May 31, 2012 -- On Leech Lake

I can't believe is already the final day of May. Where does the time go? Answer, into the past.

At 9:00 a.m. this morning the temperature was 54 degrees, the sky was mostly sunny and there really was no wind to speak of, although officially the wind is listed as 3 mph out of the WNW. The high today would hit 69 degrees.

The 2012 Leech Lake Walleye Tournament is this Saturday and Sunday, June 2 and 3 out of Walker, so most of the 100+ teams are already in the area, and many of them are on Sucker Bay, in front of our house, practicing for tournament. I'm sure as the day wears on, and into tomorrow, many more boats will be out front checking out the fishing. And if past tournaments are any indication, there will likely be upwards of 30 boats out in front of the house come Saturday morning at the start of the tournament. The walleye fishing directly in front of our house and cabin is some the best on all of Leech Lake.

After breakfast and a pot of coffee, and some basic chores around the property (such as getting the hammock set up), Rick and I went fishing at just after noon. We started in 14 feet of water directly between the house and cabin and with the drift sock deployed slowly made our way toward Newman's cabin.

I was using my favorite jig and minnow combination, while Rick was using a Lindy rig tipped with a leech. Within 5 minutes I hooked and boated a 10 1/2-inch perch, just shy of what I'd call a jumbo (11-14 inches qualifies as a jumbo in my book). It went back into the lake. For the next hour or so, all we caught were small- to medium-sized perch.

Then about 1:30 p.m. the wind began to swirl and switch directions coming out of the south rather than the WNW; although it was still relatively light at 5-8 mph. This meant that if we set up in front of Giza's cabin in 10 feet of water and drifted we end up in 14-15 feet of water when we reached the point between our house and cabin; a perfect spot for walleye.

Sure enough, as soon as we got to that "honey hole" I hooked into a small walleye, somewhere between 14-16". I didn't measure it because I could tell it was fairly small and I had no intention of keeping it. Unfortunately, that would be the only walleye we would boat during our afternoon outing. And at 2:45 p.m. we went ashore.

Once I was back at the house, I spent some time getting Melissa and Jayden airline tickets to Minnesota. They are going to come here on June 20, and most likely spend some time visiting cousins, aunts and uncles in Minneapolis and St. Cloud before coming up to the lake. Jayden is very excited and is already playing a game where he pretends to catch and net walleyes. I wonder where he learned that game?

We ate an early dinner of grilled hamburgers, fries and broccoli and then got things loaded up to go fishing again. We started fishing in the same place where we'd left off, in 14 feet of water directly between my house and cabin.

Both Rick and I were using jigs tipped with minnows in the 63 degree water. The temperature of the air was in the low 60s, there were no clouds in the sky and there was virtually no wind.

Sucker Bay at sunset, taken from the boat while fishing

As beautiful as it was on Sucker Bay, the fishing wasn't nearly as nice. We caught only a few small perch while jigging, and once we switched to trolling, the only walleye we caught was a small 15-inch 'eyeball that Rick boated.

Since the fishing wasn't very good, we decided to call it quits around 10:30 p.m. and head home.

We spent a little time listening to music and playing dominoes before calling it a night. Despite the lack of walleye production -- only two all day between us, when yesterday I caught seven by myself -- it was another great day at Leech Lake.