September 18, 2008 on Leech Lake

The temperature today was 74 degrees, the wind was 10-15 mph out of the south and the water temperature was 64 degrees. The sky was mostly sunny.

Kathleen, Rick, Beth and I all worked on painting the cabin today, but around mid-day we took a break to take a boat ride around Sucker Bay on Leech Lake. The lake was pretty choppy, and there were white caps, but we enjoyed a trip on the lake nonetheless. I took the boat south past Duck Point, then back up Sucker Bay north to Birch Ridge Resort.

We didn't go fishing today, but we did enjoy a walleye and perch fish fry with the fish we caught over the past few days.


Me, Rick and Beth as we motor past Second Duck Point.

September 17, 2008 on Leech Lake

The temperature was 68 degrees today, the water temperature was 63 degrees, but for some reason I didn't record the wind speed/direction.

At 2:30 p.m., Rick and I took a break from painting the cabin and went fishing. I had purchased some spottail shiners the other day, so we used those on the end of shiner jigs. We also used 3" Gulp Alive! minnows in smelt color.

We caught a numerous perch (including a few nice jumbos), crappie, bluegill and rock bass. We kept one of the big jumbo perch to go along with the walleye from last night.

Rick and I made it back to shore by 5:15 p.m., where we painted the cabin for another 2 hours.

Kathleen's friend Beth arrived for a few day visit. After we all cleaned up from painting, we had dinner, and then sat around a roaring fire in the fire pit at the cabin.

Another fantastic day at Leech Lake.

September 16, 2008 on Leech Lake

Today, Kathleen, Rick and I spent a majority of the day painting the cabin. But around 7:00 p.m. we called it a day, and with the weather still being agreeable, Rick and I decided to go trolling for walleye.

The temperature today was 66 degrees, the wind was generally calm and the water temperature was 62 degrees. Rick and I fished from 7:45 to 10:00 p.m.

As has been our pattern, we trolled #9 Minnow Raps in 8-12 of water along the shore of the Otter Tail Peninsula from south of Second Duck Point to just north of the Malay's cabin.

Tonight I caught a northern pike right at sunset, and then walleyes measuring 17 1/2", 19", 20 1/2", and two at 22". Rick caught 18", 19", 20", 23", 25" and 26" walleyes. All told, we caught another eleven walleyes. All were released unharmed, with the exception of the 17 1/2" 'eye, which we decided to keep for a future fish fry.

Another great evening of walleye fishing on Leech Lake.

September 15, 2008

A week or so ago Kathleen and I power washed the cabin, the game room/garage and the "fish" garage in preparation for painting. Since the autumn weather seems to be upon us here in Northern Minnesota we have little time to get the painting complete before the weather gets too cold. So today was a painting day.

Kathleen, Rick and I all started painting the cabin under overcast and occasionally drizzly skies. The temperature today hit a high of 68 degrees and the wind was out of the SW at 5-10 mph. We started painting around 10 a.m. and didn't call it a day until near 7 p.m. Despite the three of us painting for nearly 9 hours, we still only got about half of the cabin painted. There's more little nooks and crannies to the cabin that you would expect; until you go to paint it.

No fishing on Leech Lake today.

September 14, 2008 on Leech Lake

Rick and I again decided to do some work on shore today and wait until the evening to go fishing.

Today the temperature was a cool 56 degrees, the wind was light at 5 mph out of the SW and the skies were mostly clear. The water temperature was 60 degrees.

Rick and I started our evening trolling trip at 7:45 p.m. under a full moon. We trolled from south of Second Duck Point to north of Malay's cabin in 8-12 feet of water using #9 Minnow Raps.

Rick thought it was hilariously that he caught 3 rock bass while trolling, so I promised him I'd mention it here on the blog. But we also caught walleye, which is why we were on the water in the first place.

Rick caught a 19", 20 1/2", 21 1/2", 22" and a 24" walleye, and I caught a 14", 16", 17 1/2", 21", 21 1/2" and a 24" walleye. Eleven walleye total. Not a bad night of fishing on Leech Lake.

We came back to shore at 10:00 p.m.


This is a view of our house from near Second Duck Point. In the middle of the picture is a flag pole and white-colored martin house, that's our house. The first green boat lift cover to the left of our house is our cabin.