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Boatloads of Chubs Head for Dinner Table
The Milwaukee JournalNovember 22, 1966
Journal Photos by Donald N. Emmerich
SURROUNDED by a welcoming band of hungry sea gulls, the fishing boat Oliver H. Smith (above) plowed slowly through the inner harbor of Port Washington toward its berth next to the Smith Bros. fisheries processing building. Its hold was full of chubs, the small lake fish that many Wisconsinites enjoy smoked for a snack or a good meal. The return of the boat was just one of many steps in the process of bringing the fish from the lake to the customer.
While the boat was homeward bound and after it was tied up at the dock, members of the crew dressed the fish for smoking, Hundreds of pounds of the chubs were cleaned, fish eggs were put away for use as caviar and then the fish were sorted by size and tossed into various boxes to be taken into the processing plant. Here (above) fishermen on the Oliver H. Smith dressed the fish on a cleaning bench. From left background were: Capt. Richard Nagrocki, Eugene Bay and Albert Witte. Witte is from Sheboygan and the others from Port Washington. Despite the recent pronouncement allowing Catholics to eat meat on Fridays, the fishermen expect business to be the same. “There will be immediate effect on the fishing industry,” said Lincoln Smith; one of the owners of Smith Bros., but we think will wear off in time. Catholics will probably return their former habit of eating fish on Friday simply cause of the higher cost of meat”
In the plant (above), Dan Smies of Cedar Grove used a net to scoop the chubs out of a brine tank onto a table. Then they will be pinned by the tails to smoking and drying racks. After being dressed on board the boat, the fish were brought into the plant in tubs and dumped into the brine tanks to soak overnight.
Vincent Caporali (above), Port Washington, pinned the fish on the rack bars for smoking. In the background were fish rinsing tanks where the fish on the racks were dunked to remove excess brine before smoking.
Once (above) on the smoking racks, the chubs were pushed by William Witte, Port Washington, into a smoking oven.
The last step in brining the fish to the consumer is packing them for market. Here Jeffrey Laven, 16, Port Washinton, packed the chubs in boxes. The chubs were smoked for about five hours and checked for quality before packing.
Getting ready to start the cycle over again, netman John Bernick, 61, of Port Washington, packed the dried and repaired nets in boxes for the next voyage on the lake after fish.
