July 5, 2008

John Newman and I hit the water around 11:30 a.m. this morning under mostly sunny skies and a temperature already at 80 degrees. The winds were light and the water had warmed slightly to 73 degrees.

John and I spent most of the time talking and enjoying a cold malted beverage or two, but we did manage to get some fishing in as well. We trolled our usual route from Second Duck Point north to just past the Malays. I was using my jointed-Shad Rap in the perch color, the same lure I had used on July 4, and John opted for a similar Rapala lure.

We caught numerous perch, too many to count really, and I caught one gigantic jumbo perch, which I kept. It was almost the size of a small walleye.

We didn't stay out on the water long because John had some friends coming over to visit, so we headed for land just after 1:00 p.m.

Later than evening, Joe and I decided to do some trolling for walleye. Under a 10% waxing moon, we hit the water at 8:00 p.m. I switched lures from the jointed-Shad Rap to the Minnow Rap in hot-steel color. Joe was using his favorite purpledescent Minnow Rap. We started by trolling south past Second Duck Point, before making a slow sweeping turn out into Leech Lake to head north past Malays cabin.

In the two hours on the water, Joe caught two smallish walleyes, both under 16" and that's just too small for us to keep, and a beautiful 24 1/2" eyeball, which of course was released.

I caught an 18" walleye, which is in the slot so it went back into the lake, and a 17" beauty that we kept. I figured that between the walleye and the jumbo perch I caught earlier in the day, Kathleen, Joe and I would have enough meat for a very nice fish fry. We'll do that tomorrow for dinner.