Five

FISHING

Pictured here are the tons of fish being brought in to be sorted and readied for shipment to various markets.

Grand River fishermen Lou Gurbach Sr., Andy Stalker, and Dan Stalker are hard at work.

Fairport fishermen prepare to drop their nets into the lake. In the spring of 1869, Charles Ruggles introduced net-fishing in Fairport with four nets. The first season he had 1,500 sturgeon among his catch. It was an unfamiliar fish to the locals, and there was no market for sturgeon as food, so he sold them to Storrs and Harrison Nursery for $1 a wagonload to use as fertilizer. In 1870, Hart Pincus arrived in Fairport and set up a caviar business. He bought all the sturgeon from the fishermen. He converted bladders into isinglass and converted the rest into oil. He made a profit of $10,000 during his first season at Fairport.

William Stange, a local fisherman, caught this sturgeon on May 28, 1915; it weighed 57 lbs. and was 58 inches long. Thousands of sturgeon were caught by local fishermen.

Pictured here is a relaxing afternoon spent fishing off the pier.

Fishermen cast their lines from the east pier across from the Coast Guard Station.

Fishing on the pier behind a stone pile.