June 3, 2012 -- On Leech Lake

The golden water of Sucker Bay this evening

Today is Rick's last day full day at Leech Lake for this trip. He's already hinted that he may be able to swing another trip up here come September or October, but who knows...

The weather this morning was as follows: the sky was grey and overcast and looked like it might bring some rain with it. The temperature was a fairly balmy 65 degrees and there was little to no wind; what breeze there might have been looked to be coming out of the southwest.

Although the Leech Lake Walleye Tournament is in its second and final day, there were relatively few boats in front of our house and cabin; maybe a half a dozen at most. The results from Day 1 of the tournament have the leading team with 13.51 pounds of walleye with six fish caught. The big fish of the day was a 7.28 pounder, which is a big fish. A walleye must be over 26 inches to be kept here on Leech Lake and that fish had to be at least 27 or 28 inches, if not bigger, to weigh 7.28 pounds.

The forecast for today called for rain and light winds starting sometime after noon, with possible thunderstorms around 2:00 p.m. So at 11:30 a.m. Rick and I thought it would be a good time to venture onto the lake to do some fishing. We had washed our rain gear the other day and it was still hanging up in the garage to dry, but since it wasn't predicted to rain for a while we thought we'd be OK. Wrong.

No sooner than we got out on the water than the wind picked up and it started raining. With no rain gear, and my aversion to being on the water in overly windy conditions, we came right back in. When the wind dies down, we'll try again regardless of the rain.

Once inside, I put my rain gear into the dryer and made sure it dried quickly; no more air drying. With my rain gear finally dry, we decided to go back onto the water for some fishing; wearing our rain gear just in case.

No sooner had we left the boat lift when a light rain began to fall. But almost as fast as it started it stopped, and for the rest of our time on the water it didn't rain again. Perfect, since we had our rain gear on.

I motored out to Bass Bay where we threw spinnerbaits for largemouth bass. I deployed the electric trolling motor and got us started fishing at the harbor near Third Duck Point in 2 feet of water. We fished all along the reeds in Bass Bay for more than an hour, but the only fish we caught was a nice 3-pound largemouth that I hooked, and a little rock bass that Rick caught. We did, however, see a large dogfish sitting on its bed in the shallows, but couldn't entice it to bite.

Having thoroughly fished our way around Bass Bay, I pulled up the trolling motor, fired up the Mercury Verado and sped the boat to Second Duck Point, no more than a five- or six-minute ride at 35 mph. Once at Second Duck Point we jigged for walleye and jumbo perch, but caught only a handful of small perch. At that point it was time to go ashore.

Once on shore, Rick and I stopped by John Newman's house for a beer and some conversation. I left about  a half an hour later, but Rick ended up staying for nearly three hours. Finally at 9:30 p.m. Rick came home and we went out for our evening troll.

The sky was mostly cloudy, the moon was full, and the wind was calm; the lake was truly flat. The water temperature was 67 degrees and the air temperature was a very comfortable 60 degrees. We made several passes from the cabin south into Duck Bay and back again, but the only fish we boated was a small walleye I caught (probably no more than 12 inches) and a pike and rock bass that Rick caught. Rick did have a walleye on the hook, but it came unbuttoned before it got close enough to the boat to net.

At 11:00 p.m. we came ashore. Rick gathered up some of his gear and stowed it until his next visit. When that will be is unknown. It could be as soon as this Fall, or not again until next Spring. In either case, it was good to have him up here in the northwoods for visit during the past two weeks.

Tomorrow I'll give Rick a ride into Bemidji so he can catch his 1:00 p.m. flight to Minneapolis. From there he's off to Las Vegas for meetings. I, on the other hand, will remain in Bemidji to have the truck serviced, run numerous errands and go grocery shopping. I'm guessing that I won't make it back to the lake until sometime in the evening.

I'll post again here tomorrow, but probably not until later in the day. So until then, good night from Leech Lake.