♪♪♪
- [Voiceover] The sky blue waters surrounding
the Door Peninsula provide some
of the best fishing in Lake Michigan.
Just ask captain Don Grasse.
- The fishing around Door Country is very good.
- [Voiceover] Don grew up on the northern end
of the peninsula and started fishing these waters as a kid.
After retiring from teaching, he bought this boat.
- [Don] Okay, everybody ready?
- [Voiceover] And opened a charter fishing business
out of Gills Rock.
- [Don] We fish around the bluffs.
So we only have to go out about five minutes
and we're already in over 100 feet of water.
And that's a very unusual aspect of this area.
- [Voiceover] As a charter boat captain,
Don's day starts before sunrise.
- Get down to the dock by four o'clock.
Get the boat set up. Get ice in the cooler.
Get to know the people on-board and start fishing.
Alright let's go get them.
- [Voiceover] And there's more to it than just
throwing a line in the water.
- You've got a number of things to check.
You've got the color patterns the lures are in.
You've got what the wind has done to the lake
as far as temperature.
The depths that those fish are at.
I'm just setting the downriggers,
then I'll lower those down
to a certain depth in case fish are in different depths.
These are planer boards.
They're used to get our lines out and away from the boat
so we can run more lines without having them get tangled.
These are Dipsy Divers.
They work as underwater planer boards.
It takes the bait down and away from the boat.
If something is off a little bit in your presentation,
say the speed might be off, the color isn't right
or the location isn't right, you can fish for weeks
without having any luck whatsoever.
You need to understand that fish are a creature
that sometimes are willing to bite on metal objects
or plastic objects and some days they're not.
There's a fish. Fish!
- It's a rainbow!
- [Don] Sweet.
Mainly up here we're catching Chinook salmon
or we call them King salmon.
The small ones are in the three pound range
up to as big as in the 30 pound range.
- [Voiceover] And as any angler knows
your luck can change just like that.
- [Don] I was out here with four clients
and for the first half an hour we did not catch anything.
And it looked like it was going to be a slow morning.
Then one of the rods hit.
Then they all went.
We only had six in the water.
We ended up with 19 fish that day,
and I think the smallest fish was 15 pounds.
So it was quite a morning.
- [Voiceover] It's an unforgettable experience
for the anglers and for Don as he watches them
reel in the catch of the day.
- A lot of these people that come out fishing with me
have never caught a fish in their life or the biggest fish
they've ever caught is an eight-inch Blue Gill.
- [Man] Holy cow, Rachel! - [Don] Alright!
- [Man] That's a big fish! - Woo hoo!
- [Man] Good job Rachel!
- So for them to catch a 12 pound fish
is a fish of a lifetime.
There you go.
- Uh. (laughing)
- [Man] Lift it, Rachel!
- I've been out here with people from
Saudi Arabia, South Africa.
Last week I took three people out
from the country of Belgium.
I also get the enjoyment of seeing people that are
excited over fishing when they catch fish.
It's great work.
I think that the main objective is that they enjoy the trip.
Have a good time whether it's reeling in a lot of fish
or telling stories or just the camaraderie that you get.
My philosophy is that if you can do something
that is your hobby and make some money out of it,
I don't think you are working a day in your life.
And my office is some of the most
beautiful scenery in the area.