July 20, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

This morning at 9:00 a.m. the temperature was 66 degrees, the sky was overcast and gray, a light, but steady, rain was falling and the wind was out of the SSW at 5-8 mph.

The rain finally stopped at about 11:30 a.m. and slowly the clouds began to dissipate and blue sky began to emerge. By early afternoon it was sunny and humid, although the temperature never went beyond 74 degrees.

I had some business to attend to that kept me busy until after 1:00 p.m. Earlier in the day I had made arrangements to go into Bemidji to have the truck serviced, so that's what we did this afternoon.

Liz, Ashley and I left for town around 2:30 p.m. and as we made our way up Sucker Bay Road the sky began to cloud over and by the time we hit Cass Lake the rain had once again begun to fall.

While the truck was being worked on, the three of us walked around down town Bemidji. At 5:00 p.m., the truck was ready to pick up. After getting the truck we made a quick stop at Target and then drove back to the lake.

The entire time we were in Bemidji and the entire trip home the rain continued to fall. Finally around 7:30 p.m. the rain stopped, although the sky remained cloudy. We decided to go fishing at 9:00 p.m., despite the possibility of rain, and made our way over to the boat lift.

Once on the water we trolled The Alley in 8-10 feet of water. The water temperature was 66 degrees, the air temperature was near 60 degrees, the wind was at 5-8 mph out of the SSW and the moon was 3 percent waning; almost a new moon.

We made several passes, but with the exception of one rock bass, we caught nothing. I don't know what's going on, but ever since Liz and Ashley have been here the fishing has shut down completely. I was catching fish regularly until the past few days. The weather should be OK tomorrow, so I'm sure we'll try once again.

Despite the lack of catching fish, we had an enjoyable time on the lake this evening, and I'm sure that tomorrow we'll once again enjoy being out on the waters of Leech Lake.