Tuesday, June 19, 2012

June 19, 2012 -- At Leech Lake

I awoke this morning to the loud sound of thunder and the pelting of rain on the roof. Not a bad way to wake up. The sky was grey and a steady rain was falling, the temperature was a cool 59 degrees, but there was no wind. The lake was still and the flag hung limp against the flag pole.

All morning and into the afternoon the sky was dark and a steady rain fell; sometimes coming down quite hard. The temperature hovered around 60 degrees and the wind remained calm. Periodically there were flashes of white lightening followed by loud claps of thunder, but mostly it was the sound of falling rain that provided the only ambient noise throughout the day.

The loons, Canadian geese and Mergansers loved the weather, and all could be seen swimming in the lake off the end of our dock.

All day long the rain continued to fall. Sometimes steady, other times in torrential sheets. It was as hard a rain as I've seen fall at Leech Lake.

The storm coming in over Sucker Bay
At one point during the middle of the day hail started coming down. First just a little, then harder and harder. Pea-sized hail fell for probably 10 minutes. Throughout the day, and I mean for hour after hour after hour, the rain fell, lightening flashed across the sky, thunder rolled over Ottertail Peninsula as the severe thunderstorms continued.

Hail on our lakeside porch
We got a couple of 30-minute breaks here and there throughout the day, but for the most part the storm raged on. The National Weather Service warned of severe thunderstorms, tornadoes, hail, damaging winds and flash flooding for our area, and while I didn't see any tornadoes, we did have all of the rest.

Needless to say, I did not get out on the water today to do any fishing. While the wind wasn't all that strong, for most of the day anyway, the heavy rain, hail and lightening were enough to keep me indoors.

I did collect the garbage at both the house and cabin and ran it down to the community center during one of the brief breaks in the weather. Kathleen used the time inside to do some cleaning in preparation for the guests we'll have later this week.

My daughter Melissa, her son Jayden and our other grandchild, Ashley, arrive in Minneapolis tomorrow. Then on Friday, they, along with Kathleen's brother Tim and his family are all coming up to the lake for a visit. Then next Monday my parents arrive for a 5-day stay. It'll be great to see everyone, even if it'll be quite a change from the peace and quiet of just me and Kathleen at the house.

As I write this just before midnight, the rain has slowed to a slow drizzle; though just minutes ago it was coming down in sheets. Lightening is filling the room with a soft white glow and the rumbling of thunder can be heard in the distance. Basically, the same sounds I heard when I awoke this morning will send me off to sleep.

Good night from Leech Lake.

June 18, 2012 -- On Leech Lake

Like most of the mornings have been here on Leech Lake recently, today at 9:30 a.m. the sky was grey, the temperature was 65 degrees and the wind was light at 3-8 mph out of the SSW. There were already a half dozens boats out in front of the house this morning; maybe going after my escaped walleye.

As the morning rolled on the temperature continued to rise to just more than 70 degrees, the wind remained calm and the sun started to peak out with patches of blue sky appearing. Kathleen had yet to go on a boat ride and we figured the weather was perfect for it, so after some breakfast and coffee we made our way over to the boat lift.

I lowered the boat into the water, backed it out onto the lake and slowly started heading north along the shoreline of Sucker Bay. We made our way up past Schiebe's cabin before motoring over to the location where Bay Shore Resort once stood. Today, Bay Shore is gone, and in its place are houses and cabins.

From there we motored up the shoreline to Birch Ridge Resort, the new public water access ramp and to the big Robinson house at the very north end of Sucker Bay. I then opened up the motor and started south on Sucker Bay toward Big Hardwood Point. Along the way the wind began to pick up and before we could even reach Big Hardwood the water was getting quite rough. I decided that the boat trip needed to come to an end and we needed to get off the water before the waves got even bigger.

We made it back to the boat lift as the lake was filling with white caps. It was a bit of struggle getting the boat on the lift, but I managed. For the rest of the day, until just before sunset, the wind was strong at 20+ mph out of the WSW and the lake was riled with waves and white caps.

Since we weren't able to get out onto the water, Kathleen and I decided to stay on shore and work on a number of chores. Kathleen got out the blower and cleaned off the porches, driveway and other areas around the house and cabin while I got back on the roof of the cabin and completed the zinc-stripping project. Now the entire roof at the cabin has zinc stripping in place which should help keep moss and mold from growing on it. I need to do the same thing to the garage/game room roof and to the roof at the house.

We wrapped up our chores around 6:30 p.m. and then Kathleen went for a run. Once she was back we sat on the dock and watched the sunset. The weather had evolved yet again, with the temperature at 72 degrees, the skies were mostly clear and the wind had died down to 3-5 mph out of the SSW. And with a new moon, it seemed like a perfect night to troll for walleye.

I got the boat in the water soon after the sun had dropped below the horizon and got the boat set up for trolling at night -- landing net handy, navigation lights on, rod holder in place, etc. I started trolling in 9 feet of water in front of our house and made my way south into the middle of Duck Bay. The water temperature was 70.9 degrees.

During that initial pass I hooked into a northern pike approximately 25" long, which I immediately unhooked and released back into the lake. I continued trolling until 10:45 p.m. but didn't catch another fish. I made my way on shore and back to the house. Kathleen and I ate a very late dinner, watched a movie and then went to bed late.

Although the fishing was not great tonight, it was a wonderful day spent mostly outside on the shores of Leech Lake.