July 3, 2009 -- At Leech Lake; 300th Post

I started this blog on February 20, 2005 to share my fishing experiences from Minnesota's Leech Lake with anyone who might be interested. Over the past 4 1/2 years, this blog has evolved to include my musings and observations about fishing, Leech Lake and life in general.

But at its core, this blog is still about fishing on Leech Lake. And today, before I drive down to St. Cloud to visit my mother-in-law Marge, I will make a point to get out on the lake to do some fishing and I will report my experience here in my 300th post on Fishing Leech Lake.

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The temperature this morning at 9:00 a.m. was 63 degrees. The sky was mostly sunny with some large patches of gray clouds. The wind is light at 5-8 mph from the NNE.

The Newmans left early this morning for their home in southern Minnesota, but before leaving, John put his boat in my boat lift in my harbor. I store my boat in the boat lift at the cabin because the water level at the end of the dock next door tends to stay deep enough for my boat to be easily removed from, and put back on, the boat lift.

The current water level in the lake is too low in Newman's harbor for him to get his boat on and off his lift. He was forced to use a winch, and the muscle power of his two sons, to get his boat off the lift and into the water. The water level in my harbor tends to be deeper, so John asked, and I agreed, to let him store his boat here. John plans to return to the lake next Friday.

At 11:30 a.m. I decided to go fishing. Yesterday, I had loaned my chain saw to my neighbor Don Poage so he could cut down a dead tree near his cabin. As a show of his gratitude, he purchased for me a scoop of shiners -- a valuable commodity at this time of year.

With my live well bucket of shiners I set out for 13 feet of water in front of our house and cabin. The water temperature had warmed to 71 degrees. The air temperature had also warmed to 75 degrees. It actually got very hot sitting out under the sun on the lake.

I was marking lots of fish on the Lowrance so I figured I was in a good spot. I put a shiner on my XPS lime green/black jig and dropped it into the water. Within minutes I felt a weight at the end of my line and tried to set the hook. Whatever had had my bait in its mouth was no longer there. I reeled in and discovered that my 3 1/2" shiner had been bitten clean through; only the head remained on the hook. The telltale sign of a walleye bite.

About 30 minutes later, I thought I felt another "weight" on my hook and went to set the hook. Again, nothing was there. As I reeled in my jig to check the status/health of my shiner, a 36" to 40" muskie followed my bait all the way to the side of the boat. I was wearing my polarized sunglasses, so I could easily see the big fish as it chased my shiner to within inches of the water surface. But unfortunately it never took the bait in its mouth and instead made a quick turn and headed deep out of sight.

I did manage to catch a couple of small perch, but that was it. By 1:00 p.m. the wind had all but died down, and so too did the perch bite. I decided it was time to come ashore and get ready for my trip to St. Cloud.

As I was coming up to the house, I noticed that a light breeze had started to blow again, but this time out of the SE at no more than 5 mph. If we get a couple of days of wind out of the south, the fishing should be good again by Sunday or Monday.

It's time to get ready now and head off to St. Cloud. It will be nice to see Kathleen's mom, Kathleen's sister Mary, Tim and Sandy Coyle, the St. Joseph Independence Day parade and A Prairie Home Companion, but it is always tough to leave Leech Lake.