May 26, 2012 -- On Leech Lake

This morning the temperature at 9:00 a.m. was a cool 48 degrees, the sky was grey and it looked like it could rain at any moment. The wind, however, was light at 3-8 mph out of the NW.

Rick and I greeted the morning slowly, taking our time to eat breakfast, drink coffee and generally get going. It wasn't until after 1:00 p.m. that we made our way next door to take the boat out fishing.

The water temperature had dropped to 61.5 degrees, a full three degrees cooler than it had been earlier in the week. The cool daytime temperatures and even colder temps during the night sent the lake temperature in the wrong direction. At this time of year the water should be warming up, not cooling down.

Based on a tip from John Newman, we made our way to the Birches where we heard tell that jumbo perch were biting. I fished with a jig tipped with a fathead while Rick tried a Lindy rig and minnow. We both caught several small perch, before I boated a true jumbo perch which measured a full foot long. Rick added a 10-inch perch and both went into the live well. If we catch one more good-sized perch, or a smallish walleye, we'll have enough for a fish dinner.

We came ashore around 3:00 p.m. under grey skies, a cool NW wind of 8-12 mph and a temperature that had finally hit 60 degrees. It was time for some lunch in advance of listening to A Prairie Home Companion tonight on Minnesota Public Radio.

After hearing A Prairie Home Companion, which wasn't one the better shows, I got the brats in a beer bath and heated them up on the stove in preparation for grilling. Along with the brats we'll have corn on the cob and baked beans for dinner.

With the wind still very light, ranging from calm to 5 mph out of the NW, I think we'll try to go trolling tonight. Since it's Memorial Day weekend, there are a lot of tourists and others visiting Leech Lake so there will be some boat traffic to contend with tonight.

We backed the boat off the lift at just after 9:00 p.m. After getting the navigation light on and getting our trolling rods (with Minnow Raps) from the storage locker I guided the boat south toward Second Duck Point in 10 feet of water.

Almost instantly Rick called that he had hooked a fish. With the official sunset coming just minutes earlier, we figured it was a pike on his line, since pike generally bite up until 30 minutes after sunset which is when the walleye start biting. However, we were wrong and Rick brought a 16-inch walleye into the boat. We contemplated keeping it, but Rick decided to put it back into the lake.

We made several passes in the "Alley" between our house and the middle of Duck Bay, but didn't catch anything. The wind was picking up, actually quite a bit, so I let Rick know that we'd make another pass and then we'd head home.

Shortly after my pronouncement, I hooked into a fish and when all was said and done I had a very nice 18-inch walleye in the boat. But the slot limit on Leech Lake requires that all walleye between 18 and 26 inches be released back into the lake, so my nice fish was quickly and safely returned to the water.

Not more than 10 minutes later Rick caught another walleye, this one measuring just under 16 inches, so we decided to keep it. That smaller walleye, together with the 12- and 10-inch perch we caught earlier in the day, will provide us dinner tomorrow night.

We came ashore around 10:30 p.m. and spent the next 90 minutes just listening to music and talking. It's now nearing midnight and time to call it a night. It was another good day of fishing on Leech Lake.