My Top 5 Leech Lake Fishing Experiences (so far)

In July 2006, Kathleen and I celebrated our fifth year of having a cabin on Leech Lake. We've had countless memorable experiences during that time, in all seasons. But since I have a special affinity for fishing, I thought I'd take a look back at my top 5 most memorable fishing moments during the past 5+ years. So in reverse order, here we go:

#5: I've known my friend Rick since high school. He was the best man at my wedding. So for his birthday in 2003 I decided that there was no better way to celebrate it than on the water hunting big muskies. I took no chances and hired famed Leech Lake guide Al Maas to lead the expedition. At approximately 10:30 a.m. on a clear, sunny September day with just the hint of a breeze, Rick hooked into his first-ever muskie; a fantastic 50 1/2" horse. Check the February, 2005 archives for a picture of this beautiful fish.

#4: My son Joe and I have enjoyed many fishing trips on Leech Lake -- hot summer mornings fishing for bass, cool autumn evenings trolling for walleyes, and many days on the ice hooking jumbo perch. But in May 2003, just after walleye opener, we had a particularly memorable fishing experience. I had read that casting crank baits and jerk baits in shallow water just after dark was a good way to target post-spawn 'eyes. On this evening, Joe and I decided to venture no further than the end of our dock to try our luck. We both were casting Rapala Husky Jerks (Joe was using the jointed model) and we absolutely nailed some big fish. We both caught our limit of beautiful walleyes in the span of no more than 45 minutes! We kept only two eater sized fish, which we did indeed eat. There's nothing better than freshly caught walleyes for dinner.

#3: I've often written here about my good friend and neighbor Tom Maley. It was with Tom and his son Sean that I had one of my two most memorable ice fishing experiences. It was Easter Sunday 2004, and we made it out onto the lake a little past noon. The weather was perfect -- sunny, temps near 40 degrees, no wind. Just the same, we set up Tom's portable fish house and went to work. It was one of those bites that you have maybe once or twice per season if you're lucky. Between the three of us, we must have caught several hundred jumbo perch. Each of us hooked into several perch weighing more than a pound. Sean caught a 1.4 pounder, and Tom caught a beauty that was 14 inches long. We kept 15-20 of the medium-sized fish and had a wonderful perch dinner to celebrate Easter.

#2: My second most memorable fishing experience on Leech Lake happened just a month ago, the winter of 2007. I won't go into detail here, but rather direct you to my March 1, 2007 post.

#1: My number one fishing memory occurred in mid-July 2004. I have always enjoyed the outstanding bass fishing on the lake -- an often overlooked species on Leech Lake -- and one of my favorite ways of pursuing the bucketmouth is using a Texas-rigged, unweighted 5" Senko on spinning gear spooled with braided line. With this set up, I began fishing a patch of reeds on the east side of Sucker Bay. After a number of casts I caught my first bass, a nice 2 1/2 pounder. On my very next cast I had another strike. This fish mangled my Senko pretty bad so I replaced it, and cast the new lure back into the reeds. Right away another strike. After 10 casts I had hooked 10 nice bass. I couldn't believe it, 10 for 10. But my luck didn't stop there. Fifteen casts, 15 fish. My amazing streak ran to 21 bass on 21 consectutive casts before I finally cast and didn't hook a fish. I was actually laughing out loud at this point. I had never had such a run with any type of fishing, let alone big bass. And to this day, I've never had this type of run on the open water. That's why this particular angling experience is my most memorable.

Hot Ice Action

The ice fishing action on Leech Lake's Sucker Bay was 'hot' during the final 10 days of February. My son Joe and I spent President's Day week ice angling for jumbo perch and we were not disappointed.

As usual, I was fortunate enough to be in the company of my neighbors and good friends Tom Malay and John Newman. We fished primarily two spots: in front of Newman's house and at "The Birches." See my July 13, 2006 entry for more on "The Birches."

The fishing in front of the Newman's was slow and produced relatively small perch; hardly a keeper among the fish caught. But when we moved John's fish house (see picture below) to "The Birches," the entire situation changed dramatically for the better.

On Wednesday, February 21, Joe and I fished from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. CT and caught in excess of 200 jumbo perch!! As fast as we could put our fathead minnows on our lures and drop them into the holes in the ice, we were hooking fish. The action was so fast and furious that at one point Joe quipped, "I wish they'd stop biting for just a minute so I could get something to drink."

We were using fairly standard ice fishing lures. Joe was using a Lindy 1/16 oz. Techni-Glo Frostee Jigging Spoon in glow red, while I was using a Northland Eye-Dropper jig in a golden perch color. Both lures were baited with the common fathead minnow, which we purchased at Froggy's Sports in Cass Lake, MN. We bought four scoops of minnows (and for those you familiar with the area, the scoops at Froggy's are twice the size you used to get at Leroy's Minnows) and we still nearly ran out of bait during the week.

Despite the enormous amount of perch we caught, Joe and I kept only 8 fish (see picture above), just enough for a hearty meal. As I've written here before, there is nothing better than a meal of fish caught, cleaned and cooked within a matter of hours. And when those fish come through the ice, they somehow taste even better.

In addition to the perch, we also hooked our fair share of northerns and one 5-6 lb. eel pout.

All in all, another fantastic ice-angling adventure on Leech Lake.