I made a pot of coffee and while it was brewing I checked the four boards on the north side of the house that I stained yesterday. They looked good, and the color was a perfect match. Therefore, I called Sherwin-Williams in Bemidji and put in an order for 20 gallons. That should be enough for Joe and I to stain the entire house, although I made need to order more when it comes to staining both the front and back decks.
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games have their opening ceremony in London tonight, but since I don't have TV I'll have to follow the games (to some degree) online.
After breakfast and a little work around the house, I decided to go fishing at roughly 1:45 p.m. The wind had shifted as the day went on and was now coming out of the WSW at 10 mph. The temperature had warmed to 72 degrees and the sky was mostly blue with big, billowy white clouds filling most of the sky. The water temperature remained quite warm at 79.7 degrees.
I started fishing just north of Second Duck Point in 10 feet of water. I was still using a black Northland Fireball jig and again I tipped it with a large leech. I had several bites, and caught a few rock bass, but it seemed I was losing more leeches to the small fish than I was actually catching fish. So decided to change tactics.
I continued to use the black Fireball jig, but rather than using a leech as enticement I switched to a 2 1/2-inch Gulp Alive! minnow in silver pearl color. I hadn't yet used any artificial bait while fishing for walleye and perch (other than trolling crankbaits) and thought I'd give it a shot.
Almost instantly I caught a beautiful 11 1/2-inch jumbo perch while jigging right in front of the house. I put it in the live well and will have it for dinner either Saturday or Sunday evening. I continued drifting and jigging until I got to the Malay's, but the weeds are so thick there that I needed to relocate.
Even though I'd caught a few nice perch since switching to the Gulp Alive! minnow, I thought I would motor up to the Birches and fish there for a while; it'd been a couple of weeks since I'd fished up there.
After a short time, maybe 20 minutes, I hooked into a good sized fish. I could tell right away it was a northern pike and quickly adjusted the drag on my Shimano Stella reel in order to fight it better. I played the fish for about 5 minutes before getting it along side the boat. I could see it wasn't the typical hammer-handle that is so plentiful in the lake, but a big northern, roughly 30-inches long.
I quickly slipped on my Lindner fish glove so I could more easily grab onto the slimy pike but the fish was so big that my hand would not reach around the fish. At that point, the pike made another mad dash for the depths of the lake and in doing so snapped my line. Although I didn't get the pike in the boat, which I was trying to avoid anyway, it was the largest northern that I've caught on Leech Lake in a long time; maybe ever.
I finally came ashore just before 5:00 p.m. after nearly 3 full hours on the lake. Once I switched to the Gulp Alive! I started catching more fish. Now I'm going to have to rethink using leeches.
Tom Malay and Bro Brosdahl were supposed to stop by this evening to look at the ice fishing houses that they have stored in my garage, but I never heard from either of them, nor could I reach Tom when I called him. Oh well, I guess it wasn't that big a deal that they needed to see them after all.
I made a tasty dinner of fried chicken, then spent the evening listening to music and watching a DVD. I was a good day on the water and I'll most likely spend more time fishing Leech Lake tomorrow.
Good night.
After breakfast and a little work around the house, I decided to go fishing at roughly 1:45 p.m. The wind had shifted as the day went on and was now coming out of the WSW at 10 mph. The temperature had warmed to 72 degrees and the sky was mostly blue with big, billowy white clouds filling most of the sky. The water temperature remained quite warm at 79.7 degrees.
I started fishing just north of Second Duck Point in 10 feet of water. I was still using a black Northland Fireball jig and again I tipped it with a large leech. I had several bites, and caught a few rock bass, but it seemed I was losing more leeches to the small fish than I was actually catching fish. So decided to change tactics.
I continued to use the black Fireball jig, but rather than using a leech as enticement I switched to a 2 1/2-inch Gulp Alive! minnow in silver pearl color. I hadn't yet used any artificial bait while fishing for walleye and perch (other than trolling crankbaits) and thought I'd give it a shot.
Almost instantly I caught a beautiful 11 1/2-inch jumbo perch while jigging right in front of the house. I put it in the live well and will have it for dinner either Saturday or Sunday evening. I continued drifting and jigging until I got to the Malay's, but the weeds are so thick there that I needed to relocate.
Even though I'd caught a few nice perch since switching to the Gulp Alive! minnow, I thought I would motor up to the Birches and fish there for a while; it'd been a couple of weeks since I'd fished up there.
After a short time, maybe 20 minutes, I hooked into a good sized fish. I could tell right away it was a northern pike and quickly adjusted the drag on my Shimano Stella reel in order to fight it better. I played the fish for about 5 minutes before getting it along side the boat. I could see it wasn't the typical hammer-handle that is so plentiful in the lake, but a big northern, roughly 30-inches long.
I quickly slipped on my Lindner fish glove so I could more easily grab onto the slimy pike but the fish was so big that my hand would not reach around the fish. At that point, the pike made another mad dash for the depths of the lake and in doing so snapped my line. Although I didn't get the pike in the boat, which I was trying to avoid anyway, it was the largest northern that I've caught on Leech Lake in a long time; maybe ever.
I finally came ashore just before 5:00 p.m. after nearly 3 full hours on the lake. Once I switched to the Gulp Alive! I started catching more fish. Now I'm going to have to rethink using leeches.
Tom Malay and Bro Brosdahl were supposed to stop by this evening to look at the ice fishing houses that they have stored in my garage, but I never heard from either of them, nor could I reach Tom when I called him. Oh well, I guess it wasn't that big a deal that they needed to see them after all.
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| Tonight's sunset over Sucker Bay, Leech Lake |
Good night.
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