- Hello, everyone.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

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

I'll take you out on Saginaw Bay, chasing after Bass with a couple of college students who recently won the College Bass Tour that happened on Saginaw Bay.

You won't wanna miss that story.

And we've got some other exciting fishing action in store for you too.

- We do have some more fishing action for you on this week's episode.

We're actually gonna kick things off by doing a little brown trout fishing after dark.

You won't wanna miss that.

And we're gonna also stop in at the Michigan Trappers and Predator Callers Association Annual Convention that just happened in Everett, Michigan.

You'll get to see what that was all about as well.

All brand new this week, you stay tuned.

I'm Jimmy Gretzinger.

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

♪ From the first spring rains (turkey gobbling) ♪ To the soft summer breeze (water lapping) ♪ Dancing on the pine forest floor ♪ (light music) ♪ The autumn colors catch your eyes ♪ ♪ Here come the crystal winter skies ♪ ♪ It's Michigan, "Michigan Out of Doors" ♪ What a beautiful day in the woods.

♪ Someday our children all will see ♪ ♪ This is their finest legacy (water falling) ♪ The wonder and the love of Michigan ♪ ♪ As the wind comes whispering through the trees ♪ (bird calling) ♪ 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 ♪ - [Narrator] "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.

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True North services include cleaning and leveling for the next step.

Information and quotes available at Truenorthserviceslm.com.

(sparks sizzling) (camera clicking) (light music) (gun firing) (exciting music) - Oh, good fish, good fish, dude.

Oh, my God.

God.

Monster.

It's a monster.

(water splashing) (laughing) There's a 25, dude.

Are you kidding me?

(grunting) You got to be kidding me, dude.

(gasping) It's a beautiful fish, Jordan.

It's just a stud.

(light music) - [Jordan] A few years back, we featured an angler who loves to target big trout and happens to be an incredible artist.

The trip was great, but the art he created afterward, was even better.

Ever since, we've wanted to get back out on the water together to showcase a completely different style of trout fishing, mousing at night.

(zipper whirring) This summer, we finally made it happen.

(light music continues) - We're out here.

It's midsummer.

We're gonna be doing some mouse fishing tonight for large brown trout.

We're in the southern part of the state and yeah, this is one of my favorite times of year to target large mature brown trout.

Most of the insect hatch has tapered off, so we're gonna be looking at hitting the banks for large trout, looking for mice falling off.

Really, they're still looking up a lot right now.

So I like where the moon's at and yeah, we'll see how it goes.

There's no guarantees, but we'll see what happens.

Yeah, this is pretty cool.

You just literally take this rabbit strip, palmer it is what it's called, but you wrap it around the hook and you're just creating the body of the mouse.

Rabbit fur when it gets wet, it sinks.

It gets heavy, so that's why we're gonna add some foam to help keep it on the surface.

And then my hook position is really important.

You don't want foam all the way to the back of the hook.

These are glow tabs, so these glow and really help you track your fly.

And with casting, you're able to judge distance on the bank, like how far you're casting.

It allows you to track it in the water, which is huge because in that situation, you're able to see exactly where your fly is.

Mouse fishing or any top water fishing is not so much sight, but it's sound and then your feel, like feeling that fly, feeling your line come tight before you set the hook.

So you end up missing a lot of fish on a premature hook set, like setting too quickly.

So you want to wait, you only count to one or two before coming tight.

- [Jordan] Standing on the bank in total darkness, you quickly realize that fishing for trout at night is a whole different ballgame.

And as we made our way along, Caleb explained why being familiar with the river system you're fishing is priority number one.

- Probably if I had a list of priorities, being familiar with the water you're targeting is so important or for me it is that you want to know that water really well.

The better you know it, the more productive you're gonna be, the more likely you're gonna have success while fishing it.

Moving down that list of safety and being productive on the river.

That's a good fish.

I generally have eye protection just to keep your eyes safe while you're out there fishing.

You're gonna be moving through the dark without your light on pretty often and just to protect your eyes from trees, snags, your fly potentially coming back at you.

You wanna keep yourself safe and anybody fishing with you safe.

So that's pretty important.

I think we got ourselves a decent fish, buddy.

Try to get down below them.

(water splashing) Oh yeah, that's a good fish.

All right, come back this way.

Oh bro, I can't see.

There we go.

Oh bro, that's a nice fish.

(water splashing) Nice female, dude.

On the board.

On the board with a solid 22 to something.

(water splashing) - [Jordan] With our first big trout safely back in the water, we took a quick breather to break down the exact rod and line combo that Caleb relies on out here in the dark.

- As far as a rod I like using for this type of fishing, definitely want floating line.

I use a glow line and I will occasionally light it up to where you can.

It really is beneficial because you can see your line and what it's doing in the current.

So mending it, setting it up is going to help just increase your odds for getting a good drift.

But as far as the rod itself, I love a five to eight weight rod, anywhere from a eight and a half to nine foot rod.

This is the Redington big game, but it's just a seven weight perfect for this type of fishing.

Oh, no.

It can handle 30 inch fish if they are willing to come play.

But yeah, that's what you want is a five to seven weight, five to eight weight floating line.

Come on.

Yeah, and that gets the job done for this type.

Oh, yeah.

Of fishing.

That's a tank buck.

Yes, brother.

Oh, yeah.

Wow.

Oh my gosh, dude.

That's a stud.

That is a stud.

(water splashing) Yeah.

Oh.

(laughing) Jordan, that's a beautiful fish right here, dude.

Wow.

He's got some shoulders too.

We have been grinding it out.

I don't know how many hours we've been out so far, but it's one of those things where you just have to stay committed to it and keep trusting your cast and your drifts.

That's (laughing) the name of the game with mousing sometimes.

It can just be really on fire all night or you can go hours without moving a fish and then all of a sudden just a beautiful fish like this shows up and then crushes the mouse.

(light music continues) One of the benefits to fishing at night, you have large mature trout that are, they've got that big for a reason and it's because they're cautious fish.

They're not going to just slip up, similar to a big buck in the woods.

I mean, a lot of times these large mature trout go nocturnal and they don't really move a lot through the day unless the conditions are just right.

So at night they kind of let their guard down and they're really using instincts and some visual, but a lot of it is their lateral lines that they're picking up movement or plots.

That's a pretty fish.

From a large insect or a rodent, a mouse falling off the bank.

Pretty fish, man.

Like a little 20 incher.

(water splashing) Oh, yeah.

Dude, that might be Oliver's fish.

That might be old Delta.

That really does look like her.

So yeah, my son and I were fishing this back in June and we were streamer fishing and he hooked this, I believe it was this fish, all by himself.

He put the work in and he got his first 20" plus trout.

Dude, I'm gonna look at photos of her later and see because we got some great photos of this fish.

(water splashing) (laughing) I get splashed.

- [Jordan] After about five hours of casting in the pitch black, we finally called it a night around two in the morning.

Fishing in the dark, and filming for that matter, isn't for everyone, but this trip was a ton of fun and a night I won't soon forget.

Thanks to Caleb for a great night on the water.

(light music) - [Caleb] Jordan, that's a beautiful fish right here.

Wow.

(light music continues) - Last month on Saginaw Bay, the College Bass Tour visited and I recently spent some time with a couple of guys who had a life goal of winning that event and they did just that.

In July here on Saginaw Bay, the College Bass Tour hosted a tournament.

It was the event Brett Bartlett and Nick Niernberg had been waiting for.

They've been friends at fishing partners since they were kids and for three years they fished together on the Ferris State Bass team.

Both Brett and Nick are from Standish and have been fishing these waters their entire lives.

Like a dream come true on July 25th this year, these guys took first place and won the tournament.

- We've been fishing together since we were, as soon as we could drive, we were always fishing together, hooked the boat up every weekend, fishing together.

- [Jenny] Cool.

So what do you like about it?

- I like the action of the constant casting and walking around the boat.

You get to cast, instead of the normal walleye troll out here on the Saginaw Bay.

I grew up right here my entire life right on Saginaw Bay.

I started competitively fishing right when I got into college.

Ferris State had a bass fishing team, which was the first time I heard of that, so I jumped right into it.

We have fished the Harris Chain in Florida for the MLF and we've won at Lake St.

Clair in Michigan during the College Bass Tour and we've won the Saginaw Bay Tournament for the College Bass Tour.

- [Jenny] And have you guys been a team all along?

- [Brett] Oh, yeah.

Me and Nick since we both got to college have been fishing together the entire time.

And this was our dream tournament was to fish on Saginaw Bay our home water and we finally got the tournament on the schedule.

Our whole goal all year was to win this tournament.

- [Jenny] Our schedules lined up for just a couple of hours this evening and we hit the water to talk about their big win and talk a little fishing.

- For small mouth, we're using a lot of drop shot.

It's kind of like a perch rig for those guys who fish for perch a lot.

It's just a sinker with your bait suspended a foot to two feet above your weight and the bait sits horizontal in the water and you can just cast it out and sometimes we like to just cast it out and let it sit.

It's more of a large mouth pattern this time of year on Sag Bay, but you can find some nice small mouth schooled up out deep.

You're kind of looking for any structure 'cause as a lot of people know, Sag Bay is just kind of a big empty.

So anytime you find a good rock pile, you might wanna shut down and fish that for a little bit or check it out with your electronics.

But yeah, we're gonna go out there and try to find either a nice rock pile or a nice weed patch and see if there's some small mouth hanging out.

(tool clanking) Just dragging it.

We're heading to the next spot and just felt a little tick, set the hook and got that nice large mouth.

- [Jenny] (laughing) Beautiful.

Even though Nick and Brett are only in their early 20s, they've already seen a big change in the sport of bass fishing in recent years.

- [Nick] Yeah.

So growing up, I used to watch YouTube for bass fishing and I always thought it was awesome.

And nowadays, I've never, when I was a kid used to see bass boats out on this water and I see them every single time I go to the launch nowadays.

- [Jenny] So it's really taken off.

- [Nick] It's taken right off.

- [Jenny] How do you feel about that?

- [Nick] I think it's awesome.

Again, everybody's into it.

It just grows the sport, makes it more competitive.

It gets better and better.

The levels of competition, everybody gets better and better at fishing.

It's awesome.

- [Jenny] Their passion for bass fishing really shines out here on the boat and these guys are still riding that wave of glory after their first place win last month, and they were getting into the fish out here today.

(light music) (rods clanking) What do we got, guys?

- A big small mouth.

I'm just going to let him fix it.

- [Brett] He's dogging.

(light music continues) (water splashing) (both laughing) (exciting music) (indistinct chatter) Yeah.

(water splashing) When I'm reeling a fish in, I don't get stressed out at all, but when I'm netting a fish for somebody else, I get really stressed out.

I'm always nervous to mess somebody else's giant fish catch up.

(water splashing) - [Jenny] (laughing) You did a great job.

- We got that one in.

- That one gave you guys a run for the money.

- For sure.

(water splashing) - [Brett] Oh, boy.

(group cheering) That's a giant.

- We would've liked to catch one.

- Good job, guys.

- [Nick] I'd like to catch one of those in the tournament.

- Yeah, that's a good one.

- [Jenny] Whoa, beauty.

- Heck yeah.

- I got that line after.

(water splashing) - [Jenny] What happened here?

- [Nick] The old drop shot running along the bottom and he picked it up and smashed it.

That's your Saginaw Bay small mouth right there.

- [Jenny] That's what you're after, you love these.

- Oh, yeah.

- [Jenny] Even if for a couple of hours, it was fun to see these guys in their element out here on Saginaw Bay and to hear their excitement as they relived that tournament win.

- One of the best days of my life.

That's one of my best friends.

It's been our dream since we started fishing out here.

We used to come out when we were in eighth grade, ninth grade, just mess around in weeds like this, kind of dreaming one day about winning a tournament out here, and then we were lucky enough to be able to do it.

- We know there's a big, big lot of pressure on us to win this tournament because we grew up here.

We know the spots, we know where the fish are, we should.

And a lot of stress from the fish are on, a lot of bickering between us to get them fish in the boat and holding that trophy was one of the best things ever.

- [Jenny] Congratulations to Brett Bartlett and Nick Niernberg on their amazing accomplishment and a dream come true right here in "Michigan's Out of Doors."

(light music) - Well, every August, the Michigan Trappers and Predator Callers Association has their annual convention in Everett.

It is a ton of fun, some really good people.

Even if you're not a big trapper or predator caller, it's a really fun event to check out.

I was there a week or so back to see what was all going on.

Just a week or so back, there was a pretty cool event taking place at the Everett Fairgrounds.

I have been to this before and was excited to be back again this year.

- So this is our annual convention.

It's always the third weekend in August.

The Michigan Trapper and Predator Callers Association, MTPCA.

And as you can see, it is a family fun, family oriented event for kids of all ages, even old people like me.

So we wanna promote trapping and show the positive side of trapping, the ethical and responsible way of trapping.

We do demonstrations.

We do games for the kids.

There's vendors here in all the buildings, tailgaters selling used equipment.

Anything you need for trapping or predator calling, you can get it here today.

- [Jimmy] And where are these people coming from that are here today?

- [Joe] All over the place.

We have vendors from North Carolina, Ohio.

We have families coming from Indiana, from the UP, from Ohio, Illinois, all over the place.

- [Jimmy] And are we seeing more kids getting into trapping?

- We are.

We are seeing more kids getting.

And right behind you, there's a trapper ed class going on right now.

Dale Hendershot is teaching it.

Dale Hendershot was awarded DNR Trapping Education Instructor of the Year last year.

So we have that going for us.

It teaches responsible ethical trapping.

We have everything for anybody.

And whether you're a trapper, an outdoorsman, if you just wanna learn about trapping or understand it a little bit better, it's here.

- They're custom made calls.

I make the plastic and the wood.

I lathed all of the call itself.

Everything is made by me.

I have a plastic injection machine, so I make the molds that actually make the sound.

So when you buy a D.L.

Calls, you get my sounds.

- Nice.

- Yeah.

And Jay's also carries these calls.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

Can you give us a little call?

- Jay's Sporting Goods.

- On one of your.

- Sure, sure.

This is the little small howler right here.

These make coyote vocals and they'll do distress.

(call howling) - [Jimmy] Nice.

- And then you can do a couple of them if you want.

(calls howling) - [Jimmy] (laughing) Well, as you can imagine, there were quite a few interesting folks here today.

Everyone was having a great time, and even if you're not a big trapper, there was still a lot to see today.

- I'm convention coordinator, and it is just been an absolute wild ride.

The trappers are fun people.

They're really good people.

If you talk to a trapper you've never met before, they will just say, "Hey, instead of let's talk," "let's go out in the field and let's work."

And they're just really nice, warm people and that's why I'm here.

- [Jimmy] And what's all going on here today?

- We've got two different demo areas.

We've got actually beaver cooking in the pavilion in about 15 minutes, so you can have beaver balls.

And then we have (laughing) a pond demo in the back here, and that is all our trapping.

So we've got different trapping.

We've got a guy that's tying flies for fishing with fur.

- Okay.

- And quite a bit of people.

We got some sewing and some good demonstrations.

(hammer tapping) - That's going to be your hole.

I'll ream it and I'm done.

All right.

Quick and easy.

But a lot of times, if I have the grass here like this, I'll just take the time to give myself some bare dirt.

Now, what did I do wrong here?

You see my pan that you read in a book?

- [Jimmy] The seminars would run on and off all weekend, and there was a lot to learn and lots for beginners and season pros alike, all in helping to promote trapping.

- The biggest misconception obviously, is that the general public kind of has an idea that there's a brutality to it, when in reality, it's one of the most delicate and cleanest ways to manage animals.

It manages our resources in ways that most other disciplines of hunting and fishing can't do, so.

- [Jimmy] Gotcha.

It was a lot of fun and some really good folks were here this weekend in Everett.

It's important we support all of our outdoor sports here in Michigan, and the trappers and predator callers play a vital role in controlling populations and promoting our outdoor legacy as well.

So mark your calendar for next year.

It's a good time with some good people right here in "Michigan's Out of Doors."

- 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, including some big lake fishing and a little bit of early season deer hunting.

If you'd like to see where we are or interact with us on a more daily basis, you can always do that online.

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

You can check out our website at michiganoutofdoorstv.com or you can check out Instagram and Facebook.

We're on both of those platforms as well.

And we have a lot of brand new stuff coming over the next couple of weeks.

We're actually gonna be sitting down with the DNR this week to learn more about some of the new deer regulations and kind of how that's all gonna work this year and even into next year.

So make sure you stay tuned for that.

I'm Jimmy Gretzinger, get out and enjoy everything our state has to offer, 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.

(light music) - "Michigan Out of Doors" is presented by.

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(upbeat music) ♪ When I want a 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 ♪ ♪ The Whitetail deer in the tall pine tree ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ I am (light music)