August 1, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

I awoke this morning to gray overcast skies, a light wind of 5-8 mph out of the SE, a temperature of 70 degrees, with the humidity at 84%. The ground, and everything else outside, was wet from an early morning rain.

I checked the paint on the ATV garage to see if the rain had caused it to run, since it is a water-based latex paint, but it appears to have set up before the rain did any damage. The threat of more rain this morning, and thunderstorms this afternoon and evening, kept Joe and I from doing any painting today. Instead, we may try to dodge the precipitation and get out on the lake for a little fishing.

Nature Update: This year there have been dozens upon dozens of leopard frogs in the area. Every time I walk around the properties numerous frogs are jumping here and there. For years I hadn't seen even one leopard frog (their population in Minnesota has been on the decline for decades) but this year they're everywhere. I don't know if it's because of the large amount of rain we've had, which has kept the swamps full all summer long, or because of the high water level in the lake, or some other reason altogether, but it's good to see the return of the northern leopard frog on the shores of Leech Lake.

Just before noon I decided to go fishing. Joe elected to stay on shore. The wind was out of the south at 15-20 mph, which meant that it was fairly calm at the boat lift, but windy once I motored the boat out into 10 feet of water. Since all of the leeches I had had died, I opted for trolling rather than drifting.

The wind was so strong that when I was headed south I had to set the Mercury SmartCraft control speed at 700 rpm just to keep the boat moving at 2.0 mph ground speed. The water temperature was 78 degrees and the swells on the lake were 18" to 2 feet. I pulled a yellow perch-colored #9 Rapala Minnow Rap behind the boat out into Duck Bay with no bites.

On the return trip, heading north, I had to adjust the speed down to 550 rpm because the boat was being pushed so quickly by the wind. I had a couple of taps while heading north, most likely small perch hitting the lure, but I hooked no fish.

After an hour on the water I came ashore. It still wasn't raining and I was half tempted to start painting, but every weather forecast I checked called for mid-afternoon rain followed by thunderstorms starting around 5:00 p.m. and getting severe after 9:00 p.m.

The Coyles called from St. Cloud and said they were postponing their trip up to the lake until Tuesday because of the severe storms in that part of the state. While I was on the phone with Tim I could hear loud claps of thunder on his end, and he added that that wasn't even a loud one compared to those that were so strong that they were shaking the house. It looked like that storm was heading north, which put it on the path to hit Leech Lake later in the afternoon.

A light rain fell for a few minutes right around 3:00 p.m. then stopped almost as soon as it had started. A similar rain fell for a few minutes just before 4:00 p.m. The humidity was 82%, the temperature was at 80 degrees and the wind was around 10-15 mph out of the SSE. Every now and then the low rumble of thunder could be heard in the distance. The air was heavy and muggy.

As an appetizer before dinner Joe made Leech Lake crayfish. He boiled up about 30 crayfish and then we dipped the meat from their little tails in garlic butter and they were very tasty. We then ate our dinner and then watched a movie.

We kept waiting for the storm to arrive, but we had already headed off to bed before it hit.

Good night from Leech Lake.