June 10, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

The morning I awoke to the sound of the furnace running. Yep, June 10 and the furnace is required. The temperature this morning was 42 degrees, the sky was mostly cloudy with some blue patches, and the wind was out of the north at 7-12 mph.

There is no work today on the harbor. The plan is that Peterson Excavating will be out on Monday with the big hoe to align the harbor wall. With no jackhammering I was able to enjoy my coffee on the back deck.

After a series of work calls, I decided to go fishing.

The wind on the lake seemed to be swirling. With the drift sock deployed I at first observed the wind to be coming out of west blowing the boat toward shore. Later, the wind came out of the NE and blew me south toward Second Duck Point. And just before I came in the wind was blowing out of the south pushing back toward the cabin. In all cases the wind was light at no more than 5-8 mph, regardless of direction.

The water temperature was 65.8 degrees, and I fished in water ranging from 9-12 feet deep. I used a Gumball jig, 1/8 ounce, tipped with a fathead. I caught numerous perch, a rock bass, a 13-inch walleye and the strangest catch of my current stay at Leech Lake, a 11-inch bullhead. I've only caught maybe 3 or 4 bullhead in the 10 years I've been fishing Leech Lake, so this was a surprise.

Hunger brought me ashore at 3:00 p.m.

Nature Update: For the past 3 or 4 days there has been an ongoing dragonfly hatch. There are literally millions of dragonflies on Ottertail Peninsula. On my regular ATV rides around the peninsula I've been hit in the throat, eye (thank goodness I was wearing sunglasses), shoulder, hand, leg and just about any other body part a flying insect fortress could hit. Now other than there being a million of them, dragonflies are not a nuisance. In fact, not only are they food for many species of birds, they are predators of mosquitoes, which makes them very valuable in my book.

At 8:45 p.m. I went fishing. The wind was 12-15 mph out of the north, creating a good chop to the lake. The moon was 69% waxing, the sun set at 9:14 p.m. the temperature was 48 degrees and the water temperature was a good deal warmer at 65 degrees.

I decided to fish a little bit further south than usual and spent most of my time trolling the flats of "Duck Bay" in 9-11 feet of water. I was using this year's favorite crankbait the Minnow Rap in Tennessee Shad color, fitted with a brand new front treble hook.

While trolling north into the wind at a ground speed at just under 2 mph, I hooked into two nice walleyes, the first 19 inches and the second a sturdy 23-inch, 4 1/2 pound eyeball. After those two fish I decided to head home.

I came ashore at 10:00 p.m. and spent the remainder of my waking hours reading newspapers and listening to music. Another great day at Leech Lake.