- Hello everybody.

Welcome to Michigan Out Of Doors.

I am Jenny Ciolek and we have a brand new show headed your way.

This week we are gonna introduce you to a group of ladies who's trying out duck hunting for the very first time.

They're learning all of the ins and outs of that wonderful sport.

They'll also do a little pheasant hunting and some clay shooting along the way.

We're gonna introduce you to them along with the great group of volunteers who made that day happen.

You won't wanna miss that story.

And we've got some other hunting adventures for you this week.

- Well, that's right, we do have another hunting adventure on this week's show.

A couple of weeks back we saw Jenny's opening day.

Last week we saw my opening day.

And so on this week's show, we're gonna see what Jordan Brown was up to for the first few days of the firearm deer season.

Lots of brand new stuff on this week's show.

You stay tuned.

I'm Jimmy Gretzinger and it's time for Michigan Out Of Doors.

♪ From the first spring rains ♪ To the soft summer breeze ♪ Dancing on the pine forest floor ♪ ♪ The autumn colors catch your eyes ♪ ♪ Here come the crystal winter skies ♪ ♪ It's Michigan, Michigan Out Of Doors ♪ - [Participant] What a beautiful day in the woods.

♪ Someday our children all we'll see ♪ ♪ This is their finest legacy ♪ The wonder around the love of Michigan ♪ ♪ As the wind comes whispering through the trees ♪ ♪ The sweet smell of nature's in the air ♪ ♪ From the Great Lakes to the quiet stream ♪ ♪ Shining like a sportsman's dream ♪ ♪ It's a love of Michigan ♪ We all share - [Jenny] Michigan Out Of Doors is presented by, by Country Smoke House, a sportsman's destination since 1988, featuring varieties of homemade sausage, jerky, brats, and gourmet entrees.

Holiday gift boxes can be assembled in store or online.

Details at countrysmokehouse.com By DR Trailer Sales, from job sites to weekend adventures, we've got you covered.

With locations in Milan and White Pigeon Michigan.

We carry PJ, Big Techs, Diamond C and more.

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(machine clanks) - [Jimmy] At Boss Shot Shells we make all our shot shells right here in Michigan and deliver them direct to your door.

(upbeat music & whistling) Jay's Sporting Goods, trust the tradition.

(bright music) - We've been doing this for about, I would say 10 to 12 years.

Waterfall, USA is a local chapter there.

We do annual fundraisers and the money that we raise stays local and we do youth hunts every year and we introduce six ladies every year into waterfall hunting.

Every lady you'll see that they get a jacket, decoys, calls, all that stuff.

It's perfect for what they need to start waterfall hunting.

And the best thing is, you know, the women really, really think about what they need to learn and how they learn.

They're very adaptive at learning and they're just laid back, wanna learn.

It's just a awesome day for us.

All of us look forward to this here at Baycreek Hunt Club.

And we welcome people come in.

If people want to sign up, they gotta get ahold of me in April.

We fill up fast.

Six spots is all we have available.

- I'm Ann Le Claire and today I am your sous chef.

- [Interviewer] And Ann, you were part of one of these hunts years ago.

- I was, I was.

We've figured out about 10 years ago, I can't believe I've been hunting that long.

Had a great time on hunt and learned a ton and that day, just pure luck, I've never done it since, I shot a double that day.

That was really, really fun, out of a boat.

- So basically when they show up, we do introductions and then we hand out all the goodies.

Every lady got a jacket and decoys and we call them Mr.

T Startup Kit and then we talk about duck calling 101.

We talk about a little bit of goose calling cuz it's a little more difficult to teach in that short period of time.

We go through decoy placement, different types of tools that you can have for waterfall hunting, that kind of stuff.

And then we go, Jeff Frost does a great job on doing firearm safety, introduction to firearms, and talking about safety of guns and all that.

And then we go through a trap shooting and we allow 'em shoot trap and continue to shoot trap.

And then Waterfowl USA provides lunch and we had a great lunch thanks to Ann and Pat for cooking for us.

They did a great job.

And then after lunch we'd go out with two ladies.

We put out six pheasants and allow each lady has a mentor behind him and a dog handler.

Todd Berger has great dogs.

He's a dog trainer.

He does a great job with people and new people into introducing them to pheasant hunting or waterfowl world.

And after that, when we go out and set more birds for the next set of ladies and then the third set and then right after that we head out to the marsh and set decoys and spinners and talk about decoys set up and placement.

- [Jenny] The volunteers who were helping out for today's event were members of the local Waterfowl USA chapter and some members of the Bay Creek Hunting Club here.

- Yeah, the Bay Creek Hunt Club was established in 1975.

We just celebrated our 50th anniversary, which is a, you know, tremendous accomplishment, you know, thankful for the original members that started this club and a lot of the new members we just came in, six or seven of us just joined about 10 years ago.

So it's a tremendous opportunity to come down and just enjoy the great outdoors Michigan has to offer.

With 330 acres here we deer hunt, we pheasant hunt.

You know, we have shooting preserve license for pheasants, rabbit hunt and especially duck and goose hunting.

Duck hunting is our number one priority here, but there's a lot of other added benefits from the great habitat that we have here.

- [Jenny] The ladies were learning so many valuable hands-on lessons here today, including how to pluck and breast out a duck, which they'd be eating as a lunch appetizer after shooting.

- This is an unloaded gun.

I treat this gun like it is loaded all the time.

So regardless of whether I have a shell in the chamber or not, this gun is never pointed in an unsafe direction.

(shot fires) (all cheer) (all laugh) - Good job.

Pull.

(shot fires) Pull.

(shot fires) - Okay, beautiful.

- [Jenny] The ladies were all warmed up on their shooting skills and headed in for lunch where they were treated to a surprise guest, two times Senior World duck calling champion Charles Petty was here on a visit from the duck hunting epicenter of Arkansas where he lives.

Charles gave a quick demonstration on some more complex calling and answered questions before lunch was served.

Anne and Pat had whipped up an impressive spread for lunch, including venison burgers, brats and all the fixins.

Joe grilled up the duck breast for the ladies to try and it was a hit.

With everyone well fed and geared up, it was time to hit the pheasant fields.

The Hunt Club here has a pheasant shooting preserve license, which allows them to purchase pheasants and plant them to hunt.

- So, you know, they sign up early on and throughout email exchange and phone calls, there's a lot of questions that go on.

We tell 'em what proper license they need.

If they need to borrow waders, they need to borrow a shotgun, Waterfight USA supplies all the shotgun shells, we supply the decoy, supply the guides, supply the ducks for pheasant hunting.

You know, we're fortunate we got a great partnership with the Path Foundation that they give us money towards the pheasants to purchase the pheasants for the ladies.

We started that a few years ago.

Every year we sit down with the ladies at the end of the hunt and they say, Hey, how can we improve this?

How can we make it better?

And it was a slow day of duck hunting and they're like, yeah, it'd be nice to shoot us some.

So what we did is we bought, we started purchasing Pheasants and Path Foundation was very gracious at donating money towards those pheasants.

Get ready, get ready, get ready, get ready!

(shot fired) Good job!

Nice shot.

- Woo!

(bright music) - Awesome.

- Yeah.

(shooter laughs) So what's really nice about this program that we, you know, we started 10, 12 years ago, I can't remember what year we started it, but it seems like the women feel relaxed, they ask questions, it's a safe environment.

They're hunting with other ladies, which is very important.

They just enjoy it.

There's no pressure on 'em.

We just want 'em come out and have a good time, learn how to duck hunt.

- We have shot some clays, pheasant hunting, ate some amazing duck and now we're getting ready to duck hunt.

- [Jenny] All right.

- Wish us luck.

- Well, we're getting ready to head out to basically it's a hemi marsh, cattails and moist soil plants for ducks.

And we have Trista and we have Rachel and Denise and then we have the world champion.

- [Mr.

Petty] Oh no.

- Mr.

Petty.

So we ought to be guaranteed ducks tonight.

- No, an old friend of mine, Bob Gardner said one time they asked him, they said Buck, you're world champion, you're a champion of champions.

Said, why in the world couldn't you get those ducks in today?

He said, well, tell me if you see a judge flying over and I'm guaranteed to get him in.

So we love what we do, but sometimes those ducks has got a different idea.

- [Participant] We broke up into two groups for the duck hunt.

Kathy and Don would be hunting together with their volunteer guides and Trista, Rachel and Denise would join Joe, Jeff and Charles in a blind.

- What's really cool is in past years, all these ladies get together and they form a Facebook page and they start talking and sharing stories and then you see the stories of them duck hunting or goose hunting together later on and that's what it's about, getting 'em interested and just continuing on the tradition of waterfall hunting here in Michigan.

We do a lot of Turkey hunting, some deer hunting, but waterfall hunting it's more difficult to get into and that not a lot of people have a place like this here where people can come in, the ladies can come in and have an easy access, easy hunt, you know, they're easy to get to.

Waterfall hunting, you know, it's a difficult sport to get into because of decoy and calls and spinners and you know, everything that people think you need to have to be successful.

But if you just have a basic setup, you can go hunt like a backwater pond at a state game area, that kind of stuff.

But you know, they don't feel comfortable until they go through this process and program of learning how to do it.

And they get a lot more comfortable than they feel like, hey, I can go out and try this on my own.

I can go out with my husband or I can teach him or their best friend and that's really cool.

(duck call sounds) - We had a great night.

It's, you know, the ducks are been here for a while, but we did see a lot of ducks from the time we got out there until the time it ended and they were successful in shooting ducks and shooting at ducks, so that's what it's about.

It's, you know, you've seen all the excitement in the ladies today and you know, being a gentleman that's been hunting for, you know, 30 something years, 40 years, you know, you're always like, oh we gotta shoot ducks, we gotta shoot ducks, we gotta shoot pheasant.

No, it's about the experience.

It's about teaching them and about teaching the importance of conservation and hunters being a conservationist and how they spend money and that's what supports conservation here in Michigan and a lot of other states throughout the country, but it's just interesting to see their excitement and how they wanna learn and that's what it's all about and they shot pheasants and ducks, so that's an added bonus.

(duck call) (shots fire) - Woo!

Ladies!

(lady chuckles) - Good work.

What was the first one?

- Nice dog.

That's a beautiful drink.

- Yeah, it is a beauty.

- [Participant] Was that the first one or second one?

- That was the first one.

- All right, good shot.

- First time.

First duck.

First time.

Yep, first time ever.

Beautiful.

And he's a beauty.

Perfect.

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

Nice shooting.

That was so perfect.

- This is awesome.

Look how pretty.

- Amazing.

- [Jenny] You guys tag teamed that one?

- Yeah.

- I think so.

- I think so.

- [Jenny] You've shot ducks before, right?

- Yep, once, yeah.

- [Jenny] Okay, have you?

- Once for me.

- [Jenny] Okay, cool.

(duck call) - [Participant] Get ready, get ready.

Shoot 'em, shoot 'em.

Get it.

- [Jenny] What do you ladies think so far of this day?

- It's amazing.

I wanna do this every year.

- It's been so fun.

Yeah, just a great day.

Good to get outside, meet new people, shoot the guns, go after some birds.

It's been a riot.

- Amazing, yes.

- [Jenny] And that's what events like this are all about.

Introducing women to the details of hunting and shooting sports in a fun judgment free atmosphere where they can learn, laugh, and maybe even drop a few birds from the sky.

Thank you to Joe Robinson, Waterfowl USA, Bay Creek Hunting Club, and all of the volunteers who are helping to pass along this time honored heritage here in Michigan's Out Of Doors.

- For our next segment on this week's show, I was over on the west side of the state to tag along with a group of hunters for the opening day of the firearm deer season here in Michigan.

And one of the coolest spots you're ever gonna find for a deer camp.

(bright music) Deer Camp is a special place no matter where it's located, but this camp just happened to be situated on a beautiful stretch of the Muskegon River, making it an incredible spot to set up camp.

- We're in Croton, Michigan.

We're about an hour north of Grand Rapids.

We're on the family property, the Lawson family property.

We got about half a mile of frontage on the Muskegon River and this is where we put our camp, our camp, we just camp in tents and do our deer camp.

We take our stroll up the hill in the morning and sit in our shack out in the woods.

- [Jimmy] And tell me who we brought, who do we have here in camp and who's hunting in the morning?

- Yeah, I got my buddy Greg's here and my other friend Brian is here and then I got my 10-year-old son Marshall, he's here.

Marshall usually takes all the bacon at camp, so we're gonna see if he's gonna keep his reputation.

- [Jimmy] Cool and then tell me about what do we got going on here for dinner?

What's the plans there and where are we headed in the morning?

- Tonight the main course we go big with the main course and we go super simple with side courses.

So we're doing Tomahawk steaks with french fries and in the morning we're gonna get up, we got some bacon and sausage and eggs, then we're gonna have our coffee and then we will probably jump in the side by side, we'll go up the hill and we'll make our way to the blind and do some hunting.

- Well I stopped and grab a couple steaks for dinner.

We got three Tomahawks for the adults and then grabbed little Marshall a little Cowboy steak.

- [Jimmy] And cooking over the fire?

- Yeah, we're gonna season these up, cook 'em right over the fire.

(steak sizzles) - Steaks cooked over an open fire on the banks of the Muskegon River was worth the drive in itself.

Like many around the state, this deer camp is about a lot more than just hunting.

And those other aspects of camp are a big reason why this tradition got started in the first place.

- We never had deer camp when I was a kid.

Yeah, my dad hunted and some other families hunted, but we never had a tradition deer camp.

And I remember as a kid and seeing other people and watching, you know, Michigan Out Of Doors and seeing that there's people that do this every year and it's very important to their family to have a deer camp and do deer camp.

I've always wanted one.

So this is our first deer camp.

We just started a few years ago and we keep it real small and whoever wants to come can come, but it's mine and Slim's deer camp and I just kind of wanted him to have that experience.

I've always wanted it, but we never did that when I was a kid.

So I want start something now and then maybe one day we'll have grandkids at hunting camp.

It seems to be a tradition that's kind of fading away a little bit.

(bright music) - I think we're gonna be ready soon.

We're gotta have breakfast and then I think we're gonna head out.

- [Marshall's Father] Feeling like we got a good chance this morning?

- Yeah and I feel like we're going to get some stuff, but yeah.

- [Marshall's Father] Perfect.

- I think we're all ready.

- How I got into deer hunting was obviously most typical answer is just my dad, you know, my dad was a hunter and my grandpa was a hunter and when he took me hunting and I did hunting when I was a kid, then I just found a love for it.

And I remember shooting my first deer, I remember shooting my first buck and it was just great feelings and I've always loved it and I never really kind of forced my son onto hunting, but as soon as he showed an interest I grabbed that by the horns and just kind of took off with it and he's already out hunting me.

(bright music) - We haven't seen anything yet.

This morning we got out, didn't hear anything and after we got all set up we had everything and we just haven't seen anything and we haven't been really finding anything.

We've only been like seeing squirrels or hearing leaves.

- [Marshall's Father] Do you still like deer hunting?

- [Marshall] Yeah.

- Oh, right there.

All right, straight out ahead of us moving across.

- [Participant] Going which way?

- Going right the left.

Do you see it?

A little buck was it chasing something?

It could have been chasing something.

Oh, I still see it, but I can't tell if it's the same one I seen or if I'm seeing what it's chasing.

Well those two deer would be the only deer we would see all morning.

And after a few hours in the blind we headed back for breakfast.

(eggs sizzle) I like to eat pretty good.

I think most hunters would agree that time spent in and around camp is just as important as success in the field.

And although the hunting was slow opening morning, spirits were high around camp.

We decided to take a break during the middle of the day, so I ran over to the Howard City Buck Pool to see how other hunters were doing in the area.

(bright music) - We are in Howard City, Michigan.

We started this about nine years ago, 2016, and we actually now have more sponsors than deer that are usually hanging.

So the community gets super involved.

- Well, we just thought it would be a good thing to bring the community together there and the kids get involved.

So we kind of the employees at the store and some of the other businesses that they would like to see us get together, so we just kind of grouped together and made it work and things have progressed there.

- It keeps growing and we need more hands on deck.

The Parks and Rec, the village of Howard City's Parks and Rec Committee has now taken it over so we have them to back us.

I sit on the Parks and Rec, so the ladies and I put it together, but now we are seeing like we need some manpower on board.

You know, it's growing.

A couple years ago we had up to 50 deer, so we had to have 'em laying down on the ground, which is great.

We love it, you know, so yeah- - [Participant] Well we can always use help.

- [Narrator] A warm opening day led to fewer deer on the buck pole, but I was able to catch up with the hunter who had tagged the biggest buck on the pole and hear his story.

- Well we believe we've seen him around a little bit, hanging out in some fields and sitting out there this morning, I just gave a little grunt and probably about quarter after seven in the morning a little doe started kind of walking through and I could just barely see her above the weeds were just above her.

And so I was glassing her and all of a sudden she just turned her head just a little bit over her shoulder and he literally 60 yards from me underneath the pine tree just stood up.

- [Interviewer] He was there the whole time.

- Yeah.

- [Interviewer] Wow.

- And I, you know, I walked in, I wasn't quiet and then he- I'm trying to think.

I glassed him and I was watching him come in and I had no shot until he got to a certain spot and there was just a little bit of an opening and when he got into that I touched it off and he did the old jump kick and probably went about 30, 40 yards and he just tumbled right into a peep.

- [Interviewer] Biggest buck ever?

You shoot bucks like this every year?

What's the story?

- I shot one, I shot a nine point back in 2008, 2009.

Probably just as big a bodied.

Rack is very similar, just not as, not as prominent as this one.

(bright music) - After spending a few hours at the Buck Pole, I headed back to camp for the evening hunt where unfortunately the result was about the same.

A windy and warm night seemed to slow the deer movement and we once again left the blind with no shots fired.

However, the next morning after I'd hit the road, Marshall was able to fill a doe tag and put some meat in the freezer.

This year was a good reminder that there's a lot more that goes into deer hunting than just filling a tag.

And even though the hunting was slow, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in camp.

Special thanks to Gary, Marshall, and the rest of the crew for letting me tag along on a fun couple of days here in West Michigan.

(bright music) - Thank you so much for joining us this week for Michigan Out Of Doors.

Make sure you come back in upcoming weeks.

We've got a lot of great things headed your way.

We'll check out a late season pheasant hunt, try to get you on some good ice for ice fishing, and we'll check out the winter elk season.

If you'd like to see where we are and what we're up to, you can always do that online.

- Well, that's right, online is a good way to see what we're up to on a day-to-day basis.

Probably Instagram and Facebook are the best two ways to do that.

But you can also check us out at Michiganoutofdoorstv.com.

We have full episodes of the show there, as well as our store there.

You can see some of our new merchandise that we've got for this year.

Lots of good stuff happening over the next several weeks.

Get out and enjoy everything our state has to offer and if we don't see it in the woods or on the water, hopefully we'll see you right back here next week on your PBS station.

- [Jenny] Michigan Out Of Doors is presented by- - [Narrator] Get away from it all to your own place (water splashes) with GreenStone's Recreational Land Loans, we'll help you finance acreage of any size so you can own your own place in the Great Outdoors.

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- [Jenny] By Great Lakes Firearms and Ammunition, a family owned and operated firearm manufacturer in Sparta, Michigan, offering a wide variety of calibers and colors backed by lifetime warranty.

More information available at GLFALLC.com.

By SAAB, providing defense and civil security products and services for over 85 years and now part of the Grayling community.

With our new advanced munitions facility, career opportunities are available.

More information as saabinc.com.

By Show Span, producing consumer shows, including the Ultimate Fishing Show Detroit, January 8th through 11th at Novi Suburban Collection Show Place.

The show features, fishing tackle, trips, boats, and seminars from top pros, the Ultimate Fishing Show, Novi.

Closed Captioning brought to you by Double D Ranch Foundation, a non-profit 501C3 foundation working to make hunting and fishing accessible for those with disabilities.

(bright music)