Jack O'Malley Interview w/ Dave Richey
Michigan has four seasons. The above title may offer a clue to which of the four seasons falls at the bottom of my list
Mind you, it’s a matter of personal taste. Granted, there are many grand and wonderful things to do during the summer months besides sweat or look into a blinding sun.
There is bass fishing. The Hexagenia limbata hatch will arrive next month, and it will turn on the big browns in some of Michigan Blue Ribbon trout streams. The Lake Michigan salmon season will be kicking off, and there are smallmouth bass on inland lakes and nearby Grand Traverse Bay.
A few late summer evenings will be spent patterning deer. It’s always something that gets overlooked by many hunters until late September, and those who wait that long to locate deer stand a very real chance of spooking them.
Dave Richey fights a summer salmon.
There are still some bouts to come with pug-nosed bluegills as the big males protect their spawning redds. There will be some whitefish action on the East Arm of Grand Traverse Bay and nearby Crystal Lake, and soon will be the best time to fish inland lakes for trout as the water stratifies. Anglers who fish where the thermocline meets bottom will catch fish.
A number of tree stands must be placed, one or two will be put up on my personal property, and instead of shooting my bow in the basement, I can do it outside once my McKenzie targets are put in place. A few brown trout may still be caught in the next two or three weeks, and then there is my annual two-day Lake St. Clair muskie fishing trip in July. That fishery only seems to get better by the year, and some fish to 40 pounds are being caught. Mind you, most of the fish are around 20 pounds or a bit more, but one stands a very good chance of wrestling aboard a great huge pot-bellied muskie. But please, think twice before keeping it. Again, I hope for two or three muskie fishing trips to Lake Skegemog or Intermediate Lake. Both lakes hold some very large fish, but very few of them are caught on hook and line. I look forward to some walleye fishing trips to area lakes, and Long Lake always figures prominently in my plans. Most of my fishing there comes just before sundown as the personal watercraft and speedboats hang it up for the night. It makes one wonder whether they realize how expensive gas is now. But, if one must ask the price of gas, they probably really can't afford it. I’ll poke around two evenings this summer for largemouth bass after dark, and I may try two area lakes for walleyes after sundown. It always seems to be a good time to cast for big marble-eyes. Occasionally, one is caught and it’s almost always a big old hen.Smallmouth bass are fun to catch on a hot summer day.
I enjoy some of those August days when a heavy rain brings a bunch of big Chinook salmon up the rivers. The river water is still warm, and the kings seldom hit well, but hooking a 20 pounder on a fly rod is a battle one will never forget.
But, it seems I’ve drifted off the topic. I was griping about my least favorite season. Summer, in my pecking order of seasons, rates the lowest marks. I’ve never handled hot weather well. There is something about my physical make-up that I don’t understand, nor apparently, do the doctors. It seems that I seldom perspire. In hot weather, perspiration helps regulate your body temperature. It doesn’t work worth a rip for me. The hot weather just makes me hotter and more miserable. I find myself thinking more and more about fall hunting seasons, and the thought of cooling down is always on me. I soak my hat and shirt in lake water, let it dry, and the evaporation has a cooling effect on me. However, as much as I’ve tried, thinking about cool weather hunting doesn’t cool me down. It simply helps prolong the misery. Once a year, I gripe about hot weather, especially when the temperature soars well above 90 degrees as it has the past two days, and that sets me to whining a bit. I’ll get over it once the temperature drops down into the 70s, and my screwy internal thermometer straightens itself out. Thanks for indulging my annual gripe session about hot weather. It relieves my ire although it probably increases yours. Sorry about that!
