Reporter receives crash course in fishing

Green Lake Association Lake Research Intern Mitchell Busch, left, and Green Laker Reporter Connor Cummiskey kneel behind the day’s catch after a fishing adventure with guide Mike Norton.  submitted photo

By Connor Cummiskey

I have never been all that great at fishing.

I usually did not have the patience to sit all day in a boat waiting for a fish to bite.

Though I did enjoy the exhilarating feeling of reeling in a live fish.

Even when I did fish, I rarely caught large amounts or sizes of fish, which was probably partially due to me lacking the understanding of what bait to use and where to cast my line for particular fish.

Which was why I was excited to get the chance to go fishing with not just one expert fishing guide but two.

On Wednesday, June 4, I met with Mike Norton who is one of the local fishing guides.

Norton, two others and I shipped out in the morning and as he was casting the lines out, he began telling me about what each one was and what it did.

Large, shiny rectangles of plastic and metal hung along the lines of the poles.

These were flashers.

Behind them Norton strung small silver spoons.

For the most part these were Sutton Spoons, which were the best bait with which to catch Lake Trout.

There was a story behind how the Sutton Spoon was first discovered to catch lake trout. It was told to me by Stephen Siders, a summer resident of Green

Lake, who often helps Norton with fishing trips.

The story went like this.

“When lake trout were first stocked in Big Green Lake, they were elusive.

Fishermen had tried everything to catch the trout, but to no avail. Until a visiting soldier used a Sutton Spoon while out fishing. That day, he caught fish that had survived over 20 years without being seen by a human eye.

At first, he would not share with frustrated locals what he had used to catch the fish. From that day on, when he would get a bite, the other fishermen would attempt to get close enough to see what he was using.

Every time they tried, he would cut the line so as to protect his secret.
That was until another year when he came back to visit. This year, the local fishermen tried something new. They backed him along a sand bar and as usual, when they approached, he cut the line.

Then once he left, they dug up the sand bar to discover he had been using Sutton Spoons”

Now days, a Sutton Spoon is hard to come by as their production was halted.

Instead, it also works to use other spoons, given that they are thin and silver.

After showing me what bait works to catch lake trout, Norton showed me what lines he was using to catch white bass.

They were Dipsy Divers in front of spinners. The Dipsy Diver was shaped like a thick metal disk with two triangular thumb grips protruding from one side.

By twisting the side, the Dipsy Diver could be set to different depths. It served the purpose of keeping the bait shallower.

The third type of bait we used was running boards.

They were hemispherical orange and white boards that also kept bait closer to the surface of the water.

Almost immediately the fish started biting; it was going to be a good day.

In between reeling in trout and some white bass we discussed some of the problems the lake was facing. Things such as how musky were eating all of the trout before they were caught by fishermen.

Since musky have become elusive over the last few years, the payback the community gets for the cost of stocking the lake every year has become less and less.

Norton and I also discussed the possible solution of introducing another species of fish to the lake, such as Atlantic salmon, to balance out the diminishing lake trout population.

During the span of one hour, we were lucky enough to catch seven lake trout — ranging between 25 and 27 inches and weighing around 7 pounds a piece, along with five white bass.

I doubt we would have been nearly as fortunate if Norton had not been there with his years of experience to guide the boat to the right spots on the lake.

While Norton was cleaning the fish, he reminded us that they had all been in the lake for more than a decade.

He stressed how important it was to remember that.

I drove home excited about how I could cook the fairly sizable amount of fish I had, and how lucky I was to be able to catch as much as I did my first time out on Big Green Lake.

Most days on the lake are not that plentiful.

For my second time on the lake, I seemed to hit the opposite end of the spectrum.

When I tagged along with Dennis Walker and a family he was taking fishing, we caught very few fish.

It was not due to a lack of trying or expertise on Walker’s part.

We studied what he called the graphs on his boat, which showed a sonar image of what was below the surface of the water.

There were very few fish even showing up on the sonar. We could tell because a fish would appear as a blue and yellow blob on the screen when they came close to the bait.

Just because it was a slow day, does not mean it was a bad day. As the eldest son, Billy, pointed out, the worst day fishing is still better than the best day working.

I chuckled at the irony that my work was the reason I was on the boat, but agreed that it was a beautiful day to relax on the lake.

I was honored to meet one of the few WWII veterans left, still able to go fishing with his sons.

His name is Leo Bassetto, and he served in the Marine Corp in the Pacific Theater.

The first catch of the day was his. Walker netted the fish after Bassetto reeled it in.

In total, Bessetto and his sons caught two trout and a white bass, which were still enough to make into a decent meal.

More important, they were able to spend some quality time with each other, and I was lucky enough to be there to see it.

Anyone looking to catch fish or just have a great time on the lake with a guide, the two people that I can suggest personally are Mike Norton, who can be reached by calling 920-295-6462 and Dennis Walker, whose phone number is 920-572-0622.

Past, present and future

BIG GREEN LAKE has seen its fair share of monster lake trout caught over the years. Above left, Joseph Gotz holds up his Wisconsin inland  record lake trout, which he caught June 1, 1957. It weighed 35 pounds, 4 ounces.

Coldwater Fish Advisory Committee aims to maintain Big Green Lake’s legacy

by Connor Cummiskey

One of the largest lake trout caught over the last 40 years in Green Lake was netted in June. It measured in at 41 inches and 28.9 pounds.

While not a record breaker, this fish still made waves in the fishing community.

It may stir up memories of the history of Green Lake: A history Green Lake’s Coldwater Fish Advisory Committee would like to preserve.

“This is the history of Green Lake, but guess what [the fish] are still here,” Coldwater Fish Advisory Committee member Stephen Siders said.

That does not mean that the fish, particularly lake trout, which make Green Lake such a popular fishing hole, will remain forever.

“That is why we need a Coldwater Fish Advisory Committee to make sure that they continue to be here,” Siders said.

The committee intends to give a voice to cold-water sports’ fishermen and other community members who wish to maintain Green Lake’s reputation.

“The reason for the Coldwater Advisory Committee is to ensure that we meet our quotas and monitor water and fishery conditions,”  said Mike Norton, owner of Mike Norton’s Fishing Adventure.

Quotas are the amount of each species of fish that are stocked, or introduced, into the lake.

Lake trout were first stocked in Big Green Lake in 1886, and continued to be until 1944. At that time, the stocking stopped due to the fish being difficult to catch.

In 1952, the local fishermen discovered the secret to catching the lake trout during the summer months.

After Major Turnbull of New York arrived in 1951 and was able to catch the fish, the local anglers figured out how he did it.

By cornering him and forcing him to cut his line in shallow waters, the fishermen were able to dig up the lures he was using.

Unfortunately, the lures on the end of Turnbull’s line were filed clean of their names.

But then a local jeweler took a look at them.

The jeweler soaked the lures in acid to reveal that they were Sutton Spoons.

Thus, the fishermen learned that Sutton Spoons, and other thin silver spoons, were best for catching lake trout.

In 1953, lake trout were again stocked in Green Lake. Restocking began as a response to the following explosion of fish being caught.

The boom was similar to the gold rush that had inspired prospectors to travel west in hopes of striking it rich.

Instead, anglers came from across the state in hopes of catching the “big fish.”

By 1961, 50,000 lake trout were being stocked in the lake, according to a draft of the “Environmental Assessment for Landlocked Atlantic Salmon Stocking in Big Green Lake, Wisconsin.”

Too many of the lake trout being stocked made for an unbalanced ecosystem in the lake.

That year, Vern Hacker expressed in a report that 25,000 fish would be more sustainable.

“He also talked about a second cold-water species,” Norton said.

Cold-water species are fish that live close to the bottom of the lake. Lake trout are one such fish.

A second species helps take the pressure of predation and fishing off of the lake trout.

That way, they could thrive, live longer and grow larger.

Brown trout were one of the species stocked in the lake to serve this purpose.

They fulfilled this role until recently.

“The brown trout do not survive to their second year,” Norton said.

It is unclear what is causing their shortened-life spans.

One possibility is an increase in predation.

“The cool-water fishery is much more dominant than it was years ago,” Norton said. “[Specifically], we are talking northern [pike] and musky.”

To better balance the cold-water fishery, the committee proposes a pilot stocking of landlocked Atlantic salmon.

“These landlocked salmon create a stir even in lake Michigan,” Norton said.

In Green Lake, the landlocked salmon could increase tourism. Such a unique fishing opportunity likely would draw anglers from across the state, or even further.

The committee has reviewed studies performed on landlocked salmon being stocked in Michigan and Maine.

Its findings point toward these salmon surviving better than brown trout.

An experiment is being proposed to see if the salmon truly are a viable option for helping Green Lake.

After four years of stocking the salmon, the committee hopes it will create a greater “Return to Creel” for anglers.

“Return to Creel” is the term for the rate of fish being caught per number of fish stocked.

Green Lake is one of the few places an experiment like this can be successful, because the water is so deep.

“People look at the lake and they do not realize the volume,” Norton said. “They look at it horizontally.”

That is why Green Lake’s Coldwater Fish Advisory Committee is so dedicated to preserving the fishing culture of the lake.

According to a draft of the environmental assessment, the committee hopes to reestablish Big Green Lake “as the premiere inland cold-water fishery destination in the Midwest.”

Viva la Fox River voyageur canoe trips!

Green Laker reporter Connor Cummiskey helps paddle the canoe through the water during a recent trip on the Fox of the River Voyageur Canoe.  submitted photo

by Connor Cummiskey

When I was a Boy Scout, we would go camping every summer.

At camp, the troop usually ended up canoeing as one of our group activities.

That canoe trip almost inevitably ended in a war of boys dumping other scouts’ canoes and splashing water with our paddles.

The “canoe wars,” as I like to refer to them, probably would have been cracked down on more often had it not been the senior patrol leader starting them.

In other words, I have had a lot of fun canoeing in the past, so I jumped on board when I got the chance to go for a ride with Fox of the River Voyageur Canoe LLC.

The trip consisted of fewer water fights and more history and ecology, but it was fun and interesting.

It started off with us being sworn in.

We raised our hands and repeated after Glen Gorsuch, also known as “Jacques.”

He and Jerry Disterhaft ran the canoe trip.

During the oath, we learned the proper times to shout “Viva La Company” (whenever they mentioned the Northwest Fur Co.).

As well as when to shout “Stinking English Pig Dogs, Patooie” (whenever the Hudson Bay Co. was mentioned).

We grabbed our personal flotation devices and our paddles. Then, one by one, we boarded the large North Canoe and began paddling up stream.

As we paddled, our guides spoke to us about the history of the area; discussing rumors of an old underground railroad hideaway that probably did not exist.

The Fox River was beautiful. I enjoyed watching the banks and trying to spot whatever creatures hid in the undergrowth.

We paddled up past the shops on Water Street in Princeton, with a very different view of the stores from the water.

Once we reached a part of the river marked by an old and rusty pontoon tied to shore, we halted paddling and began floating back down river.

Cutting through the water, we discussed things such as how old voyagers were during the fur trade when they first signed on to a company.

The regular age was 12.

We also learned that the companies preferred to hire men who could not swim, because they would be more cautious on the water.

What I found most interesting of all was the fact that three presidents had fought in the Black Hawk War, which took place in Illinois.

Abraham Lincoln was a volunteer during the war, however, he did not see combat. Zachary Taylor fought against the Native Americans.

The future president of the Confederacy of the United States, Jefferson Davis also played a role in the war.

I also found out that it was a Wisconsin infantry that finally captured Davis in Georgia.

Aside from these interesting facts, I also had the opportunity to spot some sandhill cranes wandering along the banks.

This was around the time that I saw a kingfisher repeatedly diving into the water from the tops of trees in an attempt to catch fish.

Both birds I found amazing and fun to watch.

Eventually, we passed an old railroad bridge that was built when steam boats were the primary mode of transportation.

We could tell the bridge was from that time period because it sat upon a central-geared column that enabled it to rotate.

Thus, it could allow for the steam boats to pass without catching their paddle wheels on the underside of the bridge.

Our canoe floated downstream effortlessly. We paddled only occasionally, usually sitting and chatting or watching the banks for something interesting.

We did spot something off in the distance: the Cross of Father Marquette.

Disterhaft had the cross put up within sight of the river after discovering its old location.

Floating on, we eventually made it to their predetermined landing point. As we disembarked from the canoe, we spotted a fox snake swimming close to the canoe.

Once we had all made it back onto dry land, we performed the tobacco ceremony that the two re-enactors always finished their trips with.

For the ceremony, we passed around a leather bag of pipe tobacco and each of us would say what we were grateful for before sprinkling it on the earth.

The ceremony was a way of giving thanks to the earth, plants and animals, for our journey. I was thankful just to have a chance to ride along in the canoe.

Before we packed up, some of us walked along a grassy path to get a closer look at the cross we had spotted earlier.

As we approached, waves of frogs jumped off of the path, more than I had ever seen in one place before.

The cross marked the location of springs that had been blessed by Father Marquette.

Since they have continued to run uninterrupted, they are still considered holy water.

We made it back to the van and all packed in tight, before we drove back to our original rendezvous point.

There, we parted ways, all smiling from our trip as the Northwest Co.

Viva La Company!

To organize a trip with the Fox of the River Voyageur LLC call 920-229-3360 or 920-293-8206.

Fish Stories

NORTH BAY Sport and Liquor owner Joel Baranowski stands near the store’s leader board, which highlights the largest fish weighed at the Green Lake store. Aaron Becker photo

20-plus years ago, this Green Lake bait shop hung up a leader board of fish tales. And they’re still growing.

by Aaron Becker
aaronb@riponprinters.com

No doubt about it, there are record fish in Big Green.

But, with pun intended, there’s a catch. Laying claim to one of those coveted records may be up for debate, depending on who you ask.

Either way, they all make for good stories.

And the owner of North Bay Sport & Liquor in downtown Green Lake has heard almost everything. Not only does Joel Baranowski see anglers enter his shop every day — his job requires him to shoot the breeze about what’s biting -— but he’s got something unique:

A leader board.

It’s a small, framed placard hanging near the live minnow tanks. This is written proof of some of the luckiest fishermen around, featuring the dozen or so game fish common in the state’s deepest lake, and the person who caught the biggest one. Basically, it’s a list of records.

But … it’s just the fish that have been caught on Big Green and weighed at North Bay. That means they’re unofficial records.

Store records, as it were. And that’s exactly what makes them interesting.

Baranowski acknowledges the board encompasses just the modern time — about the past quarter-century.

“I think I put that up in 1987, when we moved down here from the other store,” he said. “Before that, there definitely were fish caught [that would have been bigger]. I remember a 27-pound northern that we weighed years before that.”

North Bay’s current northern record is 23.9 pounds.

He remembers several fish through the years that were either caught before the board went up, or caught but never brought in to be weighed. So, lucky fishermen may have broken the North Bay record here or there, but they’ll never be recognized.

Unfortunate? Perhaps, but the board is mostly for yucks.

“It’s just kind of a fun thing to do … People are curious,” Baranowski said.

He remembers every fish’s story up on that board.

“That Deitz one [who held the lake trout record until last month] was caught through the ice. And that stayed up there a long time [since 1992],” he said. “That cisco, Arlin Bloch caught that off of Sugar Loaf through the ice. I remember that fish, and that’s  a big cisco. That’s going to be a tough one to beat. The northern was an ice fishing one. I remember that on the west end.”

And he can go on.

“That bluegill is going to be tough to beat,” Baranowski said. “One-point-six [pounds] is a big bluegill. The state record for a long time was only two, and now someone broke that up by Green Bay.”

He admits he’s somewhat surprised by the store’s walleye record. It’s the longest-running listing on the board, set in 1988 at 12.3 pounds.

That particular fish was caught in July, so it was lighter than it could have been.

“I know there’s been bigger walleyes caught, but that walleye was a summer fish when they don’t have a lot of weight on,” he said. “You catch that fish in the fall, and … it would weigh two or three pounds more.”

One record just itching to be broken is the perch, because it’s never even been set. Right now, it’s a blank space.

“We never put a perch up there because no one ever brought one in over a pound, and we said, ‘Let’s start at a pound,’” Baranowski said. “But now with the big minnow influx in the lake, which is forage for the perch, you’ll start seeing bigger perch out here.”

Baranowski believes the lake’s minnow base has been growing in recent years, likely due in part to the inlet — a weedy, warmer spawning habitat.

“It’s like a giant nursery back there now,” he said. “You have 400 acres back there pumping little bluegills, minnows, panfish into the lake, because they go back there and they’re protected. It’s like a big forest.”

More minnows means more food for predator fish.

“The old timers talk about three-pound white bass, and I had never seen a three-pound white bass,” Baranowski said, but added that last year, he weighed a number of white bass that were around 2.5 pounds “because they have such a good forage base now. They’re getting bigger.

“Two pounds was a nice one, and now you’re starting to see these bigger fish — which there were stories of back in the ’60s that they had three-pound white bass out here. I never believed it, until now I’m seeing why. They had a minnow base back then, and those fish grew.”

Another factor that influences the leader board is the increased popularity of catch-and-release, which Baranowski says has become the dominant method among anglers.

Fishermen don’t keep their catch like they used to.

“For sure,” he said. “I think guys understand that, if you’ve got a six-pound smallmouth, that fish is 12 to 16 years old. If you’re going to take that home and kill it, it doesn’t get replaced right away … That 12-pound walleye probably was 16 years old. But you’re seeing more and more [anglers] letting fish go. It’s much, much more popular now.

“With the catch-and-release, I don’t see a lot of fish that probably could be [a new store record],” he said.

On the wall next to the leader board are several mounted fish trophies, although these don’t correspond to the listings on the board. But some come with fascinating stories.

For example, the gigantic, stuffed northern pike wasn’t even caught. It was found.

“That floated up dead on Labor Day [near the Heidel Bar] about, I want to say, about eight or nine years ago,” Baranowski said. “And that would be the biggest northern [on the leader board] if it had been caught. A guy picked it up dead and brought it in. And it’s 50 inches long, which is unheard of around here for northerns. My scale wasn’t big enough to weigh it … That fish was pushing 30 pounds. Who knows, it probably could have died of old age.”

As monstrous as it is, that northern still would have been fatter over the winter.

“That was a summer fish,” Baranowski said. “If that had been caught through the ice, there’s a possibility that could have pushed the state record. You do not hear about 50-inch northerns.”

Another interesting mount is the yellow bass, “which aren’t common out here,” he said. “That’s the only one I’ve ever seen in my life out of this lake.”

As for Baranowski’s leader board, the latest record to fall is the lake trout. In June, Green Lake’s Jan Brzozowski’s caught one weighing 28.09, breaking the previous record held by James Deitz, who caught a 26.2-pound laker in winter 1992.

Brzozowski caught his fish with guide Mike Norton and friend Steve Siders.

“They were excited,” Baranowski said. “They’re going to mount it … In modern time, that’s the biggest lake trout I’ve seen.”

Before that, the last store record to fall took place late last year, when Michael Rourke reeled in a feisty, 6.51-pound smallmouth.

This set a store record by less than one-tenth of a pound.

Even with all of Baranowski’s fishing experience, he’s not listed anywhere. The leader board is just for customers.

“There’s a number of them that I would never have beaten,” he said. “Those are all pretty substantial fish.”

Use your head!

ABOVE, Chris Hamerla finds another way for Eurasian water milfoil to become a nuisance as he wears it on his head while holding one of the ice packs that volunteers handed out during the first day of the Drain Campaign. Left, The small shells attached to this bunch of weeds are zebra mussels. They can survive for days on aquatic plants hanging from trailers. Connor Cummiskey photo

Drain Campaign aims to educate boaters on draining livewells and buckets

Boaters beware!

Invasive species such as zebra mussels are capable of quickly destabilizing the ecosystem of a lake.

The best defense against invasive species such as the mussels is to stop them from spreading.

For that reason, prevention is the big idea behind the “Drain Campaign,” which kicked off earlier this month,

As part of the campaign, volunteers will be at various docks around Marquette and Green Lake counties to remind boaters of state laws to prevent the spread of invasive species.

“[The Drain Campaign] is focused on educating all boaters to drain the water out of their boats,” said Chris Hamerla, aquatic invasive species coordinator for the Green Lake Association.

This includes any water that may have gotten inside the boat itself. For anglers in particular that also means draining the live well.

Part of why it is important to drain the live well is because it is illegal to transport live fish.

“A fish out of water is considered dead,” Hamerla said.

So putting fish on ice is the best way to avoid any unwanted citations.

However, the primary reason behind draining the water out of live wells is the danger of accidentally spreading zebra mussels to other lakes.

“Zebra mussels are microscopic when they are first born, and they free float in the water,” Hamerla said. “So, [anglers] could be potentially transporting zebra mussels in that water.”

The mussels are a particularly dangerous invasive species because of how effective they are as filter feeders.

Unfortunately their filtering effect only makes the water clearer, not cleaner.

“People like a clearer lake, but what they do not understand is that zebra mussels are filtering out the bottom of the food chain,” Hamerla said.

Without the food that the zebra mussels vacuum up, fish cannot survive for long.

By clearing up the water, the mussels also allow sunlight to penetrate deeper into the water.

This can cause greater plant growth, which can lead to further destabilization when those plants rot because they use up oxygen that fish need to survive during winter.

The third major effect of zebra mussels on the ecosystem of a lake is caused by their waste.

This waste can result in an increase in phosphorous.

That phosphorous leads to even greater plant growth.

However, the plant that feeds off of phosphorous primarily is cladophora, which is an aquatic plant that produces a foul odor when it washes up on the lake shore.

Zebra mussels also pack a painful punch for the economy of a lakeside community.

When the mussels get large enough to produce a shell, they must attach to a firm surface. Sometimes this surface is the interior of an intake pipe that pumps water for lakeside industries.

That becomes a problem when the mussels multiply quickly enough to clog that pipe.

Boats in the water also are in danger of being damaged by these nefarious mussels.

“Those zebra mussels can get inside [an] engine and form there,” Hamerla said.

They have become such a problem that many motor manufacturers do not cover damages caused by mussels.

Of course, there are other invasive species in the area, such as Eurasian watermilfoil.

However, most people know they have to clean all of the plant life off of their boat, according to Hamerla.

That is why the “Drain Campaign” heavily emphasizes the need to drain all of the water out of a boat before it leaves the landing.

The volunteers of the “Drain Campaign” are not

Blast from the past

Jerry Disterthaft, left, and Glen Gorsuch hang off the stern of their North Canoe, which they use to take riders back in time as part of their Fox of the River Voyageur LLC business.  Connor Cummiskey photo

Duo takes riders back in time on Fox of the River Voyageur Canoe

by Connor Cummiskey

Travel back in time while paddling a replica North Canoe down the Fox River.

Glen Gorsuch and Jerry Disterhaft of Fox of the River Voyageur Canoe LLC take groups, ranging from students to 4-H clubs and beyond, on a reenactment of pioneer life.

Through the characters of Jacques Largola and Jean Paul Paquette, respectively, the two men teach the area’s past.

“Part of our whole impact on our trip is talking about the history that really happened along the Fox River, going back to the late 1600s,”  Disterhaft said. “1673 is when Father Marquette came through, but the French were here earlier than that.”

The trip covers events throughout a large period of time that is usually ignored during many history classes.

“The fur trade in Wisconsin lasted over 200 years,” Disterhaft said. “To try and find that in any written material [is difficult], or even in schools [it is] hardly touched on.”

The re-enactment begins with the group swearing on with a fur trading company.

From there, the guides do their best to maintain a fun and authentic atmosphere.

“We hire them on to the Northwest Fur Co., which was a French outfit,” Gorsuch said. “Whenever we say Northwest Fur Co., they have to shout out ‘Viva la company!’ Whenever we say ‘Hudson Bay,’ which was the British fur traders, they have to shout out ‘stinking English pig-dogs!’”

Disterhaft and Gorsuch go through great lengths to create an experience that accurately replicates pioneer life.

“We will take some groups and say we are going from the new river, which is the Fox River, and going back in time. Sometimes we will have teepees set up [on the bank], so as they come around [the] bend, all of the sudden they see teepees and they are thinking that maybe they are back in time,” Disterhaft said.

This also includes things such as cooking with dutch ovens and portaging canoes to teach kids through a hands-on experience.

“Everybody is working together,” Gorsuch said. “We used to do a portage off the river onto the old river, and we used to tell the teacher [not to] say anything. We kind of let the kids take over.”

Trips can include a canoe ride and a cookout. They can be a single- or multiple-day voyage, depending on what the group desires.

According to the voyagers, the French fur traders worked closer with the Native Americans than the British did.

“That is why we took the Northwest, because they were French,” Gorsuch said. “They embraced the native culture more. You will see native accoutrements on us. We married into the tribes. We took on a lot of their spiritual beliefs as well.”

The rival Hudson Bay Co. cannot say the same.

“The Hudson Bay Co. was British,” Gorsuch said. “They were more business. They did not really associate with the savages, so they did not embrace the culture. They felt they were far above [the natives], where the French embraced it and married into the tribes.”

The lesson focuses of the four main pieces of the fur trade: furs, Native American trappers, voyageurs and investors.

All four components were crucial in the fur trade. So when one or two of them were lost, the entire market collapsed.

“The beavers started to get trapped out,” Gorsuch said. “By the 1800s, the Native Americans were losing control of their lands, so you were losing the trapper. By the 1830s and ’40s, the fashion went to silk, so then you lost the investor.”

Creating a re-enactment company began as an attempt to save the grade school Gorsuch’s daughter attended.

“We were trying to do a community involvement [project] with our elementary school; trying to keep it open,” Gorsuch said. “We built a canoe with Alex Nimphius. He had a boat design, which we stretched out and brought the ends up to match what a North Canoe would be. We were trying to make our school something different. Something people would want to open enroll to.”

However, they did not have the location to support the hands-on activity they wanted.

“I came into the picture when they needed to find some place to set up and I said [that] I have land right here off of the river and I know the river,” Disterhaft said.

Even though the school eventually closed, the two men wanted to keep history alive and interesting for students.

Teaching those students has become one of the greatest joys of running the company. “Getting individuals of all ages to start listening and having their minds open to what we are trying to teach them [is rewarding],” Disterhaft said. “It is not just talk, but is actually true history that really happened, instead of what they might have been taught in their books and when they went to school.”

Fox of the River Voyageur Canoe LLC offers day trips at $30 per person or $300 for a full canoe, which fits 16 adults.

Groups can call the company at either 920-229-3360 or 920-293-8206 or email huckleberry39@yahoo.com or stepback@centurytel.net.

Build your own boat at Town Square

Joe Norton OF Norton’s Boat Works saws a piece of lumber to the right size so that he can finish repairing a customer’s boat.  Connor Cummiskey photo

by Connor Cummiskey

Imagine cutting through the waters of Green Lake in your own kayak, one that you built with your own two hands. Exploring the beauty and tranquility of Green Lake while gliding across the water without any noisy engine to disturb the wildlife.

For around a dozen Green Lake area residents, that will be possible after a boat-building class that is being offered Sunday, June 15 to Friday, June 20 by Joe Norton of Norton Boat Works.

The class begins with an informational meeting Sunday, June 15 at 6 p.m.

It will the run Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and conclude with a launch party Friday afternoon.

“If you take this class and pay for a kit, in five and a half days you will walk out with a boat,” said Norton, who has had plenty of experience building and repairing boats, both from kits like those offered in the class and ones he’s designed himself.

The class itself costs $800 The Chesapeake 17 and the Chesapeake 17LT are both kayaks. According to Norton the difference between the two types is the 17LT is a little faster, but the 17 is a little taller with greater carrying capacity, which is good for touring.

The third option is a stand-up paddle board, which Norton noted can look interesting, to say the least, from a distance.

“You don’t see the board, because a lot of them are water colored, and [it looks like] there’s just someone standing up [on the water,]” said Norton, who likened the sight to a religious experience.

The class is open to everybody, even people who have never built a boat. Norton explained this is possible because the kits from Chesapeake Light Craft include all of the materials needed, and because of his experience at building boats.

While there isn’t any experienced required to participate in the class, Norton noted individuals will be able to buy any of the kits after the class and have the skills to build it.

This is not the first class Norton has offered. Around three years ago he taught another class where students built 10 boats.

This year is the first year the class will be taught in Town Square; Norton hopes students will build about 12 boats.

The class has filled up quickly, so anybody interested in building their own kayak or paddle board should sign up soon.

Norton is experienced when it comes to building boats.

He started learning at the age of 4 or 5 by building toy boats and wandering around his uncle’s marina near his home.

Norton began working on real boats by finding old derelict ones in his uncle’s marina that he could convince his uncle to give him.

“Rarely would the boat float when I got it…So at a very early age, I was understanding what it was that made boats rot and what you would do to make them functional again” Norton said.

This was the beginning of a long life of boat building and racing for Norton that would see him racing Russians in a world championship ice-boating regatta, teaching wood-boat building classes in Maine and finally, settle down here to Green Lake, where he repairs and builds boats.

It is that experience that makes Norton confident that he can teach anyone to build a boat.

Anybody interested in participating can sign up at greenlaketownsquare.com.

Just click on the programs tab and go to the complete event schedule by month.

Norton’s class will be under the month of June.

Ripon Medical Center Triathlon draws 223 finishers

Swimmers, cyclists and runners descended upon the Green Lake Conference Center grounds July 27 to compete in the 16th-annual Ripon Medical Center (RMC) Triathlon.

Two hundred and two individuals and 21 teams finished the event.

Participants could choose between competing as an individual or a team in an Olympic distance (1.5k swim, 24 mile bike ride and 10k run) or sprint distance triathlon (.5k swim, 15 mile bike ride and 5k run).

Proceeds from the RMC Triathlon benefit building a wellness center at the new hospital and IMPACT concussion testing for area high school and college athletes.

IMPACT testing is a diagnostic tool that analyzes the severity of an athlete’s head injury during competitive sports.

Todd Jensen of Brookfield, Wis., and Michelle Brost of Medford, Wis., were the top overall male and female finishers in the Olympic Distance Individual category, while Matt Kohl of Kaukauna, Wis., and Kari Heyn of McGregor, Iowa, took home the honors in the Sprint Distance Individual category.

Winning the Olympic Distance Relay Team division was Brett Rittenhouse’s squad from Suamico, Wis. Tom Schmitt’s crew from Syracuse, N.Y., won the Sprint Distance Relay Team category.

The top-five male and female finishers in each category, as well as the places of Ripon area competitors (italicized); are as follows:

Olympic Distance Individual

Males (out of 59 participants): 1. Todd Jensen of Brookfield, Wis. (2 hours, 13 minutes, 59 seconds); 2. Dere Jones of Appleton, Wis. (2:18:05); 3. Jerry Pianto of Highland Park, Ill. (2:19:58); 4. Kale Mason of Thiensville, Wis. (2:20:21); 5. Ted Shue of Glendale, Wis. (2:23:07); 9. Shane Garner of Berlin (2:29:15);14. Mark Dudzinski of Ripon (2:35:24); 15. Dennis Galatowitsch of Princeton (2:35:45); 20. Christopher Badtke of Rosendale (2:40:26); 28. John Dalziel of Ripon (2:49:02); 30. Thomas Kloosterboer of Markesan (2:51:45) 36. Franklin McShane of Green Lake (2:58:14); 50. Josh Denk of Markesan (3:26:15); 52. Kevin Carter of Pickett (3:30:39).

Females (out of 29 participants):  1. Michelle Brost of Medford, Wis. (2:34:07); 2. Linda White of Highland Park, Ill. (2:39:00); 3. Maddy Blain of Evansville, Wis. (2:40:12); 4. Amy Hanrahan of Fond du Lac, Wis. (2:48:21); 5. Karen Wehner of Highland Park, Ill. (2:48:47); 16. Christina Calvello-Huber of Ripon (3:10:19); 23. Leesa McShane of Green Lake (3:25:05);

Olympic Distance Relay

Co-ed (out of seven teams): 1. Team Brett Rittenhouse of Suamico, Wis. (2:12:57); 2. Team Ric Damm of Ripon (2:25:00); 3. Team Katie Gustavson of Madison (2:48:23); 4. Team Elizabeth Gates of Platteville, Wis. (2:51:22); 5. Team Amanda Gintoft of Wauwatosa, Wis. (3:01:06).
Sprint Distance Individual

Males (out of 66 participants): 1. Matt Kohl of Kaukauna, Wis. (1:11:14); 2. Mark Meyer of Neenah, Wis. (1:17:11); 3. Dean Lillge of Merton, Wis. (1:20:49); 4. Jarred Cassady of Lake Mills, Wis. (1:22:22); 5. Anthony Gonzales of Sister Bay, Wis. (1:23:32).

Females (out of 49 participants): 1. Kari Heyn of Madison (1:23:57); 2. Janelle Olund of Weston, Wis. (1:27:13); 3. Maria Meyer of Neenah, Wis. (1:29:09); 4. Meghan Teich of Milwaukee (1:30:11); 5. Jenna Rindo of Pickett (1:31:00); 7. Sara Shattuck of Berlin (1:32:49); 21. Kristin Galatowitsch of Princeton (1:44:24).

Sprint Distance Relay

Co-ed (out of 14 teams): 1. Team Tom Schmitt of Syracuse, N.Y. (1:23:02); 2. Team Chuck Wagener of Lake Forest, Ill. (1:27:02); 3. Team Timothy Morrissey of Rochester, Wash. (1:27:34); 4. Team Scott Krause of Green Lake (1:29:40); 5. Team J.J. Zack of Ripon (1:30:05); 8. Team Danelle Phillips of Berlin (1:42:49).