Our family road-tripped up to Woody's Rainy Lake Resort recently, and it turned out to be the perfect getaway.
We were up there with another family, and the three nights were great because the weather held out just long enough. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon and the thermometer was up over 90 when we headed through International Falls. That's warm for the town nicknamed "Frostbite Falls."
If you haven't heard about Woody or his Fairly Reliable Guide Service, it's quite a story. He is one of a kind (just like the rest of us, I guess). Woody and his wife, Leann, run a guide service, pub and resort up on the shores of Rainy Lake in the town of Ranier, and it's a really quaint setup they have there. I have always wanted to see Woody's setup and have always enjoyed talking with him at the different shows that we frequent.
Part of their resort is the island where we stayed. It's about 11 miles east of International Falls. Leann showed us to the island and I was thankful that I borrowed one of our guides' Lakemaster map chip of the big lake. The trails that the GPS leaves are very nice, not to mention the buoys and rock piles that were all mapped out for us. I was up on Rainy one other time, when I was about 10 years old. I have fond memories of that trip, too.
My kids are already talking about next year's trip up to Woody's. It must have been special. They fished and swam about 90 percent of their waking hours. Swimming was the most popular activity, but we caught some impressive fish from the dock, so that kept them in the fishing game longer than I would have expected. We haul the boat all the way up there and catch two of the three biggest fish from the dock.
I caught my biggest northern ever (17 or 18 pounder) on a Zara Spook (top water bait) from the dock and I also caught a big walleye on the same bait.
So there we were, on Rainy Lake, one of the biggest lakes in the state, and we catch the two picture-takers that we were looking for right from Woody's wooden dock.
Now that's a fairly reliable guide.
WALLEYEDAN Eigen may be reached at (218) 839-5598, walleyedan@brainerd. com or www.walleyedan.com.
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