June 19, 2011 -- Father's Day -- On Leech Lake

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there, especially my dad, who is the greatest dad a guy could ever hope to have! Thanks Dad.

This morning at 8:15 a.m. the temperature was 53 degrees, the sky was grey and overcast, the lake and the horizon blended together in a silvery-grey mist and the wind was calm; once again the flag lay limp against the pole and the water looked like glass. I could not see across the lake, it was simply a silver-grey expanse.

There has been a strange visitor in the yard this morning --a pigeon. Now, if I was in San Francisco, Minneapolis, or maybe even Bemidji, I wouldn't be surprised seeing a pigeon, but here on the shores of Leech Lake, that's very unusual. In fact, in the 10 years we've had our properties on Leech Lake, I had never seen a pigeon up here until today.

One other interesting aspect to this particular pigeon, it had a green band around its left leg and a blue band around its right leg, just above its feet. Maybe it's a homing pigeon that had lost its way. Anyway, the darn thing was eating the grass seed I just put down yesterday, so I had to shoo it away. But, it kept coming back, so eventually I just gave up chasing it away. At some point it will have its fill of grass seed.

Despite overcast skies and the threat of rain, I decided to fishing at 2:00 p.m. The temperature was 66 degrees, the wind was light at 5-8 mph out of the NE and the water temperature was 67.5 degrees.

I started fishing in 9-12 feet of water in front of Schiebe's cabin, and didn't catch anything. I moved a little further south to the Birches, but caught only a rock bass, although something big hit my line and bit off the jig. I retied another 1/8 ounce, parrot color Gumball jig, tipped it with a leech and resumed fishing.

Unfortunately, I was not able to catch anything else. Not even a small perch. I suppose if I was using a fathead instead of a leech I may have caught perch, but I was after walleye. At 4:00 p.m. I came ashore.

Nature Update: For some reason the wind seems to be blowing almost exclusively out of the east, or some variation of the east, such as NE. In my many years here at Leech Lake I have typically seen wind out of the north, south and west, but rarely the east. But for some reason, the prevailing wind direction during the past six weeks is east.

June 18, 2011 -- At Leech Lake

After waking up at 5:30 a.m. on Friday and not going to bed until 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning I was ready to sleep in. I got up at 9:30 a.m. to grey overcast skies, a temperature of 48 degrees -- I thought that we're only days away from summer -- and little to no wind. The flag is limp against the pole and the lake is near still.

Everything, however, is wet. It obviously rained last night and the forecast is calling for rain showers and thunderstorms on and off all day. As the morning approached noon, a light rain began falling. Looking out over Sucker Bay I could barely make out the trees on the western shore of the bay because the mist and rain made the entire horizon a silvery-grey color and the sky blended with the surface of the lake.

While I was enjoying my morning coffee I decided to take the bandage off my index finger of my left hand and examine the damage I had done to it yesterday with the very sharp serrated edge of my Leatherman.

When I finally got the bandage off, I could see it was soaked with blood. Now exposed, the tip of my finger, which was missing a nice chunk of flesh, began bleeding again. I poured some hydrogen peroxide on the wound, and then covered it with gauze and tape. I didn't secure it as tightly as I did with the original bandage, and I'm hoping that it'll stop bleeding today and begin to heal over.

With a slight break in the rain, I went outside and raked the grass seed into the dirt. I had put a fair amount of seed on the torn up part of the lawn yesterday, but with my finger bleeding all over my hand, and the with the rain starting to fall more heavily, I never did get a chance to rake the seed into the dirt properly. I plan to add more grass seed to the affected area again in a couple of days.

Well, I couldn't wait a couple of days, and at 1:30 p.m. went out and put down more grass seed and raked it into the ground. It was hot work since the humidity today is close to 100%. There is a heavy mist in the air and although the temperature was only 62 degrees it felt more like 92.

And if the humidity wasn't enough deterrent, the mosquitoes certainly were. There were clouds of them swarming over me as I raked the dirt that used to be my yard. There are still numerous standing bodies of water all over the peninsula as a result of the very wet spring, including a huge swamp directly across from Newman's driveway, which in many parts is our property. These gigantic swamps are producing millions of mosquitoes, many of which are the size of house flies. So it was ultimately the mosquitoes that drove me inside rather than the humidity.

I cooled off with a nice shower and then settled down to do some reading. I thought about going out fishing, but it was still misting a bit and looked like it might rain. I really didn't want to get my bandaged finger wet -- and there's no way to avoid getting your hands wet while you're out fishing -- so I remained on shore.

June 17, 2011 -- At Leech Lake

This morning I was up at 5:30 a.m. I don't know why I woke up so early, but I did and was unable to go back to sleep so I got up. It was already light outside, although the sky was grey and overcast. The temperature was 50 degrees, and the wind was 5-8 mph out of the NNE.

At just before 8:00 a.m. Larry and Ross (Peterson, the son of the guy who owns Peterson Excavating) showed up; Butch should be here later this morning. Today the process will be to use the big front hoe to try to pull the harbor wall back some more, while using cable jacks to pull the cable tight. They'll then bend the metal posts that are holding the cable so the cable doesn't slip off, and then they'll start work on laying the tile drain. It'll be interesting to see how much work they get done today and if they'll come back on Saturday, or wait until Monday to continue work. There is a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms today, so it may be too wet and miserable for them to put in a full day.

By 11:45 a.m. the guys from Peterson Excavating had put in some of the tile drain, cut a hole in the harbor wall for the water to run out, and had starting pouring rock over the entire thing. They assure me that they will complete the project today. And if they keep up the pace they're currently on, they just might do it.

Peterson Excavating loaded the last of their tools and materials onto the truck, smoothed out the areas of the yard they had torn up, and put the big front hoe on the trailer and were moving down West Shores Road by 3:30 p.m.

The harbor looks good, albeit not as aligned as straight as it once was, but is no doubt much more sturdy and better anchored than ever before. I'll need to move some rock from the pile at the cabin to a few spots around the harbor walls that Peterson didn't work on, but that's a minor, afternoon project compared to the heavy work that Peterson just completed.

I have to hand it to them, the did a great job, made sure that the electrical pole and harbor lights functioned. The only thing we couldn't test is the sodium light on the top of the electrical pole because it has a light sensor on it and won't come on until dark.

[Update: At 3:30 p.m. I went out to the electrical pole and flipped the switch on the sodium light, and because it was starting to rain and fairly dark and overcast, it came on. Confirmed now that all electrical around the harbor is operational.]

No sooner had Peterson left than is started to rain. Not hard, just a nice steady rain. I decided now might be a good time to spread some grass seed on the dirt left behind by Peterson's heavy machinery, so I got the bag of seed and tried to open it. As is typical with many packages, it was nearly impossible to open so I got out my Leatherman, opened one of the blades, cut into the bag and by mistake also hit my finger.

Blood immediately started to flow, but having injured myself numerous times in the past I ignored it and began spreading the seed. At a certain point the rain started to come down a bit harder so I decided to call it quits and go inside before I got totally soaked.

Once inside I cleaned up my cut finger and noticed I hadn't sliced my finger, like I've done dozens of times in the past, but rather cut off a small slice from the tip; maybe as big around as a pencil eraser. Knowing from experience that this isn't the kind of cut that can been fixed with stitches, I placed a couple Band-Aids over the cut and then wrapped medical tape around the Band-Aids. I haven't noticed in an ordinate amount of blood, so I'm assuming my triage worked.

At 8:00 p.m., under a sky that was beginning to clear for the first time all day and temperatures just over 60 degrees, I made my way next door to the Newman's where John and I grilled brats for dinner. After dinner we had a fire in his "driveway fireplace," listening to some music and didn't even attempt to solve any of the world's problems. Since we had eaten so late in the evening, we didn't get out fishing today. But we agreed to connect tomorrow morning, and weather permitting we will be out on the water.

As I walked home I could feel the wind picking up and I thought I felt some raindrops. We are supposed to get thunderstorms over night. I just hope they pass by tomorrow morning.

June 16, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

I was up before 7:00 a.m. waiting for Peterson Excavating to arrive, which they did just after 8:00 a.m. The first thing they did was drive the big front hoe onto the yard near the harbor and began loading all of the broken cement pieces into the bucket. Then they dumped the bucket of cement into a dump truck which then hauled the debris away.

I can tell already that the work is going to make a mess of the yard, but there's no way around it. If the harbor is to be repaired they need to have the right equipment on site to do it, and that equipment is big and heavy and is going to create ruts in the yard and tear up the lawn; as can be seen in the pictures below.

The big front hoe used to pull/push the harbor wall back into place

The dump truck and Bobcat used to haul rubble and move rock

At least it's not raining today, not yet anyway. The temperature seems stuck at 52 degrees and the sky is overcast and grey. The wind is 8-12 mph out of the NNW.

At 11:00 a.m. I went out to the harbor to check on the progress. I could see that the harbor wall was not straight and aligned to its original position. I asked Butch if that was a far as they could pull the wall back, and he responded, "yes." Despite the fact that they have a big front hoe with a lot of power, they simply can't pull the wall back to its initial position. It shows the power of the ice, which was able to push the wall out in the first place.

Butch and Larry (the guy helping Butch) did secure the wall with thick cabling in an effort to help prevent against future ice damage. The real key, according to Butch, is going to be the tile drain system that they will install to keep much of the water away from the wall so there will be little ice to do any future damage.

By 3:30 p.m. the guys from Peterson had wrapped it up for the day, and I was ready to fishing. I went over to see if John Newman wanted to accompany me, and he did. He wanted to wait, however, until Tom Malay was finished mowing Newman's lawn.

We finally got out onto the lake at just after 6:00 p.m. We fished in 9-12 feet of 67 degree water in front of the house and cabin, before moving down toward Schiebe's

Jigs tipped with fatheads and leeches was our approach, but unfortunately all we caught were several smallish perch and few rock bass. Not even a pike tonight.

The weather, however, was beautiful. The temperature had warmed to near 70 degrees, the wind was calm and the sky was clear. It was wonderful time on the water even if the fish weren't biting.

We came ashore around 8:15 p.m. and parted ways. I went inside, ate dinner, did some reading and then called it a night. The guys from Peterson's are going to be here early tomorrow morning and I want to be up when they arrive.

June 15, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

This morning at 7:30 a.m. it was 50 degrees, dark, grey and raining. The wind is light, if any, and the flag is hanging limp.

As a result of the rain, or just plain indifference, the guys from Peterson Excavating did not show up again today to work on the harbor restoration. I'm glad they didn't show up today, because with the ground so wet from all of the rain the big front hoe would have caused excessive damage to the lawn. If they don't show up tomorrow morning I'll have to give them another call.

It rained all morning, letting up for just a few minutes here and there. At noon, I decided that since it was raining today would be a good day to drive into Cass Lake to pick up some leeches, some groceries and have lunch at the 371 Cafe; the place I had lunch with our realtor some 10 years ago when I first saw our future house on Leech Lake.

It finally stopped raining at about 2:00 p.m., just before I left Cass Lake on my way back to Leech Lake. I did indeed have lunch at the 371 Cafe and did pick up two dozen large leeches at Froggy's. At 3:15 p.m., it was still dark, grey and overcast, although it was not raining. The temperature was 58 degrees and the wind was light at 5-10 mph out of the NNE.

Upon arriving home, I found a big spool of cable in the yard by the harbor, as well as a big bag of bolts and connectors. I assumed that a supplier had dropped them off so I decided to call Butch at Peterson Excavating to let him know the supplies had arrived. As it turned out, Butch himself had dropped off the materials and told me that he and another guy would be out on Thursday to work on the harbor.

With that bit of business settled, I contacted John Newman to see if he wanted to go fishing. He did, so we did.

Once the boat was in the 66.5 degree water, I motored to a spot about 200 yards pass Schiebe's cabin in 9 feet of water and deployed the drift sock. With the wind coming out of the NE, the boat moved south toward Norm's cabin and out into the bay into 10-14 feet of water.

John used a "beetlespin" tipped with a fathead, while I used my standard 1/8 ounce Gumball jig tipped with a leech. We both caught a few pike, rock bass and perch. And both of us had our tackle bitten off; most likely by a pike.

I tied on a parrot-colored 1/8 ounce Gumball jig, while John went with a lime-green jig tipped with a fathead. John caught a very nice 21-inch walleye, while I boated a somewhat slim 15 1/2-walleye. Both fish went back into the lake.

I think John was a bit surprised that I released my fish since I'm trying to catch a third "eater" so I can prepare a walleye dinner for my parents and Kathleen next week. But from my perspective, the 15 1/2-inch walleye was just a bit too small for me to keep. I prefer to keep fish in the 16- to 17 1/2-inch range. Sure, that's only a 1 1/2 inch range, but it keeps it sporting for me. And I've got another week to catch that third fish, so I was confident enough to let that one go.

The entire time we were on the water the temperature hovered around 50 degrees, and the sky was grey and overcast, and it looked like it was going to rain, although it didn't. We came ashore just after 8:00 p.m.

I ate dinner and had an early night since I'm anticipating Peterson Excavating to be here early tomorrow morning.

How Do Loons Know When the Ice is Off the Lake?

This is borrowed from blogger Dan Baughman who writes from Bow Narrows Camp on Red Lake in northern Ontario, Canada.




"Although total ice-out is still days away on Red Lake, loons will have already landed in all the open patches of water around the edges.

In fact, as soon as you notice the ice is gone from a small bay or narrows, you will see the familiar profile of a loon. But you never see loons flying around the frozen lake looking for open water.How they know there is some place to land is a mystery. Loons cannot land on anything but water. Their legs are placed far back on their body making it impossible for them to even stand up on land.

In fact, except for pushing themselves on their bellies a foot or two onto and off of their nests, loons never touch land.Their leg placement -- sort of like propellers at the rear of their bodies -- makes them take off from the water just as a floatplane does. They always head into the wind for the added lift and both churn their powerful feet as well as flap their wings against the water. It can take them a hundred yards to get airborne. Once free of the water, they are powerful fliers and fly faster than most other waterfowl.

They also land like a plane. They set their wings and come gliding in like the Space Shuttle. Final touchdown is done on their bellies. Sometimes they will dip a wing into the water to make a fast turn. And, also like a float plane, it takes far less room for them to land than take off.So when they slide into a little patch of open water around the edge of a frozen lake, it is very likely they cannot take off again, until the ice melts some more.

I've often wondered if some of them ever get frozen-in when the temperature dips below freezing and the lake refreezes. If it happens, I've never seen it, or found their bodies in the spring.Loons are the world's oldest bird. They've been doing this for tens of millions of years. I guess they know what they are doing by now."

June 14, 2011 -- Flag Day -- On Leech Lake

Once again I awoke this morning with the hope that Peterson Excavating would be here working on the harbor restoration and once again they were a no-show. I called Butch the lead guy on the project and he told me he was on the side of the road because his truck broke down. When I pressed him if he thought he'd be able to finish the harbor this week his response was, "I hope so." Not exactly the kind of answer that instills confidence.

It would have been a perfect day to work on the harbor too. The temperature at 10:00 a.m. was 62 degrees, the wind was light at 8-10 mph out of the south, and the sky was mostly cloudy, with a few patches of blue here and there. With the warmth this morning, it's actually starting to feel like we might get summer after all.

Most of today I spent doing chores around the properties, including lots of cleaning and tending to the trees and plants I planted a couple of weeks ago.

As the day wore on the temperature climbed to the mid-70s, the sky cleared to almost no clouds at all and the wind remained steady at about 10-12 mph out of the south.

By 3:45 p.m. I was ready to go fishing. I pushed the boat off the lift and positioned the boat for a drift in front of the house. Using a 1/8 Gumball jig tipped with fatheads I caught several perch and a couple of rock bass. But I was on a mission to catch at least two more eater-sized walleyes; so I moved to a new position.

I took up in front of Norm's cabin and let the southerly wind push me north toward Schiebe's and out into deeper water.

I also made the decision about half way through the drift to switch from a fathead to a leech, after all, I caught the 17-inch walleye yesterday on a leech. I continued to catch perch and rock bass. Then I felt that familiar weight of a walleye. I set the hook, reeled the fish to the boat, slipped the net underneath the fish and brought a very solid 16 1/2-inch walleye into the boat. As soon as the fish was measured it went into the livewell where it will join the walleye I caught yesterday in an eventual meal for my parents and Kathleen.

Apparently the walleye are biting on leeches; at least the last two I've caught have been on leeches. But I used the last of the leeches today, so tomorrow I may drive into Cass Lake and pick up a couple of containers of the large leeches from Froggy's Sports.

With another walleye in the basket, I decided not to go fishing tonight.

June 13, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

I was up at 7:15 a.m. this morning in anticipation of Peterson Excavating arriving to work on the harbor restoration. At that time of the morning the temperature was 50 degrees, the wind was out of the SSE at 15-20 mph, with gusts up to 30 mph, the sky was overcast and grey, and the forecast was calling for some rain this morning with a possible thunderstorm this afternoon.

Usually, Butch and his Peterson Excavating crew are here by 8:00 a.m. so I was surprised to have him call me at 8:45 a.m. Apparently the guy who supplies Peterson Excavating with cable didn't show up and without cable to tie the wall they weren't coming out to my place. So that pushed the operation back a day or two, maybe longer.

The other appointment I had scheduled today was with Merle's Carpet Cleaners out of Bemidji. The guy showed up on time and did a great job thoroughly steam cleaning the carpet. They look fantastic. I just hope I can keep them clean for the next 10 days until Kathleen arrives.

Later in the afternoon I hit the water for a couple of hours. The wind was strong out of the south at 15-20 mph, with gusts up to 30 mph, but the way we're situated on Ottertail Peninsula a south wind has no affect along our shoreline. As a result, the water around the boat lift was totally calm; like glass. But once out a few hundreds yards from shore, the chop was at least 18 inches to 2 feet.

The water temperature had cooled to 65.8 degrees, the sky was overcast and it looked like it might rain; although it didn't while I was on the water.

I fished several locations, beginning in front of our house in 9 feet of water and drifting north toward the Malay's and out into the bay. I caught numerous small perch and a couple of rock bass on a 1/8 ounce Gumball jig tipped with fatheads. My goal was to catch a couple of nice eater-sized walleyes because my parents are coming to visit next week and my mother has specifically asked for a walleye dinner.

The pressure was on so I moved to a spot I know in front of Norm's cabin. I drifted there alternating between the Gumball jig and fatheads and a Mimic Minnow Spin. Again, I caught numerous small- to medium-sized perch.

I motored a little further north to the "Birches," and this time changed up the presentation to the Gumball jig tipped with a leech. In 11 feet of water I felt that familiar "weight" of a walleye and set the hook. I reeled to the boat a nice walleye, but it wasn't until I netted it and got it into the boat that I could measure it. Sure enough, a perfect 17 inches; a perfect eater! Into the livewell went the walleye and my search for another 17-incher continued.

Unfortunately all I could catch after that was more perch; although they were starting to get bigger. At last I decided to head home.

Once on shore I took a ride on the ATV, but my ride was cut short when it started to rain. I raced home but as typically happens, as soon as I got inside the rain stopped.

Although the weather seemed to be pretty stable this evening, I decided not to go out trolling. I already have a walleye in the basket and I'll try for another two tomorrow and the days to follow. Ideally I'd like three nice walleye so I can prepare a walleye dinner for my parents and Kathleen when we're all here at the lake together.

Nature Update: Crying fowl! The birds continue to be the center of attention here at Leech Lake. In addition to the many cedar waxwings, various woodpeckers, robins, redwing blackbirds and the like that feed on the suet in the yard, I often see ruby-throated humming birds, orioles, gold finches, belted kingfishers, terns, seagulls, pelicans, loons, a whole host of different kinds of ducks, Canadian geese, turkey vultures, ruffed grouse, crows, purple martins, swallows and bald eagles. And while they're not birds, there are also a lot of bats in the air at dusk eating mosquitoes.

June 12, 2011 -- On Leech Lake

This morning at 10:00 a.m. the wind was calm, the lake was like a mirror reflecting the mostly grey and white sky, and the temperature was 56 degrees. There were a handful of boats clustered together in front of our house in search of walleye or jumbo perch.

I needed a new phone, since I washed mine in the washing machine yesterday (no, not intentionally), so I drove into Bemidji this morning to the Verizon Wireless store. I ended up getting a new Motorola Droid X2. It's a lot like the original Droid but does not have the slide out keyboard, which I rarely used and only added extra weight.

I got home around 3:00 p.m. The temperature at that time was 69 degrees, it was still grey and overcast, and the wind was light at 5-8 mph out of the south.

I decided to do a little fishing, so I grabbed the bucket of fatheads and backed the boat off the lift and onto Leech Lake. I motored out to 10 feet of water directly in front of our house and dropped the drift sock into the 66.6 degree water. The wind was out of the ESE at maybe 5-8 mph.

I caught numerous perch, although no jumbos, a rock bass and a northern; no walleye. After an hour on the water it started to sprinkle and because I was not wearing any rain gear I decided to go ashore because I didn't want to get caught on the water in a downpour. As it turns out, all it did was sprinkle for about 30 minutes then stop.

Nature Update: Yesterday the first of the mayfly hatches occurred and with it came the return of the cedar waxwings. Cedar waxwings are one of my favorite northwoods birds and they always arrive in flocks when the mayflies are around to eat. I'm sure with mayfly hatches taking place over the next week or so, the cedar waxwings will be around for awhile too.

This evening at 8:30 p.m. I lowered the boat into the water, fired up the Mercury Verado and started trolling. I pulled a Minnow Rap in 9-12 feet of water, in "the Alley" and out into "Duck Bay," but only had three "hit and misses."

The western sky stayed light until well after 10:00 p.m., which is when I came ashore, and with the moon at 88% waxing, there was a lot of light on the water tonight. The moonlight, coupled with a nice chop on the water due to the 8-12 mph wind from the south, should have made conditions ideal for walleye fishing. And who knows, the conditions might have been perfect. But I was unable to catch a single walleye, or any fish for that matter. I think that's the first time since I've been here that I haven't caught a single fish while out on the water.

Once on shore I read the Sunday paper, listened to music and decided to go to bed early. I'm expecting Peterson Excavating to be here first thing in the morning to continue work on the harbor restoration project. More on that tomorrow.