Gramps Remembers

Fisheries 4-H Project

My parents moved from the city of Marinette in the summer of 1960, and the following year I joined 4-H. The 4-H programs included livestock, poultry, gardening, sewing, insect collecting, soil and water conservation, and forestry projects.  

The 1^st year of 4-H I did gardening, insect collecting, and soil conservation projects. The following year I expanded to forestry and received 300 trees from the county to plant on my parents farm. I received 300 red pine trees each year until 1968 when I aged out of 4-H.

My 3^rd year, one of my topics was fisheries, and on the list of projects was to build a minnow box. Since we lived on the Peshtigo River, I asked dad for advice, and we concluded that my 1^st build project would a fish trap/net that could sit in the Peshtigo River. We decided we could anchor in the shallow water off the sand bar.

Dad said to create it, design it, figure out the lumber list, and build it. He would take me to town to get the materials and loan me his tools. I next purchased then 2x2x8 lumbers, fiberglass screen wire, and fasteners from a small lumber yard in Peshtigo, WI. Now my project was ready for me to start.

I used the left-over screen wire to create a small seine for catching minnows, and stocking the minnow box.

The minnows were sold for some pocket change to the neighbors that lived nearby. The neighbors often invited me along to fish on the lower Peshtigo River.

Pictured is me building the fish box to hold the minnows that I would seine from the river.