At Leech Lake, June 2010 -- A Brief Look Back

I arrived at our house on Leech Lake around 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 15. I did not pick up the boat in Bemidji as I usually would because I planned to do so on Thursday when I picked up Rick from the airport. Besides, my plan was to drive to St. Cloud first thing on Wednesday morning to visit Kathleen's mother, Marge.

I spent Tuesday night, my first night at Leech Lake this year, visiting with my neighbor John Newman; it was good to see him again.

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday morning I drove to St. Cloud. I spent most of the afternoon with Marge and my sister-in-law Sandy. In the early evening, I met my aunt Maureen for dinner. She happened to be in St. Cloud for regional quilting convention. After dinner I drove back to the lake and arrived home after 10 p.m. Wednesday night.

On Thursday, June 17, I drove into Bemidji to pick up Rick from the airport. We bought groceries, other supplies, then drove out to Corner Sports on Hwy. 71 in Bemidji to pick up my boat. Throughout the day it rained heavily, the wind was constantly changing direction, but was blowing upwards of 20 mph.

We got back to the house in the late afternoon, put the boat at the top of the boat ramp for its eventual launch in to the water, unpacked the supplies and then just hung out. The rain continued and around 6:00 p.m. we heard that there was a tornado watch for Cass County. We had lots of rain and some heavy winds, but no twisters. Elsewhere in the state, however, there were some fatalities from the tornadoes.

Friday, June 18, we awoke to extremely strong winds -- 30-40 mph out of the south. Leech Lake was an odd brownish color due to all of the sediment that was churned into the water by the wind. Several trees along Sucker Bay Road and West Shores Road went down, but we were fortunate not to have any trees topple on our property.

We checked out the roof at the cabin (which we're going to re-roof) and Rick made a CAD drawing of it and calculated the amount of materials we'll need to replace it. Since it was too windy to launch the boat and go fishing, we decided to head back into Bemidji Friday afternoon to get an estimate on the building materials for the re-roofing project.

The roof on the cabin, which is more than 40 years old, is not in good shape. The cedar shake shingles are rotting and are in such poor condition that my insurance company threatened to cancel my policy if I don't replace the roof. There are actually trees going out of the roof!


One of the several trees growing on the roof at the cabin. This one is a birch.

Late Friday afternoon I finally got the new DSL wireless modem up and running so I could check email, and post to this blog again. That's why I've had to post this brief look back. I think I'm all caught up for now.

It's great to be back at Our Oasis on Leech Lake (for you Kathleen).

On Leech Lake, June 20, 2010 -- Father's Day

I awoke this morning to a beautiful day at Leech Lake. The sun was shining, there were only a few billowy clouds, the wind was light at 5-7 mph from the south and the temperature was on its way to a comfortable 75 degrees by midday.

At noon, Melissa and Jayden called me to wish me a Happy Father's Day, which was nice. I look forward to holding little Jayden again soon.

Then at 1:30 p.m. Rick and I went fishing. We started at the reeds in front of Norm's cabin fishing for largemouth bass. I was throwing a spinner bait on a baitcasting reel while Rick was using a spinning reel with a Senko rigged Texas style, with no additional weight.

Rick caught a 9" bass, but I caught nothing. When we came to the end of the reeds, we switched tactics. We both started jigging with Northland Slurpies on 1/8 oz. jigs. Rick caught a small perch, and again I was skunked.

With very little breeze to move the boat we decided to do some daytime trolling. I was using a small jointed Shad Rap, and Rick used his favorite purpledescent Rapala Minnow Rap (I had replaced the treble hook which had its barbs snipped off last night).

Rick caught a small 13" walleye and small perch, while I finally caught a fish, a small perch. We came ashore at 4:00 p.m. Rick decided he was going to build a work bench in the garage at the cabin while I called my Dad to wish him a Happy Father's Day. After talking with my father, I got a call from Kathleen and Joe wishing me a Happy Father's Day. The circle was complete.

After my family calls I went to the cabin to clean the walleye for dinner. Here's the process from start (before cleaning) to finish (on the dinner plate).




Top to bottom:
1. The 16 3/4-inch walleye on the cutting board prior to being filleted.
2. One of the fillets removed.
3. Both of the fillets with the skin removed, washed clean and patted dry.
4. Golden brown pan-fried walleye with asparagus and potatoes. Time to eat

-------------

After a very tasty Father's Day walleye dinner, Rick and I hit the lake at 8:55 p.m. The surface of Leech Lake was like glass; there was no wind at all. The water temperature was 70.3 degrees, the moon was 67% waxing and the sunset at 9:18 p.m.

As usual we trolled from the Malays to the mid point between Second Duck Point and Duck Point. I was using a hot-steel colored Minnow Rap, while Rick used a variety of different lures throughout the night.

Rick caught a small northern pike around 9:30 p.m., but we didn't boat another fish until 10:15 p.m. when I caught a 17 1/2-inch walleye off of Second Duck Point. The fish was legally a keeper, but because it was so close to the 18-inch slot limit we decided to put it back in the lake. And besides, we had just eaten a walleye dinner a few hours earlier, so we won't keep another fish for a couple of days yet.

On our final pass past Second Duck Point, at around 10:45 p.m., I hooked into a little bigger fish. When we got it into the boat, the walleye measured 20-inches, a Leech Lake slot fish, so it went back into the water too.

We pulled the boat onto the lift just after 11:00 p.m. It was a beautiful night on the water, with some light left in the Western sky until nearly 11:00 p.m. Summer officially arrives at Leech Lake at 5:28 a.m. tomorrow morning. I will not be up to greet it.

Until tomorrow.

On Leech Lake, June 19, 2010

My boat, at the top of the ramp, waiting to be launched.

Today was the first day I was on the lake in 2010. I think this is the latest I've made it out onto the water in any year since I've had a place on Leech Lake.

The weather this morning was grey, drizzly and breezy, but as the day progressed the drizzle stopped and the wind gradually died down from 15-18 mph out of the NW to around 8 mph. That made it ideal conditions to put the boat in the water.

Around 1:30 p.m. Rick and I got the boat into the water and onto the boat lift. We then put the canopy on the lift and ran the power cord underneath the dock out to the boat lift and secured it for the season. I now have power at the end of the dock -- which is handy for the light at night and for charging my MinnKota electric trolling motor.

After dinner, Rick and I went out fishing at around 8:45 p.m. The sunset tonight was at 9:13 p.m., the moon was 57% waxing, the water temperature was 66.6 degrees and the wind was slight at 5-8 mph out of the north.

We used our usual Rapala Minnow Raps trolled about 50-60 feet behind the boat at a ground speed of 2.15 mph.

We trolled from Malays house to a point between Second Duck Point and Duck Point in 10-12 feet of water. After many passes with no bites, Rick finally hooked into a sturdy 22" walleye at 10:15 p.m just past Second Duck Point. The fish was hooked awkwardly, so we had to snip the barbs of the trailing treble hook to safely remove the lure from the fish. The fish fell within the Leech Lake slot limit -- where all walleyes between 18 and 26 inches must go back into the lake -- so we released it unharmed.

Then around 10:45 p.m., on our final pass of the night, in almost the same spot, Rick caught a very nice 16 3/4" eater walleye. That fish went into the livewell and will be dinner on Sunday night (Father's Day).

Even though I didn't catch a fish this night, the boat did smell of walleye by the time we made it back to the boat lift which is as it should be. All in all, a good first night on Leech Lake.

Arrival Date Set

My first visit to Leech Lake in 2010 has been confirmed. I'm leaving California on Tuesday, June 15 and will arrive in Bemidji later that day.

This is mainly a property maintenance visit as I need to replace the roof on my cabin in order to keep the insurance company from canceling my policy. Apparently they don't like the fact that several small trees are growing out of the 40-plus year old roof.

Rick will be joining me at the lake on Thursday, June 17 and soon after the construction project will begin.

Check back to this blog for before, during and after photos of the roofing project. This blog will also serve as a public record of the work done in case my insurance company wants to play any games.

So beginning June 15, you'll be seeing daily updates, with photos, to this blog. See you soon, again, in the blogosphere.

2010 MN Walleye Opener -- Tomorrow!!

Unfortunately, I will not be at Leech Lake for this year's walleye opener, which begins at midnight tonight, or as soon as it becomes May 15.

From what I've heard from my neighbors on Sucker Bay, walleyes of varying sizes have been caught the past few weeks (and put back into the lake) during perch fishing sessions. This should bode well for those people targeting walleye.

For a variety of reasons, I will not be making my first visit to Leech Lake in 2010 until mid-June, a full month after opener. This will be the first May since we bought our cabin back in 2001, that I've not been at the lake in May.

Once I arrive at the lake, I will again begin my daily posts about experiences on and off the water. Until then, I'll be making occasion posts with reports from friends and neighbors.

Until June...

Photo/Album: Post 8

It's been more than a couple of months since my last Photo/Album entry, so I thought I better get to it and put up a new post. These past couple of months I've been busy with work, and with getting my amateur radio license. I am now a licensed general class amateur radio operator with the call sign W6LLK (for Leech Lake). Who knows you might hear me on HF some day.

Now on with the Photo/Album portion of the post.

PHOTO


This photo was taken from the lake side of our house on Sucker Bay looking WSW toward Big Hardwood Point. The photo was taken late in the day and late in the season. Most of the snow has melted off the ice, making it easy to get on and off the ice and enabling me to use my 4-wheeler instead of a snowmobile to move about on the frozen lake.

From what I hear from my neighbors on Leech Lake, the temperatures have been in the 40's, the snow is nearly all gone, and spring is just around the corner. Of course it is Northern Minnesota so I would expect that there will be another big snowstorm or two before walleye opener on May 15.

ALBUM


By 1977, I had started to crave new and interesting music, beyond the normal rock 'n' roll of the 1970s. Sure, I still liked the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, Pink Floyd, etc., but I wanted something new, something I hadn't heard a hundred times. By chance, I stumbled across a Caravan album at Sounds and Diversions, an interesting store in downtown Lansing that sold everything from rolling papers to albums and posters to tie-dyed clothing.

After a month or two, I had purchased a couple of Caravan albums, but to this day, my favorite remains In the Land of Grey and Pink. The music, which has been tagged with the Canterbury Sound moniker, is a blend of jazz, rock, folk, classic and traditional English music.

As always, if you're interested in the sound, and video, of the album I'm featuring, check this out --a very psychedelic English band from 1971. Enjoy.

Photo/Album: Post 7

Here's the seventh installment of my Photo/Album series. I hope you enjoy seeing some of my archived photos from my stays at Leech Lake, and learning about my favorite albums, as much as I enjoy posting them. More on my next visit to Leech Lake in another post.

PHOTO


This is a photo taken by me looking back at our ice fishing house and John Newman's snow mobile. During this visit in the winter of 2006, I was lucky enough to have the use of one of Tom Malay's extra snow machines. On this day, John and I decided to go ice fishing despite an absolutely powerful blizzard, with temperatures hovering around 5 degrees and winds howling out of the NW at more than 25 mph.

Once out on frozen Leech Lake, I took my sled some distance from the ice house and snapped this picture. If you look very carefully, you might be able to see the horizon, separating the ice for the sky.

After taking this picture I motored back to the warmth of the ice house and within minutes caught a 30+ inch northern pike. The perch fishing wasn't fantastic this day, but it was a lot of fun being out on the lake during white-out conditions.

ALBUM


As a kid, it was just me and my younger sister. Therefore, most of the music I listened to was as a result of recommendations from friends or albums I discovered myself. One day way back in 1973, while in a record store perusing the cassette tape case (in those days cassette tapes were in locked glass cases), the tape Brain Salad Surgery by Emerson, Lake & Palmer caught my eye.

I decided to buy the tape without ever having heard a note from this particular album or from ELP, an English progressive rock band that redefined the genre. The first time I remember really listening to the tape -- start to finish, carefully -- was at my grandparents house in Jackson, Michigan sometime during the winter months. I remember thinking that this was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. It took me several listenings, and actually several years, to really appreciate the brilliance of this album -- which I eventually bought on both vinyl and CD.

I had the opportunity to see ELP at Jenison Field House on the campus of Michigan State University sometime in the mid-1970s (the exact year escapes me), but I do remember that they played Karn Evil 9 in its entirty, which is their magnum opus, not only from the Brain Salad Surgery album, but from their long and storied career as well. To this day, Brain Salad Surgery remains one of my favorite albums.

As always, if you've never heard of Emerson, Lake & Palmer or Brain Salad Surgery, here's a little taste of Karn Evil 9 recorded live. Enjoy.

Photo/Album: Post 6

Welcome to the winter solstice 2009. It arrived at 11:47 a.m. CST today at Leech Lake. Therefore, for this installment of the Photo/Album series I thought I'd use a winter photo and an album that the band began recording in December, 1966.

PHOTO


This is a view of Sucker Bay looking north as a mid-winter's storm is brewing. The photo was taken on February 25, 2007 during a trip when my son Joe and I spent some wonderful time on the ice fishing, digging ourselves out of a massive winter blizzard and inside our warm house playing games and listening to music.

The Northwoods is a great place any time of the year, but there's something almost magical being there in the winter. The first thing that I always notice is how peaceful and quiet it is at Leech Lake during the winter months. This photo seems to capture that feeling for me.

ALBUM


I still remember hearing The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for the very first time. I had purchased the album at the record store at the local mall, came home to my parents' house, went into my bedroom, removed the shrink-wrap plastic from the LP and placed it on my turntable. Although I'd been listening to The Beatles since I was in kindergarten, nothing had prepared me for listening to Sgt. Pepper in its entirety. Wow!

There is a very good reason that Rolling Stone magazine named Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band the #1 album of all time -- it's simply incredible. From the method the LP was recorded to the breakthrough artwork on the cover to the stellar music itself, there's nothing lacking in this record.

Recording for the LP started in December, 1966 and the album finally hit record stores in June, 1967. I purchased it years later, but to me it was as fresh and incredible as the day it was released.

In case you need a refresher, here's the first song on the album, the title track. Enjoy.

Photo/Album: Post 5

For this installment of my Photo/Album series -- where I post a picture from Leech Lake and highlight one of my favorite albums -- I've decided to go back a ways in history for both. The photo comes from a guided muskie trip we took back in 2003, and album goes back to 1965.

PHOTO

This is a picture of my friend Rick, who was visiting Leech Lake from his home in Brisbane, Australia, legendary Leech Lake guide Al Maas, my son Joe's shoulder, and a 50 1/2-inch muskie that was taken on a safety-pin style jig in 3-feet of water at the south end of Sucker Bay.

I had hired Maas to guide us on our hunt for muskie because at the time I was relatively unfamiliar with the lake, had never really fished for muskie in a serious fashion, and because it was Rick's birthday present I wanted to up the odds that he caught a fish. He did, and it remains to this day the biggest fish I've seen come out of Leech Lake.

ALBUM


Back when I was in high school I got a turntable for Christmas one year which finally gave me the ability to switch from cassette tapes to LPs which sound infinitely better, in my opinion.

As I started out compiling my album collection I knew I needed to add some Bob Dylan to the mix. Since I was unfamiliar with any of his albums in detail -- although I knew many of his hit singles -- my selection of his fifth studio album Bringing It All Back Home was made as much by chance as it was design. Boy, did I luck out.

It is not only one of Dylan's most celebrated albums, but one of the greatest rock albums of all time. In the 2003 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, where it listed the Top 500 rock albums of all time (see Photo/Album 4 for the #7 album on that list), Bringing It All Back Home ranked 31st.

Here is the studio version of Subterranean Homesick Blues, the first song on side 1 of the LP, which many people say foreshadowed the invention of rap music some 20 years later.