My maternal grandfather was a professional fisherman by vocation on Lake Superior (nets not fishing rods). Won a Congressional
Gold Lifesaving Medal for saving 13 people from a sinking tour boat in the 1930s in one of the lake's infamous storms. He had to board the boat from his fishing boat, hack through the tour boat's roof with an axe to get them out, and lost his own boat in the process. The gold version of the medal is given out to "an individual who performed a rescue or attempted rescue at the risk of his or her own life, and demonstrates extreme and heroic daring." I own the medal, inherited it from him when he died.
He was a hard drinking, pipe smoking guy, missing two fingers and with lots of salty stories. His hobby was refurbishing his 1930 Model A and I remember the fish dinners at my grandparents house right on the shore of Lake Superior.