Schluter Family Chairman II Vacation August 3-6, 2013

Hunter Schluter with a dandy smallmouth bass!

John, Pam (Schluter), Johnathan Smylie were the first to arrive at Rainy Lake Houseboats on Saturday afternoon. Jeff and Karen Schluter, Dave and Hunter Schluter , and Paul Schluter arrived shortly after. We left the docks about 2;00 PM and cruised toward Kempton Channel. We ended up mooring at Kempton Entrance South one of many scenic mooring sites throughout Voyageurs National Park and Rainy Lake.

The Schluters own and operate America’s greatest family owned fishing rod company “St. Croix Rod Company”. St. Croix Rods is located in Park Falls, WI.  St. Croix Rods are the finest engineered rods you can get your hands on. They have a wide variety of models that meet almost any fishing situation and models that fit the bill for any budget.

When you fish with me you will be able to fish with many different models from the Triumph to the Legend Extreme. Once you have fished for a day with a St. Croix you will be a believer.  I have used St. Croix rods, long before I was fortunate enough to meet the Schluter”s. What I did learn from the Schluter’s is a St. Croix rod is built with the best engineering possible.

Upon arriving at our mooring site the guides, Bill Dougherty, Jon Balaski, Kevin Erickson, and Tony Snyder took the group for a couple hours of fishing before dinner. The walleyes were snapping, things were looking pretty good for Sunday.

On Sunday morning John and Pam fished with me. I was planning on fishing 1 ½ ounce bottom bouncers with a slow death hook. We attach the hook to 8 lbs. test monofilament line, about 42”. The slow death hook is a bent up straight shaft hook. We thread a night crawler on the hook sliding it above the knot. The knot keeps the worm in place. We pinch off the tail of the crawler leaving about 1 ½” off the end of the hook. Troll at about .7 to .8 mph. The bent hook causes the worm to spin and the walleyes can’t resist it.

I ordered the Eyecon Bounce-n-Troll rod just for this presentation. John was using an old standby rod the St. Croix Premier.  I fixed Pam up with a Shimano Compre ( she grimaced). I wanted her to see the difference in the rods. We started to catch big walleyes immediately 22-24” fish. After about four walleyes I switched Pam to the Eyecon. What a difference, we were fishing 39 -41 feet of water, clay gravel bottom. The reel was spooled with Trilene XL 8 lbs. test line.  Pam lowered the bouncer down and said oh my god, the feel is incredible, and bang on her first pump forward a walleye drilled it as she was letting the bouncer back down.

Pam with a dandy walleye on her St. Croix Eyecon Bounce-n-Troll rod

The Premier works well but is older and has more weight to it. The new Premiers have been reengineered using advanced guides etc. just bringing a classic rod up to date.

John Smylie

During the afternoon Paul and Pam fished with me in my Lund Pro V 208 GL. We opted to go back and fish the bouncers again in the afternoon. The water had turned dead flat calm.  The walleyes could not have cared less! Many 21-24” eyes fell to the slow death technique..

John took Dave and Hunter smallmouth fishing during the afternoon. Thet found smallies heavily schooled on an island point super structure. They caught the daylights out of them using a avocado colored wacky worm. Hunter used a slip bobber and leech to catch a number of nice bass.

Monday was cool and cloudy. The walleyes proved to be a little finicky. Slow death was working pretty good but not nearly as fast as Sunday. Jigs and minnows from 28-34 feet was another pretty good option. Tony’s boat caught them pretty well with a gold, brown, red tipped jig ¼ oz. in weight.

Dave Schluter

John Smylie

Paul Schluter

John Smylie

Rainy Lake is not just about the fishing, it is one of the most beautiful places in the world! 

John and Pam Smylie

Jeff Schluter

Karen Schluter with a "Eyecon Bounce-n-Troll walleye

Pam Smylie

Chef Jim on the Barbe!

The fight is on, who needs a breeze for walleyes!

Pam "meeting" her walleye!

 Dining aboard the Chairman I

Armstrong Family Vacation 2013 July 28 - August 1

Gus and Sharon Armstrong arrived at Rainy Lake Houseboats on Saturday, The rest would arrive on Sunday morning. Doug and Tammy Bloss, their sons Ryan wife Jamie, Matt wife Melissa, and Troy, Patrick and Nicole Armstrong, their sons Brian, Brandon, and Cole would make the group up this year.

Bernie Lessard was the chef for the umpteenth year for the Armstrong’s and Bloss’s, Reese Renollet was Bernie’s assistant. Fishing guides would be Bill Dougherty, Jon Balaski, Kevin Erickson, Tony Snyder, Ryan Schmidt, and Cody Christensen. We look forward to the Armstrong’s trip every time they come.  The children have been coming since Troy was about five years old.

Now we get to see them as young adults working in their family business.

Troy has a piece of driftwood he picked up on his first trip to Rainy Lake Houseboats. He has each guide carve his name on the stick, every guide for the past twenty years name is on the stick, pretty cool.

We left the dock a little after nine in the morning. We moor in different sites each year. This time we settled in at Blueberry Island East.  We had Lady III and the Chairman II nestled in for the four-day stay.  We unloaded the canoes from the top of the Lady, had lunch and were off fishing.

 Troy and Gus

Matt

 Fishing was excellent the first afternoon. The guides spread out north and east of Blueberry Island. Jigs and minnows or crawlers, Lindy Rigs with leeches, and slip bobbers were all going strong. 

Matt and Gus 

Tammy

Over time the group has progressed to casting for pike and bass along with walleye fishing. Ryan likes to take the canoe and cast the shorelines in the area the houseboats are moored at.

Ryan and Patrick

Campfires at night, card playing, island hikes, swimming, eating walleyes for lunch, eagle watching, and of course fishing keep everyone busy and occupied. I cannot think of a better place than Rainy Lake to come and enjoy family interaction.

 

Sharon, Brian, and Doug

Gus

Jamie

 on, Brandon, and Melissa

 Ryan Schmidt and Jon Balaski

Sharon, Brandon, and Melissa

Nicole and Tammy

Tony Dahl's July 22-25 Chairman II Trip

July 22, 2013

Tony Dahl and guests Tom, Mike, Tom, Al, and Gary arrived Sunday evening.  The group dined at Thunderbird Lodge and spent the night on the Chairman II.  We left port at 7:30 AM and headed for Brule Narrows. We had a forecast calling for some rain and 10-15 mph northwest winds.  Half way out it looked like we were going to get more than 15 mph wind speeds, and we did.

We left Brule Narrows South houseboat mooring site and headed east. It would be to rough to fish the west of Brule Narrows. Jon Balaski, Ryan Schmidt and myself all agreed it might be a trying day with the weather conditions. We went to three different areas, each spot had different characteristics; Ryan as on a break line with an under water point, Jon was on a rubble pile in 23 feet water, I fished a shallow water reef in 18 feet of water.

The walleyes were hungry for leeches and large! In fact the under 17” keeping size walleyes did not start to bite until afternoon. There is nothing wrong with burning through fourteen dozen leeches while catching 18-25” walleyes. We all met back at the Chairman a little after 5:00 PM. It was Chef Bernies turn. He had spent the day getting his barbecued ribs and chicken ready for the evening meal.

Tuesday was a beautiful day. Ryan, Jon and I all went to different areas of the lake and fished reefs in about 24-25 feet of water. It has been the same typical pattern with the leeches. We are using MinnKota Terrova’s on anchor lock and fishing the walleyes directly below us. It was just plain crazy fishing. One walleye after another, plenty of keeps but really big beauties 22-25 inches long. My hands and fingers are cut to ribbons from the big walleyes.

 Jon Balaski

During the afternoon we trolled with Storm Flatsticks for pike. We caught three but the action was slow compared to the walleyes. Ryan trolled small crank baits and lit up both the walleyes (a 28” walleye) and one nice pike 40” long.

Wednesday was our last day with Tony’s group.  We left right off with Tuesday’s walleye fishing. Jon and Ryan fished reefs, I fished an island break lines.  Once again they went nuts again. I hope it keeps up the rest of the summer. We ended the day at 3:30 PM and had a dinner cruise in, Bernie served up barbequed kebabs fresh off the grill.

Ryan Schmidt