SAUGATUCK –

Every vacation needs a fish story. So today, we’re out on choppy Lake Michigan. It is a warm late-May afternoon, and Dave Engel and his sons Hunter and Zack have put out enough rods and lines to attract a lake trout parade. With rock music blaring, we troll west in the 36-foot yacht Best Chance, Too. We troll. We wait. We troll. We wait.

Then, a rod jiggles. Dave thrusts it into the hands of Zack’s girlfriend, Carolyn, and she pulls in a fish. Then Dave turns the boat around and slowly trolls east. Saugatuck’s Oval Beach and the dunes are bathed in a distant, drowsy golden light. Suddenly, another bite. And another. Zack thrusts a rod into my hand. I reel with difficulty, hand shaking, elbow out, harder, harder, harder, until at last, a lake trout at least 6 feet — OK, 3 feet — well, to be honest, 2 feet — long is in the boat. Flopping in the net, it must weigh at least 99 pounds, or truthfully, more like 98, or actually 11. Triumph! My heart hammers. My arms ache. In spite of the fact I did almost nothing, I grin.

Related: Want to try charter fishing in Michigan? Here’s how

“Theraputic, isn’t it?” says Hunter, grinning back.

Oddly, it is.

Hook, line, sinker

Fishing is a Michigan thing. But it’s also a lucrative tourism thing. Michigan ranks behind only Florida in fishing tourism. In 2014, there were more than 16,000 charter trips on nearly 600 boats around the state, generating $21.2 million in economic activity, according to new data from the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Michigan Sea Grant. And you don’t have to be an expert to hire a charter. You can spend half a day on vacation giving it a beginner’s try.

“My first charter this season was a daughter taking her father out for his birthday,” says Rod Lowe, owner of Rainbow Fishing Charters in Grand Marais, in the Upper Peninsula. “We take all age groups, all levels of experience, and we supply all the equipment. All they have to bring is a (one-day, $10) fishing license, and they can get that here at the gas station or hardware store.”

In Saugatuck, Dave Engel, who is a serious competitive fisherman and third-generation charter fishing operator, is pretty much booked solid all season with corporate groups and longtime regulars. But his son Hunter takes out guys for bachelor parties and families who have never fished before and vacationers who suddenly want to try it. That pretty much describes the vast breadth of fishing tourism in Michigan’s Great Lakes.

“Fishing transcends age, gender, race and religion,” Hunter says, and that is somewhat true. Overall in the U.S., about a third of anglers are women. About 11% are African American. About 14% are Hispanic, and that number is growing. Fishing cuts across all income groups. The fish may not be happy to hear it, but fishing is right up there in popularity with running and cycling.

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Allure of the lure

After we dock, Dave Engel cleans the trout in record time and hands me a ziplock bag of pale pink trout filets. I persuade the nice people at the local Maplewood Hotel to let me store it in their refrigerator overnight until I can buy a cooler over at Demond’s Supervalu for the trip home. And the next morning, I catch up with a group of Saugatuck sixth-graders who have been fishing very early in the cold. Those who didn’t get seasick are cheerfully chomping down fried trout, bluegill and salmon.

Statistics show that most people who love to fish as adults first had a fishing pole in their hands by age 12.

What would these kids like to tell other kids about fishing?

“It’s nice to get out in the world,” says Olivia Van Kampen, 11, of Saugatuck. Payton Wilson, 12, of Saugatuck was proud of not getting seasick: “I’m a trouper, that’s what they said.” Their teacher Katie Hankins from Saugatuck Middle School says fishing “gets kids out of the house and away from TV and phones and the Internet.”

Dave Engel’s two sons both began fishing “as soon as they could walk,” he says. They grew up around spinners and spoons, rods and reels. For father and sons now, being out on the so familiar waters of Lake Michigan is a family affair. Yes, it a high-tech business endeavor (rods cost $500 each and the downriggers are $1,500 each). But it is also just plain fun. And there is one more thing this year: The lakes may have fewer salmon than in the past because of changing lake conditions, but “the lake trout fishing has never been better,” Engel says. “It is the best it is going to be in our lifetime.”

And that, my friends, is no tall tale.

For more on how to book a charter fishing trip in Michigan with Dave Engel, Rod Lowe or other operators, click here.

8 fishing facts

¦ Top states for fishing tourism, in order, are Florida, Michigan, Wisconsin, North Carolina and Alaska.

¦ Michigan has 1.7 million anglers each year, about 347,000 of them from out of state.

¦ ¦About 15% of the U.S. population fishes. That’s 46 million anglers.

¦ More people fish than play golf or tennis combined.

¦ About 17% of families with children at home have gone fishing.

¦ Most fishing trips are either spur of the moment or planned within 1 week and taken with one to four other people, usually family or friends.

¦ Saugatuck isn’t the busiest port , but in 2013, it had 484 charter trips with 2,249 customers, adding nearly $1 million in local impact to the economy.

¦ Nationwide, the annual economic impact of recreational fishing on the U.S. economy is $115 billion.

Sources: Michigan Department of Natural Resources,

American Sportfishing Association and Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation

Contact Detroit Free Press Travel Writer Ellen Creager at ecreager@freepress.com.

Thirty-three chefs and 32 farmers teamed up Sunday to make delicious dishes with local ingredients to benefit two farmer training programs in North Carolina.

The 2015 Farm to Fork Picnic, the culmination of a weekend of events centered on the idea of Farm to Fork, also included 14 food artisans and 10 beverage sponsors showcasing anything from coffee or tea to wine and mead — which Honeygirl Meadery says is making a resurgence.

Honeygirl Meadery, which opened in October, is relatively new to downtown Durham, but owner Diane Currier said that section of the Bull City is set to see an explosion of craft and artisan beverages.

Farmers and restaurateurs were paired by Farm to Fork organizers, giving the farmers even more venues for their produce.

Meredith Light of Granite Springs Farm in Pittsboro explained the process. Once chefs received their partner assignments, they communicated with the farms to see what they’d have ready at that time and planned a dish around the available produce.

For example, Granite Springs had a lot of Napa cabbage, broccoli and cucumbers, so Panciuto of Hillsborough created a kimchi to serve.

Pat Evans of Durham, who was one of about 700 expected guests, said the kimchi was very good. However, she’s been to the picnic several different times and said “I’ve never had anything out here that wasn’t good.”

Evans said that supporting the farmer training programs is important to her because she grew up on a farm. Now, she gardens in her backyard.

Evans was in attendance with 6-year-old Mia Grace, who liked looking at the plots at nearby Breeze Farm — one of the beneficiaries of the picnic.

“She compares them to my garden, which appears paltry in comparison (to Breeze),” Evans said.

Breeze Farm is a partnership among N.C. State University, N.C. AT and the state Department of Agriculture. The land was donated by Colonel William H. Breeze, who grew up on the land.

“We thought this would be a good way to make more farmers,” said William H. Breeze Jr., Breeze’s son.

Breeze Farm now acts as a farmer training program at a time wen more farmers are desperately needed.

According to Farm to Fork data, 52,695 farms were lost between 1976 and 2012.

Existing farmers are also getting older, said Nancy Creamer, director of Center for Environmental Farming Systems (CEFS), the other farmer training program and beneficiary of the picnic. The average age of farmers is 58, she said.

“We’re losing farms, farms are aging out, people have an idea about what is agriculture,” said John O’Sullivan, retired co-director of CEFS. He said CEFS helped organize the picnic from the beginning and that he sees it as an opportunity to educate people about their food systems.

“We said, ‘Let’s not just talk about it; let’s eat it and have a great time,’” he said.

But even though many farmers are getting older, there are young farmers on the horizon who receive help from programs like the ones offered at Breeze.

Miles Okal, of South Wind Produce, said he worked at various vegetable gardens after college but that renting a plot at Breeze, which works like a business incubator, helped him get his own models into place.

Okal said he sees Breeze as “a stepping stone.”

“It was a way to start the business, test the water,” he said. “I had the know-how, but I needed a little help.”

By selling his produce from his plot at Breeze at Farmers Market, Okal was able to buy his own land just two years later with his girlfriend, Angie Raines. They are continuing to work on their plot at Breeze as they simultaneously work to implement necessary infrastructure on their new land.

Orange County officials were also out to try the food and support the training programs, such as county manager Bonnie Hammersley and several county commissioners.

Commissioner Barry Jacobs said that local agriculture is important to the county and that recently, Orange County came in second to Henderson County in terms of how much product is sold to consumers.

Commissioner Mia Day Burroughs added that the event is a good contributor to tourism because it brings people from all across the Triangle out to Hurdle Mills.

“It gives the local restaurateurs a chance to showcase their skills,” she said.

BEIJING — When Li Caohua retired in her late 50s, the doctor immediately joined millions of other Chinese seniors and hit the road to see more of her giant country.

At the top of her destination list was tropical Hainan island in the south and the ancient villages around her home city of Beijing. Then there was the most grandiose of China’s landscapes — the mythic brown waters of the Yangtze River and its mist-enveloped Three Gorges.

Over the decades, Li survived such horrors of 20th century Chinese history as the man-made famines that killed more than 30 million people in the late 1950s and the political anarchy of the Cultural Revolution that followed. Now, as she and hundreds of other seniors danced, played cards and chatted Thursday in the winding walkways of Beijing’s Temple of Heaven, Li said it was her time to play.

“We are fortunate in China that we can travel, and I’ve seen so much,” the 60-year-old woman said. “We’re all traveling now to a lot of places.”

Travel agencies and packages catering to elderly Chinese say business is booming, amid overall growth in the country’s travel industry. The number of senior tourists in China jumped by 58 percent last year compared to 2013, according to the state-run China Daily newspaper, and 62 percent of Chinese senior citizens join organized tours.

One such tour ended tragically a week ago when a river cruiser carrying more than 450 people, mostly elderly tourists, capsized in a heavy storm in the Yangtze. By Saturday, nearly 400 have been confirmed dead, making the capsizing the deadliest maritime tragedy to hit China since the country’s civil war seven decades earlier.

The tour was organized by the Shanghai Xiehe Tourism Agency, with the ship run by the state-owned Chongqing Eastern Shipping Corp., which specializes in Yangtze River travel. The ship, the Eastern Star, was plying the river upstream from Nanjing near the eastern coast all the way inland to Chongqing, a trip of 10 days and about 870 miles (1,400 kilometers).

There are many versions of senior-friendly trips designed for different income groups, with some low-cost options charging 3,000 yuan, or about $480, for five days on Hainan island, not including airfare, said Beijing travel agent Qi Chun Guan. For Yangtze River travel, most groups fly into the metropolis of Chongqing and then travel downstream to the city of Yichang, Qi said.

“Before, the elderly saved all their money,” Qi said. “Now, they want to go out and see the rest of the world. These people have seen their share of suffering in their lives. Now, with economic development, it’s so different from previous generations.”

The boom in travel has been one economic bright spot to a graying population that’s presenting China with one of its most serious policy challenges.

With U.N. data showing the number of Chinese over age 65 projected to almost double to 210 million people by 2030, the country’s retirement system will struggle to keep up, especially as China’s one-child policy limits the number of working-age people who can pay for the pensions and meager benefits of their elders, said Yong Cai, an assistant sociology professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

“It’s very clear that the next 10 to 15 years down the road will not be so good for the pension system,” Yong said. “Xi Jinping has been saying China has to deal with the new economic reality and part of this is a new demographic reality.”

For middle-class seniors, however, comes strength in numbers, Qi said. Elderly women known as “dancing grannies” fill the parks of many cities with their music and dance routines. Enormous groups of seniors are also regular sights at Chinese tourist attractions such as Beijing’s Forbidden City.

Among the most popular domestic destinations for elderly Chinese are the southeastern coastal province of Fujian and central Sichuan province, where the Eastern Star cruise ship was headed Monday when it overturned, Qi said.

He said travel along the Yangtze has fallen since the world’s biggest hydroelectric project, the Three Gorges Dam, opened in 2012 and flooded historic sites and scenic canyons.

One 55-year-old property manager, who would only identify himself by his family name of Shu, said he took two-day trips to towns around Beijing with other older Chinese, paying 600 yuan, or about $100, for each excursion. On Thursday, he strolled along the Temple of Heaven’s historic covered walkway, protected from the rain and taking in the fresh air, part of what he said was his semi-retired morning routine.

“If you have the money, you go out and play,” Shu said. “I’ve learned to like it.”

ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Some leaders in Asheville think the city should spend some of its hotel room tax proceeds to pay for police or other services.

But many hotel owners and state lawmakers think the money is better spent to continue marketing efforts that have made Asheville a top destination.

The General Assembly is discussing a bill that would allow Asheville to increase its room tax from 4 percent to 6 percent. But the proposal continues to send all the money to the Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority to boost tourism or on projects that would attract more visitors.

While tourism is important, it shouldn’t get all the money and be the top priority, City Councilman Gordon Smith told the Asheville Citizen-Times (http://avlne.ws/1T4gClO).

“We have to build Asheville first for people who live here. The fact that other people like that is great, but it’s Asheville first,” he said. “We need to make sure that we’re not turning our city into a place for others.”

Other city officials wonder if hotel owners are pushing hard to keep all the extra revenue going toward recruiting tourists because of the rapid increase in hotel rooms in the area. Buncombe County is expected to go from 7,200 rooms to 8,800 rooms over the next three years, and more visitors will be needed to help keep everyone making money.

But business and tourism leaders said Asheville didn’t become one of the hottest tourist destinations by accident. There was an effort to sell the city, and leaders can’t now sit back and expect people to keep coming, said Kit Cramer, president and CEO of the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce.

“Does Pepsi stop advertising? Does Coke?” she said.

“It baffles me that people think people are coming here (only) because it’s cool. They won’t come here if they haven’t heard about it,” Cramer said.

Some North Carolina cities are trying to get permission to spend hotel tax revenues on infrastructure like police and roads. Other big Southern tourist towns like Savannah, Georgia, and Charleston, South Carolina, already spend their room taxes that way.