August 7, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

At 10:00 a.m. this morning the temperature was hovering just above 60 degrees, but with the humidity at 80% and virtually no wind, it felt much hotter. The sky was overcast and gray, but as the day went on the clouds parted a bit and some blue sky could be seen.

I checked the walleye that I'd caught the other night to see how healthy it was, and discovered it wasn't doing real well and needed to be filleted immediately. So one of my first chores of the morning was cleaning a nice walleye which Joe and I will eat for dinner tonight.

After getting the fish cleaned, and then cleaning up the fish-cleaning house, I went next door to check on the Coyles. They were already in the process of packing up their car and cleaning up the cabin.

I helped strip the beds and get the laundry going while Sandy swept the floor and Connor vacuumed the carpets.

At 1:15 p.m. Tim, Sandy, Connor and Jackson got into the car and drove off, ending their six day visit. It was nice having them here, Joe and I both enjoy their company, but Joe and I are looking forward to having it just be the two of us up here for the next couple of weeks so we can concentrate on finishing the painting, and on doing some serious fishing. We've got plans to do some bass fishing, trolling for walleye, and doing a full-day trip of muskie fishing.

Shortly before 2:00 p.m. I decided to go fishing. I checked the fatheads only to discover that they had all died. Without fatheads to use as bait on my jig, I switched gears and went bass fishing. I asked Joe if he wanted to accompany me, but he wasn't ready to go out on the water and elected to stay on shore.

I motored over the the reeds just out in front of Norm's cabin, dropped the MinnKota trolling motor into the water, grabbed my Shimano Calcutta reel on the St. Croix Triumph rod rigged with a spinnerbait and started fishing.

I slowly worked my way from Norm's north toward Schiebe's along the edge of the large expanse of reeds that come out of the water. About half way between Norm's and Schiebe's I hooked into a bass. The fish immediately began fighting back in a manner bass fishermen can appreciate and made two leaps into the air before I could boat it. I'm guessing it was a 15-inch fish and had to weigh at least two pounds.

After releasing the beautiful bass back into Leech Lake I continued moving north at a very slow pace. I made numerous casts along the way and had one decent-sized northern pike follow my spinnerbait right up to the boat before turning tail and diving into the algae stained water.

Just before I reached Schiebe's cabin, which I had designated as my end point, I hooked into another bass. This one felt a little bigger than the first one, and like the one I'd caught earlier, this one too made two airborne leaps before I could get it into the boat. Once the largemouth was in the boat I did a quick measurement and found out it was a 16-inch bass, which weighed an estimated 2 1/2 to 3 pounds. A nice fish by any measure.

I continued down to Schiebe's but didn't catch another fish. I slowly motored back to the cabin, got the boat onto the lift, came ashore and had some lunch. At this point in the day, approximately 3:00 p.m., the temperature had warmed to 73 degrees, the wind had shifted and was now blowing out of the SSE at 5-10 mph and the sky remained partly cloudy with some blue to be seen.

Joe was interested in getting a fire started in the fire pit at the cabin, but not in the traditional manner. He wanted to use his magnesium strip, knife and flint to get a small spark of a fire going and then use a smoldering ember to start a bigger fire. Joe likes to practice his wilderness survival skills when he's here at the lake.

While Joe was at the cabin working on his fire, I took a ride on the ATV. When I reached the point on Sucker Bay Road where it's a dirt road I passed by the area where people shoot their guns. It's a plot of land that is kept mowed with a high dirt bank at one end where targets can be set up. Today, my neighbors Marty and his son Anthony were there shooting skeet and taking some target practice with their deer rifles and a revolver.

I stopped the ATV and talked with them for a few minutes when Marty asked me if I'd like to shoot the revolver. I took him up on the opportunity and squeezed off 15 rounds. I only hit the target 6 times because the sight was misaligned and so the gun shot high and to the left. I only figured out how to compensate for it with my last few shots. It was fun, and something I had never done.

I then got on the ATV and rode home. Once home I checked in on Joe and then got dinner going -- the walleye from the other night. We enjoyed a tasty meal of beer-battered walleye fillets, French Fries and salad.

Just as the sun was setting into the western horizon, Joe and I went fishing. Since the wind was calm I had Joe take us out. He lowered the boat lift, got the motor positioned correctly, backed the boat off the lift and then piloted the boat while we trolled Minnow Raps for walleye.

As is usual we focused most of our attention in Duck Bay, but since Joe was driving the boat we tended to fish in slightly deeper water than typical. About an hour into fishing I hooked onto something. Initially it was hard to discern if it was a fish or just a large clump of weeds (many large clumps of weeds have been floating throughout Sucker Bay this summer).

I continued to reel into whatever was on the end of my line and soon it became clear it was fish. Joe put the motor in neutral and got the landing net ready while I continued to reel in the fish. When it was close enough to the boat Joe got the net underneath just as it spit the lure.

We got the fish into the boat and measured it to be a 23-inch walleye, roughly a 4 1/2 pound fish. We admired the beauty of the big fish for a moment or two then I gently released it back into the lake.

That was the only fish we boated, and after nearly two hours on the water we headed home.

We watched a DVD and then called it a night. Another good day of fishing on Leech Lake.