Rainy Lake Houseboat trip – follow up report

Took several hours to get from Nothernaire to Blueberry Island, the first area we wanted to fish. Too much wins for me to fish the humps on the east and north side of Blueberry, so we beat the banks for tiny smallies and a few northern. One of our other boats had spot-lock and could fish the humps…and the picked up some walleyes. No monsters.
Then, we steamed to far East end of Saginaw Bay and hit Kettle Falls channel. Caught several nice eyes on crank baits and some adult smallies. Fished the dam and caught a few fish….mixed bag.
All in all – we caught fish but thought we would catch more. Did not see many others catching fish. Surface temps 69 to 66. I dunno….looka like there should have been more fish there but I’m thinking it got pounded all year because of border closing.
Stopped at our 140 acre lake in northern WI to fish muskys and boy caught this 47 inch 30 pounder. Funny….220,000 acres for 6 days and biggest fish was 30 inches. 140 acres for 4 hour and 47 incher.

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I tell everyone if you are coming to the Park just for the fishing stay home. The fishing is just a piece of the experience. I have talked to several who have fished Rainy, Kab, Namakan this summer. Most were disappointed in the fishing, all were happy with seeing and experiencing the park. I’m sure some of them will be back.

Hope it was a good overall trip.

Thanks for the follow up report. Hoping to do a similar trip in the next few years but will probably shoot for summer so my kids can swim.

It was! Experience was fantastic. Once we figured the weren’t gonna just jump in the boat we didn’t fish as long as we normally would. And, a day and a half was just cruising on the boat.

Good idea. Our boat slept 6 and there was room to sleep, but nor much room for storing clothes and groceries. It was TIGHT. Many times I was someone else’s socks.

Rainy Lake can be very challenging for any first timer (and even some that have been going for years – myself included). Not only do you have to take into consideration the wind/weather, but the bite could simply be off for a day or two as well. Last year in October we had a 1 day which we only caught 2 fish, followed that up with 12 the next day between 2 of us

I have been going there in early October since 2013, and some years were definitely tougher than others, and after that many years of going, we have found spots that have consistently held fish. Getting them to bite or being able to fish those spots can be challenging as well.

We dont go there in October to catch 100+ fish a day, not saying it cant happen but it is not likely. Where we go in Canada every year (except this one) in June, if we dont catch 100 a day in my boat, it was a slow day

We did a 3 person trip to Rainy Lake this year in early August, and did as well as I expected. averaged 41 fish per day, best day was 50, slowest was 31 (only targeting walleye)

To me Rainy Lake is as close to the Canadian experience I can get if Im not going to Canada. Once you head east from town, not seeing many cabins (or other boats in October) just adds to the experience

We dont do the houseboat thing in October, just stay at the Thunderbird since there is only 2 of us on that trip.

Looking forward to being back up there in 3 weeks