June 5, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

This morning I was up and on the road to Bemidji by 5:30 a.m. The temperature at the time was 44 degrees, the sky was clear and the wind was light at 7-10 mph out of the SW.

As a dim light turned into morning, I drove Rick from our house on Leech Lake to the airport in Bemidji. He was catching a 6:50 a.m. flight to Minneapolis and from there he was flying to Orlando. It was good seeing Rick again and hopefully he enjoyed his visit.

After dropping off Rick, I went to Corner Sports to pick up a couple of spark plugs for my Honda 8hp kicker motor. Corner Sports is closed today, but they were kind enough to leave the spark plugs in a place where I could easily find them; I'll pay for them when I next go into town. I can't imagine that kind of trust and service from a boat shop in San Jose, California. But this is the northwoods and that's the kind of people that live up here.

I ate an early breakfast at Perkin's and by 7:00 a.m. was doing to some grocery shopping at Luekin's Village Foods. At 9:00 a.m. I was back at the lake and had installed the spark plugs in the kicker motor. Since it is day two of the Leech Lake Walleye Tournament there were close to 20 boats in front of the house so rather than test out the kicker motor at the moment, I decided to wait until later in the day.

[NOTE: Here's a link to the day one results of the LLWT. Leaders caught six fish for a weight of 13.87 pounds.]

I spent most of the afternoon doing laundry, cleaning, etc., but at 4:30 p.m. I decided to go fishing. Most of the tournament fishermen had left, leaving only 4 or 5 boats in front of the house.

I used the Mercury Verado to motor out to 10 feet of water then I turned off the big motor, put the Honda 8hp kicker motor in the water and fired it up. It started right up, thanks to the new spark plugs, but as soon as I put it in gear it stalled. I tried a second time and this time the Honda not only fired up, but ran when I put it in gear. I spent maybe five minutes or so running the kicker motor just to give it some gas and let it warm up. I guess the new spark plugs did the trick. Then I shut it off and began fishing.

I drifted from 10 feet of water in front of the house to about 14 feet of water in front of Malays and along the way caught numerous perch -- including an 11-inch perch, which by my definition is the start of being a jumbo; a jumbo being 11-14 inches; I defy anyone to show me a 14-inch plus perch out of Leech Lake -- and a northern. I then decided to head to shore at 5:45 p.m.

A brief nature update: Yesterday while riding on the ATV, I saw a female painted turtle laying her eggs along side of Ottertail Point Rd., between Two Points Rd. and 26th Ave. The road graters had been through the day earlier and apparently the soft dirt along the edge of the road was just what the turtle was looking for to lay her eggs. I hope they survive. Then this afternoon while sitting in the living room a small animal caught my eye. I quickly fixed the binoculars on it and discovered it was a mink, sniffing its way from the harbor to the fish house. Then it turned, and ran behind the fish house and I lost sight of it. Again, I continue to be thankful for the opportunity to witness such animals in the wild.

Although the wind was calm, maybe 5-7 mph out of the north, and the temperature in the mid-60s I decided to just stay inside and watch the sunset and not go fishing. As the sun set, the clouds rolled in and it looked like a thunderstorm might follow, but none did.

Getting up at 5:00 a.m. wore me down early tonight, so I am going to call it a night.