An all-out war was declared years ago against “noxious fish” in Lake Leelanau, and the mercenaries made pretty good money for a long night of fighting gar pike and dogfish.
A clip from an unnamed newspaper and datelined “Traverse City, May 5” explains just how serious local folk took their sport fishing in Lake Leelanau. Gar pike and dogfish, which aren’t preferred table fare, were thought to be crowding sought-after species such as bass, pike and panfish.
“The 1930 campaign against dogfish and gar pike in Lake Leelanau got underway this week when Richard Lemcool and his son Freddie, 12, took 196 dogfish in one night with spears and jacklight,” the coverage began.
The clipping, discovered by Bingham Township resident Will Bunek in the pages of an old book, was likely published in a Traverse City newspaper and not the Leelanau Enterprise. An accompanying picture tells the story best, showing rows of fish hung on a wall with father and son framing the impressive scene.
“The Lemcool’s catch is believed to set a record for the greatest number of these fish ever speared in Michigan in a single night from one boat,” the story continued.
The Lemcools netted $29.40 on their first night of spearing in 1930, equivalent to $542.66 today after inflation. That was pretty good during the Depression when jobs were impossible to find. Perhaps more surprisingly, the $29.40 paid in 1930 was worth only $22.89 one year later due to rapid deflation as the American economy continued to tank.
For whatever reason, Lake Leelanau must have been full of gar pike and dogfish, which were worth a 15-cent bounty each. In 1929 the Leelanau board of supervisors — equivalent to the board of commissioners today — allocated $200 and the state conservation department provided $100 for the program. In 1930, the state and Leelanau County each contributed half toward a $200 total bounty.
“This plan of removing noxious fish is proving so successful in Lake Leelanau that it may be used in other sections of Michigan where the supervisors are willing to share the cost with the conservation department,” the story concluded.
