More On Leech Lake's Great Walleye Fishing

In 48 hours I'll be on a plane on my way to the Bemidji airport. From there, I'll pick up my boat and drive to our cabin on the Sucker Bay of Leech Lake. Then on Wednesday I'll put my boat in the water, and by that evening I hope to be able to post my own report on the walleye fishing at Leech Lake.

Until then, here's another report on the resurgence of Leech Lake's walleye population.

This is from TwinCities.com, the St. Paul Pioneer Press

Landing a Leech Lake lode

The walleye — and the anglers — are returning to this largely undeveloped north-central Minnesota area, where one guide says the fishing is the best it's been in years.
By Chris Niskanen

WALKER, Minn. — Even after 35 years, Jeff Woodruff hasn't lost the thrill of hooking the Minnesota state fish.

Sure, the walleye isn't a super-charged fighter like a bass, but Woodruff lives on Leech Lake, one of the finest walleye lakes in Minnesota. He may have guided his first clients in the 1970s, but Woodruff still couldn't suppress a giggle Monday when he felt a jolt at the end of his line.

"That fish just hammered that jig," Woodruff, 62, cried out, as he simultaneously reached to grab the landing net.

"He just choked on it. It is one of those good-sized ones, maybe too big to eat," he gushed.

Woodruff has a sweet swing with a landing net, like Joe Mauer belting a double up the middle, and with a flash of the nylon-webbed scooper, Woodruff had the flailing Leech Lake walleye in the boat. With a weather-cracked hand, Woodruff pinned the walleye against a metal ruler and eyeballed a piece of black tape set at 18 inches.

The fish's tail failed to touch the tape.

"Nope, that's a keeper," he said with satisfaction.

The walleye made a loud bonking sound when it hit the inside of the livewell.

PRETTY, UNCROWDED

Woodruff has seen tornadoes suck water out of Leech Lake. He's guided the wealthy and powerful. He has landed a 55-inch muskie. But it has been years since he has seen such good walleye fishing on this north-central Minnesota lake.

"We had no trouble catching a limit on the opener," Woodruff said. "A lot of guys had a limit by 10 o'clock."

With the feds continuing to control the lake's cormorant population and the Department of Natural Resources entering its fifth year of walleye restocking, Leech Lake is getting a helping hand.

I've been following the Leech Lake walleye resurgence for the past three years, so once again I marked my calendar to fish the lake on the Monday after the opener. Last year, on the same day, local bait shop owner Jack Shriver Jr. and I had fabulous walleye fishing, boating dozens of fish, so I wanted to see if I could duplicate our success.

When Woodruff and I sped out of the public landing Monday morning, headed for Star Point, it was no secret the fish were biting. Even on a weekday, more than a dozen boats drifted lazily across Star Point's shallows, with landing nets popping out of their holders with regularity.

Woodruff grew up in nearby Hackensack, the son of a lumberjack. He headed to the Twin Cities to find his fortune, but grew tired of the bustling city life and came back to Leech Lake 20 years ago when he landed a job as a fish-house operator.

Last year, he had 91 guide trips on Leech Lake and enjoyed all of them. In addition to its superior fishing, Leech Lake has another advantage, he said: miles of undeveloped shoreline. The place is just easy on the eyes, he said.

"Just look at this," Woodruff said, waving to an unending stretch of woods and wetlands. "Leech Lake is just a pretty place, with all these undeveloped points. In the fall, you can sit out here and practically watch the leaves change color. The lake's big enough, you don't ever have to sit in a crowd of boats."

HIGHS, LOWS

Woodruff almost didn't live long enough to see the walleye rebound.

A few years ago, he was driving down Woodtick Trail during the muzzleloader deer season when he had a stroke. When he finally made it out of the hospital and into physical therapy, the best he could hope for was to get around with the aid of a walker. Fishing from a boat — much less loading or unloading a trailer — was out of the question.

But there he is today, running his boat up and down the ramp and beating the waves for walleyes. His special gift, he said, is the chance to fish with his 13-year-old grandson, Ian, in a walleye-fishing tournament at the end of this month.

"That's the real bonus," he said.

Ian has learned a lot about his grandpa's fishing life because Woodruff sat down one day and wrote a 30-page book of fishing stories and gave it to the boy. Every so often, the boy calls Woodruff on the phone and asks, "Did that really happen, Grandpa?"

Woodruff has to answer "yes" every time, even to the infamous moment his dangling cigarette burned through the fishing line of a client trying to land an 8-pound walleye.

"Most embarrassing moment of my career," Woodruff said.

FISH R BITING

Possessing a GPS-like mind for Leech Lake's structure, Woodruff wasn't satisfied when things slowed on Star Point. "Let's reel up and try a new spot," he said.

Wind is a critical element of successful walleye fishing on Leech Lake, and a calm day can kill a good bite, so we kept our eyes on the sky, praying a few small storm cells would keep the water frothy and the walleyes biting.

When the walleyes weren't snapping at our rainbow dace minnows and spot-tailed shiners, the perch were hammering our baits. Some were small, but others were 9-inch keepers and a few were nearly a foot long. We were filling the livewell with yellow-flanked perch, in addition to keeper walleyes.

Regulations require anglers to throw back Leech Lake walleyes between 18 and 26 inches, and before long, we both had landed and released several walleyes over 20 inches.
One swam up to the edge of the boat and nailed my minnow as it drifted just below the surface. "Now that's a hungry walleye," Woodruff said.

He said he's satisfied the extra regulations are helping protect the lake's walleyes.

"You're able to keep about half of what you catch, which is good. When you got people paying you to take them fishing, you like to get a meal, too."

Fishing still sustains communities like Walker, even if the resort industry is about one-third the size it used to be. "I remember when there were 74 resorts on the lake, and in the chamber of commerce book this year, there are 23," Woodruff said. "Every year, we seem to lose a few more."

Resorts might succumb to the changing whims of vacationers and rising property values, but walleyes are still a draw on Leech Lake. We outraced a storm to the dock, having landed 15 walleyes, and kept a half-dozen "eaters" and a dozen fat perch.

The fishermen are returning, and Woodruff likes what he sees.

"On Sunday, the white spray was coming from all directions as boats headed back to shore and guys headed back to the city. It's good to see it again," he said.

Woodruff can be reached at 218-547-1405. His Web site is fishrbiting.com.

LEECH LAKE FISHERY AT A GLANCE

State and federal officials are taking a multipronged approached to restoring Leech Lake's walleye fishery.

Federal officials are continuing to cull double-crested cormorants from the lake, in hopes of reducing the population to 500 nesting pairs or about 1,000 individuals. This spring, there were 3,000 individual birds. It is the fifth year of such culling. Experts believe the birds eat not only walleyes but also young perch that are the mainstay of walleye diets.

This week, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources again will stock millions of fry into the lake, the fifth consecutive year of the stocking effort. The stocking continues next year, after which the agency will evaluate the effort. Managers want the lake to have self-sustaining walleye populations, as in the past.

DNR regional fisheries manager Henry Drewes said researchers may never know why Leech Lake's walleye population began to plummet in the early 1990s. He said the most important thing is that yellow perch and walleyes are recovering with cormorant numbers under control.