September 16-24 2011 found the Carey family in N. Minnesota for a surprise visit for my fathers 80th birthday.  My sister hid us out at her remote lake cabin for 2 days before the event, (darn) it any ways we had to suffer through the splendor of the Loons call, beautiful sunsets and a pretty good walleye chop.  We had to wait the wind out and the first opportunity found us right out in front of our cabin working a reef where the Walleye were in transition mode with colder temps coming on.  We managed to do ok with the inlaws boat with no troll motor but we ran up wind and drifted over the reef picking off some nice Walleye here and there, the nicest one caught by my daughter was 26" which we photographed and returned and resupplied sisses freezer with some nice eaters fillets. Then after the event the weather got nasty and for a few days we hung out inside playing pinochle or visiting friends and family.  With a break in the weather my father put us onto the Crappie and some beautiful scenery complete with an awsome good ole fashioned Rainy Lake Shore Lunch.  We caught jumbo Perch, Walleye, and Northern Pike while working the Crappie.  The Crappie where fewer than in years past, but average size was bigger, apparently the Crappie had not spawned for the past two years now in Rainy as a result of the cold weather.  My son was the grand fisherman of this trip as he caught a nice Northern Pike that went 38" and weighed a nudge over 19#, was a textbook fight and the biggest freshwater fish he has caught to date, we photograped it and released it.  I ended up catching the largest Saugeye I can recall ever catching, a cross between a Walleye and a Sauger and does not get as big as the Walleye can, but eats just a little better in my opinion.  Not sure of our exact totals, lost count on the Perch and Northern, Crappie were 30 something and Walleye around a couple dozen. To note, we did not catch a Crappie under 10" and the largest was 14.5" all a bunch of nice slabs!  Well on our last outing of the trip we were trying to look for new opportunities and my father who started fishing Rainy in 1960 with 4 decades of guiding experience was paying a little too much attention to something other than the graph and found an unmarked rock.  We were not going very fast, but fast enough to destroy the prop and lower unit on his Suzuki 150.  I could tell how disappointed in himself he was and since no one was hurt and the boat was otherwise unharmed, he put his guide hat on a little lower and tighter to the brim and said "lets fish" ! Fish we did and fill the livewell we did, the kids caught more Northern by speed trolling on the way back in with the kicker and just had a blast.  As of yet not sure what the $ damage is but am sure it's the most expensive fishing trip my dad has ever guided, but the memories we made are priceless.  Klahowya!  See the photos of this trip on page 2 of the Rainy Lake album.