Today the high reached only 46 degrees. The sky was mostly cloudy and gray, and the wind was out of the WNW at 10-14 mph.
I had a lot of work work to do, so I was tied up in my house until 5:00 p.m. when my last call ended. At that point I had to get outside, so despite a little rougher water than I like to go out onto, Tim and I went fishing.
Since we had such good luck yesterday drifting and jigging fatheads, I thought we'd try that method again today. We started in about 11 feet of water in front of the Giza's cabin and drifted toward shore and the Malay's. Even with the drift sock in the water we were moving at nearly 2/3 mph. The water temperature had cooled slightly from yesterday, to 52.7 degrees.
We made several passes but couldn't even scare up a perch. In fact, neither Tim nor I had a bite in nearly an hour. We decided to one more pass then come in. That's when Tim hooked into a good sized fish as we drifted through 10 feet of water directly in front of our house. He reeled it in and we could see it was a walleye. I grabbed the net and scooped up a very nice 17 1/2-inch walleye. We decided to put it in the live well and add it to our growing walleye collection back at the dock.
We completed the drift without another bite and then came ashore just as the sun was setting; around 6:30 p.m.
Tim removed the walleye from the live well and added it to the bucket that contained the other two walleyes we kept from Sunday. After taking off my heavy parka and bib overalls, I took the fish into the cabin and cleaned them. We now have 6 nice walleye fillets for dinner when Tim's wife Sandy and their son Jackson come up to Leech Lake later this week.
The temperature around midnight when I turned off the lights was 39 degrees. Tomorrow should be another cool, breezy day. I think I'll turn my attention to the many winterization chores around the property. Lots to do in the week ahead to get the place ready for the harsh Northern Minnesota winter.
Good night from Leech Lake.
Monday, October 18, 2010
On Leech Lake -- October, 17, 2010
My brother-in-law Tim is visiting me for a week here at Leech Lake, and like myself, Tim enjoys spending time on the water in pursuit of walleye and perch. Since it was Sunday, with no work for either of us, we planned to spend as much time on Leech Lake as possible.
We did take it easy in the morning, having breakfast, reading the paper and drinking coffee, so it wasn't until just before noon that we went out fishing. The sky was partly sunny, the wind was out of the WNW at 8-10 mph, the air temperature was just over 50 degrees and the water temperature was 53.8 degrees.
The direction of the wind dictated the way I set up the boat for drifting. I motored out to about 11 feet of water in front of our cabin and the wind blew the boat toward shore and slightly south toward Newman's cabin. With the drift sock in the water the speed of the boat was just less than 1/2 mph.
Both Tim and I were using 1/8 oz. jigs tipped with fathead minnows.
We caught dozens of perch, maybe as many as 30, all of which we put back into the lake, as well as a few walleye. I caught a 19-inch walleye, which went back into the water, and Tim caught two -- an 18 1/4" walleye which went back into the lake and a 16 1/2" walleye which we kept.
At some point during one of our drifts something very big hit my jig and started peeling off line. I played it long enough to get a glimpse of it off the back of the boat. It was either a very big northern or a muskie. It must have been close to 3 feet long. My 6 lb. test Fireline Crystal was no match for the toothy critter, however, and the fish bit through the line and returned to the depths.
We came ashore around 3:00 p.m. and drove up to Birch Ridge Resort to grab a beer, eat a pizza and watch the Vikings game. I'm not a Vikings fan, but Tim is and they were playing the Dallas Cowboys in what was a must-win game for both 1-3 teams. The Vikings won the game.
Tim and I decided to go back out on the water around 5 p.m. for more drift action, before we switched to trolling after sunset.
The perch bite had cooled off, and between us we caught probably no more than 10 perch while jigging. Just after sunset we stowed our jigging rods and started trolling using Minnow Raps. I caught a 21-inch walleye and Tim caught an 18-inch and a 21-inch walleye. All fish went back into the lake.
At 7:30 p.m. we came ashore, got a fire going because the expected temperature at 11:00 p.m. was 32 degrees. All in all, a very successful day of fishing on Leech Lake.
We did take it easy in the morning, having breakfast, reading the paper and drinking coffee, so it wasn't until just before noon that we went out fishing. The sky was partly sunny, the wind was out of the WNW at 8-10 mph, the air temperature was just over 50 degrees and the water temperature was 53.8 degrees.
The direction of the wind dictated the way I set up the boat for drifting. I motored out to about 11 feet of water in front of our cabin and the wind blew the boat toward shore and slightly south toward Newman's cabin. With the drift sock in the water the speed of the boat was just less than 1/2 mph.
Both Tim and I were using 1/8 oz. jigs tipped with fathead minnows.
We caught dozens of perch, maybe as many as 30, all of which we put back into the lake, as well as a few walleye. I caught a 19-inch walleye, which went back into the water, and Tim caught two -- an 18 1/4" walleye which went back into the lake and a 16 1/2" walleye which we kept.
At some point during one of our drifts something very big hit my jig and started peeling off line. I played it long enough to get a glimpse of it off the back of the boat. It was either a very big northern or a muskie. It must have been close to 3 feet long. My 6 lb. test Fireline Crystal was no match for the toothy critter, however, and the fish bit through the line and returned to the depths.
We came ashore around 3:00 p.m. and drove up to Birch Ridge Resort to grab a beer, eat a pizza and watch the Vikings game. I'm not a Vikings fan, but Tim is and they were playing the Dallas Cowboys in what was a must-win game for both 1-3 teams. The Vikings won the game.
Tim and I decided to go back out on the water around 5 p.m. for more drift action, before we switched to trolling after sunset.
The perch bite had cooled off, and between us we caught probably no more than 10 perch while jigging. Just after sunset we stowed our jigging rods and started trolling using Minnow Raps. I caught a 21-inch walleye and Tim caught an 18-inch and a 21-inch walleye. All fish went back into the lake.
At 7:30 p.m. we came ashore, got a fire going because the expected temperature at 11:00 p.m. was 32 degrees. All in all, a very successful day of fishing on Leech Lake.
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