Rainy Lake Houseboats

I had a treat in store for me on this trip. Ladd Ojala a former guide at Rainy Lake Houseboats was coming to fish with me for two days. He brought Reynold Lofgren from Littlefork, Minnesota and Tom Jackson from Minneapolis.

Ladd last guided with me in 1994. He moved on to a successful career in the chemical business. It makes a person feel good when a young man grows into a great person and is in the middle of a very good career. Ladd has never lost his love for Rainy Lake.

We found walleyes on main lake reefs on the very tops of reefs and sunken islands. Most of the walleyes were holding in 15-18 feet of water. The mayfly hatch was in full swing about ten days later than normal. We had to fish vertically using the Minnkota I Pilot to spot lock right on top of the walleyes. We caught fish on jigs and minnows but they seemed to really hit a Lindy rig tipped with a leech. It was a strange way to fish a Lindy Rig. Virtually holding it completely still maybe raising the rod tip a ½” and lowering it back to the bottom.  You would feel a sharp peck and set the hook. Walleyes were running really nice size 21-25” with some nice eating fish for shorelunch.

We stopped in Anderson Bay for a nice shore lunch in one of Rainy Lake’s scenic bays. After lunch we did a little scouting and fishing farther east towards Kettle Falls. We had glorious weather.

Day two the weather was not nearly as nice. Ladd, Gary Schnabel, Bill Mossior, and I fished in a lot of rain and a little thunder. Walleyes were cooperating in the rain. The same pattern as the day before worked well but the fish were on different reefs.  Bill  had the hot hand in my boat. Bill’s dad and son were fishing with guide Jon Balaski.  It was raining hard at lunchtime and we opted to run back to Rainy Lake Houseboats and cooked a shore lunch on the Chairman II.

By the end of lunch the rain had broke and we ran back out for more walleye fishing.