July 5, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

I arrived home at Leech Lake from St. Cloud today at 2:00 p.m. After unloading the truck, putting away some groceries and having lunch, I decided to go fishing.

The temperature at 4:00 p.m. was 72 degrees, the wind was out of the north at 8-12 mph, the sky was filled with big white billowy clouds that made it half cloudy and half sunny, and the water temperature was 73 degrees.

As I stepped onto the dock and began walking to the boat lift, I noticed schools of minnows swimming in the shallow water at the end of the boat ramp and underneath the dock. I decided that before I would go fishing, I'd get out the seining net and try to catch some native Leech Lake minnows to use as bait.

I got on my waders, and with seining net in hand, I wadded out into 3 feet of water. My first few attempts at netting the minnows failed miserably; I was simply too slow in closing the net. But after some trial and error, I began to get the hang of it, and within 10 minutes I managed to net several dozen minnows.

I did a thorough check of the minnows to ensure that what I had netted were indeed minnows. With the exception of one tiny walleye fry, which I carefully put back into the lake, I had nothing but minnows. Content with my catch, I put the minnows into my Frabill Flow Troll Bucket, grabbed what few live shiners were left from those Poage gave me, and got into my boat.

I motored the boat out to 14 feet of water directly in front of the Malay's cabin and deployed the drift sock. With the wind blowing at 12 mph from the north, the current would push the boat south toward Second Duck Point and put me in about 13 feet of water as I passed in front of our house and cabin -- which was my desired position.

When using the Leech Lake minnows, I caught numerous perch, and had a solid bite from something bigger (I could tell that whatever it was it had teeth because my minnow was cleaved off just below the head).

I tried using a shiner on a couple of occasions, but didn't get a single bite. When I switched back to the Leech Lake minnows, I again started catching perch. Unfortunately, I was unable to hook a walleye.

I came ashore around 6:30 p.m. It was nice to spend some time out on the water. I love how peaceful it is being rocked by the waves and slowly propelled by wind.

I contemplated going out trolling this evening, but I was hungry and decided to make dinner at 9:00 p.m., which is the time I would have gone trolling. After eating I sat on the dock with cold Leinenkugel and watched the last of the sunlight disappear behind the horizon. Another beautiful evening on Leech Lake.