Kathleen at our Leech Lake house this past summer. Happy Birthday!
Today is the birthday of my beautiful wife Kathleen. I'm not going to say how old she is, but I will say she's in great shape! I wish she could be here with me since Fall is her favorite time of the year at Leech Lake.
The wind finally died down a bit today, blowing at 8-12 mph out of the north. The temperature was a cool 34 degrees and the sky was overcast and grey at 9:00 a.m. It wasn't just cold outside, it looked cold outside.
I again spent the morning and into early afternoon doing consulting work, but finally at about 1:15 p.m. I pushed myself away from the PC and decided to go fishing.
I got the remaining fathead minnows, lowered the boat into the water, fired up the Mercury Verado, which had been sitting idle for more than a week, and motored out to a spot in front of Malay's cabin in 9 feet of water. I deployed the drift sock and let the wind push the boat south toward Second Duck Point.
Jigging with a fathead was my presentation and although I made two passes over areas where I was marking fish on the Lowrance I couldn't catch one fish. In fact, I didn't even get a bite. After more than an hour on the water, which was 48 degrees, I made my way to shore.
Once on shore I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then set about clearing off all of the leaves on the lake side of the house with the Toro leaf blower. As always, this particular chore takes longer than I expect, although I do have some fondness for it since I'm outside near the lake.
At 5:00 p.m. I switched off the leaf blower and went inside. I did a little more consulting work, then realized that the sun has been setting before 6:30 p.m. so it might be a good time to get in some early evening trolling.
I pulled on my heavy-duty Cabela's Guidewear rain gear, which also works great against the wind and cold, and made my way over to the boat lift at roughly 6:15 p.m. Once out on the lake I got the boat ready for some evening trolling -- I got the running lights on, put the rod holder in place, extended the landing net and set the motor on cruise control and set off south toward Second Duck Point.
I trolled out to the middle of Bass Bay without as much as a tap so I did a slow turn and headed back toward our house. I was trolling in 8-10 feet of water using a Rapala Minnow Rap in a yellow perch color.
Just off of Second Duck Point I hooked a fish. It turned out to be a northern pike so I unhooked it over the side of the boat and got it back into the water quickly. I continued trolling north to our cabin then turned the boat and began trolling south again. Once again I went past Second Duck Point without so much as a tap.
Then on my way north again I hooked into a fish. I got it up to the boat and saw that it was a walleye so I quickly grabbed the landing net and scooped the fish out of the lake and into the boat. I unhooked the fish and took a quick measurement. The walleye taped out at 22 inches. And it was a stout fish too, with shoulders, as they say. I released the beautiful walleye back into the lake.
During the time it took to unhook and measure the fish the wind had blown the boat in toward shore and south toward Second Duck Point. I engaged the motor and went back out into 8 feet of water and repositioned the boat so I was once again heading north; into the wind.
No sooner had I started trolling than I hooked another fish. This fish didn't put up as much a fight as the first fish so I could tell right away it was a smaller fish, but I still wasn't sure if it was a walleye. By this time it was dark outside so I had to get the fish right up next to the boat to see that it was walleye.
Again I unhooked the fish and took a quick measurement. This walleye was a perfect eating sized fish at 16 1/2 inches. I thought about keeping it for a minute, but then decided to put it back into the lake. I have lots of food I need to eat before my Tuesday departure so I figured that this fish would live to fight another day.
I finally came in at just before 8:00 p.m. I didn't realize how cold I was until I was inside the warm house and my hands and fingers began to tingle as they warmed up. I made some dinner, watched a DVD and called Kathleen to wish her happy birthday and to say goodnight.
If the weather reports are to be believed, it is supposed to be in the low 50s tomorrow, sunny, with a light wind of 5-10 mph from the north. If those are indeed the conditions, then I'm pulling the boat out of the water tomorrow morning. With the way the weather is here in northern Minnesota, I may not get another good day to remove the boat lift canopy and get the boat out of the water before I have to go back to California.
Stay tuned...
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