Quaker Hammer Handles and Heat

[Scott McKee]

I had the chance to go “camping” in Alleghany Monday and Tuesday with a bunch of the gang, so I laid out the newsletter Saturday night in lieu of sleep after getting out of work Saturday around midnight.  I put camping in quotes earlier because my friends don’t really camp.  They bring every amenity they can stuff into their trailer and slaughter booze and cook enough food to feed the proverbial army.  I had a good time doing absolutely nothing, which I needed after doing nothing for three days while feeling really terrible last week in the hospital.

Carrie and I did manage to take my little brothers 12-foot row boat “L’il Sharkey” out for four or five hours on Quaker Lake Monday.  The water was warm, really warm and the air temperature was oppressive.  We did manage to tie into nine hammer handles and a nice chunky bass on stickbaits and lipless crankbaits.  All of the fish came from the middle of the shallow basin.  We couldn’t even get a follow hammering the shore with spinnerbaits and Mann’s 1- which I thought was strange.  I tried a little trolling in the deeper water adjacent to the shallow flats by Quaker Run with some small musky baits looking for a big pike, which turned out to be nothing more than a nice boat ride.  Oh well.  Getting skunked with musky baits will prepare me for Opening Week on the River and in the Harbor.  My brother and I fished Quaker last year in August on the same sort of “camping” trip and we knocked them around pretty good.  We caught a bunch of pike in the high twenties and a handful of very thick and tough largemouth.

I’m going to finish editing the newsletter now and I’ll post it later tonight.  Anybody else been out?