July 22, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

This morning was a perfect summer morning. Bright blue sky, a light breeze that barely rippled the flag or lake, a temperature of 72 degrees and the humidity at 70%. Absolutely perfect.

After taking care of various chores around the house and properties, I decided to go fishing at 12:30 p.m. There was only a slight breeze and it was the hottest part of the day, not exactly ideal fishing conditions, but what the heck.

I took the boat out to 10 feet of water off Second Duck Point and began jigging. At that spot on the lake the wind, which was coming out of the SE was strong enough to where I had to deploy the drift sock to keep the boat from turning in the wind. The wind gently pushed the boat out into the bay at about .35 mph ground speed.

I had a few bites, but could never hook into anything. After about an hour or so I decided to relocate to a deeper hole I know over by the old Bay Shore Resort at the north end of Sucker Bay. I figured that the warm water, which was now at 81 degrees, may have forced the fish to go a little deeper than they've been the past few weeks.

Once at the spot marked by a waypoint I dropped in the drift sock, put a fresh leech onto the jig and began fishing. After about 30 minutes or so, the wind died down completely and the heat from the overhead midday sun was really baking me, so I decided to call it quits.

I stowed my jigging rod in the rod locker, got the boat ready to go then applied the throttle to get me home. I immediately experienced a drag on the boat and wondered what was up. I put the boat in neutral and everything seemed to be OK so once again I throttled up and got the boat moving quickly. That's when I felt the drag again, followed by a loud snap. Again I backed off on the throttle and quickly checked the motor to see if I had snapped a linkage or cable.

That, fortunately, wasn't the problem. What was the issue was that I had left the drift sock in the water, and that the rope snapped when I accelerated. My drift sock was now slowly sinking some 25 yards behind the boat. I quickly turned the boat around and went after my slowly descending drift sock. But by the time I got there it was out of sight; gone beneath the algae bloom of Leech Lake.

I wasn't about to give up that easily, so I got out my trolling rod and made several passes over the spot hoping to snag the drift sock with my lure and reuse it. Unfortunately, after numerous passes over the location where I last saw the sock, I had come up empty. My drift sock was gone.

The wind had died down and as a result I had completely forgotten that the sock was still in the water. It's particularly disappointing for me because that drift sock had been a Father's Day present from my son Joe several years back. I liked it so much that when it tore earlier this season rather than get a new one I had this one repaired. Now it was lurking somewhere in the depths of north Sucker Bay. Now I'll have to get a new one at Scheel's when I'm in St. Cloud on Sunday.

Since it was Friday night, I had pizza. Lately, when I've been getting pizza here at the lake, I've been picking up an unbaked pie from Great River Pizzeria in Cass Lake. Yesterday when I was driving home from Bemidji I stopped in and picked up a pizza in anticipation of "Friday night pizza," a tradition that goes back more than two decades in our family. I know for sure that those of my family in California will be ordering pizza tonight.

After my pizza dinner, I read some Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes, and then watched a 1962 Hammer Production movie starring Peter Cushing, Night Creatures.

I could tell that the wind had picked up a little by the sound of it blowing through the trees. Tonight there's a good chance of thunderstorm, and tomorrow there's a 50% chance of thunderstorms all day long.

I guess it's probably because I'm still fretting over the loss of my drift sock earlier today, but I decided against going fishing until I've got the boat outfitted with a new drift sock. So no fishing tonight.

Good night from Leech Lake.