July 12, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

This morning at 9:00 a.m. the temperature was only 58 degrees on a way to a high of 71 degrees. The sky was mostly sunny, the wind was out of the north at 8-12 mph and the water temperature was 70.8 degrees.

Last night I caught a 17 1/2" walleye and I plan to clean and cook for dinner tonight. I asked John Newman to join me. When I prepare a Leech Lake fish fry I like to serve french fries and cole slaw along with the fish. I had neither side dish at home, so just after noon I drove into Cass Lake to the grocery store to pick up the few items I needed for dinner.

Once home, I decided to go fishing. I was out on the water by 2:15 p.m. and returned to shore at 3:45 p.m. My relatively short 1 1/2 hour trip was due primarily to the lack of fish I was catching. I was using both nightcrawlers and fathead minnows on the end of my Northland Fire-Ball jig. I was fishing in 10-14 feet of water in front of the Malay's and drifting toward Second Duck Point.

I was able to catch a number of perch, including a very chunky 11 1/4" perch, but I put all of them back into the lake. I caught no walleye.

John stopped by at 5:15 p.m. and we ate our very tasty Leech Lake fish fry dinner about an hour later. John then went home to prep for our evening troll.

At 9:15 p.m. John and I left the boat lift for a night of trolling for walleye on Sucker Bay. As was the case last night, we were both using #9 Minnows Raps tonight. John was using one in a firetiger color and I used my favorite color, hot steel.

We fished in 8-12 feet of water through The Alley, and with the wind still out of the north at 10 mph, I had to rev the Mercury Verado up to 610 rpm when heading into the wind, and took it down to 580 rpm when we were moving with the wind.

Just before 10:00 p.m. I caught a very nice 21" walleye, and a short time later, John caught a 16" walleye, which he kept. We came ashore at 11:15 p.m.

It was beautiful and starry night of walleye fishing on Leech Lake.