September 14, 2012 -- On Leech Lake

This morning the temperature at 9:30 a.m. was only 50 degrees. Although by midday, the temperature had climbed to 68 degrees and it was warm enough to go without a sweatshirt and wear only a long-sleeve shirt; even on the water. The sky was sunny and blue, and the wind was relatively light at 8-12 mph out of the south shifting to the SE as the day progressed.

Joe felt like making a hearty breakfast today, so he made French toast, sausages and bacon. After breakfast, and cleaning up the kitchen, we spent some time just hanging out around the properties, and hunting red squirrels, before deciding to go fishing.

As we did the last time we were on the water, we fished with jigs tipped with fathead minnows. We started fishing in a spot in Duck Bay out in front of Newstrand's house near the reeds in about 7 feet of water. I'd heard that both walleye and jumbo perch were being caught in this area so we thought we fish here first. The water temperature through Sucker Bay today varied between 64-66 degrees.

We spent about 30 minutes fishing Duck Bay but didn't get so much as a bite, so we relocated to Second Duck Point. We drifted across the Point but again didn't get any bites so we moved a little further north to a spot in 9 feet of water in front of the Newman's cabin. With the drift sock in the water, we drifted north toward Malay's and slightly further from shore at a ground speed of approximately .35 mph.

We made about a half a dozen drifts between Newman's and eventually past Schiebe's to the north. During the 4-plus hours we were on the water I caught and unhooked probably six to eight northern pike measuring between 18- and 26-inches, and had my line bit off another 4 times. In addition, Joe and I both caught dozens of small- to medium-sized perch, including a 9-inch perch that Joe caught and that we decided to keep to go along with the 10 1/2-inch jumbo in our basket back at the dock.

During one pass in 10 feet of water in front of the Birches, I hooked into what I assumed was yet another northern so I handed the rod to Joe to let him reel it in. While I don't like to keep or eat pike the way some people do, they are fun to catch, especially on light spinning tackle and 6-lb test line such as I was using.

Joe played the fish perfectly as it made several runs away from the boat, each time it peeled out line and made the drag on my Shimano Stella scream. After several minutes Joe got the fish close enough to the surface for us to see that it wasn't a northern pike as we had expected, but a big walleye. I scrambled to get the landing net and positioned myself in the back of the boat to scoop the fish out of the water.

Again, Joe played the fish perfectly bringing it close to the boat without lifting it out of the water, and thus risk losing the fish, and I quickly slipped the net under it and hauled it into the boat. We could tell right away that it was a medium-sized Leech Lake slot fish -- somewhere between 18- and 26-inches -- but I would have to get the jig out of the walleye's mouth and measure it to tell just how big a fish it was.

As I went to put my left hand around the fish's 'shoulders' in order to pick it up, the fish flopped in the net and its sharp, big, pointed teeth bit me on the thumb creating two small, but painful, cuts that surprisingly produced a good deal of blood. I slipped on my Lindner fishing glove and this time had no trouble picking up the walleye, removing the jig and putting it down on The Judge tournament fish measuring rule. The walleye measured 23 1/2-inches, making it one of the bigger walleye, if not the biggest, I've caught this summer. Joe took a quick photo of me holding the fish before I released it back into Sucker Bay unharmed. It was a great team effort between me and Joe to hook, play, land and release a beautiful Leech Lake walleye.

Your humble author holding a Leech Lake walleye caught on September 14, 2012

Although catching the walleye was the highlight of the afternoon, there was still more fishing to do. We didn't catch another walleye, but we did catch many more perch including an 11-inch jumbo that I landed and kept just shortly before we packed up our gear and headed for shore.

Once on shore, Joe got a fire going in the fire pit at the cabin while I took the three perch inside the cabin to clean them. With six clean perch fillets on a plate, I took them back to the house and put them in the refrigerator, grabbed a beer and went next door to the Newman's to compare how their day on the water was to ours.

It turns out they went up into the far end of Sucker Bay into Sucker River, where they caught some bass, a northern and many small perch, but no jumbos or walleye. We agreed that we would try to get together on Saturday night since neither Karen nor Johnny, the Newman's oldest son, had yet to see Joe during his stay. And Joe also wanted to meet the Newman's new dog Bernard, which Joe has yet to see. I then left to go home and get dinner started.

We had a very tasty meal of beer-battered fresh perch fillets, French fries and salad. And for dessert I made Joe and I cream soda floats, with IBC Cream Soda and Kemp's vanilla ice cream. Boy were they good.

We finished off the evening by watch National Lampoon's Vacation on DVD and then doing a long Skype video call with Kathleen, Melissa and Jayden. It sure was fun to see their faces again.

It was a great day on Leech Lake, and Joe and I are looking forward to another several hours on the water again on Saturday; weather permitting. Good night from Leech Lake.

The trees starting to change colors along the shoreline of our house/cabin, Sucker Bay