The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Fishing industry found life elsewhere
The briny smell of bait accompanying fishermen docking boats full of the day’s haul once was commonplace over 50 years ago for Vermilion River ports.
Now, according to Don Parsons, owner and co-founder of Don Parsons marina, 636 Sandusky St. in Vermilion, only one commercial fishing boat leaves its dock on the Vermilion River to fish in Lake Erie.
“We don’t really get a lot of interaction with them,” said Joe Nickeson, owner of Central Basin Bait and Tackle, 5312 Liberty Ave. “I just know that they go out, set nets and pull the nets.
“I know how they do it ... but other than that, I don’t know much else about them.”
Fishing for a living
Having lived in the Vermilion area since the early 1800s, commercial fishing was a way of life for the Parsons family for generations.
Parsons’ father, Nelson, introduced fishing to both Don at 17 or 18 years old and his brother Rich.
“We grew up in it ... I enjoy the water and being on the water,” Parsons, 79, said. “That’s in my blood.”
Parsons’ time as a commercial fisherman was cut short when the state of Ohio began buying back fishing licenses as a response to fears of over-fishing.
Facing a dead-end, the Parsons family sold their license to the state in 1957 and started the Don Parsons Inc. marina.
Parsons estimated somewhere around half of the fishermen that were out of work went to pursue a new career at the Ford plant in Lorain.
Any major port as far west as Toledo and as far east as Lorain sent out commercial fishermen as of the mid 1900s, he said.
Parsons said state regulations on commercial fishing have given Canadian fishermen precedence in Lake Erie fishing.
“The Canadians are now producing the fish that Americans could have been producing,” Parsons said.
Timothy C. Lloyd and Patrick B. Mullen’s book “Lake Erie Fishermen: Work: Identity, and Tradition” also found that restrictions were often placed on commercial fishing due to fears of over-fishing so that sports fishing would prosper.
After a temporary ban of commercial walleye fishing was lifted in 1972, restrictions on the length of season, size of nets, legal commercial fishing areas and near impossibility of obtaining or transferring a commercial fishing license contributed to fish companies closing, according to Lloyd and Mullen.
Parsons equated the fishing industry in Vermilion to the Ford and steel plants in Lorain that closed and put thousands of people out of work.
Bill Cutcher, 83, of Vermilion, also had a family history of fishing, trapping and hunting.
Originally from France, Cutcher said his family line gradually moved from Canada to various south ends of Lake Erie, eventually ending up in Vermilion.
Cutcher himself worked as a fisherman for five years before becoming a mechanic in 1956.
His brother, Kenneth Cutcher, and several of his uncles worked for Kischman Fish Co. in Fairport Harbor.
“Some of us struck out and had some of our own fishing trips,” Cutcher said. “My brother and I, we fished together for two years. We couldn’t make it go, we were too small.”
He said he also knew of fishermen who worked for specific companies that were low on income.
If some of the anglers weren’t the first few to cash their paychecks, the checks would bounce due to the company’s insufficient funds, Cutcher said.
“There was quite a bit of competition because the fish population was declining and the buyers were tight for how much was paid for,” he said.
Although the fishing industry provided opportunities for those who were experienced, the changes happening to the lake’s climate made the work unstable, Cutcher said.
“If you had some experience, it was easy to get a job fishing,” he said. “That changed so suddenly because of the lake pollution, over-fishing and a number of other things.”
Some fishermen in the area, including Toledo’s Hosko Fish Co. owner Martin Hosko, would contribute to increasing fish population by collecting fish spawn for the fisheries in the area.
“A lot of people didn’t know that a lot of fishers did that,” Cutcher said.
According to a report by the United States Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, scientists found in the 1950s that increased fertility, higher water temperatures, heavy algal blooms and dissolved oxygen deficiencies contributed to the changes of fish populations. The report also states that regulated commercial fishing could be beneficial for sports fishing.
Water recreation
Now, the vessels that dock on the river’s marinas are used for recreational use, whether for racing, sailing or fishing.
Parsons said there now are seven or eight marinas in Vermilion alone.
He said he has 32 sailboats that dock in his marina, utilized for recreation.
“We’re basically a sailboat marina and our sailors start early and stay late,” Parsons said. “The average sailboat crew is with anywhere between two and six people. It depends on the boat.”
Parsons said the transition from commercial fishing to marinas has increased the number of people venturing to Vermilion.
“From the standpoint that the boating industry has brought more people to the town, whereas the commercial fishing industry was just basically limited to the commercial fishermen and their product, was all shipped out of town,” he said, adding his marina sees visitors from other parts of Ohio and Michigan.
Both Nickeson and Parsons said Vermilion’s harbor also sees a significant number of Amish visitors a year.
Of the 15 charter boats in the harbor, Parsons said eight or nine are owned and run by Amish skippers.