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Fishing
Because of the quality, and
abundance of fish in Green Bay, as well as the ready markets to the
south and east, commercial fishing early became a lucrative industry.
Shortly after the turn of the century, however, it was realized there
had to be some regulation and restrictions enforced, or this important
part of the economy would not be able to reproduce; thus closed seasons,
on some species, were enforced. a local newspaper notes in the December
8, 1906 issue: "The open season for fishing white fish and trout
will start on December 15, and most of the commercial fishermen are
getting their gear arranged for the coming winter fishing season. During
the closed season white fish and trout have become very scarce in local
markets."
In early days, men of
courage went out from landings in Marinette's Menekaunee area, from
Philbrooks (now the end of Ogden Street), from Peshtigo Harbor and from
many places in between, in handmade flat bottom sailboats, and on sail
sleds in the winter, to place and lift nets. Later, more than thirty
motor-powered "fishing tugs" were concentrated in
"Fisherman's Harbor" in Menekaunee, bringing in tons of
Whitefish, Perch, "Blue Fin" and Herring. These boats, many of
them large, ranged Green Bay, into Lake Michigan, and as far away as
Lake Superior, where the sturdy fishermen of Marinette's old First and
Second Wards, sometimes battled the Finnish fishermen of Northern
Keweenaw Peninsula over fishing grounds. This fine old fleet has
dwindled now to comparatively few boats. A local paper of October 25,
1899, reviewed the past fishing season as follows: "The directors
of the Green Bay Fisherman's Association met yesterday at Menekaunee and
quickly disposed of the matter of selling off the season's catch. F.G.
Dormer of Buffalo, wealthy wholesale fish dealer, made an offer for the
largest portion of the catch and it was accepted. He purchased 25,000
packages (barrels) at $2.20 each for a total sale of $55,000."
"Catches" so
tremendous that they are hard to believe today, were made by early
fishermen. The following story was told by "Dad" Wright.
"Dad" will be remembered by may residents of Dunbar, where he
spent his last years. At the time he was a fisherman. They were fishing
in a low flat, covered by rushes, 10 to 12 feet high.
"We found that the ice
had not moved out yet, but all day long the wind had been blowing a
gale, and at dusk the ice started. John Olson, C.E. Wright, George
Edwards and his Dad had a big pile of driftwood and a tar barrel capstan
at each end of the seine, and another, in the center, where we expected
to land the fish on a sandy bay shore beach. We followed the ice out 80
rods with our south line and then threw over our seine going north,
then back to shore. We had sixteen foot sweeps on the capstans, and we
needed them. When we had our hauling line half in we changed to blocks
up toward the center and grounded the ends of our seine.
"It was a dark night.
An off shore wind was blowing the water flat, and before the top line
was near shore we were hauling in perch, perch, perch, nothing but
perch; 12 and 14 inch big flat "jumbos." We commenced scooping
them up and putting them in salt barrels. These were of two sizes, 220
and 320 pounds capacity. When daylight came we had twenty barrels of
fish. The old man hightailed it to the telegraph office. He wired
Charles Witti and Sons for a price on perch. the wired back; perch,
perch, hell no, we wouldn't pay the charges on them!"
Perch, Sturgeon and Walleye
were considered "rough fish" in those days! tons of perch were
dumped on the land for fertilizer!
(Marinette County
Centennial 1879-1979, p. 6)
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