The houseboats motored for close to 2 hours before we arrived at our final destination. By 1 PM on the first day we were listening to Billy Dougherty of Rainy Lake Houseboats and Chris Granrud give a short seminar on how to approach this large body of water. Billy brought a large map of the area we would be fishing on Rainy and he took the time to mark out more prime fishing spots than any of use could have fished in 3 trips.
Fishing started off slow on that first day for most… it took some time to get a feel for the body of water and the techniques but by day two most guy were hot on the trail of a solid bite. The walleye fishing was very good once you got the hang of the technique the fish were DEMANDING on this trip. Slow presentations fished precisely and patiently dominated with faster paced presentations producing very few fish. Slowly dragging light jigs tipped with minnows seemed to be the #1 technique employed by those fishing and once you got the hang of things catching good numbers of 21 – 24 inch walleyes was fairly straight forward and some of the boats were reporting 25, 30 and even as many as 75 fish per day with many of those fish over 20 inches. Slip bobbers also put a large number of fish in the boat once a guy found them schooling tightly.
The bite wasn’t “easy” by Rainy Lake standards but where else can you go and catch 30 walleyes over 20 inches in a day when the bite is “a little off?” And the fight on these fish was incredible making each hookup more fun than the last as the 21″ – 24″ Rainy Lake fish are some of the hardest fighting fish you’ll ever encounter.
The photo I attached with this post is of a 23″ walleye, my first walleye on this trip, caught in less than 5 minutes of being on the water on the first day. Nice start is all I have to say about that!
Big fish honors on the walleye side goes to Dave Stringer for his 28″ walleye caught with the video camera rolling. Dave and his super fat 28″ walleye will definitely be featured in the IDO TV episode of this outing that will air next spring.
Several boats took some time to chase the pike with some darn nice pike coming to the net. I had a 37″ pike within the first 30 minutes of fishing for them… what a fight on light tackle in shallow water! Jeff Ervine had three 36″ pike his first day out after the shallow water rockets. Randall Graves had a heavy 39″ and Richard Moore netted a 40″ pike. Rainy definitely can kick out some heavy bodied northerns!
I don’t recall anyone taking the time to chase the crappies. Several groups talked about going to do it but once you zero in on a walleye bite that was kicking out nice numbers of quality fish… it was hard to leave one bite in search of another.
Other highlights for me would include the incredible sleeping weather on the houseboats. With the low temps dipping into the 50’s that cool breeze at night left me sleeping like a baby. Here I sit at the keyboard on monday AM and I’m feeling incredibly refreshed. Another highlight worth mentioning was the chocolate cake brought by Ron Bukovich. It was quite honestly…. to die for. I don’t know how he got the chunk he shared with us past the guys on his houseboat. I do know once it hit the table in our boat it was gone in the blink of an eye.
Likely the most important memory I’ll take away from this trip was being able to visit with all the guys out on the water and work together as a team to get on and stay on fish. At one time on Saturday we had 4 – 5 boats sitting on one mud flat anchored 30′ apart fishing side by side and catching nice walleye at a pretty incredible pace. Quite honestly there was a couple hours where the boats never moved as the fish stayed put and someone in one of the boats was always fighting a fish. And almost none of those fish were under 20″. Being able to enjoy that kind of fishing while yucking it up with your neighboring boats made the experience one I’ll remember for a long time.
As far as first year trip go… this one went off like clockwork. I’d like to thank Chris Granrud and Rainy Lake Houseboats for all their hard work put in to make this such a success. Next year’s event is already in the works and it does sound like we’re going to expand the group size to some degree as well as offer options to extend a group’s duration of stay along with a few other minor changes. If you’re interested in attending next year’s event, best to email me and let me know ASAP. It looks like we’re planning on the 15 – 19 September so put those dates in your calendar. I’ll have more to announce on the plans for next year over the next couple weeks. 
To all that attended… it was GREAT to get to know each of you a little better and I look forward to seeing you all again next year. Now let’s get posting up our stories and photos. I’ll get the ball rolling…
Can’t wait to hear all of Ben’s stories! Hopefully I can make it next year as long as it doesn’t interfere with the NASCAR race in KC 
Just sent it in to St. Croix this morning. Alot stranger things coulda happened 
! To this river rat, rainy proved to be a wonderful change of pace 
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All though it was hard to find a quality wing dam or calm bed to target, somehow it all worked out 
. Thanks to James for letting me be a mouse in the corner of his boat for the entire trip 
