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Hey, where are the pics? Did I miss ’em or was everybody too busy reeling and releasing to get in a few clicks? Need some more for my desktop background at work. Helps me remember why I put up with work. One week of fishing makes the 52 weeks of slaving worthwhile. 
Here’s my pics!! I don’t think a lot of our crew on this years fall trip are real active as per posting.
Here’s a brief re-cap from my experience. Fishing was solid. Not outstanding, but productive for the guys that got out and worked it. On our day of departure we drove our floating condo’s from Rainy Lake Houseboats directly into the teeth of the fury of Mother Nature. It was clear to most that Summer was in a fight with Fall that day. Wind was sharp and was holding some sort of ugly mixture of sleet and snow as boats were pelted during transport to the group tie down. I was without a guide trip on the opening day, and franky was a bit excited to test out a few new theories in which is tough to do with customers in the boat. As I told guys in my houseboat it is nice to go fishing by yourself as a fishing guide every once in awhile when your afforded the luxury of putting a zero on the board when testing new locations. I tightened up my Snosuit and laced up my gloves. I dropped the throttle on all 300 ponies while pointing “Sho-Time” due east despite the weather. In the back of my mind I found myself mumbling as I crashed through the waves and wind……….IS THAT ALL YOU GOT!! My focus for the afternoon was to fish “Filtered winds”. Anglers understand the importance of fishing wind currents, but often times in a 30mph blow this makes boat control a serious issue. I find anglers too often either play cards or fish backsides of islands in harsh wind making results very poor. I located a deep break (Which I have never fished) behind a series of islands that slowed the wind speeds to an estimated 10-15mph. Upon my arrival what looked good on my chip at camp……….WAS A JACKPOT full of Humminbird Arcs. Truly this could have been a H-Bird commercial!! As I mentioned to other anglers during my opening mornings seminar ” Gentleman…….Though we have a brutal cold front upon, and not one of us would draw this up for optimum fishing results, you just NEVER really know how fish are going to react until your on the water FISHING on top of a school of walleyes.”. To my suprise the fish were snapping to the point I could feel the hits with my gloves on. I fished a deep food funnel that had seemingly drove a large pod of ciscoes closely followed by very active walleyes on a main basin breakline with feeding shelves from 27-40 feet of water. Walleyes and pike were literally stacked 4 deep on my 1198C. I proceeded to murder the walleyes on a simple jig and minnow vertical presentation. BLESS my Loomis NRX rod for being simple a lightning rod of response. Even in the heaviest winds over deep water……..WITH GLOVES ON I was able to detect strikes!! I quickly put a beautiful limit of walleyes in the boat and proceeded to let go another 20-25 fish quality fish. I had 2 very large fish spit the hook half way up the water column that still haunt me this morning. Upon my return to the houseboat the general response was the same with other anglers. Boat control was mighty difficult hindering fishing results on day 1.
The next day I took my group chasing Rainy lake crappies and in our good fortune we simply blitzed the big “Donks”. I’ve always said Crappies are the most finicky fish in teh “Northwoods”. You can fill the box or your can pull your hair out. I RARELY head crappie fishing without a plan B. Fortunately BIG walleyes tends to be a VERY NICE plan B!! I think we ended up with around 30 crappies along with some very fat Shallow water walleyes. 2 of our walleyes measured just over 26 inches along with a nice batch of eater fish.
Day 3 had our guide boat “Sho-Time” traveling far east towards Kettle falls. I had another guide trip this time with a follow boat as well. Fish were absolutely Stacked on our searched structure, but very finicky. We ended up boating most of our walleyes on a simple jig and 1/3 crawler long casting behind the boat on deep mud/Rock transitions. We boated only a few of the bigger slot fish while ending up with 19 walleyes in the box for shorelunch. Not outstanding fishing by Rainy lake standards, but nonetheless if you put 19 fish in the box it is tough to really complain.
My next 2 days were spent chasing both Crappies and Walleyes with customers outside the IDO Houseboat group. We caught nice fish and were fortunate enough to boat right up to a Bull Moose crossing the lake early one morning.
Trips like these are always very special to me as I am finally able to put a face to a name per our online affiliation here with In Depth Outdors. We are blessed with so many great guys, and each season I meet so many new friends. A special shout out to the boys in my houseboat. Thanks for letting me be a part of your adventure. What a fun group of guys, and that food you prepared has really raised the bar for the “Fishing Queen”!! 
I also met for the first time Jon Jordan and Wade Kuehl. Both Class guys that were a pleasure to finally meet in person.
For those of you who haven’t been on a trip with fellow IDO guys it should be on your bucket list. Guys are free to roam boat to boat and talk turkey about whatever. Fishing is also discussed every once in awhile!! 
For those of you who can’t make either the Spring or Fall trip I highly ecourage you to book your families houseboat trip with IDO as soon as possible. Those looking for timeframe suggestions based on our fishing are encouraged to PM me along with any other questions you might have with our area. Remember that houseboats during the summer months get locked up very quickly as do guys like myself for guiding trips. The sooner yon can finalize your plans for 2012 the better chance you have for getting precisely what you want!!
Rainy lake is clearly a destination fisherman fall in love with. Beyond the highly touted caliber of fishing available I tend to believe it is the backdrop of your fishing trip as a simple man and boat amongst thousands of pine studded islands that truly remains priceless.
Rainy Lake Houseboats allows anglers to park 5-30 miles from any sort of civilization, yet with all the comforts of home. No Roads, No Phones. You……..Rocks……Pine Trees……….FISH!! 
in the main basin and we were then greeted with heavy sleet/snow that afternoon. Yes………MAN UP!! To my astonishment I found the fish to be snapping hard working some filtered wind between some smaller islands in 27-35 f.o.w. Many guys had some difficulty controling their boats in that wind. Our second day (Yesterday) was absolutely beautiful outside. Guys caught LOTS of walleyes. I had a 1/2 day guide trip and follow boat. We kept 19 keepers for a big fish fry. I talked with Jon Jordan and he fished alone and said he did very well. Limit of keepers early and 10 fish over 22 inches!!! I watched James pull a nice pike up on the rocks, but didn’t catch him at the end of the day.
