Despite going to bed at midnight last night, I was wide awake at 4:45 a.m. When it became clear that sleep was not going to come easy, I decided to get up. And since I was up, I figured I might as well go fishing, so at 5:30 a.m., just 8 minutes after sunrise, I was on Leech Lake.
The wind was stiff at 12-15 mph out of the NNE creating some decent sized swells and a classic walleye chop. The temperature was 50 degrees, the water temperature was 65.5 degrees, and the sky was cloudy and grey.
The wonderful thing about being on the lake so early is there are no other boats to contend with. In fact, I could not see another boat in any direction on Sucker Bay.
With the water to myself, I motored out to 10 feet of water in front of Poage's cabin, put in the drift sock, and drifted south and out into the bay at a ground speed of roughly .60 mph. I tipped my parrot colored Northland Gumball jig with a leech and began fishing.
About halfway through my drift I caught a rock bass. But as I got closer to Second Duck Point I started marking a lot of fish on my Lowrance electronics. As if on cue, something bit my jig quickly and took the leech. It felt like the "tap" of a walleye.
Within 5 minutes of dropping a new leech into the choppy waters off Second Duck Point, I felt that familiar weight of a walleye and quickly set the hook. I could tell right away it was a good fish, most likely in the slot (which on Leech Lake is 18-26 inches; any fish in that "slot" has to go back into the lake).
I had forgotten to get the landing net ready, so while fighting the fish with one hand I extended the shaft on the landing net with the other. Soon I had the net under the fish and into the boat. The walleye measured 21 inches, and was a very solid, almost fat, fish. I gently released the fish back into the water.
At that point my lack of sleep was creeping up on me so I decided to go ashore. By 6:30 a.m. I was back in the house wondering if I should give sleep another shot.
Here on the shores of Leech Lake, the Summer Solstice officially arrived at 12:16 p.m., although you wouldn't know it was summer by the weather. The temperature was 55 degrees and there was light rain was falling as summer arrived in the Northwoods,. Within an hour a larger storm moved in and with it heavier rain. The color-weather radar on weather.com's site shows the strongest part of the storm to move over Ottertail Peninsula around 2:30 p.m.
By 3:30 p.m., with heavy rains still falling, the part of the yard that had been torn up by the harbor repairs by Peterson Excavating, looked like a swamp, with standing water atop the mud. At least this should help the grass seed I spread soak into the ground and hasten the recovery of the lawn.
My parents called me from Grand Rapids at around 2:15 p.m. as they were about to go into the grocery store. I figure after shopping and the drive to the lake, that they should arrive sometime around 4:00 p.m.
Sure enough, just after 4:00 p.m. my parents arrived. We spent an hour or so talking and catching up, and then I got the grill going for some dinner. At 8:00 p.m. I came back to the house and just as I got inside it started raining again. It was raining at 9:30 p.m. as I closed down the PC for the night.
Obviously no fishing tonight. But if there's a break in the weather tomorrow, I will try to get out and catch some more Leech Lake walleye.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
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