May 29, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

Today is the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend and at 10:00 a.m. this morning there were 21 boats between Second Duck Point and the Malay's. Someone must be reading this blog! The area I call the "Alley" is obviously producing some fish, or at least someone at one of the resorts is saying it's producing fish, because it is very popular spot on Sucker Bay today. There are other good fishing spots on Sucker Bay including, Hardwood Point, the Flats around Goose Island, the flats between Duck and Second Duck Points, and the tip of Ottertail Peninsula, i.e., Ottertail Point.

Although the sky is grey and looks ominous, there is little wind, maybe 5 mph out of the WNW, and the flags are laying limp against the pole. The temperature at 10:00 a.m. was 50 degrees. The hourly forecast for the day says that there's a 35% chance of showers around noon and then again at 3:00 p.m.

After we finish breakfast and our coffee Rick and I are going to hit the water as well, although I'm not sure where. I really have no desire to pull into the flotilla of FIBs, so maybe we'll head north toward Bass Bay, try the Birches, or maybe make a run south to Ottertail Point. I'll let Rick make the call.

Sometime today we need to contact Jerry Schiebe so we can get in to see Noel's old place. To some degree, Rick is interested in purchasing it and the obvious next step is to get inside and check out the structural integrity of the house.

At 11:00 a.m. Rick and I launched the boat and made our way out into Sucker Bay where 23 boats were gathered from our cabin to Second Duck Point. I asked Rick how and where he'd like to fish and he suggested we troll Minnow Raps from our cabin down to the middle of the bay between Duck and Second Duck Points in a little deeper water than usual around 13-14 feet.

The water temperature was right around 60 degrees, the wind was out of the SW at 7 mph and the air temperature was 54 degrees.

I set the SmartCraft control at 580 rpm to achieve a ground speed of roughly 2.25 mph, which is the speed that typically works well with Minnow Raps in that depth of water.

During the troll the only fish we managed to boat was a 20-inch northern, which I immediately released into the lake. We then motored south to Ottertail Point where we used Northland Mimic Minnow spins for walleye. Unfortunately, we caught no walleye.

I then motored the boat around the point into Portage Bay and moved up to a small point just south of Two Points. We again used Mimic Minnows in 18 feet of water drifting toward shore into about 13 feet of water. I caught a decent sized perch and a very nice 17 1/4-walleye, which I put into the livewell for a future meal. Unfortunately continued his fishless streak stretching it to three days now.

We came ashore around 1:30 p.m. I called Jerry Schiebe to see when it might be a good time for him to show us the old Hancock place. He replied, "how about now?"

Rick and I walked down to Schiebe's house and then the three of us made our way to Noel's old house. Jerry found the keys and we spent the next hour or more inspecting the old place. According to Rick, the framing looks good, although that's about the only good thing to say about the structure itself. It will need everthing from the roof down to the floorboards.

The other potential downside is that of the 300 feet of shoreline most of it, maybe as much as 225, are swamp. That leaves little room for lake access via a dock.

Rick is going to contact Jeff Hancock on Memorial Day to discuss the property in more detail.

At 7:00 p.m. the sky was overcast and grey, the wind was light at 5-8 mph out of the NW, the temperature was right around 60 degrees. We ate dinner early so we could get out on the water well befor sunset. That is still the plan and we should be departing soon.

We fished from 7:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. When we got out onto the lake to start fishing there were 16 boats clustered between our house and Second Duck Point. Since everyone one else was "zigging," we zagged. I motored the boat to the Birches where we began tossing our Mimic Minnow spins. We fished in 10-12 feet of water, which had a temperature right around 62 degrees. The wind was light, almost nonexistent, at 5 mph out of the NW.

After 40 minutes of fishing the area with no luck, we changed tactics.

I took the boat out to 13-14 feet of water, set the Mercury SmartCraft controls at 580 rpm and we began trolling Minnow Raps. After a pass or two neither Rick nor I caught anything, so he switched colors and began trolling a purpledescent Minnow Rap while I continued to pull my Tennessee Shad colored Rapala.

It turns out the walleye liked the purpledescent color on this night. Rick caught a 13-inch, 16-inch and 16 3/4-inch walleye, the first two went back into the lake. We kept the 16 3/4-inch walleye and it joined my 17 1/4-inch walleye from earlier in the day in the basket. I'll probably fillet one for Jerry Schiebe (since he was kind enough to give us a jar of homemade maple syrup earlier today) and keep the other for us for a meal on Tuesday. I'm really starting to love the beer-batter Shore Lunch on fresh walleye fillets.

All in all, a great day of fishing on Leech Lake.