May 13, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

I woke up early this morning -- 6:00 a.m. CDT -- and the temperature was a brisk 36 degrees. The sky was overcast and grey and the wind was blowing at 10-15 mph out of the north. I stayed in bed for an hour or so thinking I might fall back asleep, but no such luck. So I got up, made some coffee, got online and read the Detroit and San Jose newspapers getting each city's view of last night's Sharks 3-2 win over the Red Wings in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals.

At 8:30 a.m. I gave John Newman a call and asked if he was ready to help me get my boat in the water, which he had offered to do yesterday. He was up and ready so we convened at the boat ramp at 9:00 a.m. The boat was in the lift by 9:15 a.m., and all went according to plan.

The wind, which was still around 15 mph from the north would have made getting the lift canopy on a challenge, so we decided to wait until Saturday or Sunday when the winds are supposed to be much less stiff.

As I write this at just after noon, I see a bank of heavy mist or light rain moving across Sucker Bay toward our house. It's already cold and damp outside, and this light rain should make everthing wet.

Although Blogger.com is back up and running -- it had been down for a couple of days -- it still seems to be having trouble with formating. There is way too much white space in my last post, and despite multiple attempts to edit the entry, it keeps posting the way you see it. I'm hoping all will be fixed by the time I post this entry.

Kathleen's brother Tim and his son Jackson are on their way up to Leech Lake to take part in a the grand Minnesota tradition of walleye opener, which begins tonight at midnight. In an effort to be completely legal, I applied my new boat license stickers to the boat before I put it in the water, and I bought my 2011 fishing license from Birch Ridge Resort this morning.

Tim and Jackson arrived at the lake around 3:00 p.m. By that time there was a steady, light rain falling and the wind had picked up a little. The temperature was reading a cool 36 degrees.

We contemplated going fishing, but it was simply too rough to take the boat out. I don't mind the cold and rain, but I'm not going to have the boat bounced around in the boat lift getting out onto the lake and returning to the lift. There's simply too much chance of damaging the boat.

So instead we stayed in the house, had pizza for dinner and then watched a movie. The weather report for walleye opener is more rain, more strong winds and slightly warmer temperatures, in the mid-40s. If the weather changes, and I feel it's OK to go out onto the lake, we will go fishing. The report for Sunday is clear skies, warmer temps, in the 60s, and lighter winds. Sunday looks light the better day for fishing.

I'll file another report tomorrow.

May 10-12, 2011 -- On Leech Lake (a recap)

I arrived in Bemidji on Tuesday, May 10, and the next evening I wrote a long blog entry about my first two days at Leech Lake. Unfortunately, Blogger.com, the web site that hosts my blog, had technical difficulties and all blogs written and posted from May 11 through May 13 (at around 11:3o a.m. CDT) were lost. I will not try to re-create my entire entry, instead I'll just bulletize the events of the past few days.

May 10:

• Arrived at Bemidji airport around 4:30 p.m. CDT and went to Corner Sports to pick up my boat, but they hadn't finished the service on it, so I was told to come back on Wednesday, May 11.


• Enjoyed a cold beer on John Newman's dock as we watched the sunset into the Western sky and had a nice conversation.


• The weather in the evening was still up over 60 degrees, skies were clear, and there was just a slight breeze out of the SE.

May 11:

• Picked up my boat at Corner Sports, complete with two new deep-cell batteries for the trolling motor, and a new cranking battery for the main motor.


• Came home, got ready to launch boat, but the electric motor on the boat lift went out, and that subsequently caused the lift chain to break. Shore Brothers scheduled to come out on May 12 to fix the lift motor.


• Weather was in the high 60s, mostly sunny, winds out of the north at 10-13 mph.


• Went fishing with John in his boat at the Birches, and we caught a number of decent sized perch, and I caught jumbo which we kept and added to John's basket.

May 12:

• Weather was much cooler with a high of 44 degrees. Mostly cloudy, grey skies, with the wind out of the north at 10-15 mph.


• Got the lake pump working so we can use the various faucets around the property to pull lake water.


• Shore Brothers replaced the electric boat lift motor and fixed the chain. The lift seems to work fine. I'll launch the boat tomorrow.


• The Sharks beat the Red Wings 3-2 in Game 7 of the Western Conference semifinals ending a thrilling series and will send the Shark north to Vancouver to take on the Canucks in the Conference Finals.

I'll do a full post on May 13 of the days events.

On Leech Lake -- May 11, 2011

Well I'm finally here at Leech Lake. And it sure is wonderful.

I arrived in Bemidji yesterday around 4:30 p.m. CDT and went directly to Corner Sports to pick up my boat. Unfortunately, it wasn't ready. They hadn't yet fired it up to make sure it was running properly, nor had they installed new trolling motor batteries and a new starter battery. They told me they'd move it to the top of the list and get to it first thing on Wednesday (today).

So off I drove to the grocery store with no boat in tow. After loading up on supplies I headed to Leech Lake.

After unloading the groceries, turning on the well pump, and a few other "start up" activities, I opened a cold beer and started to make my way to the end of the dock to watch the sunset. As I walked out onto the dock, my neighbor John Newman called out for me to join him on his dock. I walked next door and chatted with John as the sun sank into the western horizon across Sucker Bay.

This morning, I called Corner Sports to see if my boat was ready. They told me it would be around noon before all work was complete. I decided to give them a little extra time so I didn't leave the lake until 12:30 p.m.

Once at Corner Sports I hitched the boat trailer to my truck and made the 50 minute drive back to Ottertail Peninsula. I positioned the boat at the top of my boat ramp and then walked to the end of the dock to lower the boat lift into the water so once the boat was launched, I could maneuver it onto the lift.

I hit the down switch on the lift motor and was met with a rough, grinding sound followed by a snap. The chain had come off the gears that raises the lift and in the process the clip that holds the main link of the chain to the rest of the chain snapped. There you go. Something always has to go wrong at the start of the season, it's tradition!

I called Mark at Shore Brothers, the outfit that I bought the lift from, and they'll be out either Thursday or Friday to fix it. Until then, my boat remains trailered at the top of the boat ramp.

After putting that business behind me, I went fishing with John. It was a beautiful day with temperatures in the high 60s, a steady stiff breeze out of the north at about 10 mph and mostly clear skies, with just wisps of clouds here and there.

We made several drifts at the Birches, starting in about 12 feet of water and then drifting to about 6 feet of water. We used jigs with plastic grubs, and then added a fathead for additional attractant. Since walleye opener in Minnesota isn't until Saturday, May 14, we were targeting jumbo perch. John already had about a dozen jumbos in the basket at his cabin and we were looking to add a couple more.

We each caught a few small perch, and I caught a nice jumbo which we kept. I added it John's stash.

It was my first day on the water this year and it felt great. I'm looking forward to getting my boat lift fixed so I can get my boat in the water and have the luxary of being able to fish when and where I choose. For now, however, I'm grateful that John is letting me fish with him.

The plan is to do some more perch fishing with John tomorrow afternoon after 2 p.m., weather permitting.

I'll post more tomorrow. Until then, I'm just glad to be back on Leech Lake!

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.