October 6, 2009 -- On Leech Lake

This morning at 9:00 a.m. the temperature was 40 degrees (maybe my thermometer is stuck there), the sky was dark and gray and there was a light rain falling. The wind is again out of the north at 8-12 mph.

By noon, the wind had picked up a bit because the flag was flapping straight out and the lake had a smattering of white caps across the surface. This cool weather -- down into the 30s at night -- has the leaves changing colors quickly now.

I did a quick check of the forecast for the Cass Lake/Leech Lake area, and the temperature at night for the rest of the week is supposed to be in the mid-30s tonight and then dropping to below 30 on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, with high temperature in only the low 40s during the day.

With the weather getting colder and the very low water levels in the lake, I think it's getting time to pull the boat out of the water. I'll leave it in this weekend, because Kathleen's brother Mike, along with his wife Barb and son Sean will be visiting our cabin and Sean likes to go walleye fishing with me. But the following weekend, MEA weekend in Minnesota, is when I'll likely take the boat out of the water and into Bemidji for storage for the winter.

At just after 1:00 p.m. the rain started to fall again. The wind is constant at about 8-10 mph out of the north, and the temperature is still 40 degrees. I think I'll clean the bathrooms this afternoon, and do some more work online.

At 3:30 p.m. I went fishing. I motored out to my usual spot in front of the Malay's cabin in 12 feet of water and dropped my VMC jig tipped with a fathead into the 51.5 degree water. I fished for more than 90 minutes and the only bite I got was a toothy critter that bit right through my Fireline. I retied but never got another bite, although I was marking lots of fish on my Lowrance LCX-28c.

I came ashore at 5:15 p.m. under a steady rain, cold temperatures and a wind of 10-15 mph that was shifting from the north to the NNW.

Once on shore I got a fire going in the fireplace to warm up the house. The wind was howling and the rain continued to fall. It was an absolutely perfect day at Leech Lake.