July 17, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

It's another beautiful mid-summer day here at Leech Lake. At 10:00 a.m. the temperature is 50 degrees, the sky is gray, overcast and spitting rain, and the wind is 12-20 mph out of the NNW churning up the lake and covering it with white caps.

It is the wrong week to be at the lake if you were looking to do some swimming, tubing, water skiing, or any other activity that is enhanced by warm sunny weather.

The hour-by-hour weather report calls for the wind to die down -- to around 8 mph out of the NW -- by 9:00 p.m this evening. If that is indeed the case, then I will have the opportunity to go out trolling for walleye.

Update: It's now 2:00 p.m. and the wind is still strong at 15+ mph from the NW, the sky is still gray with occasional light rain, and the temperature is 52 degrees.

I saw two boats out on the water earlier, both from Birch Ridge Resort. They were probably vacationers and today is their last day at the resort so they were determined to go fishing regardless of the conditions. The guys in the boat were bundled up in warm rain gear and from the little I watched them through the binoculars, no one watching catching any fish. I do admire their determination, however.

About 5:00 p.m. I was coming back from taking the garbage to the waste bins at the community center when I saw Don Poage and his son-in-law Marty. They asked if I wanted to join them on the lake for some fishing. I said sure, grabbed my rod/reel, some extra jigs (which would come in handy), and a cooler with some drinks.

We left Poage's boat lift at 5:20 p.m. and motored out to 14 feet of water. The water temperature according to Poage's electronics had dropped to 63.4 degrees. The wind was still out of the NW at 8-15 mph and the air temperature was 56 degrees.

I was using a Fire-Ball jig tipped with a leech. I caught a few perch and rock bass, and then something big hit my line. It was one of those fishing moments when you know something big is on the other end of your line, but almost as fast as you recognize it’s there, it’s bitten through the line and is gone.

I retied with a Bass Pro Shops 1/8 oz. XPS Walleye Angler jig in red/black (one of the spare jigs I had brought with me), put on a new leech and went back to fishing. I caught a few more perch, but no walleye. By this time Don Poage was ready to go ashore so we headed back to his boat lift.
It’s now 8:30 p.m. and the wind is still blowing at 15+ mph out of the north. If it dies down a little I may go out trolling tonight. For now, it’s wait and see.

I decided to go fishing at 9:20 p.m. even though the wind was still blowing at 10-15 mph out of the north. The air temperature was 52 degrees and the water temperature was between 62.4 and 63.0 degrees depending on my location and depth. The sun set tonight at 9:10 p.m., and the moon was 25 percent waning.

I trolled The Alley in 8-10 feet of water using my #9 hot-steel colored Minnow Rap. Right at 10:00 p.m., I hooked a fish and I could tell it was a big fish because it had, as they say, shoulders. As I got it up to the boat I could see it was a good-sized walleye. I netted it and then measured the fish. It was a full 23”. A good fish for this time of year.

I made one more pass but caught no more fish. At 10:45 p.m. I came ashore. By the time I was making my way to the boat lift, the wind had died down to a gentle breeze out of the north at maybe 5 mph. It turned out to be a very nice night on Leech Lake.