September 11-12, 2012 -- On Leech Lake

Tuesday was the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in NYC and Washington D.C. As someone who had taken those flights from Boston and New York City to San Francisco I once again thanked, whoever it is one thanks at times like these, that I wasn't on that flight on that day.

Today was warmer than yesterday and eventually hit a high of 78 degrees. The wind was light out of the south at 5-8 mph and the sky was mostly sunny. Again, the northwoods is struggling to let go of summer before Autumn takes over.

It was good weather to start painting the door on the lakeside deck and that's exactly what I did. The color of the paint looked much more like magenta to me than burgundy so after applying a heavy coat of paint I decided to let it dry a full day to see if the color is what I was hoping it would be or if I would have to go into Bemidji and get an alternate color.

And since watching paint dry is not all that interesting, Joe and I decided to go fishing.

With the breeze out of the SSW at 8 mph we used the drift sock to keep the boat moving north along the shoreline of Sucker Bay in 9-11 feet of water. The water temperature had fallen to 67. Both Joe and I were using Northland jigs tipped with 4-inch plastic screwtail grubs.

We fished for about two and half hours, during which time a caught a couple of good-sized pike, a small pike, a handful of small perch and one jumbo perch which I kept. Joe has yet to eat any Leech Lake-caught fish during his current stay and I figured that this perch would be a tasty treat for him. Unfortunately, Joe didn't hook a single fish.

Looking at our house/cabin as we drifted north on Sucker Bay

We had a simple dinner tonight of sandwiches made from the left over grilled chicken with North Alabama White BBQ sauce, but as an appetizer, we had a mess of crayfish that Joe had trapped over the past several days. Cooking them is a simple matter of boiling them in water, the way you would a lobster, then serving them with drawn butter. There's not a lot of meat in them, the tail section yielding a piece of meat a little bigger than the size of a raisin, but they are tasty.

A bowl full of Leech Lake crayfish ready for a pot of boiling water

We finished off the evening watching a DVD. Good night from Leech Lake

The wind on Wednesday was the primary feature of the day's weather. It was blowing out of the north at 15-20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph at times. The lake was rolling with waves which were crested with white caps. The temperature hit a high of 68 degrees and the sky was mostly sunny, but with a healthy helping of clouds.

I took advantage of the blustery day to finish painting the doors; the front door and the deck door. The wind dried the latex paint quickly enabling me to apply a second coat where needed. I'm sure I'll have to do some touch up on Thursday, but 99% of the job is complete.

Joe and I have been using Joe's .22 rifle to eliminate the red squirrels that are so prevalent in around our house. Normally I would not 'hunt' squirrel, but these little pests find their way into the house and leave caches of pine nuts and other seeds underneath the cushions of our furniture. How they get into our house beats me, but I'm not about to have them ravage our house throughout the winter.

Joe and I have been keeping a tally of how many squirrels we've been able to hit, and as of today, Joe atop the leader board with 5 squirrels to my 3.

Since we couldn't go fishing due to the rough water, we took a walk today and it's becoming more obvious that Autumn is rapidly approaching. The leaves are changing color, although are probably still a week or more from 'peaking.'

As the sun sank into the western horizon, the wind began to die down a bit, but neither Joe nor I felt like it was calm enough to go out trolling, so we stayed on shore and enjoyed another beautiful Leech Lake sunset. I never get tired of watching the sunsets here at the lake.

The sun's final glow over Sucker Bay, Leech Lake

We had another quiet night of reading, watching a DVD and listening to music after our spaghetti dinner. I'm really hoping we can get out on the water tomorrow since Joe only has a little more than a week left here at Leech Lake before he has to fly back to California. Heck, I'm only going to be here a few more weeks myself, and would love to catch a couple of walleye, or even some jumbo perch, before I have to go back to  the Golden State.

More reports from Leech Lake tomorrow (or the next day).