June 4, 2012 We left the dock at 7:15 AM on the Chairman II with long time friend and customer John Kangas. John has been bringing his business associates to Rainy Lake Houseboats every year since 1978. We cruised to Brule Narrows having breakfast underway and tied up at Brule Narrows South. We were off […]

Smallmouth bass hit the beds big time on Friday. Joey Dougherty and his friend and mentor John Peterson from Northland Fishing Tackle fished smallies on Friday. The day before John and his brother Duane caught a large number of smallmouth in 5-10 feet of water just off spawning areas. We had a crazy week of […]

I guided George Cochran and his son Chase on Saturday May 26. George and Chase wanted to catch some walleyes for Saturday evenings dinner. It was pretty a chilly ride on Rainy Lake, I even put the gloves on.  The forecast was for a 50 % chance of rain 35-degree early morning temperature and easterly 10-15 mph […]

Every year for the past thirty years the Welsch party comes to Rainy Lake Houseboats for a week. I am lucky enough to guide for them a couple days each year. Todays pattern was similar to yesterday with one exception. We switched to a snap jigging technique. We cast back behind the boat about 50 […]

I left the dock at 6:30AM to fish walleyes with the Bracken / Nevanen party. The forecast was iffy 70% chance of rain with possible thundershowers. We started fishing about 7:15, we were going to start by pitching 1/8oz jigs tipped with minnows into 3-6 ft of water. We started on a point, no wind […]

Another opening day has come on gone. Friday night was the same as the past 50 years; trouble sleeping again, too much anticipation. It is a great feeling knowing a person can be excited at 55 years old so much so that you don’t sleep well. Part of it is thoughts of openers past, the […]

There are only four fishing seasons that close on Rainy Lake; walleye, muskie, sauger and lake sturgeon. Smallmouth bass, northen pike, crappies and white fish are open year around. There is spectacular fishing to be had. The Rainy River had a spectacular spring walleye run again and the sturgeon are really biting right now. Rainy Lake has […]

Rainy Lake northern pike begin spring movements long before the ice goes out. People fish them with dead baits (suckers or ciscoes) through the ice in late February and March. Most fisherman target mouths of bays that the pike will spawn in during late April and early May. May and June fishing for pike will […]

Open water is on the horizon on Rainy Lake. I am going to write some how to’s to help your fishing on Rainy Lake. Both live and artificial bait are very good presentations. I love to fish plastics; they work extremely well during spring and throughout the summer months. I will discuss Northland Tackles new […]

Slip Bobber Fishing For many of us, our first time fishing may have been with a bobber. It is not only fun but also highly effective. I use slip bobbers mainly for walleye and crappies but do catch smallmouth and northern pike from time to time. I often use 1/8 jigs tipped with minnows or […]