The Fish Doctor

Clients who board Dr. Lynn Frederick’s charter boat The Fish Doctor have a unique experience in that they have signed up for more than a fishing trip; they will also learn something about lake ecology.

“You’ll have fish,” she said, “but plenty to talk about when the fish aren’t biting.”

Captain Frederick has been operating Lynn’s Charter Fishing from the Baileys Harbor Yacht Club Marina since 1975 when she was a graduate student conducting research for her doctorate, identifying the spawning grounds for whitefish and habitats for their young in relation to the shoreline development in Door County. She earned a Ph.D. in zoology from UW-Madison.

For her charter Frederick operates a 28-foot Bertram Yacht made in Miami specifically for fishing. But before she purchased her own craft, she learned the business crewing for charter fishermen John Eriksson and for Jerry Cefalu.

“Once they introduced me to Great Lakes trolling,” she quipped, “I got hooked on it!”

Her work as a charter pilot was an ideal complement for her 1977 appointment as field agent for the Sea Grant Institute, a UW-Madison state and federal partnership that conducts research related to the Great Lakes and oceans. As a part of the University of Wisconsin academic staff, “My job was to apply research to practical problems,” she said, “to get input for Great Lakes uses, what needed to be studied, and to provide public education about the Great Lakes, both in the schools and community.”

The appointment was fortuitous, she said, as “the Sea Grant Program was hiring field agents at the time I was finishing up [my degree], a natural transition” that allowed her to remain in Door County.

Fishing has always been a way of life for Frederick. As a little girl growing up on Fox Lake, Wisconsin, she was introduced to angling at age three and has been enjoying the sport ever since. As a charter captain “I want to transfer my enthusiasm for fishing to other people’s children,” she said. She especially likes having families as clients. “I get a lot of family business because they want their children to learn about the ecology of the lake as well as catch fish.”

While Frederick has always liked fishing, her original career interest was medical technology, inspired by an aunt who worked in the field. After earning a BS in biology and chemistry from UW-Oshkosh, she decided that she “didn’t want to spend my life as a medical technologist working in the basement of a hospital! I’m more of an outdoor person.”

Her change of focus took her to the University of Michigan where she earned a master’s in water resources, a degree that led to her doctoral work at Madison and her careers in Door County.

Captain Frederick with her fully-rigged charter boat The Fish Doctor can help clients catch fish: brown trout in April; steelhead rainbow in June; Chinook salmon in late June and August; and salmon, steelhead, and brown in September and October.

But equally important, Dr. Frederick can speak knowledgably about the lake ecology, whether explaining the improved health of Lake Michigan in terms of toxic chemical pollution, or the invasions of exotic species. She can talk authoritatively about PCBs, and tell the story of the introduction of salmon to control the alewife problem. And she can explain the economic and scientific controversies that invariably accompany environmental reforms.

Subsequently, her clients not only disembark The Fish Doctor with a catch of fish, but with a cache of information.

During her 35 years as a charter captain, Frederick has seen changes in the lake and in her own life as well. In 1994 her tenure as field agent for the Sea Grant Institute ended, and as charter fishing is a seasonal occupation, her healthcare career began. Because she had studied medical technology as an undergraduate, she easily completed the training to become a registered nurse.

However, Frederick has seen changes in the charter fishing business as well. “You need someone to work with customers while you pilot the boat,” she said, “and it’s easier to teach a kid to fish and help customers. I can still talk to them while I pilot the boat.” She uses either a high school or college student as her first mate, but after 9/11, Coast Guard regulations have become increasingly complicated for hiring young people as these guidelines come under the umbrella of Homeland Security.

Another change is the economic impact of increased fuel costs on her business.

But one constant for Lynn Frederick is her love of fishing, of being outside, of being close to nature. “The water is never the same from one day to the next,” she said with a smile.

For more information visit http://www.lynnscharterfishing.com.