June 9, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

It was another cool morning with the temperature of only 42 degees at 8:00 a.m. The sky was mostly cloudy, with only a spot of blue here and there, and a wind of 8-12 mph out of the NW.

Today is the first day of the FLW walleye tournament, but unlike the Leech Lake Walleye Tournament last week, when there were more than 35 boats in front of the house, there was surprisingly only one boat out front today.

The guys from Peterson Excavating showed up at 8:45 a.m. and were done removing the last portion of the walkway by 10:00 a.m. Butch showed up just as they were completing the demolition and after surveying the situation carefully informed me that he's going to need to bring in the big front hoe to pull back the harbor walls and to pound in big metal beams to which the harbor walls will be tied. When we first talked, Butch thought he could simply use cable jacks (known as come-alongs locally), but with all of the walkway removed he doesn't think that approach will be effective.

Butch promises that the project will be minimally invasive -- that is, no trees will be removed or damaged -- but bringing such a big piece of construction machinery to the harbor will leave tracks on the lawn. Of course with rain, the grass growing and being cut, all evidence of the operation should be gone by later in the summer or early fall.

After breakfast and some work, I went fishing for a couple of hours. With the wind out of the NE at 8-15 mph I stopped the boat in front of Malay's in 9 feet of water, deployed the drift sock, and let the wind push me along at 1/2 mph south toward Second Duck Point and out into 12 feet of water. I noted the water temperature to be 65.8 degrees.

Using a 1/8 ounce Northland Gumball jig tipped with fathead minnow I caught several perch, including one nice 10-incher (although that falls an inch short of qualifying for a jumbo by my definition) and a nice 15 1/2-inch walleye, which I put back into the lake. After three drifts I decided to come ashore and take of some work here.

After a light dinner I decided to go fishing again. I hit the water at 7:00 p.m. and drifted from right in front of the house out toward the middle of Sucker Bay being gently pushed along by a 10 mph NE breeze.

The water temperature this evening was slightly lower than this afternoon at 65.4 degrees, the moon was 50% waxing and the sunset was 9:12 p.m. CDT.

During my three drifts I caught several perch and a couple of rock bass using an 1/8 ounce Northland Gumball jig tipped alternately with fatheads and leeches.

At 8:45 p.m. I put turned on the boat lights, stowed my jigging rig and took out my Abu Garcia Ambassador baitcasting reel that I use for trolling crankbaits. As always during this current stay I used the Rapala Minnow Rap in Tennessee Shad color.

As I began to troll I noticed the wind was shifting from the NE to the SE and was increasing in speed to roughly 10-15 mph, creating a nice chop to the lake. I trolled in the usual "Alley" location in 9-11 feet of water.

I didn't even have a "hit and miss" for the first 45 minutes of trolling. Then at 9:30 p.m., just south of Second Duck Point on my way north, I had a good hit. I could tell it was a decent sized fish. When I got it close to the boat I slipped the net underneath it and hauled in a very sturdy 23-inch walleye that had to weigh close to 5 pounds. I quickly removed the lure from the fish and put it back into the water.

No sooner had I started trolling again, letting about about 60 feet of line, when I felt that familiar "thud" of a big fish. Right away I could tell that this fish was even bigger than the 23-incher that I just boated. I took my time bringing the fish to the boat, and just as it got close, it turned and headed to the bottom of the lake. I let the fish take out line, but continued to apply pressure so the fish wouldn't come unbuttoned.

The next time I got the fish to the surface I was able to slip the net under it and bring it into the boat. I could see this was a big fish. Unlike the first walleye of the night, this one had all three barbs of the front treble hook in its mouth. Rather than risk injuring the fish, I took out my wire cutters and snipped off all three barbs which enabled me to easily remove the hook. I did a quick measurement and found this big walleye to be every bit of 24 inches, a full two feet of fish. I didn't weigh the walleye but I've got to believe it was more than 5 1/2 pounds. I slowly released the big fish into the water to make sure it was in good condition. It got into the water, flipped its tail a couple of times and was quickly out of sight. Wow, what a fun fish to catch!

At that point my Minnow Rap needed a new front treble hook and I didn't feel like switching lures, so I decided to come ashore. After all, I had just caught 47-inches and 10 pounds of walleye with two fish in the span of maybe seven minutes.

Tomorrow should be another great day of fishing on Leech Lake. I'm going to try to get out onto the lake at least twice. Until then...