July 21, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

Today we woke up to the remnants of a late-night/early-morning rain. The ground was wet, the back deck was wet, the dock was wet, yet the sun was shining and there were only a few fluffy white clouds in the sky.

The temperature by 10:00 a.m. was 68 degrees on its way to a high of roughly 74 degrees. The wind was light at 7-10 mph out of the SSW, the water temperature was 67 degrees and today was a new moon.

Elizabeth, Ashley and I went fishing this afternoon at 1:15 p.m. We took advantage of the light wind and drifted in 10-14 feet of water from in front of our house to in front of Norm's cabin. We were using jigs tipped with leeches and caught a few perch and rock bass, and I caught a small walleye, maybe 12" long.

Then about 3:45 p.m., I could tell that the storm we'd been keeping an eye on all afternoon was getting too close for comfort. I told the girls to reel their lines in and get their things put away because we were going to have to make a quick run back to the boat lift if we wanted to avoid getting caught in the storm.

My timing was off by about 1 minute because we were on the lake as the rain came upon us and the wind whipped up. I was, however, able to safely get the boat on the lift and everyone inside before the worst of the storm hit. Within an hour, the storm had passed, the sky cleared, the wind died down and it turned out to be a beautiful late afternoon, evening and night.

After a very tasty BBQ rib dinner, complete with salad, corn-on-the-cob, and french fries, we decided to go fishing. We got out onto the water a little earlier than usual, at 8:45 p.m., so we could watch the sunset while on the lake.

It was a nice sunset, but nothing as spectacular as some of the sunsets we've seen on Leech Lake. Of course we weren't on the water just to enjoy nature, we were also out there trolling for walleye.

We trolled The Alley in 8-10 feet of water using #9 Minnow Raps. Liz and I each caught a couple of rock bass, Liz caught a very nice 22" northern pike, and I caught a 19" and a very hefty 25" walleye.

After I hooked the big 25-incher, I had Ashley reel it in for me. She said it wasn't that hard to do until the big fish got close to the boat and decided to make a run for it. But Ashley played the fish perfectly and I was able to net it.

I have to say it was probably the biggest walleye I've boated this summer. Not only was it all of 25", but it was extremely fat. I bet that fish weighed at least 8 pounds if not more.

We caught that big fish right off Second Duck Point so we decided to troll home from there and call it a night. We didn't catch anything else on our way back to the boat lift.

Maybe it was the new moon or the stable weather after the earlier storm, or maybe it I just put us right on the fish tonight, but whatever it was, tonight was our best night of fishing since the girls arrived. We had a wonderful night on Leech Lake.