• Sunday-What'sUP May 25 - 10:18 am

We are working on a Pasty Cameo about commercial fishing in the Upper Peninsula. Hope to have it published early this week. But lest we break our perfect record of a new scene from U.P. every day since March 1, 1998, here in advance is one of the shots to be included, courtesy of the Michigan Tech Archives.

Sorry for the late Pasty Cam today, but we had some technical challenges related to an upgrade of the Internet service in the village where this daily feature originates, Eagle River. Last week Pasty.NET celebrated 10 years of service, in our corporate mission of bringing broadband connections to remote parts of the U.P. Sometimes the details of this work keep us as busy as the folks in the shot above. But instead of filleting fish, we are spreading around a mysterious resource known as bandwidth, throughout the hills of the Keweenaw Peninsula, and in several remote areas of Marquette County.

Stay tuned this week for the story of these hard working folks behind the scenes in the commercial fishing industry in these parts. Hope you have a safe and meaningful Memorial Day, which is only 15 minutes away here in the Eastern Time Zone.

Have a good week :o)

Wow...that was a close call, Charlie. I look forward to reading
about the filleting. One of my uncles, a farmer, used to earn some
extra money by doing this kind of work at Portage Entry back in
the fifties.

Commercial fishing isn't completely over, thank goodness. There's still 1 fishing business located in Leland's Fishtown, owned by the Carlson family 4 at least 3 generations.

Hey, there's something fish going on around here. I can almost smell that place looking at the photo. Hey Charlie, per Benjamin Franklin are you going to have to remove this photo after 3 days?

Todays pic does bring back memories of the commercial fishing days of the 50's. We lived just North of Portage Entry along the channel. Dad was a commercial fisherman then. It was a wonderful time. Dad would drop his fish off at Portage Entry.
Ernie

That one almost got away!

I worked for the commercial fishermen at Big Traverse in 1943-44. We would lift the nets and take the herring out of the nets(called choking). Then we would set the nets back into the lake. We would do this most every day, weather providing, in Nov. & Dec. Trucks would pick up the fish at the dock and bring it to the fisheries. I was a teen ager at the time. It was cold,sometimes it was windy and rough & snowy.I worked on the 30' Romeo owned by Art Lasanen.

My Great Uncle had a fishing boat and ice house located on Superior on the Canadian side. I still remember walking in the ice house in the summer and seeing all that ice covered in fresh pine sawdust. The smell of the fresh fish and pine is an incredible memory. Not only was it a large area but it was dark with fish hanging everywhere. He and the workers would leave the double doors open to be able to see. I wish I had a camera back then. But right now my minds eye serves me well. =D