| Fishing Reports & Guides |
| Rainy Lake Fishing Reports & Guides |
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The Rainy Lake Houseboats Pro Guide staff will begin supplying current Rainy Lake fishing reports for the 2010 season. We will be using a different format, one in which the guides will report on their own daily fishing trips. They will report on which specie they were fishing for, techniques used, water temperatures and type of structure fish were encountered at. You will see pictures of their guest’s fish posted along with the report. Scroll through the whole page as the most recent posts are be at beginning of the scroll, and start of season at the end . You can book one of our guides by calling our office at 218-286-5391.
Currently we have a staff of eight U.S. Coast Guard licensed guides. All have the proper insurance, Voyageurs National Park permits, and Canadian work permits. |
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 Billy Dougherty: Billy is beginning his forty-fifth year guiding on Rainy Lake. He began his career at the famous Kettle Falls Hotel in 1965, learning under Mike Williams. He guided full time until 1975, then weekends and vacations through the fall of 1984. Billy went to work full time at Rainy Lake Houseboats in April of 1985 and has overseen our guide service ever since. He is an expert walleye, smallmouth bass, northern pike, crappie and musky fisherman. He has appeared numerous times on InFisherman TV, Babe Winkelman’s Good Fishing, Lindner’s Angling Edge, North American Fisherman, Butch Furtman’s Sportsman’s Journal, Midwest Outdoors, Backroads with Ron and Raven, and most recently, In Depth Outdoors (www.idofishing.com).
  
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Cody Christensen: Cody began guiding at Rainy Lake Houseboats in 1996. Cody is a superb guide specializing in walleye, smallmouth bass, northern pike and crappie. Cody has the reputation of being able to "smell the fish" and his extensive list of yearly returning clients proves his ability to put fish in the boat.
  
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 Matt “Two Fish” Shermoen: Matt has been with Rainy Lake Houseboats since 1996. He started working on our docks quickly earning the nickname “the Natural” for his ability to communicate with our guests. Once Matt was old enough to get his Captain's License, he started to guide on a regular basis. Matt has expert skills for walleye, northern pike, smallmouth bass, crappie and musky. Matt and his partner Ryan Schmidt are owners of Border Country Outdoor Adventures which provides guided fishing trips in winter, spring, summer and fall.
  
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 Ryan Schmidt: Ryan has been guiding at Rainy Lake Houseboats for the past twelve years. Ryan went to law enforcement school but could never let Rainy Lake go. He is a quiet, unassuming person, but a deadly force on the water. Ryan is an accomplished multi- specie angler specializing in all Rainy Lake has to offer: walleye, musky, crappie, smallmouth bass and northern pike. He is Matt Shermoen’s partner In Border Country Outdoor Adventures.
 
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 Kevin Erickson: Kevin started guiding at Rainy Lake Houseboats in 2004. When he isn't guiding, Kevin is an elementary school teacher and girls hockey coach at the International Falls schools. His main quarry are walleyes, northern pike and smallmouth bass. Soon Kevin will have his own guide staff at Rainy Lake Houseboats made up entirely of his family members as he and his wife Jen have six children; four boys and two girls.
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 Bruce Jean: Bruce has been guiding the past eight summers at Rainy Lake Houseboats. In the off-season, Bruce is a school administrator in the Elk River school system. Originally from International Falls, his youth was spent exploring every nook and cranny on Rainy Lake. Bruce is a superb guide, possessing great people skills and an unending knowledge of the walleye fishery on Rainy Lake.
  
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 Jon Balaski: Jon is beginning his fifth season at Rainy Lake Houseboats mainly guiding on the Rainy Lake Houseboat flagship boat the Chairman II along with Billy and Joey. Jon’s effort and enthusiasm are second to none and has quietly and quickly become a top notch guide. Working on the Chairman has required and enabled Jon to learn how to fish all of Rainy Lake’s fish species.
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 Joey Dougherty: Joey is Billy's son and has spent a lot of time fishing with his dad’s clients and working at Rainy Lake Houseboats. From age ten until seventeen summers were spent canoeing Northwest Ontario and Northern Manitoba. His longest canoe trip was from Leaf Rapids, Manitoba to Hudson Bay - approximately 600 miles of paddling. Joey is an excellent walleye, smallmouth bass, northern pike and musky fisherman.
Joe's early training days!
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Jon, Joey and Billy have a winter guide business based out of Rainy Lake Vacation Homes' Casa Loma. Walleye, crappie and northern fishing by snowmobile and portable houses are their specialty
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August 2010
27-28 Matt Shermoen, Ryan Schmidt, Billy Dougherty and Cody Christenson: Chairman II - Fiero party. We had spectacular walleye fishing over the past couple of days. The walleyes were found on reefs in 32-34 feet of water and mud flats at 38-45 feet. They hit on jigs with minnows and lindy rigs with shiners. There was plenty of fresh walleye to eat with 150+ caught each day including a few hogs measuring up to 27".
  
  
  
22 Cody Christenson: Lady of the Lake - Wright party. Today was the last day fishing with the Wright group. We trolled around in search of big Northern and fished a bit for walleye and smallmouth bass. We caught several bass on tube jigs and walleyes using jigs tipped with minnows.
  
19 - 20 Ryan Schmidt: Lady of the Lake - Wright party. We went fishing for walleyes a few hours each day. Jigs and minnows worked the best in 27 - 30 feet of water. We also caught a few bonus crappies mixed in with the walleyes.
  
 
19 Kevin Erickson: Lady of the Lake - Wright party. We fished bass in the morning using spinner baits and tube jigs. We caught several off windy points closer to deeper water. Average size was 16 to 8 inches with a few in the 19 to 20 inch range. We decided to go trolling for pike in the afternoon and caught 3 with one 40 inches long. The pike were hitting on jakes and grandma lures trolling in 15 to 30 feet of water.
 
 
18 and 19 Cody Christenson: Lady of the Lake I - Wright party. We went fishing for a few hours for northern pike catching several trolling a jake crank bait.
  
17 Cody Christenson: Lady of the Lake I & III - Wright party. I was fishing with Sam N., Sam W., and Mike today. Sam N. caught a 38 inch musky followed by a 44 inch one 20 minutes later. After shorelunch Sam W. caught one 38 inches long. In the last hour Mike caught his first musky - 40 inches. 5 minutes later he had another one measuring in at 43 inches. We finished the day with 5 having all 3 fishermen catching a nice fish. This was a first for me - everyone in the boat bringing in a nice musky on the same day. This past week on Rainy I have had 14 boated out of 19 musky - as good as it could be for 5 days of musky fishing anywhere.
 
15 Cody Christenson: John Wright, Lady I & III. We fished muskies and caught them both casting and trolling.
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13 Ryan Schmidt: Bracken party. I fished with the Brackens for half a day today. The fishing was fantastic with a good mixture of slot and eater sized walleyes. They were biting on Lindy rigs with leeches and Jig with minnows.
 
 
13 Cody Christiansen: Rainy Lake Houseboat #35 - Hasselman party. We found the walleyes on the reefs in 28-38 feet of water. We were using jigs tipped with minnows. The group fished until noon catching a few slot fish and bringing back 24 to cook for shorelunch.
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11 Cody Christiansen: Rainy Lake Houseboat #25 - Rogers party. We were fishing for walleyes in 35 -40 feet of water using lindy rigs with leeches and 1/4oz jigs tipped with a minnow. The action was quick catching many in the slot. We decided to move and look for smaller fish finding them on a reef in 28-30 feet of water. Our limit was caught making it a fantastic day on the water.
   
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10 Jon Balaski: Rainy Lake Houseboat #17 - Beyer party. We started on a clay flat (guides commonly call them mud flats but they are a mixture of clay and gravel). We fished Lindy Rigs and leeches, with our leaders at 4' long in length. The depths were 32-39 feet, catching eaters and walleyes too large to keep. The wind increased later in the morning quite a bit more than the 5 mph forecasted. We moved to a wind blown point and found the walleyes loaded in 20-29 feet. Fishing was great today!
 
 
walleyes thick on the bottom
 
 
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8 Cody Christensen: Lady of the Lake Houseboat - Rushlo party. The morning started slow by current standards only 10-15 fish the first hour. We moved to the second and third reefs and caught 60 walleyes in 28-32 feet. We kept a limit of 28 13-15 inch walleyes and had several release walleyes up to 24".
 
 
 
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4 Ryan Schmidt: Houseboats 29, 32 and 33 - Good Shepard Church Group. I went out with 4 youngsters and one of the chaperones in the morning. The first reef we checked was loaded with walleyes. The action was incredibly fast and furious. Too many doubles to count...three triples...and a unique quadruple! A great mixed bag of fish. We were limited out on eaters by 10am and threw back lots of slot sized walleyes. In the afternoon I had 5 different fishermen, with the same results. We hammered the walleyes. The fishing was superb and tons of fun watching the kids enjoy themselves. I look forward to fishing with this group every year. Quarter and three-eighth ounce northland jigs tipped with minnows worked the best in blue, green and gold.
 
 
 
 
 
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2,3,5,6 Ryan Schmidt: Casa Loma - Chuck, Sue, Drew and Lindsay Percival. I Have been guiding the Percivals for the past twelve years. Chuck does a father and son trip in June on the Lady of the Lake and a week at Casa Loma with family and friends. We fished walleyes on Monday and Tuesday. We used 1/4 oz. jigs and minnows. We caught lots of walleyes and Sue one the biggest walleye contest with a 26" wally. Tuesday we fished walleyes in the AM and fished for bass and northern in the afternoon. Thursday we fished walleyes in the AM, had tremendous walleye fishing and a superb shore lunch. Chuck and Drew had never fished muskies before and wanted to try it in the afternoon.
We were a half hour into the fishing and Chuck had a large fish hit his bucktail spinner. After a five minute battle he landed the 49" monster, a true bruiser. Chuck decided to take a break with a cold beverage and to catch his breath. Drew said now it's my turn. Ten minutes later Drew literally had his rod ripped from his hand. After a serious and intense battle Drew landed the beast. The muskie was long and fat. The fished measured 52". These fish were the giants that Rainy is known for. Drew is 6'10' tall, check out the picture of his and Chucks monsters.
On our last day we fished walleyes and it was outstanding boating 50 by noon with many in the 20-26' range.
  
 
 
  
 
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5-7 Jon Balaski, Joey Dougherty, and Billy Dougherty: Chairman II - Person party. Peter Person, Jon Smiliey (family owns St. Croix Rods), Howard Klatzke, Mike Mahoney, Jim Ablesen and Paul Haskins. We cruised to Anderson Bay on Thursday morning and started fishing about 1:30 pm. We found walleyes on points in 18-22 ft. on windward points and 28-32 ft on rubble piles on mud flats. Fishing was fast and furious with walleyes and smallmouth hitting Lindy rigs and leeches. Surprisingly the larger smallies were at 22 feet. Friday morning we left after breakfast about 7:45 AM. We stopped on a large mud flat and found a huge school of walleyes on the break where the depth went from 37-42 feet. Walleyes were biting like piranha's one after another for two hours. We caught some nice 16 inchers after an hour and one half for shorelunch. The afternoon provided a nice breeze so we went back to the points and rubble piles again. Sunday morning we all fished mud flats and absolutely creamed the walleyes again. Six fisherman had 130 walleyes plus by 11:45 AM. Our last afternoon we fished northern pike trolling 10" Jakes 75 feet behind the boat, trolling about 3.2-3.7 mph. We had pretty steady action trolling around islands adjacent to deep water and sunken reefs. We ended up using a total of 53 dozen leeches!
I have been using St. Croix rods for use, for a couple years I was designing rods made with St. Croix blanks and selling them to customers. St. Croix is one of the few just plain rod builders - their selection has increased dramatically over the years. They have a model to meet any persons taste or needs and better yet they are made right at home in the north country, Park Falls, WI.
 
 
 
 
 
 
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2-3 Billy Dougherty: Duane Espegard, Chad Espegard and grandson Temple Ransdale. I have fished off and on for thirty years with Duane. Duane wanted to introduce Temple to walleye fishing and Rainy Lake. Temple lives in Boca Raton, Florida and Chad in Fargo, North Dakota. We fished the Olson Bay area of Rainy Lake in the AM hours, Temple started fast with a 25" walleye caught on a 3/8 oz. Northland Gumball jig. We caught pretty large walleyes and enough eaters for a great shore lunch. In the afternoon we ventured to the Blueberry Island area and had good fishing catching nice keeping 15-16" walleyes. On Tuesday we left for the Blueberry Island area. Winds were fairly strong, we found a large school of walleyes in 30-32 feet of water. The walleyes would not look at a jig and minnow but wanted to inhale large leeches on a 4' Lindy Rig with a 1/2 oz. sinker. 16" walleyes were biting steady and then it was like a switch was turned off and the big walleyes took over. We caught 18 straight walleyes in a row all over 20" with many 23-25" fish. Duane ended the day with a 6# plus hog.
 
 
 
 
 
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| 2 Cody Christensen: Lady of the Lake I - Davis party. Cody's best day of walleye fishing this year. 7 year old Owen caught 30 walleyes himself. We fished reefs east of Brule Narrows with jigs and minnows and Lindy's and leeches. Had many doubles and triples
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29-31 Matt Shermoen: Ebeling party. Mark Ebeling and friends spent 3 days on the family's private houseboat. We had great walleye fishing with most of the fish in the 14-19 inch range and plenty in the slot for great pictures. We found them on the reefs from 25-35 feet of water and on the sand and mud flats. Jigs with shiners and lindy rigs with a leech worked the best. On day 2 and 3 we spent a few hours crappie fishing with great success. Day 3 we spent the first 2 hours musky fishing boating 1 and had 2 others follow baits back to the boat.
  
  
28-August 1 Chairman II Bottoff party: Guides Billy Dougherty, Jon Balaski, Cody Christensen. Party members Duke Bottoff, Chip Shotwell, George Ball, Dan Cahill, Denny Boland, Phil Fitzsimons. This was Dukes second trip of the year, he fished in June with the Westerhold party. We fished for walleye and smallmouth bass. The smallmouth hit on flies (surface poppers) and Mepps spinners, tube jigs and three inch Kalin Grubs watermelon. We used 1/4 oz. jigs for both the tubes and the tails. A #3 Mepps Gold Aglia was the most productive spinner. Walleyes were hitting 1/4 oz. jigs tipped with minnow, and Lindy Rigs tipped with a large leech. The walleyes varied widely in depths six to eight feet with tube jigs, same depth with Husky Jerks and 18-28 feet with jigs and Lindy Rigs. The walleye fishing was silly as many as you could catch, the smallies were moody hitting great in spurts and shutting down with small fronts passed. we moored in Becky's Bay near Smith Island. We had a family of otters decide to reside right next to the Chairman for the whole trip. What a show they put on feasting on the entrails from the walleyes we ate each day!
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23-26 Billy Dougherty, Jon Balaski, and Matt Shermoen: Chairman II - Cochran Family, George, Barb, Andrew, Kelsey, Dan and Alyssa. We left port Friday morning heading for the Anderson Bay area of Rainy Lake. Our guests were full of anticipation, George has chartered the Chairman II for many business trips, this being the first time heading towards Anderson Bay with his family. We combined fishing with site seeing; watching wild life and Rainy Lake's amazing eagles. We caught walleyes that were far to numerous to count. We used 36 doz leeches and 15 doz minnows for six customers! That spells lotsa walleyes!
Enjoy the pictures as we have included some amazing eagle and nature shots. I almost forgot - Lindy rigs with leeches and Jigs with minnows in 22-25 feet of water for the fishing action.
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| 24 and 25 Cody Christianson: Guests staying in our vacation home Casa Loma - Neuhengen party. I took the Neuhengen family fishing for a couple of half days. We were using jigs and lindy rigs with minnows in 25-30 feet of water. Each morning we caught between 40-45 walleyes in the 13-16 inch range.
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| 19 Billy Dougherty: Rainy Lake Houseboat #25 Andy Fiesman party. I met the Fiesmans in Hitchcock Bay. We fished areas in close proximity to their houseboat mooring site. In the AM I fished with Carol and her niece Megan. In the afternoon I fished with Andy and Paul - Paul is joining the U.S. Marine Corps this November. We fished breaklines and reefs north of Three Sisters Islands and Shelland Island in the morning. In the afternoon we fished three miles to the east north of Kempton Bay on main lake reefs and island extensions. We used both jigs and minnows and Lindy Rigs and leeches. The rigs and leeches worked the best by far. We marked the schools of walleyes on their GPS so they would have locations to fish for the rest of their trip.
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17 Billy Dougherty: Houseboat #29 Roger Cormier (Midwest Outdoor Television host), Casey Garbe and camera man Colter Mitchell. We were filming a show promoting houseboating on Rainy Lake and other vacation opportunities Rainy Lake has to offer. We fished walleyes in the Sand Bay Island area from 8:10 TO 10:10 AM this morning. We caught forty five walleyes during this time period with ten doubles! It was some of the most unbelievable fishing that I have experienced in forty five years of guiding. We used leeches and minnows on Lindy Rigs in 38 ft. of water. I have pictures of the sonar unit with walleyes stacked three deep. You will be able to see the show on Midwest Outdoors between January and March of 2011.
We looked at one other reef before choosing the reef we were on. We saw no bait fish out from or on the first reef, the second reef had suspended bait fish at 37' feet just off the reef. We checked the reef edges and found both stacked up walleyes and more schools of bait fish in 37 to 41 feet of water, just what the cook ordered for tremendous walleye fishing.
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| 13 Jon Balaski: Houseboat #26 Gerbino party. The fishing today was unreal! Dan, Mike and I started out fishing a mud/sand flat where the walleyes were loaded in 24-28 feet of water. We caught 60 before noon! After lunch we moved to a reef and found the walleyes stacked up in 20-25 feet. Most of the fish were in the 12-16 inch range with some really nice slot fish, the biggest being 24 1/2 inches. While Mike and Dan were reeling in a walleye a big pike came up and grabbed it! It happened twice in 2 different locations! One was 40" and the other was between 35-40" It was one of my best days on Rainy. Thanks Dan and Mike for a great day on the water.
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| 12 Cody Christianson: Houseboat #33 Boyles party. The morning started out slow due to the sunny, calm weather. We fished reefs with jigs and minnows finding the walleyes in 30-32 feet of water. There was plenty of fish for a nice meal and we released several in the slot along with northern pike.
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| 11 Cody Christianson: Houseboat #21 Blatt party. We started the day great with 16 nice "eaters" in the live well by 11:00. We were fishing jigs tipped with minnows in 25-30 feet of water on the reefs. About 2pm we were blown off so we started shallow casting Raps off rock piles and weed lines finding nice walleyes from 20-27 inches. When returning back to the houseboat I was thrilled to see that Grandma Vivienne had caught a 20, 18 and 14 inch bass while bobber fishing off the houseboat.
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| 9 and 10 Jon Balaski: Houseboat #19 & #37 - Lande party. I guided the Lande family and it was so much fun. I fished with younger people using 1/4 oz. jigs and minnows. They were great learners and I enjoyed seeing them get so excited while fishing. We caught many walleyes on breaklines in 22 - 28 ft. of water. I also fished reefs and they started to really show up in large numbers, many were caught in the 17-25" range. We kept 28 walleyes and a big fish fry was enjoyed by everyone.
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| 10 Billy Dougherty: George Cochran party, George, Jeff Hillenbrand, Nene Hillenbrand. Casting artificial baits is what the Cochran party likes to do. We fished main lake points in a two to three square mile area. Our main baits were Rapala X-Raps jerking them fairly agressively with a good pause between jerks. We never new what specie of fish was going to be holding on the points, we caught walleyes, smallmouth bass and northern pike. Later in the day I tried a cabbage bed area for pike. Normally you consider 65 degree water to be maximum high temperature for pike to remain in the cabbage bed bays. The water was 78 degrees and the big gators were in the cabbage big time. Jeff boated a 38" pike on a single buzzer on the surface. George scored a 37" on a red spinner bait tipped with a two inch white twister tail. George also caught several walleyes right in with the pike on the same spinner bait.
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7 Cody Christianson: Houseboat #18, Paul and Cheryl Flann. We caught around 35-40 walleyes using jigs tipped with minnows in 15-25 feet of water. Most of the fish we found were in the 13.5 to 16.5 inch range. It was a great morning of fishing.
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| 6 Jon Balaski: Houseboat #25 Pruett party. I fished with the Pruett family today focusing mainly on walleyes. They wanted a nice fish dinner and some to take back home with them. We used 1/4 ounce jigs tipped with minnows and a slow presentation in 25-32 feet of water along break lines. The fish were pretty stacked up in big schools. Not many big fish were caught, but lots of perfect "eaters" in the 12-14 inch range were boated. We ended up catching about 50 walleyes.
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| 6 Billy Dougherty: Mike Rieger, Brittany and Claire. Just a quick trip from 1:30 to 5:00pm for some Rainy Lake walleyes. We fished the second reef we stopped at finding active eyes in 18-22 feet of water. There was a separate large school in 28 feet of water also. If I see two different schools of fish on the same reef and one significantly shallower I will fish the shallow school first, they are likely to be in a biting mood. We tried jigging but the walleyes seem to prefer a Lindy Rig with a 48" long snell and a large leech.
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June 2010 |
29-July 1 Bill Dougherty, Jon Balaski, Joey Dougherty, Cody Christensen, Matt Shermoen, Ryan Schmidt, Kevin Erickson, and Chef Bernard Lessard: Chairman II, Lady 1, and Lady II: American Foods Group. AFG arrived Tuesday afternoon and we cruised with the three houseboats to a location in the eastern portion of Rainy Lake and Voyageurs National Park. The guides arrived at the houseboats at 7:30 am in the morning. Walleyes were targeted by most of the group the first day, two boats fished for what ever fly rods could entice to bite. The seven guided boats put over four hundred walleyes in the boats and a large shorelunch was cooked at noon. We fished reefs and points 20-32 feet, shallow water weed lines and points. Techniques ranged from jigs and minnows, Lindy rigs with leeches, and crawler harnesses with 1/8 oz. weights. Day two started with an early AM storm, the weather cleared but along with it came strong southerly winds. Fishing started a little slow as the lightning scattered the walleyes. The shallow bite turned incredible - walleyes and crappies in four to five feet of water right on the weed edges went crazy. Several 29" walleyes were caught with many 23-27" fish. The best story was the giant crappies. Average weight of one pound ten oz. and many of them.
A big thank you to Greg, Robert, Don, James, Tom, Wes, David, Steve, Henry, Jerry, Gary, Dan, Richard, Steve, Jeff, Tom, Paul, Buzz, Paul and Tom Z. What a great group of guys, it was a pleasure to have you visit Rainy Lake Houseboats!
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| 26 Ryan Schmidt and Cody Christianson: Lady I - Hustad party. The walleye fishing was great! We used 1/4 ounce jigs tipped with minnows in 17 - 25ft of water. Chartreuse, orange and blue got the best response. We caught 80 walleyes by 11:30am between our two boats including our limit of 32 "eaters." We fished about an hour after lunch and released many slot walleyes. Having caught our limit, we headed back and watched the USA soccer team in the World Cup. Our largest walleye was 28 1/2" with 3 over 27".
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25 - 28 Billy Dougherty, Jon Balaski, Joey Dougherty: Chairman II - Westerhold party members Norm Westerhold, Duke Bottof, Carl Gebhur, Scotty Bowman, Jim Forbing, and Jay Mommsen. This is the group's 21st year. Strictly an artificial bait trip with the primary focus on smallmouth bass.
After a three hour houseboat ride up to Anderson Bay it was off to the races. The first day we found smallmouth in rock and cabbage areas aggressively in hitting Pop R's in two to three feet of water. On Saturday the smallmouth started to transition to rocky, wind blown points. Along with a change in location came a change in diet. The bass had switched from may flies to almost exclusively crayfish. Instaed of topwater baits, a Gold Mepps #3 Aglia spinner became the bait of choice on Saturday. Sunday we saw further movement of the bass to points and channels leading to the main lake basins. The large smallmouth still continued to stay on points in the bays. We caught a lot of walleyes (providing that tasty shorelunch each day) along with very large pike. The guides were excellent recognizing the changes in location and diet as it was happening, what a difference they can make in a trip!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Windy points that are holding bass!
 
 
 
 
 
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| 28 Cody Christensen: Rainy Lake Houseboat #18 Berkoski party. I fished with Pete Berkoski and Bob Popovich. It was a windy day, we opted to fish bays with shallow water 5-10 feet. Bass were hitting tube jigs and #3 gold Mepps Aglia spinners (no hair) and jerk baits. Walleyes also hit both tube jigs , jerk baits and Mepps spinners. The fish were holding on windward points and shallow reefs in close proximity to shorelines.
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24 Cody Christianson: I took my daughter Kayla out fishing today. We caught 20-25 crappies and a few nice walleyes in the 27-28.5 range.  |
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Belated Fishing Report
Bruce Jean: Rainy Lake Houseboat #28, the Palmer party. Fishing was pretty good with many keepers in the 11-13" Range. Depths caught were 20-25’. Many slot fish were caught in the shallows and occasionally a few caught in the 22-25’ range. Three days of fishing produced many limits and provided plenty of fish to take home.
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| 20 Cody Christensen: Rainy Lake Houseboat #38, the Ciardo party. Walleyes were the quarry. We fished main lake reefs in 22-32 feet of water. I had Ron Ewald, Andy Poplolawski, and Bob Wrycza in my boat. We used 1/4 ounce jigs using many color combos that all worked well. We tipped our jigs with minnows. As a group we kept 22 fish for lunch, and released twenty walleyes between 18-25 inches.
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| 20 Jon Balaski: Lady II, the Minnerath party. I fished with Allen and Adrian. I had two other boats from the Lady II. I have been fishing bass for two weeks and had a quick switch to make for walleyes. I started looking at island breaklines on the main lake basin. I found walleyes from 25-32 feet. My boat had 30 plus walleyes and the follow boats did well. We used 1/4 oz. jigs blue and white, 6 lbs. test line.
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18 Joey Dougherty, Jon Balaski, Billy Dougherty: Chairman II
Last day of the Ordway bass fishing trip. Weather forcasted was windy 15-25 mph, very windy for fly fishing. We picked our water and area to fish. We caught only eleven bass, winds became fierce 35 mph sustained with the highest recorded gusts 60 mph. We called our day at noon, the winds had become too dangerous to stay on the water. We caught 180 plus bass for the trip, great action on the fly rods.
 
Pete with bass on white caps in backround.
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17 Jon Balaski, Joey Dougherty, Billy Dougherty: Chairman II
Second day of the Ordway fly fishing trip. The bass are spread out to their summer locations. Found fish on main lake points and reefs, many still in bays using broken rock shorelines, rock and weed mixes. Found smallies feeding heavy on crayfish in broken rock shorelines, many still feasting on May flies. #4 poppers worked well again. Chuck Moos had some luck with Clauser minnows. Winds were forcasted out of the southeast 10-20 mph, we got lucky and the winds did not arrive until 4:30 PM.
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| 16 Billy Dougherty, Jon Balaski, and Joey Dougherty: Chairman II: the Ordway party; Smokey Ordway, Ben Case, Dave Dines, Steve Wilson, Chuck Moos, and Pete Ankeny. A strictly fly rod fishing excursion for smallmouth bass on the surface. The smallies have long finished spawning and are beginning to be out of post spawn. We are finding the bass on rock shelves, points, rock walls, and rock and weed areas. We caught approximately eighty bass all on poppers (#4's). In the afternoon the sun came out warming the water from 63 degrees to 69 increasing the action dramatically.
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| 15 Billy Dougherty and Jon Balaski: Fly fishing for bass with Ben Case, Pete Ankeny and Steve Wilson. We fished poppers on the surface and found bass in 5 feet to 1 foot of water. Had the largest hatch of may flies we had ever seen, piled on the shoreline in six inch high rows. We caught about 30 smallies, very nice size but had to work for them.
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15 and 16 Ryan Schmidt and Cody Christensen: RLHB #23 and #24, the Schweiss party.
Cody: Cast Husky Jerks with Brian and his dad. Fishing was a little slow caught several on Jerks, fished shallow weedlines in the afternoon on windy shores. Caught 35 plus for the day. One the 16th I fished with Al and Bud. Bud is eighty and caught two 27 inch walleyes. We caught 65 fish half slot fish, half on jerkbaits and the rest on reef tops in 12-30 feet of water.
Ryan Schmidt: We fished weed blown cabbage beds and points in 5-8 feet of water with Northland Crawler Haulers using 1/4 oz. weights. Lots of big fish and plenty of perfect 16 inch walleyes for eating. On the 16th we started shallow and had dead flat calm, we moved out to the reefs and caught walleyes in 24-32 feet again with jigs like the other day, 6 pound test Trilene XL works best for this. Had a few on Lindy Rigs and leeches.
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| 14 Ryan Schmidt: Rainy Lake Houseboats #23 and #24, the Al Schweiss party. I fished with Bill and John. We fished main lake reefs on the tops from 15-26 feet. We mainly fished 1/4 oz jigs tipped with minnows, colors chartreuse/orange, blue and white, and green Northland Vegas jigs. We boated over 45 walleyes, filled out with sixteen eaters and many to large.
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| 14 Billy Dougherty: Chairman II, Ridling party. Jim and Sonny Ridling were my fishing partners today. We concentrated totally on smallmouth on topwater. May Flies again were playing a large role. We had to fish Tiny Torpedoes and Pop R's very slowly, when they decided to hit they really whacked the bait. Many times it was a clean miss or just a swat at it.
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14 Cody Christensen: Rainy Lake Houseboat #23, the Schweiss party. I fished with Al and his father. We trolled and cast Husky Jerks on Points and windy shorelines. The best colors were silver blue, Black back Gold side, orange belly, and the clown color. We caught in excess of 35 walleyes most of them dandies.
 
Schweiss party tied up at Fish Net Point
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13 Billy Dougherty: Chairman II - Ridling Party, fished smallies and walleyes with Doug Inman and John Crawford, Smallmouth were a little finicky, really stuffed with mayflies. They would just roll the surface baits. We opted to try main lake points to see if they were schooling after spawning and ran into pike and good walleyes with some smallmouth. Best baits were a 3/16 oz. jig with a 5: Watermelon Kalin grub, and a silver # 10 Husky Jerk.
 
Smallmouth on Doug's home made Doug spin
 
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13 Cody Christensen: Rainy Lake Houseboat #21, the Neuman party. We jigged reef tops in the Saginaw Bay area. We caught ten that were too large and fifteen keepers plus quite a few that were too small. We caught two to eight fish per reef.
 
 
A first, a sucker on a jig!
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12 Cody Christensen: Rainy Lake Houseboat #28, the Podraza party. Pitched Husky Jerks for northern pike, biggest was a 39" and a 35" pike.
 
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12 Jon Balaski: Chairman II - John Crawford in morning, John Crawford and Sonny Ridling in the afternoon. The morning started slow but about 9:30 the may flies started hatching in droves around a underwater point. We killed them for two straight hours on PopR's, unreal!
 
Mouth stuffed with mayflies
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12 Billy Dougherty: Chairman II - Phil Pyeatt and Jim Wilson. Fished Popr's almost exclusively. Phil fishes a Diawa spincast, the PopR keeps the line tighter than a Torpedo allowing better hook sets. We fished rising smallies feeding on mayflies in a mud bay completely away from any rock-type structure. We would watch the flat calm water and look for surfacing fish, then cast to them. Unbelievably we caught two walleyes on surface baits.
 
Two walleyes that ate PopR's
 
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12 Joey Dougherty: Chairman II, Jim Ridling and Doug Inman. Fished PopR's in the afternoon and Doug Spins and topwater in the morning. Mainly a rock weed and mud bite with a heavy mayfly hatch. Doug Inman boated a five pound smallie on a Pop-R, great day 45 plus bass.
Doug Inman holding his 5lbs. smallie on a certified Boga Grip.
 
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11 Joey Dougherty, Jon Balaski, Billy Dougherty: Chairman II Ridling party. Members of the group are Jim Ridling, Doug Inman, John Crawford, Phil Pyeatt, Jim Wilson and Dalton Ridling. Smallmouth bass was the main event. We started fishing after a morning cruise up the lake on the Chairman II. This is the group's 23rd year on the Chairman. We got on the bass immediately finding them in multiple locations, rock and weed, points, shallow reefs and in the middle of muddy bays feeding on may flies. We used Baby Torpedo's, Husky Jerks, Rattlin Rogues ,and homemade Doug Spin's. Good start forty five plus bass the first afternoon.
 
 
May flies stuffed in throat
 
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| 10 Guide Ryan Schmidt: Guided the Strasburgs on Rainy Lake Houseboat #27. I have fished with Bill and Danielle for many years, they love to fish northerns and smallmouth bass. Pike were in the shallows in the slop 1-2 feet of water others in the 5-8 ft. depths. Best baits were Mepps musky killers and Johnson Silver minnows. The smallies were all on topwater baits on shorelines in the bays, and shallow reefs close to shore. If you would like a pike and smallmouth experience June is one of the best times to do it at Rainy Lake Houseboats!
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| 10 Billy Dougherty: Randy Kruse, Tom Rhode, Hunter, and Eric. Had a half day to spend with the Plymouth County Pheasants Forever crew, commonly known as the F.B.I (Fat Boys of Iowa). The wind switched from the NW to the southeast so we switched to wind blown points casting 1/16 and 1/8 oz. jigs tipped with minnows. The walleyes were scattered catching several on each point. We tried a reef in a shallow bay casting to the easterly extensions, seemed like a school of pirahana's were holding the point, fast and furious.
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7-9 Guides: Billy Dougherty, Jon Balaski, Kevin Erickson, Joey Dougherty, Cody Christensen: Chairman II: Lyondell Bassell Chemical Company - John Kangas, Tony Haug, Dave Timm, Bill Rocha, John Hartog, Jeff Wheeler, Doug Bonke, David Bellmore, and Lee Pearson participated in John Kangas's 32nd consecutive trip to Rainy Lake Houseboats. Walleye fishing was fantastic! Large northern pike and smallmouth bass were good as well. Walleye shorelunches were prepared each day on the water. We caught walleyes casting Husky Jerks on shallow water rock piles, trolling stick baits in 5-7 feet of water, and the old stand by this year-pitching jigs and minnows into wind blown structures. The mayfly hatch has started and it is one of my favorite times of the year to fish - the bass and walleyes go on a feeding binge. Their mouths are stuffed with the bugs and act as if it is their Mardi Gras!
Guide: Jon Balaski: We fished spinners and crawlers on weed edges and caught lots of eaters, we opted to cast Husky Jerks on shallow water reefs, the eyes were stacked and we had several HOURS of big walleye action. Top water baits were excellent for smallies on rocky weedy edges, tube jigs worked well also.
 
 
 
Stuffed with May Flies
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Thanks gentleman it's been great hosting you the past 32 years!
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| 4-6 Billy Dougherty, Joey Dougherty, Jon Balaski, Matt Shermoen, Ryan Schmidt, Cody Christensen, Bob Heiss: The Chairman II had twelve customers; Sara, Brad, Shawn, Michael, Cyndy, Wes, Phil, Mike, Kathy, Mark, and Tara. What a wonderful and fun group to have on the Chairman II. Walleye was our target for this corporate outing. We found walleyes in many different patterns - early emerging weed growth in 5-7 ft. of water using either Northland Crawler Haulers or Rainbow spinners with a leech, Shallow points, main lake break lines 22-32 feet and at the tops of main lake reefs in 15-20 feet of water with either a 1/4 oz. jig tipped with a chub or leech. The largest was a 29" walleye with just under three hundred walleyes caught. All of our customers had a great time - some were first time fisherpersons. Chef Bernie Lessard provided wonderful meals time after time!
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| 1 - Ryan Schmidt: The last couple of days we were targeting walleyes and the fishing was very good! We were pitching 1/8oz jigs tipped with minnows and gulp minnows into wind-blown shorelines and points in 2-7ft of water. Trolling northland spinners tipped with crawlers also worked well. Many slot sized (17"-28") and "eaters" in the 14"-17" range were caught.
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May 2010 |
30 - Billy Dougherty: Nick Vanderheyden: Rainy Lake Houseboat 30, Nick was up with his friends Greg, Tammy, and Fred. I met them at the Saiginaw Bay Southeast houseboat mooring site. Our day started out with beautiful weather and the walleyes being a little touchy as far as biting compared to the past several days. We used spinner and minnow combinations in our boat, Nick and Fred were using jig and minnow combinations. We boated five walleyes from one spot and then they quit. The wind started to rotate from the southeast to the southwest, rain moved in and the temps dropped 10-15 degrees. From the Saginaw southeast site I was able to show Greg and Tammy fishing areas in Saginaw, Marion and Hitchcock Bays. We had one good round of action during the front catching several nice walleyes in Hitchcock Bay, but the walleyes were scattered, biting soft, classic effect from a cold front. We caught one and twos off of wind blown points.
Nick and Fred tried blue floating Rapala's , getting a dandy smallmouth bass and a frying pan walleye. Trolling Rapala's or Rattlin Rogues can be a very effective way to locate schools of walleyes from now towards the end of June. I like to troll 1.5 to 2.5 miles per hour, with lines at least 75 feet behind the boat, no swivels or leaders as they deter the action on the lure.
 
 
Cold front moves in!
 
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| 27 - Billy Dougherty: John Palmer: Rainy Lake Houseboat #20, Jon is celebrating his twentieth year on Rainy Lake. It was my first chance to fish with Jon. We went smallmouth fishing, Jon had not caught as many as he has in the past, the warm weather has accelerated the spawning season and we found the smallies in pre-spawn / spawning mode. We used Tiny Torpedo's casting them to last years spawn beds, males were on them but did not see any cleaned beds until later in the morning. It is harder to see beds when they are not cleaned. When we made a cast that was not on target we got a roll over or swirl, when dead on the smallies smoked it pretty good. Caught a walleye on a fluke! Right before heading back we came upon a cleaned out bed that has two bass in the act of spawning. Watch the video and you can see them spawning.
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26 - Billy Dougherty: Tucker Dahl party: #30 Minnitaki, Tucker and his friends Doug, John, and Bill left port the afternoon of May 25th. I had suggested they tie up in Marion Bay, about fifteen miles from base. The beauty of renting a houseboat for a trip is you locate in an area that has good fishing and outstanding scenery and fish in fairly close proximity to your home on the water. Our guides meet you at your houseboat by 8:00 AM and fish areas in close vicinity to your houseboat. The farthest we traveled was about 2 1/2 miles from the houseboat. In the afternoon we caught walleyes less than 200 yards from the houseboat.
Early on at our first stop we caught walleyes on jigs and minnows (Bill on first cast) and Husky Jerks. Tucker had asked if the group could be shown different spots in the area so we moved to another area in the s
ame bay. My Hummingbird 1197 showed weeds were starting to grow in a bay with the wind blowing directly in. We switched baits, going with Northland Baitfish and Rainbow spinners tipped with chub minnows. The walleyes were on fire, we caught walleyes too large to keep and several that qualified for the frying pan. In the afternoon we were off to the bay their houseboat was moored in. West wind blowing directly into the mooring area, caught several with in 150 yards of the houseboat. We left for a bay about a mile and 1/2 away and finished up fishing Berkely Gulp minnows casting into points. Once again fish were very active. We fished 5 - 7 ft. of water all day. Fishing with one of our guides is a great learning experience; they teach you how to fish the different baits and the reasons why you use the different techniques.
 
Bill Doug
 
 
 
Gulp Minnow - 1/8 oz. jig 6 lb. Trilene XL
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| 25 - Billy Dougherty: Welsch party: We decided to sit out Monday with a lot of storms passing through area. I fished with Bob Welsch Sr., Larry Grammath and Don Flood in the morning. The first time I guided them many years ago they came out of the houseboat dressed in dress suits. Quite the pranksters. The walleyes were a bit scattered, we ended up finding them quite shallow, 3-5 feet of water using both Gulp and chubs on 1/8 oz. jigs. Fairly strong south winds and temps in the high 80's. We had shore lunch for 19 guys, pretty tasty! Had a shorter afternoon with a 2:00 PM shorelunch. Was able to fish with Don and his nephew Jim. Showed them how to fish Gulp shallow on points with a brisk south wind!
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| 23 - Billy Dougherty: Welsch Party; Bob Welsch and seventeen fisherman from Chicago have Lady 1,2 & 3 tied up for the week at Kempton Entrance South. This is their 27th year in a row at Rainy Lake Houseboats. I fished with Jerry and John in the AM, Pete Mosier, Robert Welsch Jr. and John in the afternoon. Walleye fishing was very good-all of the boats did well. A variety of techniques were used: jigs tipped with minnows, tipped with Gulp, Lindy Rigs etc. The walleyes are still quite shallow in 4-7 ft of water. In the afternoon we decided to cast Suspending Rattlin Rogues and Husky Jerks. What a gas! Walleyes, smallmouth bass and northern pike all hit these baits and hit them hard. Right after lunch, between the 2nd and 3rd period of the Blackhawk's game we held a tribute to longtime trip member Eddie VonDrack who passed away this past winter in Florida. Eddie was simply known as the "Great Guy". We will miss him. The Welsch party loves to tie up at the Kempton Entrance South houseboat site; from this location they are able to fish Hitchcock, Finlander, Marion and Saginaw Bays and the Kempton Channel.
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| 21 - Billy Dougherty: We had our annual UMD Kohlquist extravaganza. David Kohlquist hosts a group of avid Bulldog supporters every year. We ventured out though Brule Narrows and fished bays on the south shore. Light winds were prevalent but pitching jigs tipped with minnows or 3" Gulp minnows were effective. Lots of large size walleyes with a few eaters mixed in. Tim, Rick, and myself had 34 walleyes and six or seven smallmouth bass. Dave Kohlquist, and UMD football coach Bob Nielsen had 20-25 walleyes before David left to ready the evening smorgasbord. Go Bulldogs!
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| 20 - Billy Dougherty: Afternoon crappie excursion. Hot and still and the crappies were finicky. My guests Mike Gerulli and Kent Hrbeck fished tube jigs, lead heads, and invertebrate imitations underneath a slip bobber. We fished a few different spots and caught a couple crappies in the still water on a rocky spine between two exposed rock piles. The wind picked up to about ten mph, we were working across a shallow sand bar with scattered rock piles and the crappies started to hit fast and furious. During the bite Kent hookes a 10 lbs. northern on 4 lbs. test line and landed it. I was shocked - normally the crappies scatter in shallow water when a pike like that invades. The crappies continued to bite until the wind quit. All were males. We ended up with sixteen.
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| 19 - Billy Dougherty: Fished with James Holst owner of IDO FISHING and the InDepthOutdoors TV show. We fished crappies, walleyes, smallmouth bass and pike. Our weather has been hot and fairly still, water temps from 63-74 degrees, pretty crazy for the middle of May. The crappie were finicky during the day, just barely wiggling bobbers so we opted to give them a go in the evening hours. We decided to fish plastics, James used B Fishing tackle ring worms, I used 1/8 oz. jig head tipped with a three inch gulp minnow. I fish them just as you would a Huskey Jerk or X-Rap, sharp side ways jerk with a short allowing a fall. This may be the most erratic bait you can fish. James fishes the ring worm with a more subtle rise and fall and a little slower slower retrieve. Fishing was very good. I only took a few pictures, James took a bunch you may see them on the IDO Fishing website. There was very little wind all day - do not be afraid of conditions with no walleye "chop". Cast your jigs towards the structure away from the boat, the fish are there and will bite. If you fish directly below the boat in these conditions it will be much tougher as the walleyes will move away from the boat. Another great option in calm water is the slip bobber.
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19 - Ryan Schmidt: I've been chasing the smallmouth bass the last few days. The bass fishing is fantastic right now - most are in the 3-5 pound range. We found them shallow and tight to structure. Tubes, in-line spinners and topwater baits such as skitter pops and chug bugs have been the most successful. Surface temps have been between 60-65 degrees.
With the rise in surface temps, we decided to see what the crappie action was like. We found them in 2-5 feet of water hanging around submerged rock piles. We used slip bobbers with an 1/8 ounce jig and caught some nice slabs.
  
Shawn Gabe Trae
  
Ryan Shawn Cody
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16 - Billy Dougherty: Second day out with Dan and Peter. A special guest joined us; Dan's daughter Katie. Another beautiful morning, although its not what a walleye fisherman wishes for (zero wind). On our way out we stopped to check water temperatures in a bay that has a lot of crappies. The temp was 52 degrees - too cold for crappie action so we traveled to another bay to fish walleyes. It was like a mirror, not a ripple. We pulled out from shore and made long casts with 1/8 oz. jigs and minnows fishing the jigs with short subtle hops. We had reasonable action catching eleven in an hour and a half. One other technique we used was a slip bobber and a 1/8 oz. jig tipped with a minnow, very effective. Walleyes don't leave the shallows when it becomes still and hot. They are hard to catch if you want to fish directly under the boat. Getting away from the boats and presenting the baits in a subtle manor almost always will produce good results. As we fished we watched the water temperature increase four degrees in an hour and half. We decided to see if we could get on the crappies for Katie. Water temps had increased all the way to 61 degrees. We caught four and lost one. Each spot would produce one but not more, the females still had eggs and the males were dark and black, should only be tomorrow or next day to really getting them going.
 
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15 - Billy Dougherty: Peter Person and Dan Nikcevich joined me for opening day of walleye season. We left and ended in absolutely glorious weather. The walleyes did not make us wait very long for action. We found them in 4-7 ft. of water. Our method was pitching 1/8 ounce jigs tipped with medium sized minnows. In the morning we boated just under forty walleyes - it was good. We found groups on points or small extensions leading out to 10-12 ft. of water. When we started the wind was blowing from the south when it switched to the southwest we had to find different points. We found both walleyes and smallmouth using the same structures. In the afternoon we ran into more walleyes and a couple of northern's. Water temp in morning was 48 degrees and climbed to about 53 by late afternoon. Dandy day both fishing and weather. First walleyes of the open water season tonight!
  
   
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11 - Billy Dougherty: John Hartman and Jim Hartman from Wooster, Ohio and Oceanside, California came to Rainy Lake Houseboats for some early season northern pike fishing. We ventured out and had a cold front move in dropping water temps to the 48-51 degree range. We expected the pike to be in the muddy bays. With the water temperatures dropping I decided to fish rock walls just outside the first muddy bay area. When cold fronts hit pike often go into a neutral to negative mood. Jerk baits, flukes, and other erratic action baits work poorly or not at all. We decided to start with in-line spinners - they have a tight rotation and retrieve in a tight turning action. Jim used a #3 Vibrax spinner, gold blade, red orange body. Jim caught the first four pike. Jon was using a favorite of mine; a Mepps Musky Killer black with silver blade and a white Kalin twister type tail. John had a monster hit and fought him, but the pike turned and made a spectacular run that broke his 25lbs. test line. John switched to the Vibrax as Jim was getting bites often. Jon scored two large pike in the 38-40" range. Overall, they boated about twenty pike - all in a fifty yard stretch just outside the muddy bay. It pays huge dividends to understand cold fronts and how different species of fish react to them. All of the pike were in water that was 50-51 degrees.
  
 
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6 - Jon Balaski: My buddy Eric and I decided to try some smallmouth bass fishing. The water temp was 45-49 degrees. The fishing started out slow with only 2 in the first hour. The clouds broke up a bit and the fish started striking on mepps spinners #3 gold I was using and the 1/4 oz. lead head jig with white mister twister Eric was using. Both with a very slow retrieve.
We were fishing long rock points and piles in a back bay. We found most of the fish schooled up on these points and piles. The shorelines in 4-8 feet of water also proved successful. 1-5 pound northern pike were caught in these same areas.
The smallmouth are in the pre-spawn stage making for agressive fish. Overall it was a fantastic day fishing with 50 bass and 30 pike boated.
  
Eric Jon Eric
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6- Ryan Schmidt: My client Joe wanted me to take him out for early season fishing opportunities on the Minnesota side of Rainy Lake. Surface temps were fairly consistent in the mid 50's. We started by casting Husky Jerk's in the back of the black bottom bays. Northern's were quite aggressive - the largest about 40 inches. The bass and walleyes were fairly stacked on the points and were hammering Husky Jerk's also.
We stopped to try for crappies on the way back. They were in about 1-2 feet of water and they too were very active. The weather has cooled downed a bit so we thought the fish might back off some, but that was not the case.
  
Joe N. Joe N. Guess who?
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April 2010
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24-26 - Billy Dougherty: (Tillerman1) Early ice out gives us a chance to do a little of our own fishing before the season starts. I have been trout fishing for many years (since 1978) on Clearwater West and surrounding lakes always staying at Barry and Carolle Brown's Clearwater West Lodge. We arrived Saturday morning about 9:00 AM checked in and were fishing by 10:00 AM. The trout were in fairly shallow water 12-18 feet off the side of a combination reef sand bar. We used a strip on spinner with ciscoe or minnows and a 1/2 oz. sinker and trolled 1.0 to 1.4 miles per hour. Lake trout are tremendous fighters and my arm got sore, I caught the first five trout so put my rod down and let my son Joe, and cousin John Dougherty have at them. On our last day we fished a smaller lake renting one of Brown's many boats that they have located on multiple lakes in the area.
We had a very short walk down a forest trail to our lake. Fishing was spectacular, we used the same techniques as we did on Clearwater West. Joey cauught the first trout a 10+ lbs.
fish in the first five minutes. The trout hit steady all day long. We caught thirty lake trout for the day, fifty plus for the trip! We did not get to fish the giant brook trout but we will do that next time. You can visit Brown's at www.brownsclearwaterlodge.com or call them at 1-807-597-2884. Back to Rainy Lake now, crappie, northern pike and smallmouth action is heating up!
 
John Dougherty Joey Dougherty
Billy Dougherty
John Dougherty |
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24 - Ryan Schmidt: Ice has been out since April 10. We decided to check out northern pike, smallmouth bass and crappies to find what stage they were in. Water temperatures were in the mid 50's. We started with crappies and believe it or not the first cast a nice crappie hit and was caught, thought we were on the bonanza but it was not to be. Fished another hour and only a few more. Water was a little cool yet.
The pike were another story, they were in the shallow black bottom bays and active. We used jerk baits, flukes, and Gulp minnows on a jig, jerking them like a jerk bait also. The largest was caught by Missy T. a 38" fish. We had some 40"+ fish hit but were not successful on the hookups. Smallmouth had also moved into the same dark bottom bays; they like to eat the bugs coming out of the mud. The smallies were hitting the same baits as the pike. Rainy Lake is heating up, crappies are ready to explode!
  
Braedyn Missy and Braedyn Missy |
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21 - Billy Dougherty: John Balaski and I left the dock at noon for a northern pike excursion. We fished some smaller size weedy bays. We found the pike in the southwest corners always grouped where the warmest water was being pushed in by the light northeast wind. We only saw one group of spawning pike. We caught our pike on white flukes twitching them in one to two feet of water over last years dead weeds. The water temperatures were at fifty three degrees in the front end of the bays and fifty nine to sixty degrees in the back corners. It is really something to see water temps of forty five degrees on the main lake this early in the year. Better gear up for one of the best fishing openers in many years. We will be heading out for a lake trout excursion this weekend.
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