Kellie Sutherland 

Beth Anne Piehl, Special Sections Writer
 
Kellie Sutherland grew up playing in the old wooden fish boxes and the huge ice bins at her grandpa’s fish shop, the long-established John Cross Fisheries in Charlevoix. She recalls her grandma’s next-door eatery, The Nautical, an old house from which she served the same menu daily: carrot salad, cole slaw, whitefish, lake trout and homemade bread.

While some things have changed over the last 60 years since John Cross started the business (The Nautical no longer exists, for instance), the tradition of a family-run enterprise endures. Located on Round Lake, just outside downtown Charlevoix, the setting is reminiscent of the fishing docks along Boston’s Atlantic Coast, with wide open garage doors for hauling the catch of the day, unmistakable fish market aromas and wader-wearing workers scaling and filleting fish by hand and machine.

“We all try to help each other,” said Sutherland. “We’ll all just jump around to whatever area needs help.”

Sutherland said she hadn’t considered working anywhere other than at the fishery founded by her grandpa, raised on Beaver Island, who had traveled to Chicago in the 1940s where he learned the ropes of the fishing business. He fished the entire Great Lakes for a time, and brought his skill and knowledge back to Charlevoix where he started the fishery. He taught his son, Sutherland’s dad Jack, the way of the industry as a youngster, and the two would troll the lakes, often heading south to near Traverse City searching for whitefish, lake trout, perch and walleye.

When her grandpa passed away in 1986, the business came under ownership of Jack and June Cross, and today Kellie, her husband, Jack, and her brother, Jack, work alongside their parents keeping the traditions going strong. Sutherland’s niece, Megan, 19, summers in Charlevoix from Traverse City and also enjoys working at the fishery.

Together, the family continues to offer the regular fish and menu items that have been the hallmark of the fishery through the decades. Among the most popular of their items are whitefish pate, whitefish sausage and a variety of smoked fish choices, smoked on-site. Everything is fresh, with boats arriving daily, weather permitting. Rather than have its own fleet of boats and fishermen, the Crosses rely on a cast of contracted operations to bring in the fish, Sutherland said. It easily amounts to a ton or more a day, she added. “And in the summer, we usually use everything we get,” she said.

The fishery’s front counter is a popular destination for resorters who return to the area each summer, and Sutherland said she enjoys chatting with the customers and knowing what they like; one customer stops in at least three times a week, all summer long, for his meals. The holiday months are busy as well, fulfilling orders for those part-time residents who travel to warmer climes but still crave the fishery’s fish, pate, sausage and more.

The company also supplies filets to area restaurants like the Villager in Charlevoix and City Park Grill in Petoskey.

Because of the year ’round orders, Sutherland said the fishery stays busy enough to not initiate an Internet presence at this time. It’s that traditional way of doing things that make the fishery a local draw, for not only customers but frequent school field trips where the kids of the technology generation see first-hand the hard work involved in a family-run fishing business. Some kids prefer to not go inside; others are fascinated by the process that can be quite messy.

After many years in the business herself, Sutherland doesn’t shy away from getting her hands dirty on a daily basis.
“I just get right in the goo and go,” she laughed. “I do what I can to help the guys.”

A fish tale

Who: Kellie (Cross) Sutherland, of Charlevoix
The catch: The granddaughter of John Cross, founder of John Cross Fisheries in Charlevoix, and daughter of Jack and June Cross, who own the fishery today
Family: Married to Jack, son Shane, 12, daughter Grace, 9; St. Mary Church members
Best from the Great Lakes: Whitefish, lake trout, Norwegian salmon