I walked out to the end of the dock and that brief walk across the lawn got my sandals completely wet. Last night the humidity was 88% because the dew point was at 54 degrees and the low temperature overnight was 58 degrees. Thus, the dew on the grass this morning was very heavy.
I counted eight boats in our general vicinity including one boat directly in front of our cabin where the two guys were throwing muskie lures. Figuring it would be a great day to spend some serious time on the water, I got out my two 6-gallon gas cans, filled them up, lugged them down to the boat, and gassed up the boat, just in case we decided to do any long runs on the water. I also plugged in the onboard battery charger to make sure the MinnKota electric trolling motor had full power should we work the reeds for bass.
With my boat maintenance complete, I went inside, washed the dishes and cleaned up the kitchen. When Joe got up he wanted to make buckwheat pancakes and bacon for breakfast, and I wasn't about to dissuade him. The maple syrup we used on our pancakes was made by our neighbor Jerry Schiebe from maple trees right here on Ottertail Peninsula. There's no syrup that's better than locally made maple syrup.
When we were done with breakfast, Joe and I decided to go fishing. We planned to be on the water for some time, so we packed a number of cold drinks, sandwiches and chips for lunch on the water. We started fishing right off Second Duck Point using jigs and fatheads. Joe had the hot stick and caught numerous perch, although no jumbos.
From Second Duck Point we moved south around Ottertail Point and up into Portage Bay where we stopped at Ivan's Bay. A few months ago Rick and I fished Ivan's Bay and I caught several nice sized perch and a keeper 17" walleye, so I figured Joe and I would give it a try. We jigged fathead minnows for about 30 minutes but didn't get so much as a bite.
Joe had been asking to go exploring in other parts of Leech Lake for several days now, and since the weather was good, the wind relatively light at 5-8 mph out of the SSW, we decided to motor up Portage Bay to the mouth of the Leech Lake River, and then into the river itself to the end where boats have to stop because of the dam at Federal Dam.
With three-quarters of a tank of gas in my Lund ProV 1800 Tournament boat we had more than enough fuel to make such a run, so we decided to do it. I throttled up the 150hp Mercury Verado, got the boat on plane and made the 20 minute ride to the mouth of the Leech Lake River.
The river is clearly marked with buoys -- green on the starboard side as you enter the river and red on the port side. The buoys are also numbered starting with 45 and counting down to 1 when you reach the end of the navigable portion of the river about mile later at Federal Dam.
The Leech Lake River is flanked by reeds and wild rice and varies in depth from 3 feet to as deep as 13 feet in some holes. In fact, during a recent professional walleye tournament on Leech Lake the winner -- who took home $65,000 -- caught all of his fish in a 10-foot deep hole on the river.
Joe and I took our time motoring toward Federal Dam since we had never been on the river before. We encountered several boats coming the other way on the river as well as heading toward the dam. There are two boat landings at the river at Federal Dam and apparently it's a popular place for people to launch their boats and pontoons.
The dam at Federal Dam, the end of the Leech Lake River from Leech Lake
Once we reached marker buoy #1, we took a few pictures and then turned around and headed back to the lake. It took us about 40 minutes to go from the mouth of the river to the dam and back again, but we were going slow and enjoying the beauty of the Leech Lake River.
At last we entered Portage Bay again and I throttled up and took us south to Two Points, which is on the east side of Ottertail Peninsula. Once there, Joe and I tipped our jigs with fatheads and did a little fishing. Unfortunately, all we caught were some rock bass.
A small rocky island off Two Points, Portage Bay, Leech Lake
After leaving Two Points we continued south to the tip of the peninsula, Ottertail Point. We again tried jigging minnows for perch and walleye, but again came up empty. I then took us north into Sucker Bay up to Duck Point where we slowed down and began trolling for walleye with Minnow Raps.
We made a long, slow trip across Duck Bay but didn't catch anything. We finally got back to the boat lift around 6:00 p.m., after more than 5 hours on the water. I figured it was more than a 20 mile trip from our house to Federal Dam, one way. I estimated that we traveled close to 50 miles on lake today; probably the most we've done in the 10+ years we've been fishing Leech Lake.
Joe and I spent a lot of time on the water today so we didn't go trolling for walleye this evening, instead we enjoyed watching the sunset, had dinner, and then watched a movie on DVD.
It was a wonderful day of fishing and exploring the big water of Leech Lake. Good night.
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