October 11, 2008 on Leech Lake

Today was another cold, grey and rainy day. The temperature was 52 degrees, the wind was out of the NW at 5-8 mph and the water temperature was 51.5 degrees.

I put my aerated bucket of fathead minnows in the boat and shoved off from the boat lift at 1:00 p.m. under completely grey skies and a light rain. I decided that rather than heading north to the Birches, that I was start my drift at Second Duck Point in 8-12 feet of water.

I tipped my 1/8 oz. Northland spinner/jig with a fathead and got down to business. For the next 2 1/2 hours I caught several good-sized perch, but decided to put all of them back into Leech Lake.

At 3:15 p.m. the wind started to pick up and I saw lightening over the north end of Sucker Bay. I decided that staying on the water with lightening that close was foolish, so I fired up my Mercury Verado, put the big 150hp motor in gear and quickly made it back to the boat lift. No sooner had I come ashore than lightening was striking all over Sucker Bay, many bolts right where I had been fishing just minutes ago.

I made the short walk from the cabin to the house and in that brief time the storm had moved directly overhead. First it began to rain very hard, then the storm started to pelt us with heavy hail. About 20 minutes into the storm the power went out. This created a bit of concern for all of us residents on the Peninsula because tonight is the night of the annual Otter Tail Peninsula Association potluck dinner at the Community Center. Without power, none of us would be able to prepare the food that we had planned to bring to the potluck.

As the afternoon turned into evening, and without power, phone calls were made to the Association President, VP and Secretary to find out if the potluck was a 'go' or not. Around 5:30 p.m., just a half hour before the scheduled start of the potluck, word was sent out that the event would be postponed until tomorrow 1 p.m.

Kathleen and I settled in front of a roaring fire in the living room to stay warm -- the outside temperature was now in the 40s -- and listened to A Prairie Home Companion on the portable radio.

Finally around 9:30 p.m. the power was restored.

Just another interesting day on Leech Lake, where the weather is an important part of every day.