"Hooked on trout"

Hooked on trout

Charter owner build his business fishing lunkers out on the Big Lake

By John Pepin

SHELTER BAY – Shelter Bay charter boat captain Dave Kimar has seen many significant changes in the local Lake Superior fishery in his 30 years sailing the big lake.  Kimar, 51, was born in Chicago, Ill. And moved with his family to Shelter Bay two years later.  The property where his resort and charter business are now located, off M-28 about 26 miles east of Marquette, was first a fishing camp.

Cabins now rented at the resort were built through the 1940s to accommodate fisherman.  Kimar’s father fished Lake Superior from the area until 1955 when the sea lamprey and overfishing had depleted the trout fishery.

Kimar finished high school in Munising in 1963 and graduated from Northern Michigan University with a bachelor’s degree in education in 1968.  He then taught history and social studies, mostly to high school juniors, for 13 year while also working as a charter captain.

“I was doing both,” Kimar said.  “I started the charter in ’67 and teaching in ’68.  When I started being a captain I was 21 years old.”

During those years in the late 1960s, Kimar said the lake trout fishery had begun to come back with the efforts of the state Department of Natural Resources to plant lake trout.

Peak numbers of fish were caught on his charters in local waters during the years 1969-73.

Today, the numbers of fish caught are not as high, but the size of the fish has increased dramatically.

“We’re catching more big fish,” Kimar said.  “Each year, we catch several 30- to 40-pound fish and that was very uncommon years ago.”

The fish caught are also natives.  The DNR has stopped planting lake trout because the fishery has recovered so dramatically.

Kimar’s charters fishes waters within a few miles of Shelter Bay and also travel out 26 miles to the “big reef,” touted as the best trophy lake trout fishing spot in North America, and 50 miles out to Stannard Rock.

Kimar said advances in technology have increased the success of anglers and the ability to navigate the lake.  He said it has been at least three years since he has gone out and been “skunked” while on the lake. 

The navigational aids, that now incorporate satellite and other technologies, become especially important while on the longer trips out in Lake Superior, he said.

About 600 people take the charter fishing trips in a given summer.  The tours begin in May and last through October, although June, July, and August are the best travel months on the lake.

Kimar said he’s had to fight back to shore during several storms that have come up quickly on the lake.

He said that one of his most memorable trips did not involve fishing, but the attempted retrieval of a sea plane lost to high seas by other fishermen at Stannard Rock in 1982.

The fishermen had been fishing at the Rock and tried to take off but the waves cracked a pontoon stabilizer.  The fishermen spent the night in the lighthouse on the barren rocks.

“It’s an eerie place,” Kimar said.  “I don’t know whether I’d want to spend the night out there, but it’s better than being in the water.”

The Coast Guard rescued the men the next day and they hired Kimar to try to retrieve the plane that had sunk during the night.

After a diver inspected the plane, he discovered that it probably wasn’t worth saving, but that the engine was.

“All we brought back was the engine and it took 14 hours to bring it back,” Kimar said.

The fishermen later decided they still wanted to retrieve the plane.  A flyover revealed that the plane was gone.  Kimar said he does not know whether it washed away or whether someone else retrieved it. 

“I’ve never seen any sight of it since or know what happened to it to this day,” he said.

Kimar said entertaining the travelers when the fish aren’t biting and offering information about local history of the area are things that he enjoys about his job besides the fishing itself.