May 27, 2012 -- At Leech Lake

I woke up this morning at 3:00 a.m. to very loud claps of thunder and the room alight with white-pink flashes of  lightening. I tried to stay awake to watch and listen to the storm, but I find such events so relaxing that I quickly fell back asleep.

At 9:00 a.m., the lightening and thunder continued, the wind had picked up and was blowing at 15-20 mph out of the ESE and the temperature was 53 degrees. I opened the blinds in the bedroom, went back underneath the blanket and watched as sheets of rain fell from the sky.

I couldn't help but think about the hundreds, possibly thousands, of families that come "up north" to Minnesota's lake country every Memorial Day weekend to go camping. For many families it's a tradition to set up a tent in one of the dozens of campgrounds that are in the numerous state parks located in the area. I could picture them huddled inside their tents cursing the cold, wet weather and wishing for a warm, dry bed, like the one where I lay watching the angry weather pass through.

I decided to check on the health of the three fish we have in the basket hanging off the dock, since the storm might have caused them to be stressed during the night. I prefer to clean and eat my catch within an hour if possible. There's nothing better than super-fresh, lake-caught fish for dinner.

As I walked out onto the dock I spotted a mother Merganser duck with at least a dozen little ducklings about 25 years off the end of the dock. They spotted me too, and quickly made their way north putting more distance between us.

The walleye and the foot-long perch were healthy and looked fine, while the 10-inch perch showed some signs of stress; although it was still alive and able to swim upright. All three should be fine until later this afternoon when I filet them, then they won't be doing so well.

As I made my way from the end of the dock to shore a small splash in the reeds to my left caught my attention. I turned to looked and saw a fair-sized muskie, probably 42 inches long, weave its way through the weeds in no more than 18-inches of water. Knowing that a muskie would choose the reeds adjacent to my dock to seek shelter from the storm made me smile.

And nature morning continued as I walked on the path between the cabin and the house. As I neared the fishing cleaning house I spotted a great blue heron standing on the big rock near the dock. It spread its wings slowly and then took to the air as I approached. To me, that 5 minute period sums up one of the many reasons I love being on the shores of Leech Lake. I get to see a family of Mergansers, a large muskie and a blue heron. You won't see that in San Jose.

Rick and I did various tasks around the properties -- such as clean out the "fish garage" and put up the solar lights on the two pathways between the house and cabin -- before deciding to go fishing. We backed the boat off the lift just before 2:00 p.m. and made our way to the Birches. The water temperature was 62.3 degrees.

Rick used a Lindy rig tipped with a minnow, while stuck with the tried and true method of using a jig and minnow. We caught numerous perch, including a jumbo 11-inch that I landed, and Rick caught a small hammer handle.

We fished the Birches for about an hour before moving into Bass Bay to try to catch some largemouth. Bass season opened just yesterday.

Both Rick and I started fishing using a Mimic Minnow with a spinner blade. Within 15 minutes I'd hooked into a good sized bass that must have weighed close to three pounds. I immediately released it into the water. But after that one good bass, neither Rick nor I could hook another bass. Rick did catch a 26-inch pike which managed to wrap Rick's line around dozens of reeds in the shallow water forcing us to spend nearly 15 minutes wrestling it free.

At 4:30 p.m. we came ashore and I set about the task of cleaning the two perch and 15-inch walleye which we caught yesterday. They would be our dinner tonight. I've really gotten into using a Shore Lunch beer batter to fry up the fish, and it works great. The fillets end up light and crispy and a perfect golden brown. To accompany our fish meal we had Minnesota wild rice and asparagus. A very tasty meal of Leech Lake fish indeed!

After eating dinner and cleaning up, it was once again time to go fishing. As is our usual methodology for walleye fishing in the evening/night, we got our trolling rods at the ready. Typically I use the Rapala Minnow Rap, in a variety of colors although recently I've been favoring the perch color, but tonight I switched up and went the the Berkley Ficker Shad in a fathead minnow color.

As is also typical for us, we trolled the "Alley" between our cabin to just south of Second Duck Point. The water temperature hovered between 62.3 and 62.5 degrees. We trolled at a speed of roughly 2.25 mph ground speed. The wind was nearly nonexistent for most of the night, before picking up to 8-12 mph around 10:30 p.m.

Rick caught the first fish, a 19 1/2-inch walleye. I followed with three more walleyes measuring 14-, 16 and 9-inches. That last fish may have been the smallest walleye I've ever caught. Just two days earlier I caught a perch that measured 12 inches long.

The sky darkened as we fished, not only because of nightfall but because of the heavy clouds moving into the area. The clouds brought some lightening with them, but it was high flashes of light rather than the bolts when the lightening is nearby. As I mentioned, the wind also picked up, so around 10:45 p.m. we took the boat back to the lift and came ashore.

We stayed up late listening to music and solving the worlds problems, well, at least identifying them. Before I went to bed for the night I called Kathleen. We talked while she was on her laptop and made travel arrangements for her to come to Leech Lake. As things stand today, Kathleen is scheduled to arrive at 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 9. I look forward to seeing her; we always have so much fun here at the lake.

Until tomorrow...