October 8, 2009 -- On Leech Lake

This morning at 9:00 a.m. the temperature was 34 degrees, the sky was gray, the wind was out of the WNW at 12-15 mph and the wind chill was 27 degrees. Now this is a Fall day at Leech Lake.

I had a series of long business calls today, as well as a lot of online work, so I didn't wrap up until 5:00 p.m.

Midway through the day, however, I did make time for a walk down to Paulsen's and back, a roughly 2-mile round trip. On my way home, just by Schiebe's cabin, an otter came scurrying out of the bushes on the woods side of the road, probably on its way to the lake. It came to a screeching halt when it spotted me, made a noise that sounded like a cross between a hiss and honk, a "hissonk" maybe, turned and dashed back into the woods. I'd say its body was at least 2 feet long, with a long tail and probably as big around as my arm. A beautiful woodland creature out for a walk, like me, on a Fall day.

At just after 5:00 p.m. I thought I'd get out on the lake for a quick bit of fishing.

The wind was still out of the WNW at roughly 12 mph. It was tricky getting the boat off the lift with the wind essentially pushing the boat back onto the lift, but I managed to get out into the lake without too much trouble.

Once on the lake, I motored out to 12 feet of water in front of our house. My plan was to let the wind push me back toward the boat lift. I'd do one drifting pass, then go back on shore since I was due at the Malay's at 6:00 p.m.

The water temperature was 49.7 degrees, the wind was stronger than it originally appeared and the air temperature was only 36 degrees. On the horizon to the west and to the southwest, I could see three distinct rain fronts moving toward me.

I drifted for no more than 20 minutes and decided to call it quits. No fish. No bites.

I visited with the Malays for about an hour, and when I got home I noticed that the wind had died down and was now blowing at no more than 5-8 mph out of the WNW.

I quickly got on some warm clothes, grabbed my flashlight and went over to the boat lift. I got the boat in the water at 7:20 p.m. and decided I'd do about two passes in The Alley.

I put my #9 Rapala Minnow Rap in the water, set the Mercury SmartCraft controls to where my ground speed was just more than 2 mph, and started trolling. Almost immediately -- directly in front of our house -- I hooked into a good fish.

I put the motor in neutral and began reeling in the fish. I turned the handle of my baitcasting reel only two times when I felt the fish come "unbuttoned." It was a classic walleye light bite. The fish hit the lure just hard enough to become lightly hooked and was able to come free when I began reeling it to the boat.

I made two full passes from past Second Duck Point to the Malays, in water as shallow as 7 1/2 feet and as deep as 12 feet, but had no more bites.

I came ashore around 8:30 p.m. and got a fire going in the fireplace. The outside temperature was now down to 32 degrees, and was supposed to drop as low as 26 over night.

I spent the rest of the evening listening to music, reading the newspaper, and checking up on the Sharks score (BTW: they beat the Columbus Blue Jackets in the home opener 6-3).

It was an cold and unproductive (from a fishing standpoint) day on Leech Lake. But at least I was on Leech Lake and not stuck in an office somewhere.

Until tomorrow.