Edisen Fishery and Island Fishing Families

A resident fishery demonstrator explains how the trade was carried out. A boat tour carries visitors out to the fishery, which makes it one of the most direct ways to see this part of the island's past.

Island fishing families have a long tie to Isle Royale. Roughly a dozen of these families still keep their cabins under lifetime leases and regard the island as part of their heritage. Commercial fishermen worked these waters across the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 1940s, as the park was created, the National Park Service moved them off the island. Some of their descendants still fish these waters commercially.

A quarter-mile walk from the fishery leads to Rock Harbor Lighthouse, where maritime exhibits are on display. Lights at Passage Island, Rock Harbor, Rock of Ages, and the Isle Royale Lighthouse on Menagerie Island once steered vessels past the many small islands here. The tour also takes in Bangsund Cabin, which houses a moose and wolf research station.

Anglers can fish Lake Superior or the interior lakes from a boat, canoe, kayak, or the shoreline. Guided charters supply all the gear you need, and their boats drag lines over the reefs off the island's northeast end, while sightseeing boats visit other spots around the island. The inland lakes hold perch, pike, walleye, and lake trout, but they follow their own rules. Coaster brook trout must be caught and released in all park waters. Ongoing research has found fish in six interior lakes with mercury above state advisory levels, so check consumption guidance before keeping a catch.