2026.18

McDonald, Richard

Donation, unconditional

Richard MacDonald stories of commercial fishing in Saugatuck mailed June 13, 2026 from Richard MacDonald 205 Aspen Circle, Seminole Florida, 33777 Page 1 Let me start out with this I was just a young man when my father introduced me to commercial fishing. I was just nine years old. My brother Don was a year ahead of me. So I will start with this, my brother started with Rube Sewers first. Rube hired Don to work on his boat the Joanne along with Chris Box and Demmy [Demerest]. Back in the day the boat was parked by the bridge. I believe my father also worked on the Joanne, not sure, fishing was a very busy time back then. We caught plenty of fish, mostly perch. Don and I came in at the tail end of whitefish and trout. We saw very little of these. When they were fished out all the fishermen turned to chub fishing, they were used for smoked fish. Gary Diepenhorst was the player then. Rube was a strict business fisherman. He had one of the most successful fishing operations. He had big customers to sell to. Demmy and Chris were great men. Dem always wanted your dimes. He would trade you nickels for them. Chris Box was always smiling and had a crazy laugh. Rube I remember him very well. Page 2 He took to my brother like a dad, treated him very well like his own son although Rube had no children of his own. Rube smoked Kool unfiltered cigarettes. He would light them with stick matches. He liked the sulphur off the matches. Rube bought a new Ford truck every year. He told many jokes and riddles, so many stories, so many memories. As for me I worked for Frank Sewers, Rube's twin brother. He had a steel boat parked behind Rube about half a block back. Frank's son worked also on the boat. I only worked one summer got paid $1.00 a day. Frank was not a big player as his brother Rube. Growing up in Saugatuck was my Huck Finn-Tom Sawyer days for sure. Worked hard in the summer day. Roamed the street at night, never no trouble. If you ever watched the movie Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn you will know what it was. I can tell you crazy stories there is too much to tell on paper about Saugatuck commercial fishing. Page 3 Rube had another boat before the Joanne. It was called the William Carey. Rube let it sink in Black Lake after he had the Joann built in Holland. During the perch season fishermen from Wisconsin would come over to Saugatuck to fish. There were so much fish then the boats would tie up alongside of each other. I remember a couple of them: the Vagabond, the Pride, a couple of other ones I don't remember. They tied up by Jim Sewers dock. As boys we would go down and help clean out fish from the nets. We made extra money then, sometimes each boat would give us a few dollars. The boat Andy can a few seasons then they never came back over. By that time the DNR was starting to more restriction on fishing by the 1960s to late 60s fishing was about all done. Will tell you more later. An on we go let me say what I remember about Kevin Sluis. I only remember him as a little boy coming down to the docks with his dad. He also had a brother. I am not sure how or where Kevin fished or what boat he was talking about. Page 4 His dad was a welder, and he had a small shop just outside of town, Gordy [Sluis] was always by the docks. He helped the Peels and Chambers convert their boats to trawlers back in the 1960s. Gordy had a little boat it was a Coast Guard lifeboat, steel one, it was called a double ender. He made it into a small fishing boat. He did not fish it very long and sold it to Richard Troutman. He and I fished it one summer, so I am not sure what boat Kevin would be talking about with his dad there were several boats with Kahlenberg motors. Let me tell you a little bit of what I remember about Jim Sewers. He smoked big cigars, liked his beer, like they all did back then. He was on again and off again fishermen. I didn't know him as a hard fisherman. He was always at the dock. I just know he would clean ducks and turtles for their meat. All the fishermen hung around that dock and the packing house and all great times as a boy growing up. We were trusted just like grown men. When I wasn't fishing on the lake I was fishing in the river for carp … Page 5 … to sell to the black folks. They would come down and buy what you had always a couple of dollars Let me tell you a little about Walt Carl. He was the trap netter, the only one in Saugatuck at the time I was growing up. He had a boat called the Eagle. It was green and red trim about 35 feet long, all open. Walt became a good friend to me. He was almost Indian descent, big nose, dark brown skin. Not sure if he had family. I remember Walt coming in off the lake one day. I was on Jim Sewers’ dock. I hollered out to Walt and asked how many walleyes he got. He held up the last two he ever got. He pulled out his nests and quit fishing on the Michigan. We went on to trap net in Black Lake for a while for carp. I went down one day to see how he did. I saw the biggest carp I ever saw about 80 lbs. That was the last I ever saw Walt. I never knew what happened to him or his business. I am sure some one remembers him in Saugatuck. I hope so he was an important of use … Page 6 … fisherman. Now let me tell you about Peels and the transformation of the boat. My father worked for Bob Peel on his boat called the Thomas C. Mullen. Bob was a very good fisherman, had a very god business. My dad worked for him several years. Bob had two sons Mike and Danny, both young men. I don’t think they fished with their dad. Paul Peel, Bob’s brother, older by the way. I don’t remember him having a gillnet boat. I just remember him going to the ocean and bring back a trawler called Capital One. And the fishing for shad was on that was in the 1960s so there was the Peel brothers and the Chamber Brothers, one real trawler and two boats converted into trawlers. My brother Don fished with Paul Peel by the time middle 1960s came around trawling for shad was all but done. A lot of story in between. Two of the boat changed back over to gillnet boats. Bob’s boat and the Chamber boat, so much to this story. Gordy Sluis was a big factor in this story. Page 7 By the time the mid-1960s rolled around commercial fishing as I remember it was all but finished except for a few die hard that was hoping until the day they died that commercial fishing would flourish once again in Saugatuck but never did men like Rube, Dem [Demmy Demerest], Chris Box, Buster Purchase, Bob and Paul Peel, Jack Sewers, Jim Sewers, Gordy McDonald, Gordy Sluis, Walt Carl and many more from Saugatuck. All we have is memories now the government and the D.R. [Department of Natural Resources] took care of that along with sports fishing. I can truly see were it really took to the souls of all these men and more I don’t remember. I know it ripped the hearts out of all when fishing ended in Saugatuck. I remember talking to Dem about all of this. What a wonderful experience it was to see him, one highlight of life. He told me many stories of Saugatuck. I could see the hurt in his eyes as well as my father when they couldn’t fish anymore. Each one died lonely [longing?] for fishing just one more day. Page 8 One more lift, one more sunrise, one more sunset. For these men it never came. But maybe they are all together on one golden shore watching, waiting to catch that last fish. My Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer Days But it’s truly not the end. We will always have memories. Saugatuck was truly one of the highlights of my life. Most of the time I felt so free. Working on Rube’s boat was always so nice. Lots of laughs. Chris Box always smiling and laughing. Rube always told riddles. Dem always so serious and he always wanted you nickels for his retirement dimes. +++ Text from cover note: Sally I did not forget about you. It has been a while since I talked with you. So I will try and catch up. I have had a lot of medical issues since we met last year. I have heart failure and have just been diagnosed with stage 4 bone cancer. So I have been very busy with all of that stuff. Here is some of the stories about me and the Saugatuck year[s]. Hope you can make sense out of all of it. Any questions please reach out. Thank you so much for all you are doing. God bless Richard McDonald