October 13, 2009 -- Melissa's Birthday, On Leech Lake

Today is my daughter Melissa's birthday. Happy birthday Melissa. I love you.

Here at Leech Lake the weather at 8:30 a.m. is 24 degrees, no real wind to speak of, and heavy fog. The fog over the lake is so thick that I can't see water past the end of the dock.

By 10:30 a.m. the fog had burned off, and by 2:00 p.m. the temperature has warmed to 32 degrees. The wind is light at 3-5 mph out of the WSW, just enough of a breeze to drift the boat along at a leisurely pace. The sky is partly sunny and the water temperature varied between 45.3 and 44.5 degrees depending on depth and location.

I hit the water at 2:20 p.m. and started fishing The Birches in 9 feet of water. I took off the Lindy Max Gap jig I'd been using because it seems to create a lot of line twist, and replaced it with an 1/8 oz. Bass Pro Shops XPS Walleye Angler jig. I tipped the jig with a fathead and dropped it into the lake.

Within 20 minutes I caught a decent-sized perch, which I put back into the lake. Unfortunately, that was the only fish I hooked in nearly 45 minutes of fishing in that area. I moved the boat to a spot between Schiebe's and the government cabins in 10-12 feet of water, but after 30 minutes I hadn't even had a bite.

I moved again, this time to a spot in 12 feet of water in front of Malay's. Again no bites. Finally I moved the boat to a spot in front of our house in 9-10 feet of water and let the boat slowly drift toward the cabin. And again no bites. I reeled in, packed up my gear and went ashore just after 4:00 p.m.

Since there is little to no wind, maybe I'll go out trolling this evening just after sunset, around 6:30 p.m.
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I did indeed go trolling at 6:30 p.m. The lake was so calm the surface looked like glass.

The sunset wasn't brilliant, full of oranges, reds, purples and greens, but it was spectacular nonetheless. There was a quiet, hushed beauty to the way the sun set tonight. I can't describe it accurately, and I doubt even a photograph would have captured its splendor. I, however, thoroughly enjoyed watching the light disappear from the sky while sitting in my boat on the water.

The air temperature was 30 degrees, the water temp was 44.1 degrees, there was no wind as I already stated, and there were only wisps of clouds in the distance.

As usual, I trolled The Alley in 8-10 feet of water using a #9 Rapala Minnow Rap. About 40 minutes into my evening troll I hooked into something that felt like the proverbial ton of bricks. I quickly set the hook, put the motor in neutral and began cranking the Garcia reel.

Whatever was on the end of my line was not going to come in easily. I was able to reel the fish closer to the boat, but as I turned the crank of the reel, the drag was being tested to the limit. I'd crank a whole turn but only get the fish closer to the boat by a half turn because it was pulling out line.

I took my time and eventually got the fish close enough to the boat to where I could see it. The fish on the end of my line was a big walleye. Not the longest I'd ever hooked, but one of the fattest walleye I'd ever seen.

I got the landing net underneath the fish, netted it, and got it into the boat. I could tell right away that in addition to having an amazing girth, this fish managed to get both treble hooks into its mouth and gill.

It took me several minutes, and lots of patience, to carefully unhook this hefty walleye without injuring it. I took a quick measurement of this beauty and it was all of 24 1/2 inches, and as I said, very big around.

I carefully lowered the fish back into the water and watched with a smile on my face as it flipped it tail and swam quickly into the depths of the dark waters of Sucker Bay.

The trailing treble hook on my Minnow Rap was damaged from the encounter with the big walleye, but I didn't want to spend the time replacing it on the water so I continued to fish with a less than 100% effective lure. No matter, for the next hour I didn't get another bite.

I pulled my Lund onto the boat lift at 8:15 p.m. and it was cold. The temperature had dropped to 24 degrees and there was ice and snow building up on the stern of the boat.

Although I only hooked one walleye tonight, it was a big one. I don't know how many more evenings I'm going to have on the lake before I'll have to pull my boat out of the water for the season. It's getting cold, and it probably won't be too much longer before the first ice begins to form on the lake.

That's why I enjoyed every moment I had this evening on Minnesota's fabulous Leech Lake.

Good night Melissa, and happy birthday. I love you.