May 24, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

The high temperature today was 70 degrees and the low was 44. It was partly cloudy and the winds varied from calm to 8 mph out of the south. The water temperature had warmed to 62 degrees.

At noon, I took my sister-in-law Barb and her son Sean out fishing. We decided to use jigs and live emerald shiners as we drifted around Second Duck Point. As I reported in past posts on this blog, newspapers in Minnesota, and elsewhere in the Midwest, have been writing stories about how "Leech Lake is back," and that if you want great walleye fishing "go to Leech Lake."

Obviously lots of people read those stories and acted upon them because as I piloted my boat to Second Duck Point we were surrounding by no less than 30 other boats. Undeterred, Barb, Sean and I put shiners on our jigs and got down to some walleye fishing.

We all caught a few perch, but no walleye. By 1:30 p.m. we decided to leave the crowded point and go back to the cabin for some lunch.

At 3:15 p.m. in the afternoon, we decided to once again try our luck drifting Second Duck Point with jigs and shiners. This time we were more successful. Or to be more specific, Barb was more successful. She caught a 12" and 14" walleye, both of which were released. Barb couldn't remember the last time she'd caught a walleye, so she was very satisfied with the outing. At 4:45 p.m. we headed to shore to get dinner going.

Later in the evening, just around 9:00 p.m., under a new moon, I took Sean out trolling for walleye -- our third fishing trip of the day. I used a #9 Minnow Rap in "bleeding hot olive" color and Sean used a perch colored Wally Diver. During the next two hours we trolled from a spot between Duck Point and Second Duck Point to the south, north to past the Malay's cabin in 8-12 feet of water.

Sean caught a 14" and a 15" walleye, and I caught five walleyes measuring 14", 16", 17", 18" and 20". All but the 17" walleye were released. I added the 17" walleye to the 17 1/2" walleye I'd caught a few days ago in the fish basket (which is kept off the end of the dock in the lake). I'll clean the two fish tomorrow and make sure that Barb and Sean leave here with enough walleye fillets for a nice dinner.

Another great day of fishing on Leech Lake.