Leech Lake Walleye

Your host, holding another nice Leech Lake walleye

My anticipation is building for my trip to Leech Lake on May 10. I've started to go through some old photos of fishing trips on Leech Lake and thought I'd post this one, which is of a 20"+ walleye caught while trolling on Sucker Bay.

The photo was taken in late May, 2008, and was most likely taken by my friend and fishing companion, Rick. Rick and I will be fishing Leech Lake again this late May, and hopefully we'll boat plenty of hearty 'eyes like this one.

Ice Breaking Up On Leech Lake

I spoke with my neighbor Tom Malay today and he told me the weather at Sucker Bay on Leech Lake was dreary, with overcast, gray skies, an 8-mile an hour wind from the NW, a light rain falling and temperatures in high 40s to low 50s. Together, this weather pattern is starting to break up the ice on the lake.

Tom said that there was at least one open spot in the ice he could see on Sucker Bay, and that the ice along the shore was breaking up, although it was also piling up -- to about 3 feet -- as the NW wind blew it onto the rocky shoreline.

Tom also mentioned that earlier today he and Lainy drove into Cass Lake and that most of Cass Lake, including Pike Bay, was ice free. It shouldn't be long now, maybe 3 to 5 days, before Sucker Bay is also ice free. And once the ice is clear from Sucker Bay, Mark and his team from Shore Brothers will be visiting Ottertail Peninsula to put in our docks and boat lifts.

Two weeks from today I'll have already been at the lake for 24 hours, and may even have my boat in the water. I am really looking forward to seeing Leech Lake again.

Leech Lake Visit Date Set!

Typical Spring afternoon on Sucker Bay, Leech Lake

I am set to arrive at the Bemidji airport on Tuesday, May 10 for what could be an extended visit to Leech Lake. There are still a number of possible work options in play that may keep my visit short, but if things don't pan out on the work front, then I'll be able to spend a good chunk of time at the lake. Not a bad consolation prize.

As is typical for my first visit of the year, I'll have lots of Spring chores to attend to, including getting the boat prepped and in the water, getting the canopy on the boat lift, opening up the lower vents in the house for good summer ventilation, taking down the storm windows and replacing them with screens, a lot of general property maintenance, getting a fishing license, stocking up on bait, and of course, doing some serious walleye fishing.

My May 10 arrival will put me at the lake a full 3 days before walleye Opener, which commences at midnight on Saturday, May 14. I may start the season by throwing some crankbaits off the dock at midnight, and save my first on-the-water excursion until Saturday morning. But as is always the case when fishing Leech Lake, weather will be a big determining factor on my approach to Op'ner.

I'm really looking forward to my visit to Leech Lake because my last day there was November 1, 2010, which is 6 months and 10 days between visits. Too long. Way too long.

I may have a post or two here before my arrival, but if not, look for fishing reports to start as soon as I arrive at Leech Lake. I may get out on the lake for some perch and crappie fishing prior to walleye opener. Stay tuned...

Photo/Album: Post 11

Time once again for an entry in my Photo/Album series.

PHOTO


Lately an Acura car commercial has been running quite a bit on TV where the voice over talks about putting the car through the rigors of winter in Baudette, Minnesota. At one point in the commercial the camera zooms in on a thermometer and the temperature reading is 25 degrees below zero; as if that's somehow unusual for Northern Minnesota. As this photo, which was taken in February on the back porch of our house on Leech Lake, attests, it gets that cold quite often. Sure it's cold, but it never stopped me or my neighbors from hitting the ice for a little hard-water angling.

ALBUM


In the mid-1970s I got very into music which led me to study and research stereo equipment; stereo being the state of the art at the time. I spent many hours in stereo stores in the Lansing/East Lansing area listening to systems from Pioneer, Technics, Lux, Marantz, Sansui and many others. Inevitably, whenever I was testing out a receiver, power amp, turntable or loud speakers, the saleman reached for one album to play, and only one album, Dark Side Of The Moon, by Pink Floyd.

I heard this album so many times in stereo stores that by the time I actually bought it I knew every note, every lyric, every noise on this incredible album. To say it's a classic is an understatement. The album spent 741 weeks in the Billboard Top 200 chart; that's more than 14 years! I've attached a clip here that starts with Speak To Me that opens side one with that pulsating "heart beat" before it segues into Breathe and On The Run. Enjoy!

2011 Leech Lake Walleye Tournaments

As the new year approaches I thought I would list a couple of the major walleye tournaments that will be held at Leech Lake in 2011. There are many smaller tournaments held at Leech Lake each year by local fishing clubs, but these are the two big tournaments that Leech will host this year.

I've fished in three professional walleye tournaments as a co-angler in the now defunct Professional Walleye Trail, but never one on Leech Lake. My first tournament was on Northern Minnesota's Cass Lake where I had the chance to fish in the same boat as 2004 PWT champion Scott Glorvigan. My second PWT tournament was on the Bays de Noc in Northern Michigan. And my third PWT tournament was on the Fox Lake chain of lakes in Illinois, where I finished 24th and won $700.

I have no plans to fish in any of the organized walleye tournaments on Leech Lake, but I do plan on doing a lot of walleye fishing on Leech in 2011.

Tournaments


Leech Lake Walleye Tournament, June 4-5

FLW Walleye Tour, June 9-11

Photo/Album: Post 10

Welcome to installment #10 of my Photo/Album series.

PHOTO

This photo was taken from our property on Ottertail Peninsula looking south toward Walker, MN. The point on the right hand side of the image is Big Hardwood Point, a favorite of walleye fishermen, and the island that is at the end of the sun's golden path is Goose Island, which also provides a wealth of structure that holds big walleye. I took this photo late in the afternoon on a cool, grey day toward the end of October, 2009.

ALBUM

In the autumn of 1976 I was attending Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. One afternoon between classes I walked across Grand River Avenue from the campus into town and made my way to a record store that I liked to frequent. It was in this particular store that I purchased my first Thelonius Monk album. On this late Fall day as I walked up and down the aisles of the jazz section of the store, the music coming over the store speakers caught my attention. It was the music of jazz newcomer Pat Metheny from his first LP titled Bright Size Life. I bought the album and from that day on was a huge fan of Metheny's music. My wife Kathleen and I have seen him on many occasions, as recently as the spring of 2010 in Santa Cruz, CA. The first chance I had to see Pat Metheny perform live was in January 1978 at the Erickson Kiva on the campus of MSU, as the warm up act to Yusef Lateef (see poster above). What a show! Not only was Lateef amazing, but I got to see Pat Metheny as a kid in his early 20s with Jaco Pastorius on bass; and I stayed for both shows, 8:00 and 11:00 p.m. To this day, Bright Size Life is one of my favorite LPs. Enjoy the title song here.

Photo/Album: Post 9

Yes boys and girls, it's once again time for an entry of my Photo/Album series, where I post a photo from Leech Lake and share with you one of my favorite albums. I do this series as a way of reminding me of the beauty and splendor of Leech Lake, and to reflect on some of the great music I listen to, on vinyl, when I'm in the Northwoods. Now on with the show...

PHOTO

This photo is of our Chevy Blazer (now my son Joe's car) in front of the "Birches" on Sucker Bay, Leech Lake. Joe and I were visiting the Northwoods in February 2007 and spent a good deal of time on the lake ice fishing. On this particular day, we fished in about 10 feet of water over a weed bed that held a huge school of yellow perch. From 3:00 p.m. to about 6:00 p.m., Joe and I caught perch nonstop. We must have brought more than 200 perch through the ice. We kept only 8 fish and enjoyed a tasty fish fry for dinner.

ALBUM

By the mid-1970s, one of the most popular genres in music was "fusion," the combination of rock and jazz. The style was first explored by the likes of Miles Davis and Tony Williams in the late 1960s, but it really didn't hit its stride until the '70s. One of the biggest, best-selling fusion bands was Weather Report, and one of the band's most successful albums was Black Market, released in April, 1976, just a couple of months before I graduated from high school. During the summer after my graduation, this album figured prominently in my listening rotation. To this day it remains one of my all-time favorite albums. If you haven't heard this LP, you can listen to the title track here.

Leech Lake Management Plan 2011-2015

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources just released its 2011-2015 plan for the management of the Leech Lake fishery. The good news is that the MDNR will continue to stock walleye fry into the lake in amounts varying from 7.5 million per year to 22 million, and those fry already stocked seem to be doing well. The natural hatch also has been strong the past 3 years. Good news for walleye fishermen.

You can read the 39-page plan here.

On a related note, I spoke to one of my Ottertail Peninsula neighbors earlier this week and she told me that there was already 9 inches of ice on Sucker Bay and that many of the hard-water angling fanatics in our neighborhood have pulled their fish houses onto the ice.

Early reports from anglers on the south end of Leech Lake, down near Whipholt, sound promising with good catches of keeper sized walleyes.

It's still too early to know if I'll be making a winter visit to Leech Lake or not.

Deer Season at Leech Lake

A nice 10-point buck taken on our property on Ottertail Peninsula, Leech Lake

I may be back in California, but that doesn't mean I don't think about Leech Lake on a daily basis. So it was a pleasant surprise when I opened my email the other day and saw a note from my neighbor John Newman giving me an update on this year's deer season in Northern Minnesota.

I have two deer stands on my property and John has a very large, almost palatial deer stand on his. For the past several years now John and his son Greg have used their deer stand, while our friend (and the guy from whom we bought our house) Clancy uses one of the stands on my property.

Apparently, this year John and Greg didn't even see a deer. Clancy on the other hand not only saw a deer, but bagged a nice 10-pointer. Clancy knows I much I enjoying grilling and eating venison brats, so he's promised me a few will be waiting for me at Leech Lake when I next visit.

One of these years Kathleen and I are going to spend a full year in the Northwoods so we can enjoy Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's at Leech Lake.