2011

August 15

Cody Christiansen:  Houseboat #17 - Libke party.  We fished reefs in 28-32 feet of water with a jig and a minnow.  Many of the walleyes were in the 13-17 inch range.  In the afternoon we went for the bigger walleyes catching quite a few in the 20-24 inch range trolling slowly with a lindy rig and leech.

August 7-14

Billy Dougherty Jon Balaski, and Joey Dougherty:  Chairman II - Northland Fishing Tackle

Guests: John Peterson, Duane Peterson, Don Rudd, Gary Margul, Chris Margol, Jay Groth, Jerry Trainor, Lucas Farm, Bruce Wilson, Eric Scwartz, John Rosemore, Luke Lundt, Eric Naig and Matt Stone

Northland Fishing came to Rainy Lake Houseboats fresh from the ICAST Show that was held in Las Vegas.   We have lots of news to spread about the most innovative plastic baits to be introduced in years.  I have been guiding for the past 45 years and I have seen a lot of baits come and go; some hang around and then there are the truly awesome baits that forever stand the test of time. I believe the Impulse series of plastics will fall into the last category.  Impulse is a scented-style of plastics and we fished with split tail grubs, jig worms, leeches and night crawlers.

These baits have great action in comparison to the competitor’s different offerings.  Above all is the amazing ability these plastics have to encourage fish to bite and to hold on to the bait without spitting out the lure. We all know how effective scented baits are in cold water - Impulse is unbelievable in warm water.  We jigged the first morning for walleyes using jigs and minnows as well as jigs and impulse jig worms. It was unreal!  The Northland Fishing Tackle Jig Worm out fished the jig and minnow by a reasonable margin. In past experiences when we have used live bait alongside scented plastics, the live bait has won the battle - not this time.

I had the opportunity to use the Impulse plastics, mainly split tail grubs, in cold fronts, sunny stable weather and the day after a passing cold front (often a super tough bite).  I would get a strike hopping the jigs along the bottom and I literally could not get the walleye or smallmouth bass to drop the jig and split tail grub. It was amazing!  Especially in water temperatures from 70-78 degrees.

Northland Fishing Tackle has also come out with a wide selection of fishing lines in both monofilament and braided materials. I have often seen braids not perform well when used in casting instances, it can give off vibration and cause baits to be more erratic than they were designed to be. John Rosemore fished the new whitish color braid on a 1/8 oz. bait keeper jig tipped with a red fleck Impulse Split Tail Grub. Check out the results below. The smallies readily hit the jigs with no negative effects from the braid at all, in fact, there was far greater feel and incredible strong hook sets.  I am beyond impressed; I cannot wait for the wide Selection of Impulse Plastics to hit the shelves in 2012 - better get in line!

My last day fishing I fished walleyes with Gary Morgal and Luke Lundt.  We started with jigs and minnows tipped with either minnows or night crawlers. I opted for a long shafted Gumball jig, Gary and Luke started with Fireball stand up jigs. Rainy Lake's waters were dead flat calm, looked like the world’s most beautiful mirror! Not exactly prime weather conditions for walleyes. I did not get a strike on the Gumball jig and a minnow. Gary and Luke both caught walleyes on the standup jigs tipped with a minnow.  I switched to a 1/8 oz. Fireball stand up jig and tipped it with ½ a crawler. I started catching walleyes pretty steady so Gary and Luke switched to crawlers on their jigs and they too caught plenty.  Styles of jigs can make a great difference in catch rates. The stand up jig definitely was the difference maker. I was able to get by with a 1/8 oz. jig in 28 feet on the flat water. I would recommend most people to use the ¼ oz size.  Who said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks!

August 12

Cody Christiansen:  Houseboat # 27 - Bourgond party.  I fished with this group for half a day today.  We started out in 25-30 feet of water with a jig and minnow. 12 nice walleyes were caught by 10 before we moved and fished off reefs in 35-40 feet of water.  Here we found many big walleyes in the 20-23 inch range.

August 10

Cody Christiansen: Lady of the Lake III houseboat - Elo party.  We were fishing in 25-30 feet of water with a jig and minnow.  We only caught 1 slot fish and limited out with walleyes in the 13-16 inch range by noon.

August 8-9

Cody Christiansen:  Houseboat #37 - Neubaum party.  I fished with this group for 2 days catching many walleyes using a jig and minnow. We found most of the fish in 25-30 feet of water.  Both days we caught our limit.

August 2

Cody Christiansen:  Ebeling party.  Today we had the best day on the lake as far as catching walleye in the 13-15 inch range.  Using a jig and a minnow we caught well over 50 fish with only a fewe slot fish thrown in.

July 26-31

Jon Balaski, Joey Dougherty, Cody Christensen, Matt Shermoen and Billy Dougherty: Chairman II - Armstrong/Bloss party.  We left the dock with the Chairman and Lady of the Lake III Tuesday morning July 26 and returned Sunday evening July 31. The Armstrong and Bloss families have been visiting Rainy Lake Houseboats since 1984. Idle Hour Bay was our destination.

Walleyes, Smallmouth bass, Northern Pike and crappies were the quarry. Walleye fishing was incredible!  We caught them on jigs and minnows, Lindy Rigs and leeches, Northland Baitfish Crawler harnesses and on artificial baits casting for bass. Northerns were caught trolling Jakes, spinner baits, tube jigs, and Husky Jerks. The smallmouths were caught mostly on tube jigs and Husky Jerks, ring worms, and Virax spinners.

There were fourteen guests total for the trip. They had a team fishing team contest counting individual fish caught Thursday thru Sunday noon. They averaged 86.4 fish per fisherman for the contest; unreal!  The weather was magnificent - I don’t believe rain gear was used once. Average temps were 78-87 degrees.

July 29

Bruce Jean:  Houseboat #24 - Jacobs party.  Today started out with the decision to move the houseboat from a rocky bay to a beautiful sand beach.  This took a few hours but the family will truly enjoy the next 6 days at their new spot.  Once we got started fishing we instantly caught 3 walleyes.  Then we had to move to multiple spots until we found the walleyes in 32 feet of water.  We caught our limit and also released many slot sized fish, including a 23" double!  It was a great day on the water with a family who had a lot of fun!

July 26

Bruce Jean:  Lady of the Lake houseboat - Roth party.  It was a great day to be on the water; the sun was shining and there was a slight breeze.  In 38 feet of water the walleyes liked a jig and a minnow or a Lindy rig with a minnow best.  We boated many fish today including 3 large pike.  The Roths had plenty of fish for delicious walleye dinner. 

July 24

Billy Dougherty:  Houseboat #40 - Jasinski party  Jeff and his sons Chris and Nathan were my guests on Sunday.  Jeff and his family are on a houseboat for a week; he asked for different spots for walleye fishing, a meal for Sunday night and a trip through Rainy Lake looking at the different areas and tie up spots.

July 21-23

Billy Dougherty, Joey Dougherty, Jon Balaski: Chairman II - Cochran party    We left the dock bright and early on Thursday morning and enjoyed a breakfast cruise to Potato Bay on the north side of Saginaw Bay.  We had a westerly wind of ten to fifteen miles per hour. We fished points from 15 to twenty feet of water during the latter morning and mid afternoon for walleyes. Jigs and minnows worked best. Later, we fished windy edges of cabbage beds with Northland Fishing Tackle Baitfish Crawler Harnesses. 

Friday we opened on a reef, walleyes were large and feeding on ciscoes. The rest of the day we cast into the cabbage beds with Husky Jerks catching lots of walleyes, bass, and Northern Pike.  This time of year we jerk and reel fairly fast compared to the May and June presentations.  Monofilament fishing line in 8 and 10 lb. strengths were much better than the super lines. If you are using Fireline or Power Pro and not getting the strikes switch to monofilament.    

Kevin Erickson: Chairman II - Cochran party  Chase and I caught bass, walleye and a few pike in 6-8 feet of water.  We fished weeds and boulders using spinner baits and tube jigs.  Some of the walleyes were found off of deeper points in 23-25 feet of water.

July 20

Bruce Jean:  Houseboat #22 - Barnes party.  Fishing today was outstanding.  In the morning we caught 16 walleyes that were deliciously prepared for lunch by Chad and Jocelyn.  After lunch another 3 limits of walleyes were caught.  We also found many pike since they were chasing the walleye we were reeling in.  We did manage to catch a few of them as well.  We caught most of the fish in 18 to 22 feet of water with minnows on a long Lindy rig.

                

July 18

Billy Dougherty: Casa Loma vacation home - Henningson party.  I had the pleasure of guiding Jeff Henningson and two young lads Benett and Mitchell.  Smallmouth bass was our main focus. We started east of Lost Bay and fished on a main lake point.  We saw loads of walleyes in 12-14 ft. of water off the deep edge of the point. We moved in to the next point closer to back country shallows and found the smallmouth on a large underwater rock structure almost like a big table three feet under the water. Our strikes and hookups came on Skitter Pops and Torpedo’s.

The bass wanted both baits moving rather fast. We moved on to another structure piece and found the same thing happening.  After we had lunch we tried similar types of structure only to find the bigger bass had moved off of the structures leaving only smaller ones on the points.  We actually found lots of walleyes on the same structures. We used 3/16 and ¼ oz. cotton candy and tequila sunrise colored jig heads with 4” ring worms.  Almost every point was holding walleyes and they wanted to eat those ringworms.  I really enjoyed guiding Jeff, Benett, and Mitchell.  Teaching them how to break down an area and locate where the fish were was fun.  By the end of the day Mitchell was suggesting how to work the point and which edges. Great fun!

On the 19th Jeff went into explore Black Bay, used the same techniques, and had good luck.    

July 18 and 19

Ryan Schmidt, Kevin Erickson and Joey Dougherty:  Mitchell party.  We fished in 10-20 feet of water using jigs with minnows and leeches with lindy rigs.  A majority of the fish were caught on the tops of reefs.  We found a good number of slot fish with many nice eaters for shorelunch.

General Fishing Report July 15, 2011

Walleye fishing is good, Lindy Rigs and leeches, Bottom Bouncers and Crawler harnesses, and jigs and minnows are working all working good. The islands and reefs and mud flats have all been good since July 13th.  We have caught fish off the main lake islands in 15-22 feet, reefs 20-28 ft. and the mud flats (actually clay gravel) from 35-45 ft.

When the wind gets up and it is easier for you to fish in bays we have found walleyes on points and pockets (pockets are the mini bay formed by the two points) where the wind is blowing directly into. For you casters jerk baits such as the X-Rap and Husky Jerks, Bomber Long A's are working great on the windy points and shallow water rock piles and points. Remember they are jerk baits, one, two or three jerks and pick up the slack with your reels. Remember they are neutrally buoyant and you must allow them to pause between jerks. It is not a race back to the boat with the bait.

Walleyes are also using cabbage; a weed type that grows from the bottom to the surface in 7-11 feet of water. It stops growing when it reaches the surface it is green in color and leafy. Weeds that grow above the surface of the water are not cabbage. Good cabbage beds exist in the bays such as Saginaw, Lost Bay, Cranberry, Marion and Hitchcock Bays. Spinner and minnow combinations, crawler harnesses, 1/8 oz. jigs tipped with a minnow are all great choices around the weeds. Fish the windward edges of the weed lines.

Current areas in Brule Narrows and Kettle River have been producing 13-16" keeper walleyes on jigs and minnows. Fish the deeper holes shown on the lake charts or your sonar unit chips from 25-40 feet of water. The 30 ft. break lines on the main lake side of the bays are starting to hold schools of eating size walleyes, look on the breaks in Marion, Saginaw, Lost, Finlander Bays. Again jig and minnows work best.

Smallmouth bass are mostly done spawning. The best action has been with top water baits like the Tiny Torpedo, Skitter Props, and Skitter Pops. Plastics like 4" ring worms, Flukes, Tube Jigs, and 3-4" plastic Grubs are all working. Bass are using current areas like Brule Narrows, fish the points and reefs on the south side of the Brule, points on islands and in the bays.

Northern Pike fishing has been good. We are fishing reed beds and cabbage beds with Mepps spinners, buzz baits, Johnson Silver Minnows tipped with two or three inch white twister tails. Points and the first rock piles or reefs in the thirteen to twenty foot range have also been holding pike.

Water temperatures are in 70 plus degrees in most areas. Another great way to catch a lot of walleye, pike, and smallmouth bass is by long line speed trolling. Walleyes generally like the baits 1.5 to 2.0 mph. The best baits are floating stick baits like Rapala's, Rattlin’ Rogues, Bomber Long A's, Husky Jerks, X-raps etc. use 6-8 lbs. test monofilament line tied directly to the lure, no swivels, no leaders. Let out at least 75 ft. of line and troll the windy shores and banks, sometimes evenings are better than the day time. I am constantly jerking the bait forward and letting back, this action is key to triggering strikes.

July 13

Ryan Schmidt:  Houseboat #17 Gilson party.  We fished walleyes on main lake reefs in 15-25 ft of water.  The walleyes were feisty and the fishing was fantastic.  Most of the eyes were in the 20-25 inch range with a 27" being the biggest. They also caught plenty of eaters for a nice fresh fish dinner.  1/4 ounce Northland jigs tipped with minnows and crawlers and lindy rigs with leeches worked best.

July 11-13

Billy Dougherty, Joey Dougherty, Jon Balaski and Cody Christensen:  Chariman II - Stenzel party.

We left with the Stenzel party for a morning cruise up the lake to the Chairman II. We moored at Brule Narrows Central and left with eight guests for the rest of the day fishing. Walleyes were the main focus of the three-day fishing trip. A large may fly hatch had been going on since July 1st, one of the largest and longest I had ever seen.  Walleyes had been using break lines in large numbers. 

Each of us went to different break lines that had been good and all were void of fish. A northwest wind was blowing so we started on weed edges - there were some fish going but not what you would expect.  I opted to cast 1/8 oz. jigs tipped with minnows, Tim and Ron left on gold spinners with minnows. We cast and trolled on shallow water points and pockets and got on dandy fish right away.  It was hard to fish the spinners, as the walleyes were really tight to the rocks.   Tim and Ron switched to jigs and I taught them how to cast into the point and pockets working the jigs with an uptick motion on the rod and then let it drop, uptick again, then pick up the slack line with the reel. They did well; we caught many 23-26” walleyes and continued the pattern on Tuesday morning. 

I had mentioned to Jon Balaski that the full moon would trigger a movement of fish to reefs, islands and mudflats.  Tuesday afternoon Tim had to make a phone call so we travelled to an island where cell service worked.  When he got done we tried a reef and checked a mud flat, the mudflats were loaded, we went through three dozen leeches in one and a half hours boating loads of 23-25” walleyes. 

Wednesday the bonanza continued; we found walleyes on the reefs from 20-22 feet and sides of islands in the main lake at 18 feet. 6 ft. snells with1/4oz. walking sinkers tipped with leeches, and ¼ oz. jigs tipped with minnows was the other option.

July 6 and 7

Cody Christiansen and Jon Balaski:  Houseboat #28 - Gjertset group.  We fished walleye in the 20-30 foot range on breaklines and the inner reefs.  With the mayfly hatch and the fish in transition we found the bite very light when using a jig and minnow.  We did manage to catch around 10-12 fish for shorelunch each morning and found the afternoons to be a bit more difficult.  Cullen, who is only 6 had a great day catching a few 12-14 inch walleyes and then half-way through the morning he caught a lunker a little over 28 inches.  The fish put up a great fight making it a bit hard for him to reel it in. Glad he was able to get a fantastic picture with it...hope the little guy didn't get a hernia!

July 1

Bruce Jean:  Houseboat Lady of the Lake III - Wendt party.  Today the weather was calm, flat and sunny!  Fish were biting jigs tipped with a minnow or a Lindy rig with a tail-hooked chub.  Depths ranged from 36 to 42 feet.    A great time was had by all and many slot fish were released. 

June 28

Cody Christiansen:  Houseboat #31 - Smith party.  The morning was cloudy and cool.  We fished in 25-30 feet of water using a jig tipped with a minnow.  In the first hour we had caught 10 nice 13-15 inch walleyes.  The fishing slowed between 11:30 and 3:30 boating only 5 more walleyes.  I decided to try some deeper breaklines and the last hour was fantastic as we caught several more.  As Bill was telling me about his biggest walleye ever at 28 inches, a big one hit his line.  When we got it in the boat it was a half an inch short of his personal record, but a great catch nonetheless.

June 27

Kevin Erickson:  Houseboat #22 - Sommerfield party.  We began fishing rock piles out from islands in about 25-28 feet of water.  We caught a good mix of walleyes. Mark had the biggest of the day measuring in at 27 inches.  They were biting best on a 1/4 ounce green jig tipped with a minnow.  In the afternoon we tried shallow waters - 8 to 10 feet of water and caught a few slot fish and 1 eater trolling spinners.  It was a good day - the weather did not cooperate, we spent about 40 minutes on shore as a front passed by, but the fish sure did.  Mark, Doug and their wives had plenty of fish for dinner and also had fun catching some big ones in the 20-27 inch range.

June 24-27

Billy Dougherty, Jon Balaski and Joey Dougherty:  Chairman II houseboat - Duke Bottof, Carl Gebhur, Scotty Bowman, John Breen, and Jim Shymkus. Smallmouth bass was their main quarry with walleyes thrown in for lunches. Smallmouth fishing was spectacular. Popping flies on fly rods, Pop’rs, Skitter Props, and Tiny Torpedo’s all were very hot. Smallmouth were starting to transition away from spawning beds. We found smallies near cabbage beds on the close rocky shorelines in pretty good schools. What fun!

June 25

Cody Christiansen:  Brenegen party.  We fished the Brule Narrows on both sides and the Brule itself on a few reefs nearby.  We found may fish in the 15-16 inch range and had a limit of 16 fish in the livewell by 11:00am.  We used 1/4 ounce jigs tipped with minnows in 28-32 feet of water.

June 24

Cody Christiansen: Casa Loma - Hove party.  The weather was perfect and the fish were biting in 25 ft off the inner reefs and breaklines.  We fished very slow using 1/4oz jigs tipped with minnows.  We found the bigger walleyes on the reef tops and caught several in the 25-27 inch range.  We also found many small walleyes in the 13-14 inch range in 40 feet of water off the reefs. It was a great day for fishing.

June 20-22

Billy Dougherty, Jon Balaski and Joey Dougherty:  Chairman II houseboat - Phil Ordway group.  For three days we went fly fishing for smallmouth bass.  Fishing was pretty good. We found bass on the beds in spawning areas on the Ontario side of the lake.  The bass on the Minnesota side of the lake were hanging around spawning areas, but not on the beds yet. 95% percent were caught on rubber legged surface poppers.

June 20

Matt Shermoen:  Houseboat #21 - Yamilkoski party.  This group came back after a successful early May pike trip. We used crawler harnesses while fishing the wind blown shorelines.  The fish were found in 8-12 feet of water and preferred a trolling speed of .07-1.5 mph.  In the afternoon we casted for pike and shallow walleyes with X-raps, Husky Jerks and Glide Raps along a weedy river channel.

June 19

Billy Dougherty:  Houseboat #35 - Matz party.  I had the opportunity to fish with Howard Matz and his nephew Mike on Father’s Day. Howard has been coming to Rainy Lake Houseboats every year except one since 1980. Howard’s dad started the trip and its always a family trip. Thirty years at Rainy Lake Houseboats - special people go to special places.  We fished Hitchcock Bay, the wind was blowing from the east. Walleyes were found in the weeds in 5-7 ½ feet.  We used Northland Fishing Tackle's Baitfish Spinners with ¼ oz. sinkers with minnows.  We kept our limits of walleyes and released plenty of bigger fish.  There were plenty of fish for photos but since it was damp and rainy, the camera was kept in the case for the most part.

June 15

Ryan Schmidt:  Houseboat #34 - Kuvis party.  We fished windward island shelves, points and cabbage beds in the morning.  The walleyes were on a feeding frenzy.  We had our limit of nice eaters before 10 and released lots of slot sized eyes.  In the afternoon the wind was flat calm and the fish were a bit deeper in 15-22 feet of water and not as aggressive.  1/8 ounce jigs tipped with minnows worked best.

General Fishing Report

Walleye fishing remains good, they are using windy points and wind blown shorelines in the bays such as Saginaw, Lost Bay, Cranberry, Marion and Hitchcock Bays. We are seeing some transition to the islands and points on the outsides of the bays in 10-20 feet of water. Lindy Rigs and minnows sometimes leeches, Bottom Bouncers and Crawler harnesses, are working all working good. Some people are still getting them with jigs and minnows.  The islands and points are in the 13-20 foot range.   

Current areas in Brule Narrows and Kettle River have been producing lots of 13-16" keeper walleyes on jigs and minnows.  Fish the deeper holes shown on the lake charts or your sonar unit chips from 25-40 feet of water. The 30 ft. breaklines on the main lake side of the bays are starting to hold schools of eating size walleyes, look on the breaks in Marion, Saginaw, Lost, Finlander Bays. Again jig and minnows work best.  

For you casters jerk baits such as the X-Rap and Husky Jerks, Bomber Long A's are working great on the windy points and shallow water rock piles and points. Remember they are jerk baits, one, two or three jerks and pick up the slack with your reels. Remember they are neutrally buoyant and you must allow them to pause between jerks. It is not a race back to the boat with the bait.     

Smallmouth bass are starting to spawn. The best action has been with top water baits like the Tiny Torpedo, Skitter Props, and Skitter Pops.  Plastics like 4" ring worms, Flukes, Tube Jigs, and 3-4" plastic Grubs are all working.  The bass are using the sandy gravel areas with flat grass weed growth have been good along with the points on each side of these areas.    

Northern Pike fishing has been good. We are fishing old reed and wild rice beds with Mepps spinners, buzz baits, Johnson Silver Minnows tipped with two or three inch white twister tails.  Points and the first rock piles or reefs in the thirteen to twenty foot range have been holding pike also.   

Water temperatures are in 60 plus degrees in most areas. Another great way to catch a lot of walleye, pike, and smallmouth bass is by long line speed trolling. Walleyes generally like the baits 1.5 to 2.0 mph. The best baits are floating stick baits like Rapala's, Rattlin Rogues, Bomber Long A's, Husky Jerks, X-raps etc.  use 6-8 lbs. test monofilament line tied direct to the lure, no swivels, no leaders. Let out at least 75 ft. of line and troll the windy shores and banks, sometimes evenings are better than the day time.  I an constantly jerking the bait forward and letting back, this action is key to triggering strikes.  

Crappies are spawning in Black Bay on the rock piles and reed beds, I don't know how much longer it will go on. The best way to catch them is with a bobber and jig set about 1 1/2 ft. Small Tube jigs or jigs tipped with crappie minnows are your best bet.

June 10-13

Billy Dougherty, Joey Dougherty and Jon Balaski:  Jim Ridling Party on the Chairman II 

Phil Pyeatt, Jim Ridling, John Crawford, Doug Inman, Jim Wilson and Ken Upchurch just completed their twenty third year at Rainy Lake Houseboats.  Smaallmouth bass is their favorite with a few walleyes thrown in for lunch each day.  The bass were pretty touchy this year. They had not spawned yet.  We would see beds that had not been swept and males were in the area but not very interested. We caught a number of smallies on topwaters and other fish on what we call a Doug Spin. The Doug Spin is a homemade spinner in the french style. It has a combination blade like a cross between a willow leaf and Colorado style blades. It is about the size of a #2 Mepps spinner. The blades are hammered and the spinner has brass barrels and beads with a swivel built in. Doug Toney, an original member of the group, made the Doug Spins for many years. Doug passed away a number of years ago so Doug Inman makes the spinners now.  Sunday afternoon and Monday the bass picked up their spawning activities and the bite was getting better and better.

June 12

Cody Christiansen:  Houseboat #22 Holmberg party.  We fished in shallow water pitching jerk baits catching plenty of both walleye and northerns.  Mid-morning we fished the breaklines and had more success catching eater sized walleye in the 13 1/2 to 16 inch range.  Later in the afternoon we went for the pike and caught a 41 inch one that hit a smaller fish on a spoon.  The fish wouldn't let go so we netted both of them!

June 7-10

Ryan Schmidt and Matt Shermoen:  Casa Loma vacation home, Doherty party. 

Tuesday the morning started out with a Thunderstorm and heavy rain for the first couple of hours.  We took cover on shore and waited for the storm to pass.  When it passed it was game on for the walleyes.  We fished for little over an hour and had plenty of eyes for shorelunch.  After lunch another storm went through.  Some nice slot-sized walleyes were caught in the afternoon, but with the storms the fish were scattered and the action was on the slow side. The fish were caught pitching 1/8 ounce Northland jigs tipped with gulp minnows and chubs into windblown shorelines and points.

Wednesday we targeted the walleyes again.  With a steady north wind blowing the walleye chop was perfect.  The eyes were stacked up on wind blown points and emerging cabbage beds.  The action was fast as we boated about 75 fish between the 2 boats by noon before shorelunch.  Most of the walleyes were in the 15 to 25 inch range.  After lunch the catching pace was about the same as the morning...the walleyes were snappin!  1/8 ounce northland jigs in 4-10 feet of water.  Pink and blue  were the best colors.

Thursday the guys wanted to mix it up and fish for smallmouth bass.  The conditions were great for bassin - the temps were in the upper 70's with lots of sun and light winds.  The top water bite was in full swing.  Skitter pops, Poprs and chug bugs all worked well.  Many bass were also caught on tubes and flukes. The sizes were impressive as many were in the 3-4 pound range.

Friday we started out fishing walleyes in the morning and the bite was steady. At about 10 the wind picked up and the eyes strapped their feed bags on.  The action was good.  Long lining 1/8 ounce jigs tipped with chubs and giving subtle jerks produced lots of walleyes and trolling Northland Crawler Haulers with 1/8 ounce weights was also very effective.  In the afternoon we were chasing smallies again and again they were aggressive.  Some were caught on top water baits but the majority were on tubes and flukes. Many were in the 3-4 pound range.

June 6-8

Kevin Erickson:  Chairman II Kangas group.  We found the walleyes in 9-12 feet of water off of wind blown points.  They seemed to prefer slower presentations - moving slow or staying in one spot pitching jigs towards shore. The popular color was pink or white.  Northern and bass were in 2-3 feet of water on the edge of weedlines.  Buzz baits worked the best with 5 northerns over 30 inches with the biggest measuring in at 38".  With the water warming up I would expect the bass to start being more aggressive.

June 6

Jon Balaski:  Chairman II Kangas group.  I started out fishing with Doug and Dave for crappies.  We only caught 5 since it was a bit windy and therefore hard to stay on the rock piles we were fishing.  We moved onto walleyes and found them on sunken points in 5-15 ft of water.  The key was to fish wind blown points with 1/8 - 1/4 ounce jig.  Pink seemed to work really well.  We caught many fish in the 18-24 inch range.

June 6-8
Billy Dougherty:  John Kangas joined us on the Chairman for his 33rd year at Rainy Lake Houseboats. Fishing was excellent even with the weather tossing plenty of curve balls, 77 degrees on Monday, heavy thunderstorms on Tuesday morning and a major cool down on Wednesday.  Walleyes bit great in 5-10 feet of water. Northern pike were going great on buzz baits.

June 6

Matt Shermoen:  Houseboat #28 Richmond group. This group from Missouri was last at RLH in 2005. The morning bite was good till about 11am.  At that point it slowed down with the blue bird sky and rather warm temps.   We headed back for a traditional Rainy Lake shorelunch, where the bacon and onion sandwiches were as popular as the fresh walleye.  Afterwards, the second half of the group loaded up and we headed back out. Most of our fish were found in 25-30 feet of water. The bite was a little on the slow side because of the lack of wind, but towards late afternoon the wind picked up and the fish started biting again. We used 1/4oz jigs tipped with minnows. The preferred jig colors were blue and chartreuse.

June 6

Cody Christiansen: Chairman II Kangas group. We fished rock points for bass using tube jigs and jigs tipped with minnows.  We also fished for walleyes in the shallows pitching jigs tipped with minnows along the shoreline.  The northerns were found in weedy bays using spoon and spinner baits.

June 3-4

Billy Dougherty:  I had the pleasure of fishing with Tim and Janis Fuller from the Twin Cities. On Saturday fishing was okay, not as good as it had been. We caught fish for dinner and some big ones but not as many as earlier in the week.  Saturday was strange - nice west wind and we did not do well until we fished in the current in the Brule.

                                 

June 2

Cody Christiansen:  Houseboat #18 Bertsch group. We caught walleye, bass and northern in 2-8 feet of water using jigs and husky jerks.  The bass were located on and near rock piles just under the water.  We found the walleye on windy shores and points pitching jigs with a minnow in 3 to 8 feet of water.

May 27-30

Billy Dougherty:  Fished with the FBI guys from Le Mars, Iowa.  More jigs and minnows and tons of walleyes. 1/8 oz. jigs in any color in 5-8 feet of water.  The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the normal great time was had by all; and yes Thunderbird Lodge did open again on Friday morning!

                

May 27-28
Billy Dougherty:  Jeff and Cullen Anderson joined me for two days of walleye fishing.  Jeff is from Minneapolis and Cullen from Colorado.  The jig and minnow bite was still prevalent.  On Friday the walleyes were a little slower than they had been - we caught some larger walleyes in 7-9 ft. in Hitchcock Bay.  We fished in the Brule Narrows for some eating size walleyes and found them in 31 to 32 ft. of water. 

Saturday we went to Saginaw Bay and boy did we have fun. Walleyes were biting very good both big ones and nice eating size fish. Jigs and minnows again, not much change in technique. Had a great time with the Anderson’s and look forward to fishing with them again!

May 23-25

Billy Dougherty:  Bob Welsch party from Chicago.  They took three Lady of the Lake Houseboats to the Kempton Entrance South houseboat mooring site.  Fishing was spectacular for them the first day, northern pike from 13 to 17 lbs. Walleyes were biting steady on 1/8 oz. jigs and minnows all week.  Walleyes were running large fish after fish from 19-25 inches with a few 27’s thrown in.

May 23

Cody Christiansen: Houseboat #32 Doug and Hilton Kunselman  We fished with jerk baits and pitched jigs in 4-8 feet of water.  Most of the walleyes we caught were in the 19-23 inch range with one measuring in at 26 inches.  We also caught several small mouth and northerns near weed points with one 34 inch northern pike.

May 21

Billy Dougherty:  Dan Nikcevich, his daughter Katie, and Peter Person. We fished in 5-10 ft. of water with jigs and minnows or jigs and Gulp minnows. The morning started slow for walleyes catching only a couple, but we did catch a nice smallmouth. At about 10:45 we found walleyes spread out on a wind blown shoreline. They were feeding on hatching nymphs - their mouths were stuffed with them. The longer we fished the more they bit. It rained steady all afternoon but the bite only got better. We caught about forty five walleyes; the last hour and one half was truly spectacular.

May 19-20

Billy Dougherty: Our group included Scott Sandelin (Head Hockey Coach of the National Champion UMD Bulldogs), Dean Blais (Head Coach of the Nebraska Omaha Mavericks Mens Hockey team) Ben Blais and Rick Fritz.  We used 1/8 oz jigs and minnows, 1/8 oz. jigs tipped with three inch Gulp Minnows (Chartruese with white bellies) and 1/8 oz. jigs under a slip bobber tipped with a minnow. We were in 3-6 feet of water fishing small points and edges of shoreline shoals. The group caught mostly walleyes but had some very nice smallies.