July 19, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

A beautiful sunny summer's day on Sucker Bay, Leech Lake

Today was the best day weather-wise we've had in a week or more. The temperature at midday was 74 degrees, the sky was sunny, the wind was light at 5 mph out of the SE and the water temperature was 65 degrees.

At approximately 1:00 p.m., Ashley, Liz and I went fishing. We were using jigs tipped with leeches, and fished in numerous spots I know on Sucker Bay -- ranging from 8-14 feet of water. Unfortunately, we only caught a couple of perch.

At 4:00 p.m. we came ashore. Although we didn't catch many fish, we did have an enjoyable time together on the lake.

Once we were home, Liz went for a run, I read the Sunday paper, and for some reason, Ashley decided she wanted to clean the kitchen. She swept and mopped the kitchen floor, cleaned the counter tops and even arranged the fruit in the fruit bowl. I really appreciated her efforts, no matter how unnecessary I thought they were.

We made a wonderful shrimp pasta dish for dinner and afterward Ashley and I sat on the dock and watched the sun set into the western sky.

I think we're going to watch a movie tonight rather than go trolling. And if that's what the girls want to do, that's what we'll do. Tomorrow night, however, I will encourage them to go trolling with me for walleye on Leech Lake.

July 18, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

This morning at 10:30 a.m. I left the house to drive down to St. Cloud to pick up my daughter Liz and my granddaughter Ashley from my mother-in-law's house. It was a quick trip. I drove the 3 hours to St. Cloud, stayed for lunch and visited for a while, then a couple of hour later we left.

After stopping for groceries, Liz, Ashley and I drove back to Leech Lake. Upon our arrival the temperature was 64 degrees, the wind was light at 5 mph out of the north, the sky was sunny and the moon was at 16 percent waning.

At 9:15 p.m. the three of us went fishing. We trolled The Alley in 64 degree water with a Cotton Cordell Wally Diver and a Minnow Rap, but we caught no fish. We decided to come ashore a little before 11:00 p.m.

Although we caught no fish, it was fun being together -- watching the sunset and the stars come out -- on Leech Lake.

MN DNR Concerned Over Theft of State Flower

A couple of weeks ago on this blog I posted several photos of Minnesota's state flower, the Lady's Slipper.

We here on Leech Lake's Ottertail Peninsula are fortunate enough to have the flower grow in various locations along our roads. But unfortunately, some people can't leave well enough alone, and for reasons known only to themselves, they feel that they have the right to dig up the state flower.

Apparently, this "theft" is spreading to Minnesota's state parks and other public lands. Click here to read the report.

July 17, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

It's another beautiful mid-summer day here at Leech Lake. At 10:00 a.m. the temperature is 50 degrees, the sky is gray, overcast and spitting rain, and the wind is 12-20 mph out of the NNW churning up the lake and covering it with white caps.

It is the wrong week to be at the lake if you were looking to do some swimming, tubing, water skiing, or any other activity that is enhanced by warm sunny weather.

The hour-by-hour weather report calls for the wind to die down -- to around 8 mph out of the NW -- by 9:00 p.m this evening. If that is indeed the case, then I will have the opportunity to go out trolling for walleye.

Update: It's now 2:00 p.m. and the wind is still strong at 15+ mph from the NW, the sky is still gray with occasional light rain, and the temperature is 52 degrees.

I saw two boats out on the water earlier, both from Birch Ridge Resort. They were probably vacationers and today is their last day at the resort so they were determined to go fishing regardless of the conditions. The guys in the boat were bundled up in warm rain gear and from the little I watched them through the binoculars, no one watching catching any fish. I do admire their determination, however.

About 5:00 p.m. I was coming back from taking the garbage to the waste bins at the community center when I saw Don Poage and his son-in-law Marty. They asked if I wanted to join them on the lake for some fishing. I said sure, grabbed my rod/reel, some extra jigs (which would come in handy), and a cooler with some drinks.

We left Poage's boat lift at 5:20 p.m. and motored out to 14 feet of water. The water temperature according to Poage's electronics had dropped to 63.4 degrees. The wind was still out of the NW at 8-15 mph and the air temperature was 56 degrees.

I was using a Fire-Ball jig tipped with a leech. I caught a few perch and rock bass, and then something big hit my line. It was one of those fishing moments when you know something big is on the other end of your line, but almost as fast as you recognize it’s there, it’s bitten through the line and is gone.

I retied with a Bass Pro Shops 1/8 oz. XPS Walleye Angler jig in red/black (one of the spare jigs I had brought with me), put on a new leech and went back to fishing. I caught a few more perch, but no walleye. By this time Don Poage was ready to go ashore so we headed back to his boat lift.
It’s now 8:30 p.m. and the wind is still blowing at 15+ mph out of the north. If it dies down a little I may go out trolling tonight. For now, it’s wait and see.

I decided to go fishing at 9:20 p.m. even though the wind was still blowing at 10-15 mph out of the north. The air temperature was 52 degrees and the water temperature was between 62.4 and 63.0 degrees depending on my location and depth. The sun set tonight at 9:10 p.m., and the moon was 25 percent waning.

I trolled The Alley in 8-10 feet of water using my #9 hot-steel colored Minnow Rap. Right at 10:00 p.m., I hooked a fish and I could tell it was a big fish because it had, as they say, shoulders. As I got it up to the boat I could see it was a good-sized walleye. I netted it and then measured the fish. It was a full 23”. A good fish for this time of year.

I made one more pass but caught no more fish. At 10:45 p.m. I came ashore. By the time I was making my way to the boat lift, the wind had died down to a gentle breeze out of the north at maybe 5 mph. It turned out to be a very nice night on Leech Lake.

I Could Have Been A Surgeon

I Could Have Been A Surgeon

I could have been a surgeon
I have small hands for a man 6 feet one inch tall
But I decided to play sports instead
Baseball, Basketball, Football
I broke every finger on each hand
The ring finger on my left hand has been broken three times
The knuckles on my index and middle fingers on my right hand have been broken
I even managed to break the back of my right hand
I’ve had so many cuts on each hand I can’t even begin to count them
More than fifty stitches criss cross my two hands
I could have been a surgeon

July 16, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

According to the online weather reports I saw yesterday the wind was supposed to subside after midnight and be no more than 5-8 mph this morning. Well, the reports were wrong.

At 10:00 a.m., the wind is out of the WNW at 20-25 mph, with gusts as strong as 30+ mph, there are white caps on the lake, the sky is gray and the temperature is 49 degrees! Is this really mid-July? I had to shut all of the windows in the house and turn on the furnace because the temperature inside the house was down to 60 degrees. At least the furnace worked, thank God.

As of now, there is no way I'd go fishing. I may even need to get a fire going in the fireplace. Yesterday when I visited the Malays they had a fire going in their fireplace. We laughed that it was another perfect summer day in Northern Minnesota.

I told the Malays that in California earlier in the week the temperature was in the 90s. It just doesn't seem possible it could be that hot anywhere when the temperature is so cool here at Leech Lake.

Throughout the day the wind refused to die down. Finally at 7:00 p.m. the wind did slow down. But as a long-time observer of the third biggest lake in Minnesota, I knew that a lull in the wind often means that the wind is simply changing direction.

Sure enough, by 8:00 p.m. the wind had shifted to the NW and was blowing at least 20 mph, with gusts pushing 30 mph.

There was no way I was going out fishing tonight, and with the temperature dropping to near 50 degrees, I decided to light the fire in the fireplace that Rick had built way back during his stay at the end of May. And Rick, in your honor, I decided to play nothing but Canterbury music tonight. Here’s the play list from this evening:

Caravan – In The Land of Grey and Pink
Matching Mole – Matching Mole
Hatfield And The North – Hatfield And The North
Gong – Radio Gnome Invisible Part 1, The Flying Teapot
Daevid Allen – Banana Moon
Steve Hillage – Fish Rising
Robert Wyatt -- Rock Bottom

Until tomorrow, good night from Leech Lake.

July 15, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

The wooden dock extension before I applied the water sealant.

This morning at 9:00 a.m. the temperature was 54 degrees, the sky was gray, the threat of rain was present in the wind, which was blowing hard at 17-25 mph out of the west. The lake was covered in waves and white caps, and I couldn't see any boats out on Sucker Bay.

As the day progressed, the sky remained gray, although it still hasn't rained, and the wind continued to blow at near 20 mph out of the west, with gusts well over 25 mph. It was actually kind of nice to be outside in the wind. The temperature warmed to 62 degrees, but with the wind blowing so hard it felt much cooler. It reminded me of a gray late-September day.

After lunch I went next door to the cabin and applied a water sealant to the wooden dock extension (photo above). I had enough sealant to cover the top of the dock extension, and some of the sides, but ran out before I could complete the entire project. The next time I go into town I'll have to pick some up at the hardware store.

I got a call from Tom and Lainey Malay this evening about 5:30 p.m. Tom asked me if I wanted to stop by to fill them in on the status of the water level issue on Leech Lake. I got on the ATV and rode down to the Malay's house.

I filled them in on my conversations with the Ottertail Peninsula Township board, the Leech Lake Association and the Army Corps of Engineers. Lainey filled me in on some of her health issues and the fact that she is going to Bemidji Hospital tomorrow to have an electric shock to her heart in an attempt to get its rhythm back to normal.

I hung out at the Malay's for about an hour, and I was leaving Lainey gave me some leftover casserole she had made for dinner last night. I brought it home and ate that for dinner tonight. It was tasty and it was very nice of her to give it to me.

At 9:30 p.m. this evening the wind was still blowing at 15 mph out of the west and while the waves had subsided somewhat, I still decided it was too rough to go out trolling for walleye tonight. So unfortunately, I did not go out fishing today on Leech Lake.

July 14, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

The temperature at 9:00 a.m. this morning was 62 degrees, the sky was overcast and gray and it looked like it might rain. The wind was out of the SE at 8-12 mph. The forecast for the rest of the day calls for the winds to pick up to around 20 mph out of the SE by 1:00 p.m., a high temperature of 68 degrees and a 60 percent of thunderstorms, possibly severe, starting around 4:00 p.m.

I've got a few things to do around the house this morning, but I'm hoping to get out on the water for some fishing by 11:30 a.m. With the wind out of the SE, I should be able to get the boat off the lift, and then back on again, with little difficulty. Then once on the water, I'll deploy the drift sock to control my drift in the wind.

Later this evening I'm going to go over to my neighbor's (John Newman) house for dinner and to watch the Major League Baseball All-Star Game which is being played in St. Louis this year.

Noel Hancock and Jerry Schiebe stopped by at 11:15 a.m. to continue the discussion about the Army Corps of Engineers plan to lower the water levels in Leech Lake. While we were talking I received a phone call from Dave Laursen, secretary of the Leech Lake Association (LLA), and he filled me in on the discussion that took place at the LLA meeting last evening.

Dave said that the representative from the Corps of Engineers was at the meeting and stated that all public comment was closed as of November 3, 2008. The representative added that nearly all public comments on the proposal were negative, and that at this time the plan was "being reviewed, but on hold."

After discussing the matter with Dave we agreed that I would contact Steve Clark, the project manager for the ROPE/DEIS at the Army Corps of Engineers, to determine the current status of the proposal. I would then report back to the LLA as well as the Ottertail Peninsula Township board.

Ironically, during my meeting with Noel and Jerry, and my phone call with Dave, it was raining very hard, putting much needed water back into the lake.

After Noel and Jerry left, I put a call into Steve Clark, project manager for the Mississippi River Headwaters ROPE/DEIS. Clark answered on the first ring of his phone and after my introduction I asked him the status of the project. I was told that the project is being revised and that the revised proposal will be released to the public in early August.

Once the proposal is public, the Army Corps of Engineers will take comments for 30 days. Clark told me that the original proposal was met with such violent opposition that the Corps of Engineers decided to drop its plans for an early-summer draw down of the lakes in question. One thing that remained in the plan, however, was the increase in the minimum flow out of the dam for Leech Lake -- from 100 cfs to 120 cfs.

Clark tried to down play the minimum flow increase saying that on a lake as big as Leech Lake the increase in flow would amount to no more than a day's worth of evaporation. I pointed out to Clark that if you take into a account that the average evaporation out of Leech Lake on a hot August day is roughly 1/4", and add to that the 1/4" that the increase minimum flow from the dam would take out of the lake, you end up with a total decrease of 1/2" of water per day. Over a two week period that's 7", which is by no means insignificant.

Despite my efforts, Clark remained committed to the newly revised plan, including the provision for the increase minimum flow out of Leech Lake. I told Clark that he could likely expect opposition from the Leech Lake Association, the Leech Lake Band of Objiwe and various area townships around the issue of the proposed increase in minimum flow. His response was that the public is free to submit any comments to the Corps of Engineers once the ROPE is distributed publicly.

After my discussion with Clark, I called the Dave Laursen of the LLA and my Ottertail Peninsula Township board representative Jerry Schiebe to give them the new information. I was surprised that the LLA was not aware of the plan to increase the minimum flow out of Leech Lake. Apparently the Army Corps of Engineers representative who attends the monthly LLA meetings had failed to mention that element of the proposal for nearly a year now.

The LLA will take up the issue again as soon as the revised plan becomes publicly available in early August. In addition, the Ottertail Peninsula Township board will also oppose the new Corps plan and will attend the LLA meeting in August to lend its support in opposition to the plan.

After finishing my work to keep the water levels stable in Leech Lake, I decided to go out onto the large body of water to do some fishing.

Despite gray skies and a slight rain, I left the boat lift at 1:30 p.m. and took the boat out into 12 feet of water in front of our house and put out the drift sock. Near shore the effects of the 15-20 mph SSE winds aren't felt much, but out on the water the wind produced some sizable waves and was pushing the boat along at .75 mph ground speed, even with the drift sock deployed. The water temperature had cooled to 69.7 degrees.

All of my fathead minnows had perished, so I was using a 1/8 oz. Lindy Max-Gap jig tipped with a Northland Slurpies Swin'N Grub. I caught a couple of nice sized perch, including a solid 12" jumbo; all fish went back into the lake.

As I fished, the rain continued to fall harder and harder until there was a virtual downpour. There were also some flashes of lightening off in the distance accompanied by some rumbling thunder, but it was the lack of catching fish that ultimately got me off the lake. I came ashore around 2:45 p.m.

This evening I went over to John's house for a dinner of beer-can chicken, fried potatoes and green beans. Then we watched the MLB All-Star Game, won by the American League 4-3. Curtis Granderson of the Detroit Tigers scored the winning run.

The rain and wind, as well as the All-Star Game, kept me off of Leech Lake tonight. But I hope to get out for some fishing tomorrow, both during the day and for an evening troll.

July 13, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

The temperature at 9:00 a.m. was 66 degrees on a way to a high of 74 degrees. The water temperature had warmed to 72 degrees. The wind initially was out of the north at 8-12 mph, but shifted just after noon to the south at 5-8 mph. The skies fluctuated throughout the day from sunny to cloudy to hazy back to sunny.

At 2:00 p.m. I went out fishing with John Newman. We tried a few spots he knew of -- where earlier in the day he had caught three keeper-sized perch and a 17 3/4" walleye -- but we only caught some small perch.

We moved to a couple of spots I knew of, but again, caught only some small perch. I was using a Fire-Ball jig tipped with Leech Lake minnows (which John had caught while seining at the bottom of my boat ramp) and John was using a "beetle spin" like jig with no minnow. Neither approach seemed to be very effective today.

At 4:00 p.m. we had to come ashore because John was expecting a visit from an excavating company from Federal Dam which was coming out to assess some work John is contemplating for his harbor.

Tonight I went to the Ottertail Peninsula Community Center at 7:00 p.m. to speak to the Ottertail Peninsula Township board about the issue of water level in Leech Lake and the Army Corps of Engineers' plan to lower it. I stated my case and asked the board to join forces with the Leech Lake Association (LLA) and other area township boards in opposition to the Army Corps of Engineers plan. They agreed to do so.

The next steps are that I am going to contact the LLA (which has more "clout" that our township board, according to our township board) to determine its position on the issue and what, if anything, they plan to do about the Corps' plan.

If the LLA is opposed to the proposed drop in the water level in Leech Lake, which I know they will be, I will inform them that the Ottertail Peninsula Township will join them in their opposition, including any formal documentation or communication that would be sent to the St. Paul and Washington D.C. offices of the Army Corps of Engineers.

After performing my civic duty for the day, I came home and got ready for a night of trolling for walleye.

I pushed off my boat lift at 9:15 p.m. and made my way to 10 feet of water to begin trolling my hot steel colored #9 Minnow Rap. The wind this evening was slight, at 5 mph out of the south. The water temperature was 73 degrees, and the air temperature had dropped to the high 50s. The mosquitoes were out in full force.

There was an interesting sunset tonight. To the south of the setting sun the sky was slate gray. To the north of the sun the sky was bright pink. As the sun sank lower into the western sky, the sky over the lake split in two -- the southern half gray the northern half pink. Which reminded me of one of my favorite albums In The Land of Grey and Pink by Caravan.

Just before 10:00 p.m. I caught a beautiful 23" walleye, and it put up quite a fight. That would turn out to be the only walleye I would catch tonight, although I did catch a tiny rock bass (that was for you Rick).

I came ashore at 11:00 p.m. It was another peaceful night on Leech Lake.