John Kangas Chairman II Fishing Trip

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 and traveling to fishing areas by 9:25 AM.

A northwest wind of 10-15 mph was forecast. Shorelunch was to be at 12:30 pm. The lake was flat as pancakes no wind what so ever.  We opted to fish some reefs and points in current.  Dragging jigs 3/8 oz. on the bottom was really effective.  We caught lots of walleyes for lunch the largest was 22”.  We have five guides on the trip. We all met and cooked a shore lunch for fifteen people.

During the afternoon the wind picked up.  We trolled emerging weeds with hammered gold Northland Fishing Tackle Crawler harnesses at 1.4 mph. Fishing was great, the walleyes were super aggressive.

Back to the Chairman at 6:00 PM for Chef Bernie’s chicken and rib dinner!

June 5^th another beautiful day in paradise.  Our guests had breakfast at 7:00 AM on the water heading to fishing spots by 7:45 AM. Forecast today was light southwest winds. We were all headed to current areas but the wind started to blow about 10 mph out of the southeast. Change the plans and hit the shallow water easterly facing points.  Walleyes were very hungry 30 in my boat by 10:AM. I asked Jim and John if they would like to fish pike for a while before shore lunch. We went to a pencil reed bed about 300 yards long. Jim started with a buzz bait and John used a ¾ oz. gold Johnson Silver Minnow tipped with a white Northland Fishing Tackle Impulse Paddle Minnow.

The pike absolutely crushed the spoon. Jim switched to the same only using a white twister tail. No strikes put the Impulse on and bang a pike. Scented plastics make a difference. The pike hit steady until lunchtime. We did more pike fishing after lunch. Fellow guides John Balaski, Joey Dougherty, Kevin Erickson and Cody Christenson had great fishing. Huge smallmouth, 30” walleye and pike up to 37”.

Another great day in the book! Back to the Chairman II for Bernie’s signature barbecued thick cut pork chops, fabulous wild rice, fresh green beans and a caeser salad.

June 6^th


This was the guest’s last day of fishing. We will meet at 12:00 PM for shore lunch and fish until 4:00 PM.  A dinner cruise is planned for the trip back to base. The fishing contest ends also. Each fisherman can claim his largest northern pike and walleye for the three days and declare one of each for the daily largest fish.

We ran into a storm right away in the morning and spent sometime on shore because of lightning. The front was not moving out so we decided to head back west away from the bad weather. Walleyes bit like crazy all morning, on plastics, night crawlers, and minnows. 

After shore lunch we had about two hours of fishing before heading in. John Kangas and Bill Huganin were fishing in my boat. Bill wanted to fish pike as John had claimed a 37” pike for the three days and was in the lead for the big pot!

We stopped to fish a fairly large wind blown reed bed. I suggested Bill cast a Flat Rap and John use the Silver Minnow that was so hot the day before. Bill had one swipe at the bait by the boat. About four casts later a decent pike ponded the Flat Rap, it put on quite a show. We measured it and it definitely tied John maybe even a 1/ 4” longer. We moved along the reed bed making casts and Bill goy hit hard again. This one jumped out of the water twice, ran several times before ending up in the net. John breathed a sigh of relief as the pike was only 34 ½” .  We were about ¾ down the reed bed when Bill said shit, I got a weed, and I yelled fish, fish, set the hook. I was dead positive that I saw a large boil just as he contacted the reed.

The pike shot out towards open water, went on several runs and took a cruise about 2 feet under the water right by the boat. I stared in disbelief the Glide Rap was sticking hallway out the gill. I was worried that the fish might be gravely wounded. We put the pike in the net and got the mouth open. I looked down it’s throat and could see that the front hook was not in the fish at all. The back hook was out side of the gill. I was able to put it back inside the fish’s gullet and pull the bait out with out any injury whatsoever. John groaned, Bill’s fish was 38” beating him for the big pike of the trip. Bill also claimed the 37” for the daily winner. Great finish to a great trip.