The Fishtug Skipper

The Fishtug Skipper. . Fishermen all their lives, Howard and Emery Weborg started fishing with their father Alfred "Skipper" Weborg on his boat the Golden Girl in 1917. After the death of Alfred, their uncle Willy took over the boat until he decided to retire in 1944 and sell his share of the business to the Weborg brothers. They fished that boat for one more year but soon decided that a new one was needed., In 1945, the brothers ordered this new fishtug at the Sturgeon Bay Shipbuilding and Dry-Dock Company. The Skipper, named in honor of their father, was built with a 42' long steel hull with an aft pilothouse. To power it a large 30-36 HP Khalenburg oil engine was installed. The approximate cost being $12,000., A typical day aboard the Skipper started at Weborg's wharf in Gills Rock at 5:30 am. They loaded the gill nets, ice, and fish boxes, torched the engine, and departed with an hour. The Weborg brothers worked this schedule 6 days a week, 6-7 months a year. They would go out in all kinds of weather even when ice started to form on the lake., On the water, the duo would lift eight boxes of nets, removing the fish, and then setting the nets back. On land, their whole families would aid in repairing the nets and the brothers could repair a 1,200-foot net within a day., Throughout the partnership, Howard took the lead with Emery acting as his second. They fished together for nearly 50 years most of them aboard the Skipper. Upon retiring they donated the Skipper in 2002 to the Door County Maritime Museum where it was installed here as a testament to the commercial fishing heritage of this area.