October 9, 2009 -- On Leech Lake

The birch tree down by the harbor with its yellow leaves at 5:30 p.m.


An inch or more of snow on the back deck at 11:30 p.m.

Kathleen's brother Mike, his wife Barb and their son Sean were supposed to be coming to the lake today for a weekend visit, but apparently something has come up and now they're talking about coming up next weekend.

Next weekend is MEA weekend in Minnesota where the teachers attend seminars and conferences for two days and the kids all have Thursday and Friday off. Basically the whole state shuts down for four days, and for many people it's a last chance to get "up north" to the cabin before winter comes.

Our neighborhood is always buzzing with activity on MEA weekend, and the Ottertail Peninsula Township Association potluck dinner is always on the Saturday evening of MEA weekend.

But that's next weekend, not this weekend. This weekend is supposed to be cold, and the season's first snow showers are predicted for Saturday and Sunday.

Currently, at noon, the temperature is 36 degrees, the sky is mostly cloudy with just a few spots of sun and blue sky peeking through and the wind is light at 5-8 mph out of the SSW.

I'm going to try to get out on the water for a little fishing later this afternoon. Right now, however, I have a few calls to make and few emails to answer.

At 3:15 p.m. I went fishing.

The wind was at 8-10 mph out of the WSW, the sky was partly sunny, the water temperature was 48.3 degrees and the air temperature was 40 degrees.

I tied on a lighter weight 1/8 oz. VMC Hot Glow Skirt jig in chartreuse, I had been using a 1/4 oz. jig, tipped it with a fathead minnow and got to work. I was fishing in 12 feet of water in front of our house and the wind was pushing toward shore and slightly north toward Malays.

I made one pass but caught only a couple of small perch. On my second pass, I positioned the boat in 12 feet of water in front of Giza's cabin so I'd drift toward our cabin and boat lift.

Again I caught a few small perch, as well as a nice jumbo perch. I thought about keeping it, but decided I didn't feel like cleaning a fish tonight so the nice-sized perch went back into the lake.

I was marking lots of fish on my Lowrance LCX-28c electronics, but I couldn't entice them into biting. I guess the fish might be finicky because of that cold front that is blowing in and with it lowering temperatures and bringing the possibility of snow tonight.

After a couple of passes I decided to go ashore. I was back in the house just before 5:00 p.m.

After dinner I turned on the outside (lakeside) light to see that the snow had begun to fall!

The wind has picked up to 15-20 mph out of the WSW and the temperature has dropped to 28 degrees. The snow is not coming down hard, but there are good-sized flakes and I'd characterize it as a snow shower.

It's now 11:45 p.m. the wind is howling at close to 20 mph out of the WSW, the temperature is 26 degrees, the snow continues to fall and about an inch has accumulated on the ground.

It should warm up to the mid-30s tomorrow, and into the mid-40s next week, so the snow won't stick around, but there's something always magical about the first snow fall of the season.

I'm glad I could be here to see the first snow at Leech Lake.