While not considering pulling roots from my Lake Mille Lacs home, I chose to move the guide boat to Leech Lake for the entire 2014 open water season–at least for a few years–not looking back. After 48 years of guiding on mighty Lake Mille Lacs.
After having spent 25 plus years breaking down new walleye water ( to me) around the country while fishing all the major national walleye tourney’s and getting lucky a few times, I approached Leech as being “new” to me even though I had spent several weeks over the years on the lake while competing in PWT/local tourney’s and doing a few guide trips as well.
So to answer questions many have had of me lately, here’s a little run down on my first full month on Leech….as a rookie guide.
1. Although Leech is smaller than Lake Mille Lacs, surface water -wise, it fishes much BIGGER than Lake Mille Lacs and many other lakes as well. Why? I view Leech, and feel most should as well, as at least 4 lakes in one with many miles of shoreline related potential walleye haunts–some being obvious, others being hidden jewels. 4 lakes in one? Well–I see Walker Bay, the three major bays– Sucker and Steamboat Bay and Portage Bay, the area boxed in if you draw a line from Ottertail to Bear Island, then to Stoney Point ( including Traders Bay) and then over to Pine Point through Grand View and across to the northwest shore (as in crossing the eastern narrows entrance), over to Big Hardwood to 2nd Duck and then back to Ottertail, and Agency Bay. ( to me, Agency is a lake by itself–no doubt). And without doubt, each “lake” is unique and each needs to be fished with an individual mindset. No doubt, certain bait and presentations work on one “lake” but not the others at the same time.
To say the least, my learning curve has been taxing on my weather beaten brain ( and body).lol
2. No doubt, fishing can and most likely will be good in the “community” spots/areas. With that, it can be hard to stay out of those areas of bumper boats when all else fails. That said, I’ve been able to find and successfully fish some off the beaten path walleye haunts. Many being of the same pattern the community spots offer–and allowing more ease of fishing without having to be concerned of other boats being in the path of attack. Of course, my goal has been and will continue to find fishy spots that go unmolested for the most part. ( harder than I thought it would be so far but doable–no doubt.)
3. Leech walleyes will bite fairly good in calm water ( more times than not and contrary to the typical train of thought) , even in less than 10 ft. of water, with an approach taking the calmness into serious consideration.
4. Like most walleye meccas such as Leech now is, most “areas” have “spots on the spots”. A prime example would be the famous Duck Point. Seems that Duck is made up of numerous subtle humps–shallowing up 1- maybe 2.5 ft. only and mostly being less than 1500 square ft. on the top surface, that are harder than the surrounding bottom. Purposely studying those humps make-up, I find that they ( the subtle humps) could be considered “clam beds”. Each hump could be a great slip bobber spot in itself, but god forbid in those heavy traffic areas if a 100 ft. of anchor rope would be in place. LOL (I tried it once and had a boat drift TWO FEET from my gunwale–while my bobbers were sinking quite regularly! I learned fast and pulled the anchor and tucked my tail–as the guy asked casually, while passing within an arms reach of me–” whatcha usin’ for bait?” lol)
5. My catch rates, size-wise, have been about 3 to 1 of bigger than 20″–most being 21″-23″ and about 1 in 10 being over 24″-25″. That said, some spots, no doubt, have more small fish than others and that ratio is the opposite in those spots. Numbers-wise, my catch rates have been about 4-5 fish per hour average if I actually fish an area/spot for any length of time. Many days so far, I have been doing more hunting than fishing. As usual, one can come into a new spot and catch a quick half dozen and then it settles down and averages out to the 4 fish or so per hour for the day or half day.
6. And finally, after spending a month on the shores of Leech Lake, from Steamboat to Walker to Whipholt, my stay has been very pleasant. For an “outsider”, that’s a good thing…thanks to all!
Now back to being the humbled rookie guide (after 48 years of being at the helm) and making a gallant attempt to be as good as the likes of Maas, Woodruff, Shriver, Gwinn, Wilson, Christianson and …oh my!!
