- Well, hey, everyone.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

Thank you so much for joining us this week.

And to everyone that was a part of Big Buck Night East last week in Novi, thank you.

We had a great time.

What we're gonna do on this week's show is do a little steelhead fishing to kick things off.

And then we're gonna chase some rabbits on this week's show as well.

Lots of great wintertime activity for ya.

Make sure 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 ♪ - [Hunter] What a beautiful day in the woods.

♪ Someday our children all will see ♪ ♪ This is their finest legacy ♪ Wonder in 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 ♪ (bright acoustic music ends) - [Announcer] "Michigan Out of Doors" is presented by.

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(upbeat music) (turbine whirring) (energetic rock music) - [Announcer] Jay's Sporting Goods, trust the tradition.

(bright acoustic music) - We're just gonna kind of keep at an angle off the back of the boat.

We're gonna move the boat with the troller motor.

Every now and again if you wanna move it forward real slow, like a foot and then just kind of back it up, then you're gonna feel that vibrating.

Now, sometimes when they hit these rods, I mean, they'll just fold 'em.

I mean, they'll just wham, you know?

Sometimes you're just gonna feel this vibrating and it feels like something thumped the rock.

There's a thump, you know, and on that thump, we're gonna set that hook.

I mean, we're gonna set hard, depending on what hole we're in, where we got logs and stuff like that, we may leave the other rods in.

I may have you reel 'em up.

We'll get the fish to the outer side of the river where we're clear of logs and stuff like that and try and get 'em in the hoop.

- [Jimmy] Captain Leland Kinney would be taking his good friends, Michelle Angus and Megan Lutkey, out for a day of fishing today on the Big Manistee.

And I was happy to be tagging along.

- [Leland] We are on the Big Manistee River, trying to catch some steelhead.

- [Jimmy] How's the fishing been over the last few weeks?

- Oh, it's been pretty good.

One of the best years I've ever seen for steelhead fishing.

So we got some weather, we got some snow, some plummeting temperatures.

So we'll see how we do today.

- [Jimmy] Nice, and what are we gonna start doing?

- [Leland] We're gonna start out back throw in these plugs.

This year's been a phenomenal plug bite for us.

And then with these freezing temps and wind we got first thing this morning, a little bit better than dealing with all the frozen eyelids trying to float bobber.

So we get a few fish on these plugs though.

We're probably gonna switch over to bobbers.

Do some bobber fishing, beads, jigs, wax worms.

- [Jimmy] Okay, and you got our ace anglers on board too?

- [Leland] I do, I do.

Yep, we got Meg and we got Michelle, a couple of the ladies of fish tournaments with us, so.

- Nice.

- Should make for a good show, seeing these guys fight some fish.

(fishing reel squeaking) - Come on.

- Almost there.

- [Leland] Nice and easy, keep coming up, all the way up.

Keep coming up, up, up.

All right, reel it down, do it again.

(fish splashing) Up, up.

(fish splashing) - [Jimmy] Nice scoop.

Woo-hoo.

- Look at him.

- Nice job young lady.

- Thank you, sir.

It's a pretty fish.

- That was perfect.

- I have a pretty good teacher.

(Jimmy laughs) - Wow.

- He's pretty.

- He's beautiful.

- Not a bad start to the day there, team.

- First all produced.

- Sweet, nice job.

- Thank you.

- [Jimmy] Throwing it back today, eh?

- [Leland] Yeah, we do that often.

I'm not opposed to keeping fish, but.

(fish hook snaps) - [Jimmy] There he goes.

As we move down the river, I asked Leland what kind of things he's looking for when moving from spot to spot.

- Fishing seams, some deeper pockets.

You know, you get a seam coming off the edge of a log there, you know, where you got a straight line of turbulent water, and today, I mean, with the temperature so cold, I'm looking at some slower water, even some shallower water, some deeper water, just slower.

You know, these fish are getting cold, they're lethargic.

We've had some pretty cold temps the past few days, so you know, we're kind of lower water right now.

Our water levels come back down, the flows come back down.

And sometimes these fish, you know, I mean, in low water, we'll find 'em sitting in high water spots.

So we just kind of check around and kind of see what their attitude for the day is and then go from there.

Go right down, nice and easy, nice and easy.

Up.

(fish splashing) (Jimmy whooping) Meg is on the roll.

- Ooh, look at the color of that one.

Way to go young lady.

- Thank you.

- [Jimmy] Nice job.

Well, so far, our morning couldn't have been going much better.

We fished two holes and we had two nice fish.

Like an old pro.

- Yeah.

- [Jimmy] As we moved along, I asked Michelle and Meg what they liked about this kind of fishing.

- It's pretty unpredictable.

You might get one, you might not.

It's the adrenaline of catching a fish is always a plus.

- Nice.

- The fish themselves are really beautiful too, so I like that a lot.

- [Jimmy] You like the winter fishing or the summer fishing better?

- You know, I really prefer the warmth, but.

- That's fair.

- You can't take the good without the bad, so.

- It's really calm and the fish are beautiful.

And it's a good time, 'cause you never know if you're gonna catch one or not.

And then when you do, it's just so great.

You pull it in and then you just get to see the beautiful fish.

- [Jimmy] And what's the tackle company that you guys have?

- [Meg] Lutke Tackle out of McBain, Michigan.

- [Jimmy] Okay, how long you guys been doing that?

- Three or four years now.

- Nice.

- [Meg] All custom made stuff, focusing on steelhead.

- Oh, okay.

- Like we're today.

Yeah, it's great.

(water gurgling) - You're hauling?

- Yep, go ahead.

(fish splashing) - [Jimmy] Nice scoop.

Woo hoo!

We got all the fish today on a gold digger plug.

But probably more important than the plug was the boat control from what Leland says, it's very important.

- Oh, it's important, You know, like this plugging and stuff when these guys and some of 'em still do it, they use oars, you know, they run oar, drop their anchor, drag the chains back and control the boat that way.

You know, I've been using a troller motor for six, seven years now and back trolling these plugs, and you know, I do other things, whether we jig salmon and stuff like that.

But on a day like today, I'm kind of noticing these fish are really lethargic today.

These few males that we've picked up already, and they're lagging it real slow.

I mean, I'm sitting on Spot-Lock right now.

We're kind of moving the boat back and forth, but I'm not pushing through holes really fast today.

We're moving really slow, you know?

I mean, some days, I can start in a hole and we can just work it really quick, you know, and hit fish.

And then other days, depending on temperatures, the fish and what we got going on, we move a lot slower, which, you know, you spend a lot of time in a hole, if you don't get a bite, it's kind of a bummer, you just burn up a lot of time.

But you know, these fish have character, you know?

And I like to say they have attitude, and you just kind of gotta figure out their flavor of the day and just go with it, so.

(fishing reel squeaking) (fish splashing) - [Jimmy] Good job.

Ooh, he's a dandy.

- [Leland] Another male.

- [Jimmy] He's long.

All right, good job, team.

Another nice fish for sure.

And it was about this time of the day when Leland got out the Blackstone, which is always a very good sign.

What you got going on here captain?

- Oh, a little bit of lunch on this cold day.

- [Jimmy] Yeah, what's on the menu?

- [Leland] Oh, we have venison burgers and venison steak.

- [Jimmy] Nice.

Well, just like most fishing trips, as soon as the food comes out, a fish hits a rod.

But what a great problem to have.

(fish splashing) Woo, look at how nice and silver he is.

(Meg speaking indistinctly) This was another really nice fish, and although we were releasing the fish today, steelhead is one of my favorite fish for the dinner table.

And as the burgers finished up, well, we had another fish hitting our plugs.

(fish rod squeaking) - You got this, Jimmy?

- Yep.

- All right, thanks.

- Hey, hey!

- [Michelle] Beautiful.

- [Jimmy] Good team effort there.

- I got you.

- Thank you.

- [Michelle] Look at that fatty.

- Wow.

- Don't spill the burgers.

- Well, there's a pretty fish.

(bright acoustic music) - [Leland] Did good, you did good, Jimmy.

- [Jimmy] I had the easiest part.

- Yeah, ladies did good.

We didn't lose any fish and then we landed a half dozen, six and probably had five other bites we just didn't connect with, so yeah, it was good.

It was a good day.

We appreciate you coming back, Jimmy.

- [Jimmy] Thanks for letting me tag along.

- [Leland] Absolutely, anytime, buddy.

- [Meg] It's (indistinct) hunting.

- You really couldn't have asked for a better day.

Captain Leland knows this water very well, and our lady anglers, well, they were top-notch.

There is still a lot of good steelhead fishing ahead.

So get out and enjoy it right here in Michigan's out of doors.

Well, as you can tell, it can be a ton of fun catching those steelhead, especially when the action is fast and furious.

What we're gonna do now is shift gears and head to the rabbit woods and chase some beagles in a couple of different parts of our great stay.

(bullet clicks) (bright country music) - Left, left, left.

(gunfire pops) Well, we're in southern Michigan.

Got a couple of buddies that come out to our grandparents' property.

Game plans today just to shoot a couple of rabbits.

So we'll go from there.

- [Nick] Today we would be doing most of our hunting on Nick's grandparents' farm, a place he's been hunting his entire life, that's also home to lots of rabbits.

(bright acoustic music) - So I think they've had it for about 30 years.

They live on baseline, which is on the south side of the road is Calhoun, and they're on the north side, which is Barry.

That property, I don't know, to me, it's like piece of heaven.

We've always been there forever, you know, and they've let me help kind of, like, take care of it.

You know, I got the food plot and I try to do this and that with it, but I don't know, we got them pine trees.

I don't know why, but we usually do pretty good right behind the house.

And I don't know if it's just they stay out of the wind there, you know, a little more cover, but I don't know.

And then they got that cricket runs through it too.

It's just a beautiful piece.

(feet thudding) Probably a bowl on it.

(gunfire pops) Here we go, first one of the day.

- [Jimmy] What happened there?

- Ah, I jumped him, he ran underneath the hunting blind, and just a couple of kicks and there he went.

So on the board now.

(bright acoustic music) - [Jimmy] These guys like to field dress their rabbits right away, and they used a pretty simple technique to get the job done.

- This is usually how we do it.

(bright acoustic music) (gut squishing) That's the easiest way to gut 'em right there.

And the mess is in the field, so that's how we usually do it.

Gutted rabbit.

- [Hunter] What's the trick there?

You're just putting a little pressure at the top.

- Yep, we just start up here underneath the front legs and then you just squeeze as hard as you can.

And then there goes the guts.

(branches cracking) (gunfire pops) (bright acoustic music) - [Jimmy] You know what happened there?

- Ah, we hit that brush pile, and me and my brother pulled up and we shot 'em right by the creek here.

(bright acoustic music) - [Jimmy] These guys are all just a couple of years removed from high school, and although most of them started hunting at a young age, they're spending more time now than ever in the woods.

- I think we first started, I was about 10, we went to this little piece of property.

We didn't think we'd see anything, and then we saw one take off running, so we knew it would be a good spot, you know?

And then we ended up getting, I think, five in one area.

It was probably, I don't know, just 100 yards maybe around.

And then after that, it was kind of cool.

And then we got away from it for a while, you know?

And then me and my brother, we started getting in hunting even more, 'cause school is a big barrier to it.

I did a lot of sports, so it was like after practice, you might have a couple of hours.

So I might go out and try to go deer hunting or you know, on the weekends, that was a big time, you know?

We tried not to make any plans on the weekend, other to hunt, you know?

But obviously, you got your school work.

I just tried to get everything done during school.

If you get it done, you know, you got free time, but just don't slack I guess, you know?

- [Noah] Where, oh, I see him.

(gunfire pops) - I guess the big thing is just doing it with other people.

Like you said, you can talk a lot, and if you hunt with some people, they like to talk a lot, you know?

So it's kind of a good thing going from deer to small game.

But there's quite a bit of small game, there really is.

Even on the state property, you know, you can get out there and shoot a couple.

I mean, I'm fortunate enough to have farmers, you know, local farmers that know ya and they let you go and do whatever you want really.

But yeah, just small game, people need to try it for sure, you know, get out there, try it.

- [Hunter] Yep, I knew it, I knew it was there.

- Where's he at?

- Right here in the pile.

Trent, watch, watch the right.

(gunfire pops) - I've been rabbit hunting probably since I was probably 15 or so.

I like it, you're always moving, you're not sitting down or anything.

You're always messing around on top of brush piles, you're always moving.

And to me, that's what I like about it.

I don't like sitting down and just chilling out.

I like moving all the time.

So that's what I like about it.

(gunfire blasts) - Here.

- Got him I think, I think.

Yep, he is there.

- Got him?

- Yep.

Ah, me and my brother were going through the thick hits, and all of a sudden, I think I almost stepped on him, but probably about 10-yard shot, but there he is.

- [Jimmy] Rabbits can be excellent table fare if you know how to cook them or have someone in the family who will cook them for you.

- We do usually once a year, maybe even twice a year if we get lucky.

We'll get enough squirrels and rabbits, we'll do a couple small game hunt or dinners.

And my grandma, she's the one that is the big cook in the family, so she usually, how she does it, like I said, I don't know the ingredients, I couldn't tell you that.

Not 'cause they're secret or anything, it's just, I don't know.

I guess grandpa, he'll cut 'em up in quarters, you know, they'll do like the back strap, throw the rib cage out, brown it up in the pan, you know, and then they put it in.

They bake it.

I couldn't tell you how long or how much or what, but that's how we usually do it for everything.

- [Jimmy] Small game hunting after a fresh snow can be pretty hard to beat this time of year.

Special thanks to Nick and the guys for letting me tag along on a fun hunt here in southern Michigan.

(bright acoustic music) Well, now we're gonna head a couple hours north and chase some rabbits in the northern part of the lower peninsula.

(bright acoustic music) - Normally terrible shot.

(hunters chattering) (dog whimpering) - Well, we've got a pretty cool hunt, just getting ready to start here.

We're in northern Michigan.

Tails A Waggin, Chuck Connell's place who does, doing a veteran's hunt here for years and years and years, which is a pheasant preserve up here.

But we're actually doing a fair chase rabbit hunt kind of right near their farm.

A bunch of kids and some really good dogs.

And we're about ready to attack some thickets here.

It's a beautiful day.

Only a couple of weeks left in the season.

It was single digits on the way here this morning.

I think it's about 12 or 14 right now, but it should be a great day to chase some beagles.

It's crisp, it's clear, it's a beautiful day.

We're gonna get after it, should be a lot of fun.

If you jump, are you gonna let 'em run or what do you wanna do?

- So off the bat, we're gonna get the skunk out of the back.

- Okay.

- And we're just shoot.

Whoever's got a shot will just shoot.

So we're gonna jump shoot.

So somebody's probably little not as excited as I am for that, but that's all right.

- [Jimmy] So is it a rabbit drive or are we gonna, what are we gonna do?

- [Jason] Yes, at first it is.

To just kind of get it going, we are gonna drive, we're gonna drive right through the middle of this brush.

The dogs are there.

It's hard saying where they're gonna find their first rabbit.

If they do jump and it does get away from us, we're just gonna let the dogs take it.

And the dogs will do what they do.

Rabbit's gonna run out 50, 90 yards, come back at us.

We'll be spread out enough that we'll just stop when we hear the dogs turn.

(dog barking) - [Hunter] Is it down here?

(footsteps crunching) (dogs barking) Moving right there.

(gunfire blasts) - [Jason] Yeah, there it goes.

(gunfire blasts) - [Jimmy] Well, as you can see here, this was some thick cover and any rabbit we did get running wasn't really running very long.

They were up and then right back under this hard crusty snow.

But with enough time, there was just a chance of getting lucky.

(gunfire pops) - Good shot.

- Know what happened there?

We finally got one, hey.

- Yep, it come down.

Dogs worked him up the side of this ridge here.

The boy shot him down there, come down through this deer trail and then I picked him up over on the next trail over.

My grandpa passed away in '19 and left me this old 20-gauge side-by-side.

And I've been able to hunt everything Michigan's got to offer other than rabbits and pheasants.

So I figured today was the day to bring it over here, and it did what it was supposed to do.

- [Hunter] Trick, what kind of gun?

- [Justin] I mean, it's a Lawson, Lawson 20 gauge.

- [Jimmy] What's the game plan, Jason?

- Launch and then we're gonna go kick more brush.

- [Jimmy] Saw a few in there, eh?

- Saw, well, four, three cottontail and a hare.

- Yeah?

- Got one.

Got a shot at a second.

- Okay, good.

- Below average day right now.

But we'll get it going.

We're gonna keep trying.

It's not over till it's over.

- Come on.

- It's been kind of an interesting day, kind of an interesting hunt.

This whole thing started, it's been a rough winter for us getting footage from ice fishing to rabbit hunt, everything's been tough just this year 'cause the weather just hasn't cooperated in a lot of different ways.

But we kind of put out on Facebook, gosh, I don't know, maybe three, four weeks ago probably, just seeing if anybody's been doing good on some rabbit hunts, trying to find somebody that's been doing well.

And Jason, buddy of ours over from the Thumb said he'd been doing, you know, pretty well.

And he's like, "Hey, we got some dogs if you wanna go."

And then up here kind of the northern part of the lower, Chuck Connell said, who's got a beautiful piece of property here that's a pheasant preserve, he said, "I got quite a few rabbits, you're more than welcome to come up here and hunt."

So we kind of put this whole thing together.

Jason brought some friends, some kids and couple of beagle buddies of his.

And so we kind of put this whole thing together, and it kind of rough conditions, not rough, beautiful conditions this morning.

Pretty calm, but single digits, not ideal.

We got on some pretty good property and just the rabbits were not moving this morning.

And it's warming up throughout the day.

It's probably in the teens now, maybe low twenties.

I'm not exactly sure.

And lots of tracks with the rabbits, just weren't moving.

It's kind of midday now.

They're starting to move a little bit more.

(gunfire pops) - Just kind of walking through the brush, looking for another rabbit.

Cameraman stepped on 'em.

I waited, waited.

Hopefully, the cameraman can get the camera on to get a video of him and I let him have it.

- [Hunter] Give me a little recap of the day here so far.

- Been kind of boring.

Haven't haven't had much action.

We got three rabbits, I got two of 'em.

Just really slow.

Dogs are trying their hardest though.

That's all that matters, dogs are trying their hardest.

(gunfire echoes) - Well, maybe one more?

- Maybe one more.

He hasn't ran through yet.

He's right there, he's right there.

Stop, stop, I got him.

(gunfire pops) Got him.

Just was walking through the brush, looking for the rabbits.

And guess we had a visitor, an unexpected visitor.

Well, I guess it was kind of expected, but nice.

Rooster, pretty bird.

(bright acoustic music) - [Hunter] Now do you do a lot of small game hunting yourself?

Or is this- - Yeah, I do a lot.

Rabbit hunting's definitely my favorite.

Do a lot of squirrel hunting.

A lot of it, got a lot at my house, but pheasants, definitely at the top of my list.

I like killing a lot of pheasants.

- Well, special thanks to Jason and to all the crew that was here today.

And thanks to Chuck for letting us on his ground.

We didn't hurt the population today, but what a day to walk the woods.

Not a bad day for my last day of rabbit hunting for the season here in Michigan's out of doors.

(bright acoustic music) Well, hey everybody, thank you so much for watching "Michigan Out of Doors" this week.

Make sure you are joining us over the next couple of weeks.

We are excited to start bringing you our Big Buck Nights, both east and west, and lots of great stuff happening around the state.

So get out and enjoy it.

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.

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