Captain David Tropf Carries On Lake-To-Plate Traditions In Fishtown

There’s just about one true-blue month of charter fishing left for the 2022 season for David Tropf, who captains the Maevelous out of Leland Harbor. And it happens to be one of the most tried-and-true, weatherwise. “Augusts are usually beautiful. Historically, the best of the summer,” he says.

While Tropf’s first season as a charter fishing captain in Leland was 2019, he grew up in Northport and fished the waters off Leland on the Fast Break — a charter boat belonging to his dad, Jeff Tropf, who has been charter fishing in Leland since 1984.

“I worked for him as a first mate or a deckhand growing up,” says the younger Tropf. He explains that all the Leland charter boats run from the property owned by Manitou Island Transit and are thus dubbed the “Manitou Charter Fleet.”

Of those eight charter fishing boats, six of them are fathers and sons.

Tropf grew up fishing alongside them, with even the most recent arrivals already there for a decade. “Wes and Bob Smith moved to Leland 10 years ago now; before that they were in Glen Arbor. Jimmy Munoz’s father Jim Munoz has been fishing here 50-some years,” adds Tropf. “He was the first charter captain ever in Leland.”

Fishtown is a special place, he says, because it has a long history of both commercial and sport fishing.

“That’s not overly common now…there are a lot of just-charter docks and some just-commercial, but they coexist here in a unique working waterfront.”

Tropf’s Tiara 2900 Coronet is the newest in the Leland charter fleet. It was originally named Marvelous he says. “My wife’s name is Maeve, and after other captains started calling it out that way, it became Maevelous.”

While most of his clients are people here on vacation, he does love when locals to join him aboard. “Sometimes in the spring I have local people, but most working and living here don’t get the chance to get out there.”

Maevelous typically runs half-day charters: Five-hour trips that typically leave the dock at 6 am and return at 11 am for the morning trip; the afternoon trips leave at 12pm and return at 5pm. All of the necessary fishing equipment is provided, water temperature tracking, plus charting, sonar and radar. No fishing experience is required to be successful.

He says the 2022 season has been “very good fishing. Some are going for lake trout and some specifically want to chase king salmon. Some don’t care or don’t know the difference. But lake trout have been the majority of our catches.”

He notes that “king” salmon, also known as chinook salmon, were originally planted in Lake Michigan in 1967. Coho salmon were planted in 1966. Large alewife populations helped these voracious eaters flourish he says, but the “arrival of zebra mussels led to the loss of alewives, the bait fish that they eat.” This has prompted the DNR and other Lake Michigan fisheries managers to reduce salmon stocking over past the decade to balance predator and prey fish in the lake. “This year most of us saw the bait fish wash up on the beach,” he notes. The major alewife die-off, one of the most significant in a decade, may be a positive sign for Lake Michigan anglers and Department of Natural Resources officials concerned with dwindling bait fish populations in recent years. With evidence of more baitfish, the situation is lending support to calls to increase salmon stocking in response.

No matter what of Lake Michigan’s bounty his clients catch, the fish are taken to Carlson’s Fishery whose staff process them into ready-to-cook fillets. Many of the Leland captains, including Tropf, also participate in the Michigan Catch & Cook program. This is a collaboration among the Michigan State University Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Michigan Sea Grant, Michigan Charter Boat Association, Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Restaurant Association.

Charter fishing clients who catch fish have an opportunity to take their fresh catch to a participating Michigan restaurant, which will cook it on the spot.

Sean Wanroy, general manager at The Cove in Leland, explains with this program, “they bring filleted fish up to us and we give the option of a few different preparations, baked or fried, with toppings. It’s served on a silver platter family-style with sides.

Tropf says the Michigan Catch & Cook program has taken off “up and down shoreline,” but the experience in Fishtown is one-of-a-kind. “They come off the back of a charter, go to Carlson’s a couple of steps away, and up to The Cove. Everybody raves about it.”

Most Leland charter captains take their boats out mid-September to early fall, “but there are definitely days on the lake to be had,” says Tropf. Of his fellow charter captains, he says, “We are all friends, and there are days we are out there side-by-side fishing. Everyone shares information, shares charters. You can’t get on a bad boat out of Leland,” he says.