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Lou Malek
By Fred Schwab
Lou was accepted into the club on 4/6/53, when he became gravely ill during 1972 the membership unanimously voted to make him an honorary member. A Republic Aviation employee, he and his wife Marie, a teacher in the Queens school system for 36 years lived in Uniondale, both retired in the mid 60’s.Lou loved surf fishing and his involvement and devotion to the club attests to the love which he had for High Hill. He served, as a Board member 8 times, was Secretary/Treasurer during 1954 and 55 and Vice President in 1958 and 61.When a new member came on board Lou would be one of the first to make them feel welcomed, describe the operation and activities of the club, and eagerly respond to questions.
When Frank Arendt and I joined in 1960 that was most certainly the case. He was a gentleman, intelligent, soft spoken and seldom lost his cool, even during the most heated of debates. Lou willingly did club How To’s, assisted others and shared his knowledge. He had a talent for carpentry and built the ballot box which the club used for many years. During 1968 and until he became ill he served on the Board of Directors of Save Our Stripers (SOS), expending a great deal of time and energy in the effort to obtain game fish status for the striped bass. When SOS needed a large ballot and questionnaire box for use at their sportsmen’s show booths, Lou’s skills came to the rescue. (I recently gave that ingeniously built box to Willie Young for use by the Montauk Surfcasters and CCA).Through the years Lou managed to win several club contests, but the win that I think he was most proud of was the Largest of Species award for a 44-1 striped bass in 1967. I believe that fish was caught at Montauk’s Coconuts during October.
Of all the Hill members who caught quality fish through the years, few were as deserving as Lou and the entire membership shared in his joy. I have a lot of fond memories of Lou and I’ll share one. It was a trip to Montauk, beginning on 10/7/69. My target was Jones Reef, but when I arrived it was obvious that huge ocean swells were creating unfishable conditions. Jim Sheridan and Barry Bergmann had tried but were now heading for North Bar, I did the same. There was a large crowd in the water taking an occasional small fish. Connie Cusack had also made the trip out, and like me he wasn’t enthused about fishing in that crowd to catch mice. We held back figuring that eventually the crowd would thin out and as often happened in those days, larger fish would move into the rip towards the bottom of the tide.
Lou's Alaskan camper was parked on the Bar with the inside lights on, so we knocked on the door. He and Johnny Koop were out for the week and they invited us in for a hot toddy and conversation and since we were in no rush to start fishing we accepted. Lou kept the hot toddy’s coming and the more we drank, the more we talked and laughed. He had the heater on and it was sucking up a lot of oxygen, and along with cigarette smoke and the alcohol all of us were getting a bit groggy and far too comfortable to go out and stand in cold wave tossed water. We were having a good time but then one of us stepped outside to breath in some oxygen and learned that Barry had just taken a 23-pound bass and Jim had two teens. If I remember correctly, only Lou and I got out and fished, both taking a few to 15 pounds while under the influence, giggling and not to steady on our feet. Connie and John opted to stay with the hot toddy's. On the following night the fish were bigger and because Lou’s hot toddy’s didn’t show up we did well. I noted in my log that Lou took a 23 pounder and had several other big fish on, I took a 25 and several rats, and Connie had a 42-9 which was destined to be High Hill’s top bass for 1969.
Adopted from a book "The Complete History of the High Hill Striper Club " by Fred Schwab , edited by Zeno Hromin.