Thnk Big, eh

Think Big! Earl Plato
As we drove from Niagara Falls this September we passed Navy Island on the way to Fort Erie. Memories of Gene Muma, “the Navy Island man,” and our trips to the unique island were evoked. Gene was a story teller and once I had asked him about that great fish, the sturgeon. I had read stories about the sturgeon, the “bearded monster.” This previously printed article of mine is basically about "the old days", more nostalgia times. I had pulled a picture from my clipping file without a date on it. (Always write down on the back the date and the source of your pictures and articles). I am looking at a giant fish hanging shark-like or marlin-like from its rear fin facing head down. What is it? Hey, yesterday I found my notes in a different file! It says that it's a 158 pound, seven foot lake sturgeon found on a beach of Lake Erie, Erie County. That's right just across the lake! From the attire of the fellow posed next to the hanging giant I would say it was taken in the last 15-20 years. I am going back in time now and share some research and memories about, The Methuselah of the Great Lakes. In an interview some years back with John Miller, son of the late Niagara Peninsula naturalist, Bert Miller, I recorded these words, "My dad always had a boat to fish with at the old homestead at MIller's Creek. He would go out into the river with his nightline. It would be several feet long with 35 to 40 hooks on it and anchored at each end. While it was still light out he would have to take good land bearings so that when he went out the next day he could locate the line. Next morning he would take a grappling hook and pull up the line. Hopefully there would be sturgeons on the giant hooks. The biggest sturgeon he ever caught was about 125 pounds. That would supplement his income a little bit for he would go by boat over to Buffalo and sell it." Note: This was in the 1920's before the Peace Bridge was built (1927). The lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens) is our longest- lived freshwater fish. Lake sturgeon once flourished in the Great Lakes with fish up to 152 years old. Wow!