My Watermark is Lake Erie, New York.

I’m Captain Dave Spangler, and I’m the Vice President of the Lake Erie Charter Boat Association. I live in Oak Harbour, Ohio.

My passion is on Lake Erie. I’m a fisherman, have been all my life, grew up in the rivers, and later on I was introduced to Lake Erie. Fell in love with it, the fishery is fantastic. I became a charter boat captain with the Coast Guard and I’ve been doing that for 25 years now. And I really enjoy having people come out and catch fish. Of course, we’re fishing for Walleye and Perch – both of which are fun to catch and even much more fun to eat, they’re very good.

We have a big problem in Lake Erie with the Algae issues. Our business comes and goes based on how good, and how not so good, the Algae blooms are, and it’s starting to affect our business.

The first time (fishing), as I recall, was with a friend of mine’s father, and this was back in the early ‘80’s. I had never been on the lake before, I had never caught a Walleye before. I fished rivers for other fish and I think the first one got me hooked. I got a boat subsequently after that to fish on my own. And then I decided I want to take other people out (to fish) that don’t have the opportunity to have a boat, and it just grew into the business. I would take people out even it wasn’t a business because it’s just a fun place be.

I love being on the water, and the lake can be treacherous as people have heard on Lake Erie, but if you respect what is going on out on the water you’ll have a great time out there. And there are good days to go out, and some days you just stay on shore. It’s just a fun place to be. But here lately, it hasn’t been nearly as much fun with the Algae bloom situation and we know it’s starting to hurt a lot of people’s business.