October 16, 2008 on Leech Lake -- Pete the Pelican

Kathleen got home from St. Cloud today, but not until later in the afternoon, so I was able to go fishing from 12:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. The temperature today was 52 degrees, it was partly cloudy, the wind was out of the SSE at 5-8 mph and the water temperature was 50 degrees.

I decided to drift using an 1/8 oz. jig/spinner set up tipped with live fathead minnows. I've had the minnows for several days now, and although I keep them in either the live well in the boat, in an aerated bucket on shore, or in the lake itself if the water isn't too rough, the minnows are starting to die off. I figured I better use them up now or they'll be wasted.

With the wind out of the SSE, I started at Second Duck Point in about 8 feet of water and let the breeze push me NW toward our house and cabin, and eventually to the Malay's cabin and Norm's cabin.

I was catching a good amount of decent sized perch when I spotted a large white pelican off in the distance. It looked as if this pelican had spotted me as well and that it was paddling his way toward my boat. I continued to fish and catch perch while keeping my eye on the approaching large aquatic bird.

Finally the pelican had made its way up to the side of my boat, and like a dog begging for a treat, the bird began to open and close its mouth. I figured, "what the heck," and reached into my minnow bucket, fished out a dead minnow and tossed to the pelican. With amazing alacrity, the bird positioned itself to gobble up its tiny fishy treat. And then it wanted more.

The bird followed me for nearly an hour. I tossed it all of my dead minnows, and when I refused to feed it any of my live minnows, the pelican started chasing the perch as I reeled them to the boat. Finding the entire situation amusing, I tossed my hungry new friend a couple of small perch which delighted him no end.

The bird eventually got so bold that when I reeled in a particularly large jumbo perch that he could not grab in the water, the large white pelican jumped up onto the starboard gunwale of my boat and tried to snatch the perch out of my hand as I was unhooking the fish.

At this point the pelican had gone too far. But chasing him away proved to be tougher than I had anticipated. It went unfazed at my yelling, so I was forced to try another way of getting the bird to leave me alone. I decided to try splashing him with water. But being an aquatic bird used to being buffeted about by the large swells of Leech Lake, the pelican was completely unafraid of getting wet. It refused to leave and continued to paddle close behind my boat.

Admitting defeat, I fired up my Mercury Verado 150hp motor and moved to a new location. Rather than give chase, the pesky pelican spotted another boat closer to its current location and swam over to it. Free of my tormentor, I continued to catch a number of perch before making my way to shore.

When I recounted my pelican story with my neighbor Tom Malay, he wasn't a bit surprised. In fact, he told me "that must have been Pete. That bird has been following the fisherman from Birch Ridge Resort for weeks." Tom went on to tell me that Frank, the owner of the resort, had removed numerous hooks from the bird's beak, pouch and neck. It was Frank who named the pelican Pete, and had even gone so far as to feed it fish guts from the fish cleaning house at the resort, thus rendering it somewhat domesticated.

I've spent a lot of time fishing on the waters of Leech Lake, but this was the first time I've ever had a close encounter with a persistent pelican.


"Pete the Pelican" following my boat in search of a meal.