May 30, 2011 -- Memorial Day On Leech Lake

Early in the morning -- and I'm talking about 2:30 a.m. -- on this Memorial Day, there was thunder and rain. By 9:00 a.m. the rain had stopped, but the sky was dark and overcast, the temperature was a cool 48 degrees (I just heard the furnace kick on) and the wind, from what I can tell my the movement of the flags, is a relatively light 5-7 mph out of the north. According to the National Weather Service, the wind is at 16 mph out of the ESE.

As the day wears on, however, the weather is supposed to get real nasty. Here's a quote from the http://www.weather.com/ web site: "Severe thunderstorms with hail, high winds, and tornadoes will rock the Plains and Upper Midwest on Memorial Day." (That includes Leech Lake.)

In fact, I heard on the radio yesterday that we could get winds up to 25 mph today and as high as 33 mph on Tuesday. If that's the case, we will not be fishing for the next couple of days.

At 11:00 a.m., after a pancake breakfast and maple syrup made by Jerry Schiebe from Ottertail Peninsula maples, Rick and I went fishing. The wind was 10-15 mph out of the ENE, which meant that along our shoreline the water was calm for about 50 yards out from the shore.

There were a dozen boats or more in front of the house, so we motored down to the Birches to try for some perch and maybe a walleye. Once there I decided to fire up the Honda 8hp kicker motor and while it would run while idling it stalled out when put into gear. I'll have to have that checked out by either Mark Ashe (the local mechanic from New Leech Lake Campground) or Corner Sports when I take the boat out in October.

We didn't catch much at the Birches, I think I caught a couple of small perch, so we moved back in front of the house. I caught a few more perch, but Rick came up empty.

Once on shore -- at 1:15 p.m. -- I cleaned one of the two walleye we had in the basket and took it to Jerry Schiebe to repay the favor he did us by giving us a jar of homemade maple syrup. In about 45 minutes from now, Rick and I are going next door for a BBQ with the Newman men -- John, John Jr. and Greg. I understand that "danger dogs" will be on the menu.

The weather remains grey, overcast, with a temperature of 44 degrees. The wind is out of the ENE at about 15 mph and everything is wet. It's not raining per se, it's just wet. Not the kind of Memorial Day weather that entices tourists to Leech Lake; which is fine by me.

Rick and I did dine with John and Johnny Newman (Greg had gone to their home in the Twin Cities with his mom and sister on Sunday). And we did indeed have burgers and danger dogs. After dinner Rick and I came back to my place where we got ready to go fishing.

The weather reports were of a tornado watch for our area and expected severe thunderstorms as the evening progressed, but when we hit the water at 8:15 p.m., there was little sun light peaking through the heavy clouds, the wind was at 12-17 mph out of the ENE, and the temperature was about 63 degrees; it actually felt balmy.

We fished in "the Alley," and saw only three other boats, one of which were the Newman's in their rowboat. The water temperature remained at 60 degrees.

We trolled Minnow Raps (I used my Tennessee Shad color while Rick opted for purpledescent) in 9-13 feet of water. Tonight the bite was slow, I caught three northern pike and a 17 3/4-inch walleye. Rick, for the second time today, came up empty.

As we were motoring back to the lift, we could see flashes of lightening across the sky to the southwest and could hear the low rumble of far-off thunder. It's hard to tell if the storm will move in on us or pass us altogether.

Since the reports are calling for "strong thunderstorms" and possible "damaging hail," I decided to move the truck from its usual spot in the driveway at the house into the big garage at the cabin. On my way back from the cabin I could bright flashes of lightening directly overhead. Maybe the storm is getting closer.

A quick report from the Newman's on their fishing tonight. In their little rowboat (the Johnson 6hp clunked out) they rowed into 10 feet of water and used lighted slip-bobber rigged with Northland Gumball jigs and tipped with fatheads. Foth father and son caught 22-inch walleye, while John Sr. also added a nice "eater" walleye and a jumbo perch. Just goes to show you that you don't need a fancy boat or expensive tackle to catch nice Leech Lake walleye.

The web site http://www.weather.com/ predicted the "severe thunderstorms" to hit our area at 11:30 p.m., and right on time, at exactly 11:30 p.m., the rain started pounded the windows of our living room, lightening lit up the sky, thunder rumbled and the wind began to howl.

As I sign off for the night, it is raining and there are still occasional flashes of lightening. Good night.