Leech Lake Ice Fishing

In February, 2009, three friends and I journeyed north from the Twin Cities on our annual ice fishing trip to Leech Lake, MN.

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We arrived the day before, but this was our first day out on the frozen surface of Leech Lake in Minnesota's north country. The weak January sun was just rising as we set out onto the snowy lake by 4-wheel drive trucks.
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Leech Lake is huge, cold, and snow-covered. The resort, Brindley's Harbor, plows a road. This winter the snow was maybe two feet deep. Beneath the snow in places there were several inches of slush. The ice, however, was safe with perhaps 24" to support us.
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Our destination was a cluster of three ice houses about 1-1.5 miles out onto the lake. They can be seen here in the far distance.
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The road winds across the surface of the lake to avoid pressure ridges caused by expanding ice heaving itself upwards. While plowed, it does drift sometimes. Two years ago, we had a difficult time getting off the lake because all-day highwinds had drifted the road shut.
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It can be very cold and windy out here. This year, the temperatures weren't bad, although this day the wind came up in the afternoon and blew at a fairly constant rate of 30 mph.
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Keeping warm is always an issue. If temps dropped too much, we could retreat to a heated hut to warm up. Mostly, however, we needed to move from hole to hole to find the perch so staying out was important. Heavy clothing helped maintain some level of comfort, although a bright sun helped as well.
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There is always a bit of suspense when a fish taps your bait. Setting the hook sometimes tell you how big the fish is, but sometimes it can be deceiving as small fish sometimes hit the bait hard and big ones can cautiously mouth it.
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This time it was too small and Art returned it back to the water. Perhaps next year it will test another angler or end up as lunch for a hungry pike.
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We had an underwater camera set up in the ice house. The waterproof camer is lowered near the bottom so we could actually watch the fish on a monitor inside the house. In this shot, a perch I had hooked dives to the bottom as a pike materializes from the shadows. I fumbled with the rod as I snapped this shot. Clearly interested in the struggling perch, the pike eventually veers off. It makes me wonder how many dramas play out in the dim water beneath the ice.
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This pike seemed interested in the camera. When he was off in the shadows, the perch were particularly thick here, but the moment the long slender shadow appeared there would be puffs of bottom sediments as the perch scrambled for hiding places.
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Leech Lake is huge. Here is our base of activities, trucks and ice houses, under an enormous sky. Land can be seen in the far distance.
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A closer shot of our base of operations.
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The fishing was fast enough most of the time that it was difficult to tend two rods; it took all of one's concentration to use just one with the light-biting perch. In most cases, however, we only could use one hole at a time, although we probably had 30 holes from which to choose in a couple of acres of ice.
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Art sits on his bucket under gathering clouds. The day started off nicely, but turned gray as a storm moved in, although there were a few breaks in the clouds as they scudded along. We got an inch of snow that night, but by the next morning, the sun was shining brightly.
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Don (foreground) and his son, Matt (background) wait patiently for bites. The fish sometimes hit with abandon; at other times they were very cautious and simply nibbled gently on the bait.
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Most of the fish we caught were perch, but here is Don with a nice eating-size walleye.
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As we were getting ready to head back to shore after the first full day of fishing, I caught two nice walleyes in as many minutes. Matt (left) and I decided to stay out a bit longer to see if we could roust a couple of more. Art (center) and Don headed back, but we may as well have left too as the walleyes declined to accept our dinner invitation. It's hard to be out in the cold for that many hours, so kicking back and chatting was an enjoyable way to finish the day.
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The sun is a somewhat reluctant visitor to northern Minnesota in February. It comes up slowly and its path keeps it to the south, where it sheds light in a more generous manner. Despite the warm glow, it's stingy with warmth. Still, it suggests a day warmer than most in this cold climate and we greeted it with some enthusiasm the next morning.
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The low angle of the sun at these latitudes is a boon for the photographer as the lake's wind-carved features cast blue shadows setting off each curve and ripple against the stark beauty of the snow. Couldn't resist shooting my own long shadow in the early morning light.
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Though plowed, the ice road sometimes plugs up with wind-driven ice and snow. All-wheel or 4-wheel drive is usually necessary in this harsh and changing environment.
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