NORTH EAST — Henry “Pip” Pratt has been a fisherman since he was a junior in high school in 1956.

 

“I went fishing one night on the Susquehanna Flats and caught a mess of shad and sold them for $108," he recalled. "From that moment on, I knew I wanted to be a fisherman.”

 

Pratt is retiring this year after nearly 60 years fishing the Chesapeake Bay.

His love of the outdoors came from his father, who was a "mountain man," part trapper and part fisherman, in Alaska, Pratt recalled.

 

“He grew up here, but moved to Alaska when he was a young man. He lived there for 25 years," Pratt said. "He came back to Cecil County, married a local girl and took her back to Alaska for eight years. My brother and I were born in Alaska, but we moved back here in 1948.”

 

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