Many of our houseboats have been heavily booked for 2011 already. The Lady of the Lake series have only a one week opening in June, two five day openings in July, one week August 20 and a week open on August 27. The Chairman is also quite booked with the only remaining openings in May, a couple between July 14 and July 24, none in August and a couple in September. Our other houseboats have openings but seem to be ahead of our 2009 and 2010 seasons. During the past couple of seasons the greatest portion of our reservations came in April, May, June and July. It looks like there is a definite shift to early reservation commitments in 2011.

Last year we set a record for the earliest ice out on record. I believe we will be back to a more normal pattern this year. We have a tremendous amount of snow and ice thickness is only half of what it normally is. I expect to see the ice out between May 2-5th. The walleye opener is May 14th and it should be a spectacular May and June fishing season!

Spring Fishing

There are many ways to make the most of spring fishing opportunities. Traditional methods for walleyes are the jig and minnow, long lining Lindy or Roach Rigs and fishing jig and minnows on deep breaklines. From opening day through mid June a huge percentage of all the game fish(and Big Fish) are in water less than eight feet deep. Walleyes, smallmouth bass, northern pike, and crappies all use the shallower bays in early season. Let me help you expand your techniques on how you approach the shallow water extravaganza.

First, the most important piece of equipment you can possess is a pair of polarized sunglasses. I prefer the amber or brown shades the most and I always carry two pairs just in case of breakage or dropping them in the lake. They run in price from $12-$150. It is not necessary to buy the most expensive as they all work. The glasses are effective on both sunny and cloudy days. What good do they do? Polarized sunglasses allow you to eliminate the glare on the water and see the color transitions in shallow water. They are the least expensive depth finder you will ever buy.

Now use your imagination - you have just settled in a bay with shoreline structure; points, inside turns, sand bars, rubble strewn shorelines, etc. Now instead of starting to fish right away put your glasses on and look towards the shore (make sure you are in casting distance). Here is what to look for; the water from one to approximately 3-4 feet will have a brownish tinge to it: on sunny days a lighter brown and on cloudy days a darker brown. The key fish holding spots are going to be where the water changes from light brown to darker blue on sunny days and from darker brown to black on cloudy days. Once you are used to seeing these subtle changes in color you can identify where these fish will set up to feed on forage. On any given point there are going to be many smaller points, inside turns, boulders out from points, etc. They are all identifiable with your polarized sunglasses.

There are a number of ways to fish these spots. Walking into the bait shop there are so many baits hanging on displays so how do you choose. One of the easiest and most fun artificial baits are the plastics. When I say plastics I am talking about tails or grubs, ringworms, flukes, and tubes. I am going to concentrate on ringworms and grubs. You will need a jig head to fish both; I tend to use a 1/8 oz. jig with a barb on the shaft of the jig head when I am fishing eight feet of water or less. Most lead headed jigs have a lead barb on the shaft; these will work fine, the only drawback is fish tear the plastic off easier than a wire barbed jig head. Northland Fishing Tackle makes a 1/8 oz wire barbed jig head that works superb. I prefer limp monofilament fishing line in 6 or 8 lbs. strength. My line of choice is Trilene XL. A limp line lets your jig presentation rise and fall more naturally.

There are different ways to present your plastic to the fish. A simple way to start is to pick a target to cast to, cast in and use a slow rod lift and a slow fall. Do not be in a hurry to reel in, I only turn my reel handle enough to pick up the line that I pulled to the boat with my lift after the fall. Lift and let fall again. The fish generally hit on the fall so when you feel weight on your lift set the hook reasonably hard. If you are finding yourself snagging a lot, increase the speed of your lift and fall a little bit. You can use this method with 4" ringworms, 3" Gulp minnows, or twister tails. Northland Fishing Tackle has an extensive selection of plastics - some of my favorites are the Slurpie series; Swim n grub, Jerk Shad, ring worm and Swimming Shad.

I also use a more active approach with the Gulp minnows. I cast it to my target and literally give it a rip, let it fall, spin my reel handle to pick up the slack then rip again doing it most of the way back to the boat (it does not make it back very often). One issue you run into after prolonged use is line twist.

Last spring James Holst and I shot a segment for his In Depth Outdoors fishing show using these same techniques. Being a big tail, grub and gulp minnow guy, James introduced me to the ring worm and they work well. I encourage you to view the TV show as it is very clear on how to fish these baits. The segments are always viewable at idofishing.com. I don't know the air date yet but once it airs it will be posted a twww.idofishing.com/videos/

Check out our Fishing reports and guides page and scroll down to May 19 (James Holst and I) and also May 25th. These were all plastic days.
In my next newsletter I will discuss jerk baits.

Casa Loma

Casa Loma is set to have another busy year in 2011. There have been a couple of changes with the biggest one being our new rate structure. From January 1- May 6 the weekly rate is $1500; May 7 - May 27 is $2000 per week; May 28 - June 24 is $2500 per week; June 25 -September 2 is $2800 per week; September 3 - 30 is $2000 per week and October 1 - December 31 is $1500 per week.

The second change is our weeks will now be running from Saturday to Saturday. This is what has allowed us to reduce our rates in the prime summer months. We were ending up with unrentable days in between broken up weeks. We can still look at shorter stays for those of you who have rented from us in the past, we just have to work together so our Saturday - Saturdays still work.

We have put a new window in the master bedroom where you can now open the windows and enjoy the wonderful fresh air of the northland. Many of our guests have started to fish closer to home finding lots of walleyes and crappies in the Black Bay area of Rainy Lake, Sand Bay, and the reefs north, east and south of Dryweed Island. New for 2011 are regularly scheduled day cruises upon the "Voyageur", Voyageur National Park's new tour boat. There are many different shorter tours and one that is most of a day going to the Kettle Falls Hotel.

You can check for availability at www.rainylakevacationhomes.com by clicking on the availability tab. We openings in June, July and August. We look forward to seeing you this summer and fall!