Arrival At Leech Lake

I arrived at Leech Lake late on Thursday, May 16, just one day after the official "ice out" day on the lake. The all-time latest ice out on Leech Lake, at least in the past 78 years that they've been keeping records of it, is May 23. As a result, none of the docks or boat lifts along Ottertail Peninsula were in the water.

On Friday, my friend Rick and I drove into Bemidji for supplies and to pick up the boat. But with the lift not in the water, the boat was parked near the garage until a later date. The wind was out of the NE at 8-15 mph, the sky was overcast and grey and the temperature was in the high 60s. We grilled steak for dinner and had an early night since both of us were tired from getting in late the night before.

Saturday was supposed to bring thunderstorms and cooler temperatures, but all we got was rain, no big storms. By 9:00 a.m. we were on our way to St. Cloud to see Kathleen's mother, and to pick up Kathleen and bring her back to the lake. We spent the entire day in St. Cloud and didn't arrive back at the lake until after midnight.

All three of us spent most of Sunday outside working on variety of projects from replacing burned out light bulbs to rebuilding broken stairs to miscellaneous yard work. We had a nice seafood pasta dish for dinner, but couldn't watch the sunset because the sky was very overcast and grey. Although the rain did hold off and the temperature reached a high of 73 degrees.

On Monday, Rick and I borrowed John Newman's boat and went out fishing. We used jigs and fatheads and drifted in 11 feet of water, and then moved shallower into 8 feet of water. The water temperature was 47 degrees, the air temperature was 57 degrees, the wind was out of the NE at 8-12 mph and the sky was overcast and grey and a light rain was falling.

I hooked a few perch, no jumbos, but couldn't hook a walleye. The rain began to fall harder so we decided to go back on shore, dry off and warm up.

It's good to be back at the lake. Hopefully later this week Shore Brothers will be out to put the docks and boat lift in the water so I can get my boat readied for the open-water season.