Great Lakes Whitefish

The Linda Lee

It’s all about fish – through thick and thin.

You’ll find the Thills’ whitefish on the menu of  Marquette’s finest restaurants. You may also buy it fresh or smoked at their retail shop on the Marquette waterfront. Their trap net boat is docked right behind it, lending to the atmosphere of a family that’s all about fishing.

The first generation of Thills arrived in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula more than 50 years ago. Francis moved from Fairport and Garden on Lake Michigan to Munising and Marquette on Lake Superior in the late 1950s. His sons and grandsons took up the occupation that has supported them since and contributed to the local economy. He opened the retail store in 1961, and son Ted remembers that people kept coming to the door, so they put in a case.

Ted has worked in the business all his life; remembering experiences on a herring boat in his early teens. “It was like doing your chores; I never got sick on the boat.”  When he got married, it was natural for him to settle into the business and establish his family.  Initially their mainstay was chubs and herring. He, older brother Ron and now-retired brother Jerry have stayed with the business through thick and thin.

Now they do more retail business than shipping out. They can sell what they catch, as well as what they buy from other local fishing operations. They fillet more than they ever used to. The store handles other species, but their main sale is whitefish. “We kind of encouraged people to go to whitefish, and, as they did, they found that they like it as good as trout, or even better. It’s a nice mild fish,” Ted says.

Ted’s two sons are in the business now, too--Dan for more than 10 years, Adam for three. He thinks they will stay with fishing for awhile. He’s on the boat when a third man is needed, setting and pulling nets with his sons. Up until 2006, he was setting all the nets. Now he lets Dan run the boat and just pulls anchors off and runs the rowboat around. He tries to do the least amount of work, and says it’s their turn now.

Owning his own business has been satisfying, Ted says. “You’re not answering to anybody but yourself. You work a lot more longer hours, that’s for sure, but I think about an eight hour job and I don’t know what I’d do with the rest of my time. I don’t know if there is anything I don’t like about it. Sometimes the worries are a headache. I guess if you are working an eight hour day job somewhere else, you are letting someone else have the headaches…those worries.”

And might still another generation come into the business? According to Ted, both his grandsons are interested. “They both have their bibs and boots down there hanging on the hook. They both like to play with fish. I don’t doubt that they will be involved in it…I don’t know how much…but they’ll be involved in it.”

Ted Thill waits on a customer in the Fish House