Rainy Lake Houseboat late August / Early September

Hello I am taking my girlfriend to the lake for her first time. I have hard core fished Rainy with friends twice recently but did most of our fishing on the Canadian side. My previous trips staying with friends was at Island View, so this will be the first houseboat excursion. My post here is trying to minimize the mistakes so I spend more time fishing than overcoming mistakes of forgotten items, lack of preparation, and most importantly mooring in spots that require me to ravel the length of the lake to get to a spot with fish. I am pulling my ranger with electronics so moving from the houseboat to fish is not a concern. I plan on getting a guide for a half a day but any help from anyone to help my experience along would be appreciated. thanks

If the lake is busy, you will have to take what campsites are available. How long of trip? I would probably head east.

First, Welcome to IDO.

I would plan on burning a good part of day one getting through the Brule and then to the south shore. The HB spots down there are nice and protected. Many with nice sand beach landings.

Have a plan to deal with your boat while parking the HB. Might sound like a no $hit comment. But don’t just leave it tied off to the back of the boat and run into shore. And don’t rely on the lady friend to be able to stop it from crashing into the rear of the HB. Once a landing spot is located, I like to move the boat to one side or the other and tie it off. Then approach landing spot nice and slow. If your gal can drive the Ranger to shore, even better.

If you have a dog with, tie it up before landing HB. If the dog decides to jump in as you are coming to shore, and does not swim fast enough to get out of the way the HB will just squish the dog like a pop can on hwy 94 at rush hour. It has happened with RLHB. Their Hulls are barge hulls not pontoons.

Don’t tie a HB off to National Park docks.

Bring a couple pair of binoculars.

Bring more ice than you think you will need. Same with beer!

If you have a portable generator, bring it. Nice to have as a back up if needed.

Good luck and have a fun trip!

-J.

Another comment about parking on sand. Nice and quiet at night. If there is any rock under the hull and any wave action there will be noise. It’s like trying to sleep inside the liberty bell !

-J.

Bring all of the bug spray, repellant, foggers that you can think of, and then bring more than you think you’ll need. It doesn’t go bad, and you’d rather have too much than not enough. Bring floaties for lounging in the water, if it’s 95 without a whiff of wind, you’ll be glad you did. Pop out lounge chairs aren’t a bad idea. The further east you go the better imo, although the Saginaw Bay area probably has the most fishy spots nearby. You can prescout spots on the VNP website, and make a list of sandy ones. They are a priority so you will likely need to check a few out before finding an open one. If one of you can run ahead in your boat to check them out it’s a lot easier than using the HB.

John’s advice is all good too, especially bringing more ice/beer and tying up your boat safely and securely, I learned that one the hard way.

We go up tent camping on rainy. You have reserve those spots ahead of time. Are house boat site’s first come first serve?

We went right after Labor Day 1 year. Had excellent walleye fishing in the east end. Jig and bait or lindy rigging was best. Parked in a spot in Sand Bay. Well protected and short runs to where we fished. That time of year bugs were not too bad.
Also a map chip is a must in my opinion.

Red Eye wrote:

Are house boat site’s first come first serve?

Yes.

a complete week

I have the Rainy Chip in my ranger and downloaded an application that the houseboat company asked me to. It seems enough detailed that I can navigate from my iphone and Ipad while moving the houseboat.

Beware of mice. You wouldn’t think it would be an issue, but they are well conditioned to walking up gangplanks and scaling the big ropes used to tie off the houseboat (or ropes going to your fishing boat). We have watched them do this!

Jon Jordan wrote:

Have a plan to deal with your boat while parking the HB. Might sound like a no $hit comment. But don’t just leave it tied off to the back of the boat and run into shore. And don’t rely on the lady friend to be able to stop it from crashing into the rear of the HB. Once a landing spot is located, I like to move the boat to one side or the other and tie it off. Then approach landing spot nice and slow. If your gal can drive the Ranger to shore, even better.

As much of a no $hit comment as it should be, I found this quite useful. Thank you! Wife and I are talking about this same trip in September. I’ve never done a houseboat or the American side. She’s only seen pictures of Rainy from my Canadian trips.

Wow! I booked HB for 6 guys starting August 29. We have 3 boats we’re bringing with us…grest advice so far, and I need it. First time for me on Rainy and first time with HB.
One thing I did want to ask….is it worth trying for muskys? We’ll be targeting walleye and smallies, but I fish muskys a lot and I’ll wait’em out if I have to.
Thanks!

A few thermacells to set on the table while relaxing at night saved us and made it nice to play cards on the front deck at night.

Thanks for the insight you guys. Nice to get some scoop and It be relevant. My week is the same week as Tim and his friends. Let’s plan on connecting and sharing what we learn on the fishing part of the trip. I have a guide scheduled from the HB staff for Sunday. My plan is to camp on the other side of the narrows. The guide comes to the HB. I will share Sunday evening what I learn.

Be careful on the cell use mine was using Canadian towers when we were up and they sent me a huge bill. I called and they took it off but something to be aware of.

Tim Chrouser wrote:

One thing I did want to ask….is it worth trying for muskys?

No muskies in Minnesota waters. There are some in Canadian waters but you can’t cross the border at this time.

Tim Chrouser wrote:

Wow! I booked HB for 6 guys starting August 29. We have 3 boats we’re bringing with us…grest advice so far, and I need it. First time for me on Rainy and first time with HB.
One thing I did want to ask….is it worth trying for muskys? We’ll be targeting <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye and smallies, but I fish muskys a lot and I’ll wait’em out if I have to.
Thanks!

I would still bring some trolling baits. Pull them over the humps and reefs for the big Pike around there.

Have fun.

Tim Chrouser wrote:

Wow! I booked HB for 6 guys starting August 29.

I’ve always been tempted to bring a tape recorder to capture the snoring symphony. That would be the perfect intro to a country song.

Ok….I believe you, but do you know why muskys wouldn’t cross the border into the US? Is the habitat different on the north arm? Maybe they can’t spawn on the SE side of the lake?

That’s great. We just added our 6th guy today. Great pick up for us because he can find fish…great walleye guy.
I believe we will go through Brule Narrows (about 2PM) and then steam SE. Maybe hole up near Minnitaki or Big Island. Never been there so I just don’t know.
Once we beach the HB all 3 boats will go out and try to find fish. Personally, I WAS going to go cast for muskys a bit but was told it’s not worth it. So…I would like to tie on some deep diving crank baits and jig/plastics and hit some points…shoals, rocky flats, cabbage edges, you know…find an area where we can mark fish and see if we can get a bait in front if them. Our 2nd boat will be jigging for walleye and the 3rd boat likes to troll with big deep runners and a 12pk of Busch. (from Nebraska so you’ll have to excuse his choice of technique…but he is a good guy, cleans fish, and has a generator). On the depth chart map the area just through the Narrows and to the SW looks really fishy. I will be curious to hear where your guide takes you. Princess is our boat – Northernaire.
Do you know if there is cell sevice out there? If so I’ll PM you my phone number.

[email protected]

Tim Chrouser wrote:

Ok….I believe you, but do you know why muskys wouldn’t cross the border into the US? Is the habitat different on the north arm? Maybe they can’t spawn on the SE side of the lake?

The common theory is that the area with a fishable population in in Redgut Bay. Do they leave Redgut from time to time and pop up elsewhwere? Of course but not in enough numbers that most would go “musky fishing”.

Example of how rare they are on the North Arm, took my buddy 40 years to catch one and two old timers who hadn’t seen one in that part of the lake: Rainy Lake Unicorn

As for why, we’ve never really figured that out why the musky population doesn’t spread out. If someone knows I’m all ears.

The last thing I’d do is post my full name and cell phone number on the internet. Let us know how that works out for ya.

Thanks for the concern. I am not afraid but agree I should be more conservative. Crooks and Thieves can get any of our phone numbers, names, and addresses from any one of a number vendors that are out there.

Hello John Winter,

Just an FYI as a new member. We do have a Private Message or “PM” option in your profile. You can send messages like phone numbers securely there. Simply click on the User’s (Blue) Name in their profile and select the Private message box.

If you would like, I can remove your phone number from that post. Send me a PM.

-J.

JW….I sent you a PM with my contact info.