Houseboat experences?

[Bobby Bass]

Looking for any houseboat experiences, not referrals for houseboat rental but stories about how your vacation was and if you would do it again..

[traveler]

We did the houseboat thing on LOTW summer before last, and except for the cost, would (and likely will) do it again. It was jsut our family, 2 girls and my adult son, so it would be more reasonable splitting it with another family/couple. We towed and used our own boat. The absulote best part was my wife and I would fish the mornings (while my son watched the young girls play on the beach or whatever), I'd drop her off, have lunch, and they would switch. So...I got to fish pretty much all day every day and they each were happy with the amount of time they spent in the boat. Sweet!!! We got to fish waters farther from the launch ( Sioux Narrows) then we would have otherwise been able to in my boat, although there was more boat traffic that far in then I expected. We normally camp, so cooking for ourselves wasn't anything different, we just didn't need nearly as much gear. All in all, a very good experience.

[NBR]

We did a house boat on Rainy and the following year on LOW. Our party was my wife and I our 2 children,my parents,Aunt Margaret and her granddaughter. Great trips, everybody had a lot of fun.Good fishing and a remote experience.

The Rainy trip started in St. Francis and LOW at Kenora.

Only caution is the holding tank which filled the first year with so many that would not go to shore or pee in the lake. Second year was ok since we had learned not to flush with every pee and to flush sparringly.

After the first day or two we learned to eat our big meal at midday when we were moving or napping then snack in the evening.

[irvingdog]

Amazing experiences! I prefer Rainy to LOW for the "remoteness". Expense is the only caveat, but when you go during non-peak season, the fishing is better anyway (as if there is bad fishing).

[FOOT]

We've done the houseboat adventures a couple of times, once on Rainy and once on Crane.

The second time was much better thent he first. The first time we were young and short on cash so we invited several couples to share expences. It didn't work very well. The women didn't get along and a week was more like a year.

The second time we took family and had a much better time.

Fishing was good to excellent depending on what part of the water we fished. Sometimes we got into great smallmouth and walleye fishing and other times not so good. We could always catch enough walleye for a good evening meal.

It was great to sit on the top deck under the stars on a warm evening and enjoy the company. I found the beds to be a little short but then I'm about 6'4". Both services treated us very well and checked on us at least every other day to see if we needed anything like gas or ice etc.

Yes I definately do it again.

[Bigbartguy]

I would highly recommend this experience. I went with a group of buddies on Vermillion. A family would completely enjoy it as well.

[Bob O]

We've done several family vacations on houseboats in Voyageurs National Park and I've done several more with fishing buddies on LOW. With the right people, they are incredibly fun. We've enjoyed them so much we bought a houseboat on Rainy that we'll be launching the first time this summer. Our teenage daughters are thrilled!

You can meet several houseboat companies at the upcoming sportshows.

[not_nuf_time]

I don't want to scare you but..., I saw a show on Discovery or somewhere else about houseboats. in Nevada they had a number of people drowned from swimming under the boat in the open cavity. Turns out there was so much methane carbon minoxide gas from the generator, that when they surfaced underneath the boat that a lethal amount was ingested within seconds to cause them to pass out and slip under the water. When they figured out the cause of the drowning, they went back and looked at the numbers of drownings, it turned out around 50 over a number of years, I didn't see outcome of how many they figured were related to the gas poisoning. So this is just a word of caution, nothing more. Be safe and have fun. I know I'm being somewhat vague but just wanted to let you know of a possible hazard.

[metrojoe]

I think that story also made the local news.

Thanks for the info guys. I've always thought these types of vacations would be alot of fun, but never knew anyone that could give me some feed back about it.