Author: Billy Dougherty

June 24, 2013 Bart Olek and his family came to Casa Loma on Saturday June 22, 2013.  I was scheduled to take his relatives fishing on Monday. Bart and his dad Sonny would follow along. I was going to do things a little different than I may do on a houseboat. We decided to head […]

We have been receiving questions about the difference between our guide rates and others that have a base fee plus a $50.00 extra charge for the the third and fourth person. We charge $350.00 per day for guiding Rainy Lake Houseboat customers and it allows for either two or three fisher persons per guide boat. […]

Art’s group arrived Wednesday evening June 19th. The Chairman pulled out of port at 7:30 AM Thursday morning. A hour and one half breakfast cruise to our mooring site and we were off in search of surface striking smallmouth bass. The guides were Bill Dougherty, Jon Balaski and Kevin Erickson. Bernie Lessard was the chef […]

Roger was at the dock waiting when I returned back to base in my new Lund Pro V GL 208. Everyone gets excited when they get a new boat. I had a smile as I came off plane pulling into our bay. I drove a 250 hp Suzuki for a few years it was a […]

Jason, LuAnn, Logan, and Logan’s friend arrived at Rainy Lake Houseboats and were off on a three day excursion on the Chairman II Saturday afternoon. Jon Balaski and Kevin Erickson had the houseboat moored by 3:30 PM The Lund guide boats were loaded and off to fish walleyes on the Minnesota side of the lake. Jon and Kevin put the […]

Pete’s trip marks the first fly fishing only trip of the year. Bill Dougherty, Jon Balaski and Kevin Erickson were the guides. We fish strictly smallmouth bass with accidental pike thrown in. This year we were hoping to target bedded smallmouth bass on Pete’s trip. On the previous trip we had seen a few bass […]

Jim Ridling, Ken Upchurch, Bill Coleman, and Wesley Dunn flew into International Falls on Thursday, June 6, dined at Thunderbird and spent the night on the Chairman. We begin our smallmouth fishing in earnest on this trip.  Smallmouth on top water baits really gets the guys going along with a homemade inline spinner that John […]

John, Bennett, David, Bill H., Jim, Jeff, John Den, Doug, Bill R., Dave arrived on Friday and Saturday; this was the beginning of John Kangas’s 34th annual trip to Rainy Lake Houseboats and the Chairman II. They played golf at the Falls Country Club on Sunday June 2nd.  The group dined at the Thunderbird Lodge […]

It has been a busy week with so many walleyes on the line it is plain hard to count! Starting a new season with a new boat always makes me nervous. I get very attached to my boat. My 2004 Lund Pro V IFS 2025 is a hall of famer. 3000 hours still no leaks, […]

Ice out on Rainy Lake was Thursday May 16th. Our first guests left the bay on Friday May 17th. We went from having a late ice out to having three days of intense low pressure. Winds were from the NE and fairly strong. The system dumped 5” of rain on Rainy Lake. The goods news […]