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Posts: 994
Location: Minnesota: where it's tough to be a sportsfan! | Does anyone know and care to share where the "mailbox" spot is on this lake? |
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Posts: 10
| I have been fishing Leech for years and never heard of a Mailbox Spot? What do you think the Mailbox spot is? |
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Posts: 793
Location: Ames, Iowa | I have a place on Leech and I have no idea what the mailbox is.
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Posts: 233
Location: Iowa | Never heard of it either.
Jeremy |
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| My guess is he wants the best spot. You know the one you go to and they're always there. Kind of like the mail- it is always there. |
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Posts: 10
| Well if he want's the best spot then it must be the end of walker narrows. There is always a couple boats casting there that i have to navigate by.. |
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Posts: 444
| I thought leaning tree was the best spot on the lake... |
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Posts: 10
| Do you mean the tilting tree next to the lifeguard on the dock on squaw point? |
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Posts: 4080
Location: Elko - Lake Vermilion | BACK When, (long time ago) the USPS used to deliver mail by boat to some of those , who lived on the water for the summer, Perhaps one of those places was named the "Mailbox"
Man, can you imagan Trolling from Mailbox to Mailbox,...........Talk about going Postal !!
I could handle that Job.
jerome |
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Posts: 717
Location: Grand Rapids, MI | I'm going to take a wild guess, and say you're asking because of the article in "Muskie" magazine from Muskies Inc. Juris Ozols had an interview with Joe Arends, and Joe was showing a picture of a fish he water released on the spot he called "The Mailbox". Just the fish's head is showing out of the water, and the head looks to be about 10 1/2" across. Looks to be an absolute monster. I think Joe mentions "The Mailbox" a couple times, and says it was a very high producing spot. But my guess is, that is just the nickname HE came up with for that spot. Instead of saying "The south end of the middle island. Not that big point that sticks out, but other points, you know, the one that has a willow tree right on it." |
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Posts: 10
| From the sounds of this article it may have been more appropriately name the "Femalebox".
I guess if I were to give advice on finding the mailbox spot I would say this. I personally find it much more fun in finding my own mailbox. Opening someone elses mail is fun but just not as satisfying for me.
Cheers to tight lines this season mates. |
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Location: MN | There are still muskies in Leech? I thought they all swam to Vermilion.
Sorry, couldn't resist a little comment about the Vermilion masses. Isn't it true that Leech was the Vermilion before Vermilion. Blows my mind how it fell off the face of the planet in many people's minds.
Edited by Mak51 3/18/2010 12:14 PM
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Posts: 646
Location: In a shack in the woods | Mak51 - 3/18/2010 12:10 PM
There are still muskies in Leech? I thought they all swam to Vermilion.
Sorry, couldn't resist a little comment about the Vermilion masses. Isn't it true that Leech was the Vermilion before Vermilion. Blows my mind how it fell off the face of the planet in many people's minds.
that's fine by me:) |
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Posts: 793
Location: Ames, Iowa | Yep- There just aren't that many muskies left in Leech. Must be all the walleye and perch crowding them out. |
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Posts: 335
Location: Minnesota | The cormorants are eating them. |
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Posts: 444
| It's the large mouth bass eating all the fingerlings...he he he.....
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Posts: 59
| Must just be the big ones left in leech... haha |
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| There really is a mailbox  I should know, I'm Joe's daughter and I've fished
with him many, many, many times on that spot. It's produced lots of monsters.
Biggest I saw him catch there was 54" to top of tail. Measuring stick was to
short!
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Posts: 717
Location: Grand Rapids, MI | OOOO!!! The truth comes out, and the plot thickens! HAHAHA!!! So what more can you tell us about the mailbox, Deb? Was it just his nickname for the spot? |
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Posts: 40
| Landmarks change...shacks fall down, signs and mailboxes age or blow away.
Dad always used 3 focal points to locate his spot, and his flasher to make sure
he was where he wanted to be. No GPS! Definitely on the north end of the lake. |
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Posts: 40
| Do you guys have a certain day you like to run the lake? Dad always liked
July 18th. He and Doc Cotton would always take off early that day and fish
the entire lake. Twice they caught a total of 17 fish for the day. Could never
go over that amount. Never missed that day if he could help it. Interesting huh? |
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Posts: 994
Location: Minnesota: where it's tough to be a sportsfan! | Thanks Deb for jumping in! A couple of the old timers had mentioned it and then it was in the article in M.I. I thought I'd fire the question out to see what developed. It was fun watching the way the string went thank you for joining in and putting it straight again! This is a real spot boys & girls! I'm guessing some of the fellows that mentioned it to me fished with Joe and then used the same name for it. For those of you that always think someone's after your secrets....well there aren't that many secrets, let's just say that.
17 Muskies in a day....I don't know if i could pack a big enough lunch to deal with that, but it sure would be fun to try!! |
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Posts: 40
| Don't need many - just a few summer sausage and cheese sandwiches and a
few pops and some water. Make sure gas tank is filled though! Don't stay on
spots too long...just go - it's really fun! |
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Posts: 692
Location: Pelican Rapids, MN | Jeez Deb, now July 18th is gonna be swamped with kook's looking for mailboxes on the north end!  |
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Posts: 40
| No - that's the day they would shoot the lake - the whole lake! |
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Posts: 16
Location: north metro | the muskie rampage in 1955 started on july 16th and ended july about 10 days after. but the best fishing was the first 3 days over 50 muskies where cought in the 3 day period all mainly from two points in portage bay.. that would me my guess deb as to why your dad likes the 18th |
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Posts: 994
Location: Minnesota: where it's tough to be a sportsfan! | That's a great point. And over time the July 18th date may have proven it's consistency repeatly. Neat observation. |
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Posts: 16
Location: north metro | yeah it very well may have. there has actually been what people believe to be as other rampages. there has been guides in the past 20 years who have boated mulitple fish a day for a few days in a row but in todays world people are much better at keeping it quiet. but then in one of the stories i read about the guide who wrote the story he said later he found out that there were other guides having similar success with clients on the same days. look some of them up. they are really interesting. ive fished the lake for years and have had three fish nights within a 30 minute time frame. but nothing like the 55 rampage. something about leech though is when it is hot. it is smokin! its a gamble of a lake. you could fish for 2 weeks and not see a fish and then one night same situation not seeing a single fish and then for an hour you move fish and catch 2 and then its quiet again like nothing happend. put your time into this lake. so many people think leech is not as good as it used to be. but in the last couple years i have done better then i have or my father had been. he fished it sense the early 70's and ive fished it ever sense my first muskie when i was 5 years old. a 48.5 inch fish on the milkjug to a 5 year old kid is enough to have anyone hooked for life! i do enjoy there being just a little less amount of fishing pressure on the lake the last couple years as well. but a lake that big never can get to crowded anyway.
Edited by DKMKmuskyman 4/27/2010 7:02 PM
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Posts: 16
Location: north metro | happy fishing to all!
Edited by DKMKmuskyman 4/27/2010 7:02 PM
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Posts: 40
| There have been times when it seemed like we should have been seeing/catching
fish and weren't. When this happed, I would figure eight with my rod in water up
to reel - and lo and behold - there were fish following (some actively) way down there ... really deep! Give it a try - it could brighted your day. |
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Posts: 16
Location: north metro | if fish are staying deep like that then put some weight on your bucktail to bring it down closer to there level. when the bait gets closer to the boat and the lure starts going up to the surface then that will act like a trigger. have you ever noticed how when your crankbait is coming in and right as it starts coming toward the surface you sometimes have a fish appear out of nowhere and take a swing at it... same thing. its a trigger, when the muskie sees the lure take a dramatic change in direction toward the surface sometimes this can make the ski think its trying to get away, or its scared and whamm! just like a pause is a trigger or givin a good pull of the rod. all are triggers to make a fish go from a follower to an eater. happy fishing! |
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Posts: 40
| Met a kid (20's) last week who fishes muskies on Leech. Bound and deterimined that he's going to keep his first fish if it's legal.
I preached catch and release, but I don't think he was listening. But he's fished 4 years and hasn't caught one...so maybe he'll
stay unlucky! |
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| Was there a part 2 to the Muskies Inc article? |
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Posts: 40
| There is a short article and picture of what the family calls the "Jaws Fish". Dad caught it late one evening in 1988 and another boater took a great picture of it. When they gave him a copy of the picture, I went to the boat and measured the letters on it. From the left edge of the R to the right edge of the O, measured 10 1/2 inches. Nice fish! |
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Posts: 10
| Deb your comment about Jaws brings back fond memories. As a kid growing up waiting for each trip to Leech there were was always fish stories lingeing in the rumor mill to keep me occupied. Jaws was one of these stories.
"Jaws" - a very big fish that cruised near a railroad Trestle.
"Jingles" - was another fish rumored to be near Uram Bay |
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Posts: 315
| i like how you say they fished across the whole lake!! I was just at leech and if you want to fish any amount of spots with weeds you literally need to fish across the whole lake because thats how far apart the spots are... |
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Posts: 40
| Fun wasn't it? Give it another couple of weeks..it'll get better!
How is Goose looking? Anybody been there? |
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| Deb are you married!?!?!? |
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Posts: 40
| Yes!
Have a feeling I may not get up to Leech this summer. Am hoping for August but.....
So really enjoy having you guys keep me informed!
This weekend should have been really good! And the 18th is coming up! Let me hear how you all did.
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| Fished Leech this past week end with my brother. We both knew Joe. Both of us have fished with him. Yes there is indeed a spot called the "Mail Box". I have fished it with Joe. I have not fished leech for probably 10 years. It has changed for sure but is still a great fishery. You just need to know where to go. |
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Posts: 40
| So how did you and your brother do? I agree, it's still a great fishery and you do need to know where to go. And as Dad would say "boat control is a must". |
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| Got a 45"on Saturday morning on the Rocks. Missed two and cought some nice fat Pike. Spent the rest of the weekend taking Moma fishing Eye's. |
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Posts: 221
Location: Detroint Lakes, MN |
Caught a 39"er yesterday on Leech. Missed a bigger one. Both on Mouldy's baits.
Joe was a great guy. He just loved to laugh and have fun, and catch fish.
I was fortunate enough to have known him for over 10 years in the FM MI club.
JS |
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LEECH LAKE/MINNESOTA