Fishing has been a big part of my past. My family all immigrated(legally) from Germany a small village in eastern Germany in fact it lay behind the iron curtain after WW-II. My family started to arrive in the 1920's and were still arriving little by little until I was in high school. Almost all migrated to Milwaukee WI and the surrounding area. They formed a German club, bought a old dance hall and formed a singing society and an orchestra, my grandfather was a singer and they toured the USA putting on concerts and they even cut a couple albums, my father was a trumpet player, my great uncle player the concertina and another the violin, I don't know what happened to me, I couldn't carry a tune if it were in a bucket.
They bought a big piece of land over looking Lake Michigan and built a picknick grounds complete with large shooting ranges for medieval crossbows and held summer festivals like "Vogel Shezin" which translates to "bird shooting", they would shoot at large ornate wooden birds that m grandfather built, winning a prize every time someone knocked a piece off.
So you can see that family outings were a thing, so now we get to fishing. the whole crew would go to a resort on a lake near Milwaukee and go fishing for northern pike, this was in the early 1950's. They would rent all the boats and pile in 2-4 per boat and my grandfather had the only outboard, a 3 hp Elgin and they would tie the boats in a long string and my grandfather would tow them out to the good fishing spots. I was too young to fish from the boats but I would handline off the pier and catch a basket full of sunfish and perch. The women would set up a number of picnic tables and play Canasta while the men fished and have a great lunch set up for their return. Lunch was an elaborate affair with food only old German House Frau's could prepare. The afternoons were spent with horse shoes, beer, singing and sheeps head card games. When the sun got lower in the sky it was back to the boats until near dark. Sundays were spent at the Government pier in Lake Michigan fishing lake perch with multitudes of canepoles and trolleys. By the time I was able to use a pole my dad had his own Elgin.
I think the coolest picture of my dad
Each year my family would rent a cabin or should I say the whole family would rent most of a resort in northern WI and spend a week fishing and eating. We lived in a two room cabin with out running water near Milwaukee yet my parents always saved enough money to make the trip north, some years if it was a good year we stayed two weeks. My parents always made sure we had a fun vacation in the north country. We did that from the time I still had a bottle and blanky until I got married and moved to Northern MN even then we made the sojourn to WI to spent the week with them..
Then there were the outings to net smelt.
Our little cabin at home was right on the Milwaukee river and it was part of our house. in the summer we'd go down to the river and take bathes, a lot easier than a washtub in the kitchen. My dad and I would fly cast poppers under the overhanging willows for panfish and bass. We fished from the bank for catfish, bullheads, northerns and bass.
When dad was off to work I'd bicycle to town and wade the river below the dam for small mouth bass and northerns. If we had a lake fishing trip for northerns planned I took my flyrod and minnow pail and catch our bait for the trip.
I'm not a purist, I like fried bass, boiled and fried northern pike and smoked carp and I have a batch getting ready to pickle. I haven't had home pickled fish for a long time. My family used to buy wooden kegs of herring and make pickled herring, rolmops, and pickled smelt. One of the best dishes we grew up on was northern pike boiled with pickling spices and onions served with browned butter, sweet/sour red cabbage and boiled potatoes. We still look forward to that. After my dad passed my BinL and I would keep moms freezer stocked with northerns so she could serve it whenever she wanted..
Well this got long, I guess my trip yesterday brought on some nostalgia, sometime we'll talk hunting.
They bought a big piece of land over looking Lake Michigan and built a picknick grounds complete with large shooting ranges for medieval crossbows and held summer festivals like "Vogel Shezin" which translates to "bird shooting", they would shoot at large ornate wooden birds that m grandfather built, winning a prize every time someone knocked a piece off.
So you can see that family outings were a thing, so now we get to fishing. the whole crew would go to a resort on a lake near Milwaukee and go fishing for northern pike, this was in the early 1950's. They would rent all the boats and pile in 2-4 per boat and my grandfather had the only outboard, a 3 hp Elgin and they would tie the boats in a long string and my grandfather would tow them out to the good fishing spots. I was too young to fish from the boats but I would handline off the pier and catch a basket full of sunfish and perch. The women would set up a number of picnic tables and play Canasta while the men fished and have a great lunch set up for their return. Lunch was an elaborate affair with food only old German House Frau's could prepare. The afternoons were spent with horse shoes, beer, singing and sheeps head card games. When the sun got lower in the sky it was back to the boats until near dark. Sundays were spent at the Government pier in Lake Michigan fishing lake perch with multitudes of canepoles and trolleys. By the time I was able to use a pole my dad had his own Elgin.
I think the coolest picture of my dad
Each year my family would rent a cabin or should I say the whole family would rent most of a resort in northern WI and spend a week fishing and eating. We lived in a two room cabin with out running water near Milwaukee yet my parents always saved enough money to make the trip north, some years if it was a good year we stayed two weeks. My parents always made sure we had a fun vacation in the north country. We did that from the time I still had a bottle and blanky until I got married and moved to Northern MN even then we made the sojourn to WI to spent the week with them..
Then there were the outings to net smelt.
Our little cabin at home was right on the Milwaukee river and it was part of our house. in the summer we'd go down to the river and take bathes, a lot easier than a washtub in the kitchen. My dad and I would fly cast poppers under the overhanging willows for panfish and bass. We fished from the bank for catfish, bullheads, northerns and bass.
When dad was off to work I'd bicycle to town and wade the river below the dam for small mouth bass and northerns. If we had a lake fishing trip for northerns planned I took my flyrod and minnow pail and catch our bait for the trip.
I'm not a purist, I like fried bass, boiled and fried northern pike and smoked carp and I have a batch getting ready to pickle. I haven't had home pickled fish for a long time. My family used to buy wooden kegs of herring and make pickled herring, rolmops, and pickled smelt. One of the best dishes we grew up on was northern pike boiled with pickling spices and onions served with browned butter, sweet/sour red cabbage and boiled potatoes. We still look forward to that. After my dad passed my BinL and I would keep moms freezer stocked with northerns so she could serve it whenever she wanted..
Well this got long, I guess my trip yesterday brought on some nostalgia, sometime we'll talk hunting.
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