Fishing on Lake Maxinkuckee  

Old Time Fishermen
Not much is said about the old time fisherman needing the old time doctor. On the Contrary, fishing was said to cure a multitude of ancient ills. Many in these parts were "born with a fishing pole in their hands." Very little is said about, fish ague, but many were afflicted with tales of fish that towed dug-out canoes around the lake (with passengers) and several monsters of assorted shapes and sizes that lurked in the waters of Maxinkuckee, and even in smaller nearby bodies of water.

One of the local fishermen of considerable renown and recog­nized prowess, who fished in later days, but not so very much later than the pioneer anglers, was James McGuire. Some thirty years ago, he was known as "Grandpa McGuire," and later yet as "Old Grandpa McGuire." He lived in what is one of the oldest dwell­ings in Culver, a low-built house, the second west of the Evangelical Church.

Old Grandpa McGuire fished and fished, and kept on fishing until he was past eighty years of age. At the age of eighty, in October, 1905, he caught a big straw bass, one of the largest bass ever taken from Lake Maxinkuckee up to that time. He got it at the depot pier on the second of October. And it was guaranteed and accredited and bona fide and true. The fish was 24 inches long, 15 inches around, and weighed seven pounds. He took it with an ordinary cane pole and, medium sized hook.

• one party said it was 16 feeet long;
• one said it towed his boat before the line broke;
• another is sure it's a sturgeon.

Thaw Stops Ice Fishing on Lake Maxinkuckee
Ice fishing on Lake Maxinkuckee has been popular for several weeks with blue gills and red eyes and an occassional bass, biting the best on live minnows. But a sudden thaw and high winds cleared the lake of ice on SUnday and spolied the sport that had kept a large number of men of the ice through all kinds of weather. Left to right in front of the puicture: James Drake, William Benner, Gene Hisey and Earl Croco.