We, my parents and my wife and I, just returned from our trip to Woody's Fairly Reliable Guide Service and Resort in Rainier Minnesota which is only 3 miles from International Falls Mn A.K.A. the Nations Ice Box. The town of Rainier has a huge population of 175 people. Woody's resort is positioned right at the point that the Rainy River becomes Rainy Lake. The Canadian border is directly in the middle of the lake and river so you have to always be conscious of where your boat is positioned. Rainy Lake is an enormous lake measuring some 220,000 acres. By Woody's there are a few homes on the shores here and there but just 5 miles down the river when you get close to Voyageur's National Park it is pure and untouched. If you were suddenly transplanted there you would not know the difference between there and NW Ontario Canada.

There is a larger town close by, if you call a population of 6,700 larger, for you to eat at restaurants and shop at grocery stores. The restaurant of choice was the Chocolate Moose which has long been a favorite stop when my friends and I pass through International Falls every June on our way to Canadian fishing waters. Stops at Border Bob's and Ronning's are also a must if you are ever in the area. The tackle shops are also a place to see as they carry northern style tackle that you just cannot find in Texas. The prices at the tackle shops can vary a huge amount so be careful where you shop. Eventually I was able to purchase a Lowrance I Finder H2O with a Navionics chip, for the same amount I can buy one back here at home, at a 70 year old tackle shop named Sportman's Service. Sportman's Service is connected to a small but unique wildlife museum that is a very interesting observation. Woody was kind enough to call Sportman's Service and let them know I was coming and they were kind enough to have my GPS unit programmed with the new chip and up and running before I got there. They literally live up to their name.

Back in Rainier at Woody's Resort it is like a small and very old village. Woody has his office next to his shop that sells Woody gear clothing such as women's panties that are "Guide Tested & Approved!" Across the street is Woody's Pub and connecting apartments. The entire thing was an old general store from 1908. Where the pub is was the old loading dock for the general store and our apartment was directly above the pub. We were only a few steps away from all of the goings on. The best part of the location was the small ice cream shop just a hundred feet away. I visitied the ice cream shop on more than one occasion. In front of the pub and apartment is the lake shore and boat dock. Greeting us each day was a beautiful chocolate lab just waiting for us to throw a rock into the lake so that he/she could jump in and dig it back up.









The shore lunch experience was phenomenal. Our guide for the day, a fella who goes by the name "One Doggie", prepared not only the usual shore fried Walleye but he made us an appetizer that was as unusual as it was good. One Doggie cut up some onions, squeezed lemons onto the onions, and put them in the sunlight while he cooked a pile of bacon. We buttered our bread, put on the onions and bacon, picked out the lemon seeds and chowed down. I was so full I could barely eat the fried Walleye and potatos. By the way "One Doggie" used to be called Doggies when he raced sled dogs but now that he only has one dog he goes by One Doggie. One Doggie's claim to fame, besides being Woody's cousin, is that he was the Minnesota governor's choice for a guide. He is a real character.

Now to the fishing...................

The next day my dad and I decided to go out with Woody himself. As Woody took us from spot to spot I began marking the waypoints with my new GPS unit. During our afternoon with Woody I broke my personal best Smallmouth record twice! I was on cloud nine. The first was an 18.5" beauty shortly followed by a 19.5" that weighed just over 4 lbs. I had never caught any Smallmouth of that size in Canadian fishing waters. With my confidence high and the hot spots programmed into my GPS my dad and I took the ladies with us the next day. We caught many Walleye and Pike but the highlight of the entire trip was the MONSTER my wife caught. She hooked into a beast that took her ten minutes to get to the net. Three times she got it to the boat only to have it rip out more line and screaming drag again. Eventually I was able to net the 20.5" long, 15" girth, over 5 lb monster. Holy cow!

What a great trip. We will definitely be making this an annual trip with the ladies.











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Cool! Sounds like a fun trip! Congrats.

Nice looking place.

looks like a good time.

Great report, thanks for posting. Looks like an incredible trip.

Man...I really...really...miss Smallmouth Bass fishing. And I don't mean some BS Texas Smallmouth "Oh-I-caught-one-smallmouth-and-54-wimpy-largemouth" fishing either.

Lol. That's awesome man, congrats to your wife! I assure you no 5lb largemouth will ever put up a 10 minute, drag stripping battle! But a 5lb smallmouth in nice cold water sure will!

Awesome trip!

Thanks Justin. BTW I came equiped with some size 6 circle hooks and 5 cans of sweet corn but Woody said that there are no Carp in Rainy Lake so I was a little disappointed. He said that the huge Carp are in southern Minnesota.

beautiful fish!

Yeah, Rainy Lake is really far north. Most of the carp habitat in MN is to the south, and the west, although according to the DNR page their habitat also extends up into the Northwest parts of the state.

As many natural lakes as there are in MN, there are plenty of them that never got carp.

Of course those that do have carp have some HUGE ones. The state record is 55lbs!

Sounds like a awesome trip. Congrats on the fish caught and the new pb's.

cool pics . I am going to Brainerd, Minnesota in late august and definitely hope to catch some nice smallies and hopefully a big musky or 2

Fun report there Jason! That Woody's looks like a really cool place. I noticed in the pic at Woodys, a sign was posted about river property for sale. With all those lakes up there, I always wondered if you could get a place on the water for a fair price.
Pass on the congrats to your wife.

grats on a fun trip Jason, looks like you had fun

Thanks Vanboom. The property value on the river front and lake front is quite high. A rather typical house is about $300,000! If the house isn't water front it goes for real cheap. To give an example Woody's house is up for sale right now, he buys and sells homes all the time, and although it may not be water front it is water view and it only goes for $145,000. His place rocks too. My parents and I actually toyed with the idea of buying it but the 30 below hard winters require too much maintenance. It just isn't manageable from Texas.

But what about carp? You see any carp crash. LOL

Unfortunately I didn't. Like I was telling Justin, I came prepared with #6 hooks and 5 cans of sweet corn but Woody said that there are no Carp in Rainy Lake. A funny thing about "crashing Carp" is that Woody was telling me that Common Carp are causing a lot of injuries in southern Minnesota. They jump so high out of the water that passing boaters are knocked unconscious when they get hit by one in the face. I was quick to clarify that it was not so called "Asian Carp" he was talking about.

Lol, I seriously doubt that Common Carp are causing anyone injuries. I've NEVER seen carp jump then then a foot or two out of the water at MOST, and I've been carp fishing over 10 years. And much of that was spent in that area of Southern Minnesota.

It's almost certainly Silver or Bighead Carp.