- Hello, everyone, welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

We have a brand new adventure headed your way this week.

I was recently able to head up to the UP and all the way up to the Keweenaw Peninsula for a couple of days of excitement.

We hung out with Walleye pro, Mark Martin and fished the Walleye season opener there.

We really got into the fish, you won't wanna miss that story.

And then we took Mark out of his comfort zone a little bit.

We had him put down the Walleye route and pick up a shotgun for his very first successful turkey hunt, you won't wanna miss that either, so make sure you stay tuned.

I'm Jenny Ciolek, and it's time for "Michigan Out of Doors."

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(dramatic music) (rifle fires) (energetic music) - We always look forward to a different kind of adventure when we cross the mighty Mac and head into the upper peninsula.

This time, the adventure took us another four and a half hours west and north over the Houghton-Hancock Bridge and into the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Walleye Pro, Mark Martin had invited my husband and I to a home that he and his wife have in the Keweenaw Peninsula.

We would be fishing the Walleye opener on a little inland lake here.

This adventure started at 5:30 AM in Mark's garage that is also his own personal bait shop.

- Well, we're in Eagle River, we're gonna go Walleye fishing on some lakes around here and hopefully they're just happy as a lark to see me again after a year or something like that.

This is opening day of Walleye season 2026 in the UP.

- [Jenny] And and what happened last year?

- Last year, I took three young boys out that helped me put this whole garage up and they wanted me to take them fishing.

So I took them fishing opening day and they were catching... We all, I don't know about this year, but last year, all of us casted in and we all had fish on at the same time and they were like, wow, and all of a sudden, we had to start letting them go.

Otherwise we'd be done in 20 minutes.

- [Jenny] So what's yeah, what's the technique out there?

- The technique's gonna be using little lead head jigs.

We're gonna use them and we're gonna hook them through the mouth and out the back of the head and throw them out and let the minnow do the job 'cause they'll be hopefully hungry and, and needed a nice meal.

But yeah, the kids last year, the littlest one, I said, "Man, we must have caught over a hundred Walleyes today."

He goes, "We caught 148."

He was counting every one of them.

- [Jenny] Awesome.

- [Mark] So hopefully we have half that good a day today.

- [Jenny] That would be nice.

- [Mark] Or we'll quit early 'cause it was a tiring day that day.

- [Jenny] Yeah, it's a little breezy out there today.

- [Mark] Yeah, I know.

I'm kind of thinking that the faster we get done, the better it'll be.

- [Jenny] It would end up raining on and off for most of the morning and that kept most of the other Walleye anglers off the lake.

For now, we had this entire place to ourselves, which made it feel even more remote and peaceful than usual.

- I love it up here 'cause it's about as close as to Canada fishing as you're gonna get and not have people in your back pocket either.

And I'm surprised we had one person at the boat launch opening day, that's just amazing.

Downstate, well, you have a mile long wait in Detroit at lines.

- [Jenny] A little different.

- [Mark] And here, it's like you can hear the birds, and you can hear the rain hitting the water, and it's a gloomy day, but I like it.

First cast of the year for me.

And I always keep my rod up like that and I watch my line because a lot of times when I watch my line as it's going down, I'll see and that's my bobber.

Because the fish, when they grab it, the line will jump.

And then by having it up that way, you can tell when it hit the bottom because you can see, it'll just slack right out like that.

Okay, just, just... - Let him go.

- [Mark] Let him go, reach out to him, reach out.

Don't... Okay.

And when you, then when, and just slam it home.

- He's there.

- Slam it home, slam it.

There you go.

- Got him.

(Jenny chuckles) - [Jenny] Nice job, babe.

- [Mark] Right up, just like a bass.

We can keep her, I think.

- [Jenny] What do they have to be here?

- 15.

- Look at this.

- Nice.

- First cast, is it?

- First cast.

- [Mark] Starting right where... - [Jenny] Beauty.

Alright, get them on the board here.

- Yeah, get them on the board.

- [Fisherman] Get it on the board.

- [Mark] Here, right here in my hands.

You can lay it on the belt if you... Ooh, he's close.

- Just under.

- Just under.

- Yeah, next year.

- [Mark] Yep.

- [Matt] He'll be ready to go next year.

- He's swimming with it.

I've gotta let him go a little bit more.

I'm just keeping it just so he can feel me, but not like he, see he's going.

- Yeah.

- There - You got one.

- Yeah.

Yeah, you gotta give him a little bit of time.

This one's gonna be a throwback.

- [Jenny] Nice.

But hey, it's a Walleye.

- Yeah, it's a Walleye.

So... It is kind of, early in the spring year, always cast into shore and you can see the melt all over the tail.

- [Jenny] Oh yeah.

- They're still capable of spawning in here.

So there are females around here (fish splashes) and so that's why they're hanging around on these gravel and rocks and sand in here.

They're looking for the next female that they can complete their task here.

Walleyes, whether they're here in Arkansas or here in Michigan or Montana, they're all gonna be doing same things at certain times of the year.

And that's what you gotta remember up here.

And because it's early, they're up here still spawning.

I might as well go for the easy fish up here.

- [Jenny] Having a blast.

- It's more fun when you got the easy fish.

So we'll put another minnow on and see what happens again.

- [Jenny] Mark doesn't compete in tournaments anymore, but now he's focused on passing on the fishing knowledge he's gained over his lifetime.

- That's where it's at, it's teaching people how to use their electronics, teaching people how to jig like this, teaching people the finer points of techniques.

Everything, everything.

I'm happy that to see Matt, he pays attention real well 'cause he was asking me what they they're gonna do, he's never done this.

He listened to what I had to say and he hooked his first fish, he hooked his second fish, he hooked his third fish.

So to me, that's more important that I can teach that stuff to somebody that's never done it before and watch the smiles on their faces.

And now he's got this the rest of his life.

This isn't something that, oh, you leave here and now you're gonna forget it, no, you can use this in Nevada, wherever.

You can use wherever there's Walleyes and it's this time of year, and sometimes a little bit later in the year there'll be, you can use these light jigs and stuff, but it's usually early in the season technique, on, of course not the Detroit river 'cause it's flowing about six miles an hour.

Oh, there's a good one there man.

There's a good one.

- Oh yeah.

- Another keeper.

- Yeah.

- Nice.

- [Jenny] You got the hang of it, I'd say.

- Yeah, not too bad.

Hey, they're doing all the work.

I'm just holding onto the rod.

- That's funny.

- He's like, "Hey, this is mine."

You earned it buddy, I think you should keep it.

Yep, there we go, go in there with you, buddy.

- If a fish grabs it, you'll see the... You don't have to feel it, you just see it.

They got it in their mouth and they're swimming.

Like sometimes, I can set it right away and catch them, but I know I'm using pretty big minnows that they're not gonna have it in their mouth right away, so I let 'em just keep just a little tension on it, like the minnow's trying to get out of its mouth, and then as he's swimming away, I just lean out.

- [Jenny] Mark boated another nice keeper and pointed out that he had seen a few fish today with the front part of their dorsal fins clipped off.

That typically means that a research team has been here studying these fish.

They take a fin sample for aging and population estimates.

The weather couldn't make up its mind out here today, but the fish were set on eating our minnows.

- [Mark] Are you getting?

- Not too bad.

- Oh yeah.

- Oh yeah.

- [Jenny] Wow, that's a nice one.

- [Matt] Yeah, I'm just gonna bring him up.

- [Mark] Let's do that.

- Ooh, that's a big one.

- Yeah, that's a nice one.

- There we go, good job, Matt, you taught me.

You're my next teacher.

- [Matt] Warm my hands in my pocket.

- You're my new pro staff.

- [Jenny] That's right, he is retired now.

- [Mark] Look at that, oh, that's a good one.

- Nice.

- Best one I've had.

- [Jenny] Oh yeah.

I love their color.

- I don't even think I gotta measure him.

He's gotta be... - [Jenny] Oh yeah, that's a beautiful one.

- 16, 17 incher.

- [Jenny] It was an absolutely perfect opening day of Walleye season here in the Keweenaw Peninsula.

We were treated to a few loon sightings throughout the morning.

And although they're fun to look at, they're no good for fishing as they tend to spook the fish.

We moved a bit to avoid them and got right back into the fish.

- There we go.

- [Jenny] So you're liking this retirement thing, huh?

- This is not bad, I could get used to this.

Thanks, Mark.

- [Jenny] We lost count of the number of fish caught and released, but we stayed until we had our limits here in God's country.

As the rain subsided, the lake got a little busier, at least for UP standards and more folks were out enjoying the first day of Walleye season here in the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Even the parking lot at the boat ramp was full now.

Matt and I had a great day fishing with Mark Martin.

I even put down the camera and caught my limit too, but I couldn't convince either of the guys to stop fishing long enough to be a cameraman.

One of my first summers here at the show, Jimmy and I spent a few days fishing small lakes in the UP with Mark, and I'll never forget that trip.

Over 25 years later, it was great to be here again, fishing with the Walleye pro who doesn't compete anymore, but enjoys fishing maybe even more than ever.

The next morning was an early one as Mark stepped out of his comfort zone to try turkey hunting for the second time in his life.

(gentle music) Mark, good morning.

- Good morning.

- [Jenny] Well, you're a little out of your element here.

- Like a lot.

- [Jenny] Tell me what we're doing.

- Well, we're gonna go turkey hunting, this is my, gonna be my second experience and gonna go with a couple buddies here.

They come and help me with doing things around my house, Marcus and Isaac, and they have a bunch of family and stuff that help me and I take them fishing.

- Yeah, it's pretty early in the morning, but I didn't get much sleep last night.

But we're gonna see if we can find them.

So hopefully if they're not at this spot, we'll have a couple other spots to try.

- [Jenny] All right.

So Isaac, you're gonna be the caller tonight?

- I am, yeah.

- [Jenny] All right.

You've been doing this a while?

- Ever since I was 12, so five or six years.

- [Jenny] Okay, wow, awesome.

- Like I tell people, you surround yourself with people that know what they're doing and you go to the top.

So we're gonna check everything out today.

Get a turkey, my first one, hopefully.

- [Jenny] All right.

- [Mark] And with the help of the experts here, got an expert caller, Isaac and my friend Marcus.

And they put turkeys to bed last night and the night before, and so we'll see if we can wake them up.

(turkeys gobbling) (upbeat music) - We heard a couple gobbles way off in the distance, but I think they went to a yard a little ways away from where we can hunt and had one hen come in, but she wasn't dragging a gobbler with her.

So we're gonna go see if we can find one that's a little more active and wants to work with us a little more.

So get out there and see if we can't find one.

- [Jenny] All right, you guys got some options?

- Yeah, we have like a couple other spots, so hopefully we can, hopefully you find them.

- All right.

- Yeah.

- [Jenny] We followed the guys to the next spot where things got exciting in a hurry.

- So we got a big gobbler over here and there's private land on the left side, so we're gonna try to circle around and pull him back to the next field behind us.

- He's gobbling.

- Oh yeah, yeah.

He's a big old gobbler, so... - Marcus, Isaac and Mark got a game plan together.

The birds were off to the left of the road on the land they didn't have permission to hunt.

They checked the Hunt OnX app to get a quick lay of the land and put together a game plan to set up in a field a hundred yards or so off to the right side of the road where they do have permission to hunt.

We could hear two different gobblers in slightly different areas and hoped to call one over to the decoys.

The guys worked quickly to get set up and start calling before the Toms moved out of earshot.

(gentle music) (turkeys gobbling) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (birds and insects chirping) (rifle fires) - [Jenny] Again, again, again, again.

(rifle fires) - Yeah!

- Nice.

- [Hunter] Yeah!

(Jenny cheers) - Let's go.

- I aimed a little too much.

- You got him.

- Thanks guys.

- [Jenny] Holy smoke.

- That's the way turkey hunting's supposed to be.

- Nice job, guys.

- Good job, guys.

- Yeah, good job.

- I can't believe that for... - [Jenny] Is your heart pounding?

- Yeah, I put it too much, perfect.

And I think I shot over the top of it by doing that.

- [Jenny] Nice second shadow.

- So this is- - Let's see your hand.

Is it shaking?

Let me see.

(hunters laughing) - [Jenny] Do you wanna go see him?

- First turkey, guys.

- With all the rain we had the day before, the fields were soggy and the ditches were full of water.

Mark's bird had made its way down into a ditch, got soaked and then flopped its way out of the puddle before coming to a stop.

Wet bird or not, Mark was looking at his very first turkey harvest.

He's tagged many white tails over the years, but never a gobbler.

- Nice.

- Let's check him out.

- Yeah.

- This is decent beard.

- [Jenny] Yeah, how long do you think that is?

- [Marcus] Probably eight and a half.

That's at least eight probably.

- Nice.

- Yeah.

- Well, cool.

- Yeah.

- Cool all.

- Good spurs.

- That's awesome.

- What do you think, Mark?

- I think that was cool.

I liked listening to these guys call and work the bird and find them when we were driving in and seeing them and well, we'll call them back across.

Okay.

And we come over here, set up and I could hear them doing something over there.

Then you called and then they... - [Jenny] Yeah.

- They got the direction.

- It was like three minutes you came in.

- [Jenny] Yeah, tell me from your perspective, what happened from the time we got out of the truck.

- Well, as we were driving up this road here, I could see, I seen a gobbler kind of just right on the edge of this woods.

And he had a couple hens with him, so I wasn't sure if we were gonna be able to pull him or not, but we came in here and got set up probably 7,500 yards away from him in this little, this kind of little trail that comes out here.

And I was hoping he would come out to that trail and come out or something, and he actually just came right through the woods and was full strut and just beautiful bird and came right out perfect for us and made a good shot on him.

- [Jenny] Yeah.

- Can't be done with nicer people, you know?

That's what it is, it's camaraderie, everybody working together and... - [Marcus] Yeah, it's a lot of fun.

- Oh man.

Yeah, it is a pretty good sized bird.

- [Jenny] As Mark tagged his very first turkey, he reminisced about his only other time turkey hunting.

As the story goes, he and Bob Garner hunted together 40 years ago on May 4th, 1986.

Bob was guiding and running the camera and things were looking good right up until they weren't.

Mark got home and called Bob with the good news.

Let's see if he answers.

Does he still take your calls?

- We'll find out if he takes my calls.

(Jenny and Mark laugh) We'll find out.

- [Bob] Hello.

- Hey Bob, this is Mark Martin, how are you doing today?

- Mark Martin?

- Yeah.

- Nice.

- Blast from the- - [Bob] Nice, you must be up to your neck in Walleyes, huh?

- Well, we were yesterday.

- Were you?

- Oh yeah, we caught a pile of 'em, the three of us.

We got our limit, let's put it that way, and threw back probably 25 or 30.

- [Bob] Oh, really?

Up in the upper?

- Yeah, up here in the upper peninsula, yeah.

- Whoa.

- It's kinda nice.

- [Bob] Nice, nice, how you doing?

- Well good, even I had to call you because the only other time that I ever tried turkey hunting is you invited me to go one time with you and you set me up and started calling a Tom turkey in and started coming right at me and a truck come down the road, stopped at the corners just where we were hunting and got out and started making the calls and it turned around, went the other way.

And you said, "Well, I guess we tried."

And off we went, and that was my last turkey hunt.

It was a fun time, but today I got my turkey.

- You got a turkey?

- Yeah, I got a turkey today.

You know, my first.

- You got a UPer turkey?

- A UPer turkey, yeah.

It was a great time, had all my friends with me, had Jenny with me, so it was a memorable experience.

- [Jenny] Congratulations to Mark Martin for being fearless enough to step out of his comfort zone and into the turkey woods for a memorable morning here in the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Thank you so much for joining us this week for Michigan Out of Doors.

Make sure you check us out in upcoming weeks, lots of great summertime action headed your way.

If you'd like to see us on a more daily basis or maybe even interact with us, there's a couple of different ways you can do that.

Our website is Michiganoutofdoorstv.com, and we're on all the social media platforms, @MichiganOutOfDoorsTV.

If we don't see you in the woods or on the water, we'll see you right back here next week for Michigan Out of Doors.

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(upbeat music)