Visiting Main Duck

Local fisherman offers tours to island

There’s not a square inch of Lake Ontario around the County that Mitch Harrison does not know. He’s been travelling on these waters since he was about six years old, first with his father and grandfather on their fishing trips, and now as a master of his own boat. He can read the weather and the currents, knows where the shoals are, and more importantly, knows where the fish will be. “I love being on the water, it’s my passion,” he says. “Fishing goes back to my grandfather’s father, then my grandfather got into it here and there, but my dad’s the one that really started off into it. We had different boats for different jobs. Dad’s fleet would be about six boats. He had the one big boat, my uncle had one, and Drew had one. Perch was my dad’s big catch, but they disappeared for about 10 years, and they came back in the last two years. Whitefish is the main fall fish, and there’s lots of them around. There’s pickerel, but the quota is quite low.”

Pauline Morissette takes a turn at the helm under the watchful eye of Mitch Harrison on a recent trip to Main Duck Island.

Harrison had geared up in preparation for fish, and he spent a good couple of days filleting all of these fish that he could not sell. He ended up giving about half of it to the local foodbank, and kept the other half for his family. He has not made a commercial fishing trip since that time. “Hopefully it will be back in full swing by the fall. I’m really counting on it for our livelihood through the winter. The market has been up and down. Pickerel has never been so low [in price] in 20 years, and I don’t know why,” he says. Faced with a loss of fishing income, he decided to offer a boat tour service to Main Duck Island. “Times were tight. When COVID hit it stopped the fishing industry. So we figured we’ve got the boat, we might as well try making some money with it,” he says. “So we started the tours, and people seemed to enjoy it. I like to see people’s faces when they see Main Duck Island, because it’s so beautiful out there.” He started these trips when COVID restrictions eased in July, and has done about 40 of them, with the final one of the season last Friday. He typically takes about eight people out on each trip, but has taken as few as two or as many as 11.

Harrison’s boat, the Rachael M, was built by Rick and Ernie Semple sometime in the early eighties. It’s 40 feet long and has a 14-foot beam, and is powered by a six-cylinder diesel engine. It typically cruises at four or five knots. Harrison bought the boat a few years ago. “She’s an immaculate work boat,” he says. “The Semple boys pulled it out every two years. They painted the hull, maintenance was done. It’s a real gem to find. You could put 12,000 pounds on the back, no problem.” The trip to Main Duck Island takes a little more than two and a half hours, and visitors typically spend about two hours exploring the island, with a fish fry lunch of fresh-caught pickerel served up by Captain Mitch. Harrison keeps a keen eye out on the weather. The area is notorious for storms popping up out of the blue. “I’ve been on the water my whole life, so I’ve got good judgement and I can pull around, and if I get the option, we go and find sheltered water. This boat is more than safe. It can handle anything the water puts out there, but I won’t put anybody at risk, and it’s not enjoyable when it’s rough.”

The trip to Main Duck Island is a trip through history. Harrison has a lot of stories to tell about the days when the island was a nexus for rum-running, or when it was the place to be for eel fishing. “This was a major fishing spot for a lot of fishermen. It was one of the best for eel fishing, and it was the livelihood for a lot of people. I spent my childhood out here,” says Harrison. He says there a quite a number of shipwrecks around the island, and he knows precisely where they are located and exploring them will be a “retirement project.” While the trips to Main Duck Island are over for this year, he is still offering near shore outings. He plans to resume the trips, starting in May 2021, and will include a guided walking tour, a boat trip completely around the island, and—with permission of Parks Canada— offer an overnight camping trip. More information can be found at “Captain Mitch’s Boat Tours” on Facebook, or by email captainmitchboattours@gmail.com.

The boat tours are a pivot for Harrison to earn a living while the fishing industry goes through a downturn, but he wants to go back to doing what he loves the best. “Fishing is my passion. I love it. I can’t see myself anywhere else. I’ve tried working on other jobs, but everything draws me back, no matter how much money I was making, because I don’t make that much fishing. Every day on the water is a good day on the water.”