Spring is Here? - Rainy Lake Houseboats

We have just started our last sport show left this winter, the Minneapolis Northwest Sport Show Thursday March 21 – Sunday March 24. It has been an excellent year for reservations. Of course there is usually a spot for you, just stop and see Tom and Joey Dougherty during the show, they were busy a beaver yesterday. You can’t play golf so you might as well come and check out summer fun!

The first day of spring was Wednesday March 20^th, as I look out over our bay there is absolutely no sign of that thing called spring, last year at this time it was 80 degrees and we were getting our fishing boats ready for an early, early spring. Not this year. I believe ice out will be around May 7^th. May 7^th is not late more in line with normal ice out over the past 50 years.

Last year was the year of the drought. The drought has ended. During the middle of November we received a fair amount of rain that replenished our swamps, beaver dams, and lowlands. We have plenty of snow, now we need spring to show up and we will be on our way to another fabulous season on Rainy Lake. The Rainy Lake basin is a remarkable ecosystem. The four seasons of the year are extremely important to its health and vitality. Consider Rainy Lake and its surroundings renewed.

My predictions for the May fishing season are; Kettle River will be hotter than a pistol, Kempton Channel and Hitchcock Bay not far behind. The bays will hold their normal bevy of large pike and walleyes. On the Ontario side Seine River will enjoy heydays once again. There will be current and current draws walleyes!

June is going to be incredible. June historically provides the best shallow water fishing of the year. Walleyes, smallmouth bass, crappies, and northern will spend the whole month using the bays and current areas. Last year everything was accelerated, water warming up so fast that normal stages of the fishing season passed by in a few days rather than a couple weeks. This year Rainy Lake will go through much more normal progressions of pre-spawn, spawn, post-spawn, early summer, and peak summer fishing.

Summer is coming!

We’ll see you soon!