Carlson’s Fishery

Suspended over the mouth of the Leland river, where water tumbles over a dam that connects Lake Leelanau to the ombre turquoise shoreline of Lake Michigan, is Fishtown, a preserved and protected collection of turn-of-the-last-century fishing shanties. If you look beyond the Teva-tanned tourists, this historic anglers’ village is also still home to wooden reels used to dry fishing nets at night, smokehouses, and working fishing boats—including the iconic green and white Joy, which is still used to catch whitefish. 

Today, each pint-size shanty houses a retail shop—from a vintage-era candy store to the beloved Cheese Shanty sandwich shop to a merchant selling souvenirs emblazoned with a tug logo that was inspired by the Joy herself. The most emblematic shanty is Carlson’s Fishery—where members of the Carlson family have been gutting, pinboning, fileting, and smoking whitefish, lake trout, chub, and walleye for five generations. 

Swing open the nostalgically squeaky screen door and stand in line for just-caught whitefish, fish pâté, and plump pieces of smoked Lake Trout, which Nels Carlson—named for the Scandinavian great-great grandfather who first established this family business in 1904—and his buddy (and co-owner) Mike Burda smoke over maplewood out back in their orange Grundéns fishmonger bibs.