Duluth Charter Fishing

Sharing stories of dads

Brandon Clokey of the Duluth Fathering Project deals with unpleasant issues like child support and custody battles on a regular basis. His goal is to teach parenting skills to make them not an issue.

Father’s Day is still special to him, however — particularly one 15 years ago when his first son was born.

“He was born on the Friday before Father’s Day. The hospital wasn’t going to let him go home until Monday,” Clokey said.

“I said, ‘You’re really not going to keep my firstborn son from being home on Father’s Day?’ The doctor just looked at me, then said, ‘Get the discharge papers!’ ”

Stories like that, of just being together, not necessarily doing anything special, resonate with Kevin Skwira-Brown.

“My father died when I was two,” the Duluth dad to two daughters said, “so each year I spend with them reminds me of how special the time is, time I never got to spend with my father.”

Days like that are memorable even when they’re lousy, adds Duluth’s Terese Tomanek.

“I rented a charter fishing boat for my dad, my father-in-law and my husband,” she writes. “Huge expense, and it was 103 degrees on the big lake and the black flies were horrible and our son almost fell overboard. A great time was missed by all.”

Another bad-day-fishing, but good-days-with-dad story comes from Donna Ennis of Superior, whose mother died when she was 9, leaving six daughters to be raised by a man who wanted a son.

“Every spring, I would have to help him put the dock into the water. He didn’t understand when I would tell him I am afraid of seaweed and other underwater things,” she said. “As soon as my hand touched something slimy, I would drop the dock and run screaming for shore. He would just mutter something about wishing he had boys instead of girls.

“I tried to bond with him over hunting and fishing and that didn’t go well, either,” she continued. “He brought me duck hunting once. We were having some great, quiet bonding time until Dad shot a duck and it landed in a swamp, and he said, ‘Donna, swim out there in that lake and grab that duck for me would you?’ Again, the muttering about having boys instead of girls.”

To that she adds the mushy stuff; their annual Father’s Day dinner and the card she gets him telling how much she admires him and how proud she is to be his daughter.

Aaron Gelineau of Duluth is the father of two biological children and the father/father figure to two others, one of whom won’t spend today with him, having last week joined the Marines. Gelineau shakes it off.

Aerial Lift Bridge schedule can cut charter boats' fishing time ...

Published June 14, 2010, 11:47 AM Aerial Lift Bridge schedule can cut charter boats’ fishing time Duluth charter fishing captains say they’re coping with the new Aerial Lift Bridge schedule, but it often cuts into their fishing time with clients. In May, the Duluth City Council approved a new Aerial Lift Bridge schedule that limits lifts to every half-hour between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. An exception is made for lakers or salties weighing 300 gross tons or more, which may pass under the bridge at will.

By: Sam Cook , Northland Outdoors

Duluth charter fishing captains say they’re coping with the new Aerial Lift Bridge schedule, but it often cuts into their fishing time with clients.

In May, the Duluth City Council approved a new Aerial Lift Bridge schedule that limits lifts to every half-hour between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. An exception is made for lakers or salties weighing 300 gross tons or more, which may pass under the bridge at will.

“It is a headache,” said captain Peter Dahl of Happy Hooker Charters. “We’re getting a little better at making the schedule when it comes to what we do, but the variables are sometimes things we can’t control.”

Most often, that occurs when customers arrive late for a charter, and the captain has to wait almost half an hour for the next lift, Dahl said. That’s happened four times since May 15 with his customers, he said.

Traffic delays on Interstate 35 sometimes contribute to late arrivals, charter captains said.

Charter captains typically leave their docks a little before 6 a.m. and return to the harbor at 11:30 a.m. on half-day charters. If they have an afternoon charter, they leave again shortly before 1 p.m. and return at 6:30 p.m.

Don Nelson, who operates Lake and River Charters, is concerned that the midday turn-around time between charters could be a problem when tourism picks up in mid-summer.

Captains must clean fish for clients and allow them to take pictures after returning from a morning charter.

“If I miss that 11:30 lift (coming in), I’m not going to get that thing (the afternoon charter) out at 1 o’clock,” Nelson said.

Dahl said he missed a lift on his way back from a charter recently because the downy tufts carrying aspen seeds fouled his reels. That required extra time bringing in lines.

The bridge has lifted in a few instances at the request of returning charter captains because of rough water, Dahl said.

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