May 23, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

This morning at 9:00 a.m. the sky was grey and overcast, the wind was out of the north at around 15 mph and the temperature was 50 degrees.

At 10:00 a.m. Rick and I went into Bemidji for breakfast and to run a series of errands. I picked up 3 colorado blue spruce trees to plant at the cabin between our place and the Poage's. I also bought a new battery for the ATV, and other odds and ends that were needed around the house and cabin.

Once home, Rick rebuilt the little bridge that spans a small gully between my property and Newman's. I planted the new blueberry bush that arrived, and positioned the pines trees where I want to plant them near our property line with Poage's.

At 5:30 p.m. the temperature was 65 degrees, the sky was mostly sunny and the wind was fairly strong at 12-15 mph out of the north. I went down the end of the dock, took out the jumbo perch and walleye, took them up to the cabin and cleaned them. The perch look like it has some type of small parasite in the meat -- little black dots and some bigger orange marks -- so I decided we wouldn't be eating it.

Instead of my normal method of frying the walleye fillets I decided to do a beer-batter coating and I have say, they fillets tasted much better than ususal. I think I'll try a beer batter the next time we eat walleye.

By 9:15 p.m. the wind had died down to around 5-8 mph out of the north, so Rick and I decided to go fishing. I was trying out a new lure, a Lindy Shadling, in the bluegill color, and Rick used a magnum X-Rap from Rapala before switching to a Rapala Minnow Rap in a purpledescent color.

I caught the first fish, a nice 17 1/2-inch walleye, which we put in the livewell. I caught it while making a turn out toward the lake just past Second Duck Point in 11 feet of water with my Mercury Smartcraft trolling speed set at 570 rpm. The water temperature was hovering around 60 degrees, there was a half moon, and the wind had all but died down completely.

We were joined in "the Alley" by 4 other boats, although I didn't see them catching anything.

Rick caught a northern pike, about 22 inches long, and later a 21 1/2-inch walleye, which had some new cuts, or bites, on its side. After looking at the fish's wounds, and contemplated the size of the monster fish that would have hit such a big walleye, we put the wounded, but spirited, fish back into the lake.

We came ashore around 11:00 p.m. and then proceeded to stay up way too late listening to music and debating the problems of the world; none of which we solved by the way.

I'm still trying to decided if I should clean the walleye in the basket and trade it with Jerry Schiebe for a mason jar of his homemade maple syrup or eat the walleye fillets with Rick using my newly found beer batter. Decision, decisions...