Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Water Level of Leech Lake -- Memorial Day, 2013

The water level of Leech Lake on Monday, May 27, 2013 -- Memorial Day -- was by my unofficial measure seven (7) cement pilings on my boat ramp.

In years past, the lake has been higher at this time of year, sometimes reaching 8 or even 9 pilings, but it's also been much lower, down around 4 or 5 pilings. So by my rough estimate, we're experiencing roughly average water levels for this time of year.

May 22, 2013 -- On Leech Lake

Today the temperature hit 65 degrees, the wind was out of the NNW at 12-25 mph and the sky was mostly sunny with a fair amount of big, white billowy clouds.

After breakfast, spending time with my parents, doing some "work" work and some work around the properties, Rick and I decided to take John Newman's boat out for a bit of fishing.

According to John's fish finder, the temperature of the water was 49 degrees. Again Rick and I used jigs and fathead minnows in an attempt to catch walleye and jumbo perch.

The lake was covered in fairly large waves and white caps as the gusts of wind regularly topped 20 mph. We motored our way to a spot in 10 feet of water in front of the Malay's cabin, deployed the drift sock and then drifted toward Second Duck Point. John's fish finder doesn't display ground speed, but I'd guess we were moving along at a 1 mph clip at least.

We fished for about an hour and half and Rick got skunked again today. I, however, caught a hand full of perch, although no jumbos, and a nice 20-inch walleye, the first of the open-water season for me. Rick took a quick picture of the fish and then put it I put it back in the lake.

The first Leech Lake walleye of the season

Kathleen got to go running down our dirt road later in the day, and then we all had a nice dinner. My parents went back to the cabin fairly early and we had a quiet night at the house. The word in our neighborhood today is that Shore Brothers will be out tomorrow to put in the docks and boat lifts along our stretch of the Ottertail Peninsula. If that indeed happens, I'll be able to get the boat in the water.

Good night from Leech Lake.