September 24-30, 2012 -- On Leech Lake

I've been very busy this week so I'll just recap some of the fishing I was able to squeeze in as well as some of the chores I was able to complete.

• Fishing first. I caught a 20-inch walleye while jigging with a fathead minnow, but all of the rest of walleye I caught this week came while trolling, and all in the hour just after sunset. I hooked and boated two 23-inch walleye, three that were 20 inches and three or four walleye that were legal keepers-- under 18" -- but I put them all back into the lake. TACKLE NOTE: I tried using a smaller, #7 version of the Minnow Rap, as well as a Berkley Flicker Shad, but neither caught fish. The walleye I did catch all came on the regular-sized, #9 Minnow Rap in a "bleeding shad" color trolled approximately 60 feet behind the boat.

• The weather during the latter half of the week was amazing. Temperatures on Friday, Saturday and Sunday were 75, 77 and 79 degrees respectively. Couple that with blue skies and light winds and the spectacular color of trees and it added up to a perfect Autumn weekend to be outside doing yard work. I spent a good portion of the day Saturday transplanting Forget-Me-Not's from one flower bed to another, and then tearing out all the remaining plants/weeds that remained in the initial flower bed; which took me all weekend to complete. The only downside to the beautiful weekend was that Michigan State lost to Ohio State in football on Saturday and the Detroit Lions lost to the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. On a positive sports note, the Tigers did beat the Twins on Sunday.

The almost surreal colors of the trees and sky above our house

• Our house and cabin happen to be located in some of the best walleye-fishing waters on Leech Lake. The upside to that is I don't have far to go in my boat, maybe about 100 yards, to be in prime walleye water. The downside is that I'm not the only one who knows what a great fishing spot this is. As a result there are often several boats directly beyond our dock. Since the weather and fishing was so good this week, there were a couple of days where I counted as many as 22 boats in our general area. I've seen as many as 30 or more boats in past years, but those tended to be spread out over a bigger area.

Some of the many boats fishing for walleye in front of our house

• On Wednesday I spent about 4 hours putting up the storm windows at the cabin. Unlike most years when I just race through this project, I took my time and washed both sides of every storm window, as well as the inside and outside of every window in the cabin. It took longer, but boy does it look good! 

• On Saturday evening I went fishing and had the opportunity to watch the sunset in the west while watching the Harvest moon rise in the east. It was impossible to capture both events in one photo, but here they are in two.

Looking west from the boat

Looking east from the boat

• I got out on the water just after sunset on Sunday with a warm breeze still blowing. I've been at Leech Lake on the final day of September in the past when the temperature was near freezing. But as I motored the boat off the lift, the air temperature was still a very balmy 70 degrees. On my final pass of trolling for the night, I hooked into a nice 20-inch walleye directly in front of our house. Once the fish was released unharmed back into the 57 degree water, I stowed my gear and got the boat back on the lift. As it turns out, that may be my last time on the water in 2012. I got the news from Kathleen on Sunday night that she would not be able to make another visit to the lake this year. That was just one more reason for me to cut my stay shorter than originally planned. I'll make arrangements to fly back to California tomorrow, but I know for sure that I'll be in the Golden State no later than October 13.

That's the week wrap for now. So long from the shores of Leech Lake. The best spot on the planet.