July 8, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

The temperature this morning at 9:00 a.m. was 65 degrees, on its way to a high of 74 degrees. The wind was out of the ESE at 5-10 mph, the sky was mostly sunny and the water temperature was 74 degrees.

Yesterday while fishing, I used the last of the Leech Lake minnows that I had captured in my seining net. With the wind blowing away from shore today, there were no bait fish to be seen near my dock or boat ramp, so I couldn't seine any Leech Lake minnows myself. Therefore, if I wanted to use live bait, which I did, I had to buy minnows from someone.

At 11:00 a.m. I drove up to Birch Ridge Resort to buy a couple of scoops of fathead minnows from Frank (the owner of the resort). While chatting with Frank about various things, the topic of the ever dropping water level in the lake came up.

After complaining about it for some time, I suggested to Frank that we -- lake property owners, resort owners, various lake associations, etc. -- band together to complain directly to the Army Corps of Engineers which is responsible for the maintenance the Federal Dam water flow out of Leech Lake.

Frank said he thought it was a great idea and gave me the name of the clerk on the Otter Tail Peninsula Township governing board whom he said could help me get the ball rolling. When I got home, I called her, and long story short, I'm on the agenda at the next township meeting, which is Monday, July 13.

I figure that a few years ago when the walleye fishing tanked on Leech Lake, numerous groups of concerned individuals got together to put pressure on the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and the Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources to do something about the decline in walleye fishing.

The result was that the Ojibwe and MN DNR began culling thousands of double breasted cormorants (which eat a pound of fish per day), instituted a new slot limit on Leech Lake for walleye, began an aggressive stocking program, and reduced the legal number of walleye each fisherman could keep. As a result of these measures, in just 3 years time the walleye fishing is back, and in many cases, is better than ever.

I hope to be able to put the same kind of pressure on the right government organizations so that they decide to release less water from Leech Lake into the Mississippi River. As it is today, by July and August of each year the water level in the lake drops to a point where it is often impossible to get boats off of boat lifts, many docks at resorts around the lake are unusable (which causes a drop in revenue for resorts), and it is increasingly difficult for boaters to use public access boat ramps.

This is an issue I plan to push on as long, and as hard, as I can to affect change. I realize I'm fighting the government and that I have little chance for success, but the fight should be fun. Plus, it's better than just complaining about the problem, or doing nothing about it. I'll post updates here as they occur.

At 1:30 p.m. I made it out onto the lake to do some fishing. I went out to "the point," in 14 feet of water. I was using a Northland Fireball jig tipped with a fathead minnow. I caught dozens of perch, but no walleye. At 4:00 p.m. I came ashore.

Tom and Lainey Malay invited me over for dinner tonight because Rosie Frigge, the former owner of the now-closed Bay Shore Resort, was visiting from Phoenix. I went over to the Malay's at 6:45 p.m., we had a nice turkey dinner, chatted, and then called it a night.

By the time I got home it was nearing 10:00 p.m., so I decided not to go out trolling tonight. Before I left the Malay's, Tom mentioned to me that he heard we were supposed to have severe thunderstorms tonight with the possibility of some hail. I did a quick check on the Internet and it looks to me that any storms we might have will not occur until tomorrow morning and afternoon.

That's the latest update from my little slice of Leech Lake.

Ode to George W. Bush

Ode to George W. Bush

Hanging chads
Supreme court decision
Squandered 9/11 momentum
WMDs
Yellow cake
Saddam Hussein
Iraq
Mission Accomplished
Gitmo
Abu Ghraib
Swift boat tactics
Fear
Waterboarding
Torture
TSA
The Patriot Act
Wiretapping US citizens
Valerie Plame
Walter Reed
Katerina
FEMA
"Heck of a job, Brownie."
$4.00 gallon of gas
Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac
$10 trillion deficit
Illegal justice department firings
Deregulation
Sub-prime mortgages
Layoffs
Foreclosures
Bailout
Recession
Depression
GOP collapse
W.