- Hello, everyone.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

I'm Jenny Ciolek, and we've got a fun show headed your way this week.

I'll take you out for some good old-fashioned perch fishing in the northeast part of the Lower Peninsula on Grand Lake.

You won't want to miss that story.

We had a blast out there that day.

And we've got some other summertime fun headed your way this week too.

- Well, that's right, Jenny.

We do have a couple more things on this week's show.

After we do that perch fishing, we're going to show you some really good food plot tips since a lot of people are putting food plots in right now for the upcoming hunting seasons.

We'll have that as well as a bragging board.

And we do have a shortened show this week because our PBS stations are in pledge.

So pledge early and pledge often.

I'm Jimmy Gretzinger.

It's time for "Michigan Out of Doors."

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(dramatic music) (gun fires) (energetic music) - We are up here in Northeast Michigan on Grand Lake.

We're going to go out and look for some perch.

Perch bite's actually really good.

It's very good typically, but it's a lot of sorting.

There's a lot of walleyes around.

We're going to do some slip bobber for walleyes and kind of see what happens.

It's kind of windy and we had some other plans, but we're going to turn today into a good day and go out and catch some fish.

- [Jenny] Joining Captain Erich today were his fishing buddy, Lowell Colleen, and my husband, Matt, and we'd be using a borrowed boat.

- [Erich] Yeah, my boat is currently getting a new motor, so it should be done very soon.

So fortunately this just worked out.

Got a very good friend that loaned me his boat.

You know, it's awesome to have good friends that take care of you when you need it, right?

So yeah, got this Warrior tiller with a 175 on it, things fully loaded.

Thing's pretty awesome.

So it's just a beautiful lake.

A lot of structure.

Islands all over the place.

Weed beds.

It's very good fishing.

It's not, you know, size-wise, the fish aren't huge, but it produces a lot of perch, a lot of quality perch, just, you know, not giants, but great, you know, recreational lake.

People come up here from really all over the country.

I see people from everywhere, like, especially Ohio, that state down below us.

But yeah, it's awesome.

It's one of my favorite inland lakes.

You know, I fish a lot on the inland lakes around here, but Grand Lake's definitely one of my favorite places to go, so.

- [Jenny] What do you look for to fish this way?

- [Erich] So, it depends.

Like, when we're targeting perch, the perch fish is just starting to take off right now.

We're first part of August, you know?

Mid-August to late August, things start to really happen, and then right on through the fall.

But right now, we're looking at, you know, cabbage edges.

We're trying to find those transitions where you got, because some of those cabbage edges are really thick, so we're trying to find that edge where it kind of just gets a little thinner.

And we've got the right sonar to mark those fish, so we're going to be moving around until we find them.

A lot of times you go up in the reeds, you know, where you got good gravel and those fish are in there too.

So it just kind of depends.

We're going to, we just, I look until I find them.

You know, if you're not on fish, you're not going to catch fish.

So you just got to keep moving.

And I've got several locations that I go to typically.

And, you know, I think we can find some fish here.

So the last couple years, about two years ago, we noticed during ice season that we were catching just ridiculous amounts of like five- and six-inch, seven-inch walleyes.

And they've had a couple of really, really good recruitment years, and there's just a pile of young walleyes in here that are sub-legal.

I don't know that they're going to be legal even this winter, but I think next summer we're going to see a lot of those fish hit that 15-inch mark.

But we caught a pile of them today.

We were catching doubles on perch rigs.

It was really cool, so it's awesome to see.

And you know, we were able to safely release all those, you know, and that's one thing I know a lot of people are worried about.

They're catching a lot of these small walleyes.

You just got to, you know, if you're catching them and they're getting that hook deep in their throat, up your hook size because we don't want to be killing all those future fish.

So I think that's a simple thing that we can do to kind of make sure that we're being responsible and getting those fish to be legal size and everybody can enjoy them.

- [Jenny] Erich says Grand Lake isn't a super deep lake, but it holds a good number of fish.

- There's some areas that are over 20 foot, but a lot of water in the 10 to 15 foot range.

That's probably what we'll be targeting today.

Like I said, lots of structure.

It's a pretty interesting lake and it doesn't tend to be, you know, overly crowded too.

So it makes it kind of nice.

You know, we're tucked up away here.

It's not super easy to get to.

So ice fishing, that's a different story, but.

Excellent, one nice keeper and one little throwback.

That's what we're looking for right there.

Perfect, perfect, perfect inland perch, you know?

Nine and a half inches or so.

This one goes back.

That one goes in the box.

- [Jenny] The guys were having a blast here on Grand Lake and getting into a few nice perch for dinner.

We seem to have the entire lake to ourselves, and we're finding a few pods of those young walleyes mixed in with the perch, which made for a fun time.

- Feels like another small walleye or two.

(group laughs) It's a little ridiculous, isn't it?

Kind of cool really, but it's... - [Speaker] He should be fighting.

- [Erich] Wow.

There he goes.

Matt's got one.

- Little walleye.

- [Jenny] Yeah.

You found him.

- It's the future.

It's the future.

- Those fish will be legal next year, so.

- [Fisher] Really?

- Yeah.

- [Fisher] Was it a 15 or?

- Yeah, yeah.

- [Jenny] This is fun.

- It's cool.

It's really neat to see, like I said before, it's really neat to see all these small walleyes in here.

Not a lot of places you see that kind of reproduction.

Grand Lake hasn't been planted.

So it's like, you know, was it a couple years ago when we were ice fishing, we started seeing all these five, six-inch walleyes.

It was crazy and- - [Jenny] They're growing up.

- Yeah, they're growing up, so.

- [Jenny] After a bit of using the sonar to locate the fish, the guys turned it off and went back to the basics and fished without it, which freed up Lowell to catch some fish.

Beautiful.

They finally let you fish, huh?

- Yeah.

- [Jenny] You've probably noticed the wind noise coming through on the audio as it was cranking at a steady 20 miles an hour, which forced us to improvise today.

- [Erich] We had kind of planned to come out and actually, we were planning to go lake trout fishing today, but we had some really, really heavy duty north winds and decided to fish on Grand Lake and go after some perch and walleyes.

And turned into more of a perch kind of a deal.

But, you know, we were hopping around in different cabbage beds and some small rocky humps and found a lot of perch and went through quite a few fish.

Ended up, I think we have 32 nice keeper eater perch, you know, between 8 and 10 inches.

And it was just a gorgeous day.

So, you know, you can take what you want.

A lot of people keep those smaller fish, and there's nothing wrong with that.

But just be wary of, you know, what you're taking out of the lake and be responsible.

- [Jenny] You may remember Captain Erich Carlson from a couple of stories we did with him last year.

He took us jigging for lake trout on Lake Huron out of Alpena, and we featured his wildlife artistry here on the show too.

Erich recently retired from his career as an art teacher and has more time for his charter fishing business and tournament fishing.

He and his team recently won the Michigan Walleye Tour out of Alpena and placed in the top 25 in the country in a national tournament in Sault Ste.

Marie.

- Just like that.

That one kind of sideswiped it right there, that little guy.

But that other one, we'll take that.

Spot-Lock that, would you?

Nice eater right there.

- [Jenny] You're fishing for about 30 seconds, I think.

- Yeah, literally.

Yeah, that was great.

We'll take that, aye?

- [Jenny] Yeah.

- Absolutely.

- [Jenny] Getting a little mess in the live well.

- Yeah, starting to.

Got a nice perch dinner going on there.

One really nice blue gill in there.

Yeah, absolutely.

Lots and lots of people fish the old school way, and sometimes, you know, it takes you back and just makes you appreciate all the technology that we have now.

And you just, you understand that.

You know, you got to get out there and do it and find them and learn to figure out what you're looking at and learn the fish patterns and, you know, where they live in each individual lake and approach it that way.

So that's what we're doing.

We're having a blast.

- [Jenny] You're having fun.

- I'm having fun.

It's just been an awesome day, so.

- [Jenny] Hey.

Holy moly.

- Nice perch, sitting here eating a pretzel.

- [Jenny] That's a good look.

- And catching a nice, beautiful perch.

Just an awesome day.

It turned into a beautiful day.

It was windy, but we made the best of it.

Like, that's what you got to do, you know?

I love being outdoors.

It beats sitting in the house, and nothing I'd rather be doing, to be honest with you, so.

- [Jenny] Erich sure loves fishing.

Whether it's taking a few friends out for a day of perch fishing, guiding clients on the big water, or competing in national tournaments.

No matter the body of water or the targeted species, it's his passion for the sport that he loves to share with others right here in Michigan's out of doors.

- Well, that perch fishing around the state is a very popular thing this time of the year.

Something else that's pretty popular is putting food plots in the ground, getting ready for the upcoming deer season.

We though we'd sit down with an expert and learn a little bit more about what you can do to make that process a little easier.

(gentle music) Well, hey, everybody, we are here once again with Justin Morgan, food plot guru.

Now we were here, what, two months ago-ish?

And explain what we were doing there.

That was an existing plot, and we did what to that spot?

- Yeah, so that was the existing plot I had.

It was a clover plot, you know, in the springtime.

I like to feed the clovers, you know, what we talked about last time.

Really addressing the minerals and stuff on that side of it.

But today we're looking at a brand new food plot.

- Okay, and so you had to do quite a bit of clearing here.

How big is this space?

And kind of what'd you have to do to get it to where we're at today?

- Yep, yeah, if you look around, you see all like this thick, kind of brushy environment we're in now.

There was some open pockets, and then we took the brush hog and we brush hogged it down.

Now, the reason is the deer are funneling through here, and we though instead of finding a food plot that may be open, we'll create an open spot with the brush hog.

- Okay, and so first steps on something like this.

Now you did do a soil sample kind of get an idea.

How important is that, and what does that mean as you attack this to get some food plot stuff in here?

- Yeah.

Without knowing our soil, even though, you know, I've kind of walked on this dirt for a long time, it's really hard to dive into what the soil is without a soil sample.

We did pull a soil sample.

It come back.

The pH is low on it, which is normal for Michigan soils.

Nothing surprising.

So after we looked at the soil sample, we said, okay, this area that we're looking at, the entire area is about three-quarters an acre.

You know, there's 43,560 square feet in an acre.

This is around 36,000 square feet.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

- Because I'm doing brassica, the Food Plot Doo, the A44, is designed for like a brassica plot.

brassicas like that higher nitrogen.

So when we put that Food Plot Doo in there that has Dairy Doo in there, we put humates from North Dakota in there.

So, again, building this organic matter is important because when we do get rain, we want to make sure we use that as like little sponges so it sucks that water in.

And then when our plants grow and our roots need that water, it releases it for our brassica plot during the summer months.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

And so we'll spread what?

We're going to do the lime first?

Is that- - Yep.

We'll put the lime on, we'll spread that, and then we'll come in with the Food Plot Doo.

Every bag of Food Plot Doo does 3,000 square feet.

So then we'll put that on here.

And then I'll have my main helper that does all my food plots with me, my grandpa.

- Now is he for rent?

Can I hire him on?

- No, he's only mine.

Like, I don't share him.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

See, he runs the tractor for me.

He'll be rotatilling it.

I like to make sure that when we put the fertilizer and the lime on, I can mix it in with the soil.

- [Jimmy] Because this is still pretty, not wooded, but there's a lot of stuff on here.

That's okay?

- [Justin] Yeah, yep.

So what we'll do is we'll rototill that in, that stuff, that vetch, that grasses and stuff.

And you'll even see some sticks and stuff on top.

I'm not too worried about that.

As we rototill that in, over years, that will break down.

The grasses will break down quickly, and actual kind of, like a straw mat on top, so it'll help hold water once we get rain, so I don't get too hung up on that.

So once we rototill that in then we will put the seed down after that.

- [Jimmy] Okay, and then once you see how this year goes, so we get into the hunting season.

Now, do you do another soil sample later in the year, again next year to see like if this doesn't go exactly as you hope it does, do you do another soil sample or?

- [Justin] Yeah, by next year, if I see I'm like, "Man, I just struggled a little bit on spaces," then I'll do another soil sample.

And I'll really start diving in a little bit more with my agronomists, and we'll start doing this.

We do this across the board for farmers all the time.

We cover over 400,000 acres of farm brand land in Michigan.

So that's where that really stems back to the soil sample.

And then we start, you know, really diving into the deficiencies in your soil because yours are different than mine, right?

- [Jimmy] Now, when you take the soil sample, you do from several spots, because you have another food plot that's, you said, what, quarter mile?

- [Justin] Yeah.

- [Jimmy] A couple hundred yards from here?

- [Justin] Yep.

- [Jimmy] And that soil sample was different than this one, correct?

- [Justin] Correct, yeah.

So that's grandpa's spot.

We've been working on that for the last couple years, and we've taken that pH from like under six.

And now we're at a high six, even at a seven right now.

So we don't need any more lime there.

So now I've got a balance.

And that's the nice thing with our products.

Once you get this balance, this engine running, it really is just kind of a maintenance program, and you can get that organic matter built up and the biology and that really starts helping us feed this crop.

(country music) (tractor rumbling) - [Jimmy] So it seems like, maybe talk to the person out there that they're watching this and they're like, "Gosh, this seems like a ton of work and a ton of gear that I got to get.

And do I rent it?

Do I do it?"

But this can be a lot of fun too, right?

- Yeah, you know, grandpa and I, my dad, my uncle, our buddy, you know, we all get together and have fun with that.

You know, things that you do that are successful, they're a lot more fun.

You know, and that's one thing we do, you know, at Morgans here.

We want to make sure you get the right fertility out of the gates.

Then after that, as it grows and you're having fun and you're out there, and we mentioned off camera, Jimmy, about, you know, guys really enjoy just riding around a tractor.

- A tractor.

I mean, I think some guys like it as much as the hunting time.

- Yeah, yeah.

We think of, you know, a lot of people think of hunting as just the kill.

And that's such a small part of hunting today, right?

The food plots, you know, hanging out with your family and friends, putting that in the summertime or the spring or whenever you get time to do this kind of stuff.

But, you know, riding the side by side together with, my grandpa's 88, right?

- [Jimmy] That's awesome.

- [Justin] So enjoying every moment we can together.

And then having success behind it because as you're sitting in your stand in the fall time just getting your own therapy, how that is.

And looking over top of a food plot that you put in, and knowing that you address the minerals and address the things for the deer to make a stronger, healthier deer herd.

Of course, trying to put the minerals in for the bone growth, the calcium and stuff like that.

That's something we take pride in.

And going back to just having fun with it and being successful.

- [Jimmy] Nice, well, I appreciate your time and all your knowledge today.

- [Justin] Yeah, thank you, Jimmy.

- [Jimmy] Thank you, sir.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - Thank you so much for joining us this week for "Michigan Out of Doors."

Make sure you come back in upcoming weeks.

Lots of great things headed your way and still plenty of summertime left.

We'll be heading out on Saginaw Bay for some bass fishing, and we'll be heading out to Lake Michigan for some more of that big lake fishing.

If you'd like to see us on a more daily basis or interact with us here at the show, you can always do that online.

- Well, that's right.

Online is a good way to kind of keep track of us.

Our website, michiganoutofdoorstv.com.

Lots of cool stuff there.

New merch.

You can learn more about the show, check out old recipes, old television shows, and make sure you are joining us over the next couple of weeks because we've got some brand new stuff coming.

And if we don't see you in the woods or on the water, hopefully we'll see you right back here next week on your PBS station.

(gentle music) - [Announcer] "Michigan Out of Doors" is presented by: - [Announcer] Get away from it all to your own place.

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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(bright music) ♪ When I wonder far away ♪ A dream stays with me night and day ♪ ♪ It's the road that leads to my home state ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ Changing seasons paint the scene ♪ ♪ Like rainbow trout in a hidden stream ♪ ♪ White tail deer in the tall pine trees ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ I am, I am a Michigan man ♪ Ask where I'm from and I'll show you my hands ♪ ♪ Lord above, I love this land ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ From the Keweenaw down to St.

Joe ♪ ♪ Kalamazoo east to Monroe ♪ Sault Ste.

Marie and back again ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ I am, I am Michigan man ♪ Ask where I'm from and I'll show you my hands ♪ ♪ Lord above, I love this land (gentle music)