July 29, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

I Leave Leech Lake Today

I woke up the morning to a beautiful day. The temperature by 9:00 a.m. had reached 60 degrees, yes, we're still in July, the sky was clear and mostly sunny and the wind was light at 5-8 mph out of the west.

I would have loved to have had some breakfast then go out fishing, but I've got a million and one things to do to get ready to leave for California later today. So rather than fish, I'm spending my morning working around the house. I am allowing myself a little break to have some coffee out on the back deck and to post to the blog.

After many, many chores, I took a break to do some fishing -- couldn't help it. I snuck out onto the lake from 11:00 a.m. to 12:10 p.m. Not a long time, but enough for one last excursion for some walleye.

I motored out to 14 feet of water and deployed the drift sock. As the morning had progressed, the sky had begun to cloud over and the wind picked up. By the time I started fishing it was blowing at 12-15 mph out of the WNW.

I was using a Lindy Max Gap jig tipped with a Northland Slurpie Grub and managed to catch a couple of medium-sized perch and three northern pike. The first pike spit the jig just as I put my hand on him to lift him out of the water. That was fine with me, I don't like northern slime in my boat anyway.

The second northern got close to the boat before making a mad run for it and snapping my line. I decided to tie on another jig and get back to fishing. The third pike I caught got right up next to he boat, like the first fish had, but unlike the first pike I caught this one made a contorted twist as I was reaching for him and snapped the line.

I had a decision to make, go in or tie on another jig. I tied on another jig.

Despite several bites, I never did hook another fish. So just after noon I came ashore.

I finished up some more chores, took the garbage down to the bins at the community center, came home, took a shower, had some lunch and finished updating the blog.

This will be my last "At Leech Lake" entry for a while. I will be posting to this blog periodically, so do check back. I will have a review of the equipment I was using here at the lake, I'll post some photos from my stay, and I will surely have updates (as they happen) with regard to the Army Corps of Engineers and its desire to lower the water level on Leech Lake.

So until sometime in September (hopefully) I'll be signing off from Leech Lake.