By 10:30 a.m. there were a half dozen boats in front of the house fishing in what I'd estimate to be 8 feet of water. According to my neighbor John Newman, who went fishing yesterday and was again on the water this morning, there are walleye out there. John caught 16-inch walleye yesterday, which he kept, and he released a huge walleye, which he estimated to be close to 28-inches.
After having a leisurely breakfast, and enjoying a couple of cups of coffee, I decided to go fishing. I took two spinning rod and reel combinations to the boat, and also brought along my baitcasting rod and reel rigged for trolling. Since I hadn't used my boat since my last visit in August, I also had to put my tackle box and other items into the boat. The last thing I brought aboard was the fathead minnows.
I lowered the boat into the water, noticing that the water level was down several inches since August, fired up the Mercury Verado (which started up first try) and slowly motored out to a spot in front of Giza's cabin in 10 feet of water. The water temperature was 60.5 degrees.
There were already eight boats in the area, so I picked a spot where I would be clear of all of them during my drift northward toward the Malay's cabin. I deployed the drift sock, tipped my lime-green colored jig with a fathead and started fishing.
My first pass I had several bites, and lost three or four minnows, but couldn't hook anything. My lack of time on the water during the past seven weeks has me rusty. During my second pass from Giza's to Malay's I caught a few small perch, which went back into the water. I also caught a small 13-inch walleye, which of course went back into the lake as well.
On my third pass I located a school of good-sized perch. I hooked two 10-inch perch, and although they weren't technically jumbos, I kept them anyway because they were stout fish.
My next pass proved even better. Directly in front of our house I caught another 10-inch perch, which I kept, followed by a 13-inch+ perch that definitely qualified as a jumbo. It was during my fight with the 13-incher that I realized I hadn't loaded the landing net in the boat. No problem, however, I was able to hoist the big boy into the boat and deposit him into the live well. Four perch in the box.
Looking from the boat toward shore on Sucker Bay, Leech Lake. Directly in front of our house.
At 3:15 p.m. I went ashore for a little lunch, prior to getting ready for the OPA Pot Luck. Once on shore I stopped by to see John Newman and to give him two of the four perch I had caught -- although I kept the big jumbo for my Sunday night dinner.
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There were 49 people in attendance at tonight's Ottertail Peninsula Association pot luck dinner/meeting and 30 door prizes to be given away after the meeting. Pretty good odds of winning something, but I managed to beat the odds and come up empty. It's just as well since I haven't donated anything for the past two years.
The wind has died down and the lake is almost calm, the temperature at 7:30 p.m. was 62 degrees, and the sky is partly cloudy.
I wasn't feeling 100% tonight so after getting home from the pot luck I did a little reading, listened to some classical music on KCRB out of Bemidji and went to bed early. Hopefully I'll wake up feeling better tomorrow. I don't want to waste one second of my time at Leech Lake not feeling well. Until tomorrow...
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