Commercial Fishing in Gods Lake
By Adam Hansen

A few days ago, some Gods Lake Narrows locals were kind enough to let Andrew, Dylan and me tag along when they went to lift their fishing nets.

I intentionally don't refer to our local friends as fishermen. The term lacks much description in Gods Lake. Fish are so plentiful that you can just go and get some if you get a hankerin' for some walleye or lake trout as a snack.

We all piled on two snowmobiles and headed for the nets. Before the snowmobile became a common mode of transportation, dog teams were used to haul in the catch.

After tying a rope to end of the net, we pulled it out of the ice hole and extracted the fish. When all 100 yards was finally on the ice, we had racked up 20 northern pike, 17 eel pout, seven whitefish and two lake trout.

In the past, all of these species of fish were eaten. Now, however, it is common practice to leave unwanted fish on the ice. Nearly everyone we asked said eel pout had a reputation for being quite tasty, and said the liver was once prized as a delicacy. But no one, it seems, eats them any more. All 17 were left on the ice for the birds (we already had a good supply of fish for our dogs.).

The whitefish were also left behind. These are notoriously difficult to clean. Each fish must be scaled, gutted, filleted, and then two sets of bones have to be removed--leaving minimal meat. I was still surprised to see the whitefish left behind because I immediately thought, "This stuff is $6 per pound in Minneapolis!" But I guess it's free in Gods Lake.

We ended up keeping just the big northern pike and the two lake trout--all for personal consumption. Because Gods Lake doesn't have all-weather road access, commercial fishing is not really viable. The residents of Gods Lake Narrows cannot afford to ship the fish by airplane and expect to compete with other communities that can ship fish by truck.

Even though things aren't done the same way now as they were 100 years ago, we all appreciated a free lesson in local fishing practice.

Hands now thoroughly cold, we all headed back to town for a meal fit for kings and served daily at Gods Lake.