- Hello, everyone.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

We're so glad you're here this week.

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

We're gonna take you on another UP adventure.

This time, we'll be on Lake Superior with the host of a show that airs on Detroit Public TV.

You won't wanna miss that story.

And Jimmy and Jordan have something else in store for us this week.

- Well, that's right.

We do have another story.

On this week's show, we're gonna sit down with a wildlife artist who does all of his work with sharpies.

It really caught our attention, and I think it will catch yours as well.

We're gonna see what you, the viewer, have been up to with the brand new Bragging Board segment as well.

So 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 - [Jimmy] What a beautiful day in the woods.

♪ Someday our children all ♪ Will see this is their finest legacy ♪ ♪ Wonder and 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.

♪ - [Announcer] "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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More information available at glfallc.com.

By Morgan Composting, a family business located in Michigan.

Morgan Composting offers a variety of products all powered by Dairy Doo Organic Compost for homeowners and farmers.

To learn more about all the product options available for your food plots, visit dairydoo.com.

(bright music) (spirited music) (gentle lively music) - Well, we are about almost at the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula, and we are meeting up with, actually, somebody that both Jenny and Jordan have done stories with before, Travis White.

He lives up this way and is a guide, and there is tons of different fishing opportunities up here at the Keweenaw.

Inland Lakes, the big lake stuff.

And we're actually gonna meet up with Anna Marie, who actually works with Detroit Public Television, of all things.

And they have a show called "Great Lakes Now."

And so they cover all sorts of issues, conservation issues that have to do with the Great Lakes, as do we from time to time.

And there's kind of an overlap between the fishing community and conservation community.

We're all kind of pulling in the same direction.

So we're happy to get out tonight, catch some fish and kind of talk about their TV show that's on PBS out of Detroit, but it does air around the state in most stations.

So looking forward to it.

Should be fun.

Weather looks decent, and hopefully the fishing will be as well.

Travis is nice enough to take us out tonight.

And so I think we're hoping for some lake trout, right, out on the big water.

- Yeah, definitely.

- So we can access that from there.

And, yeah.

And "Great Lakes Now."

I mean... - Yeah.

"Great Lakes Now," we do- - Can't wait to hear more about that.

- All kinds of stories.

Don't go out fishing that often though.

Talk a lot about fish but not a lot of fishing.

(Jimmy laughs) So, I'm looking forward to it.

Let's do it.

- Well, we're happy to have you here.

- Great.

- PBS neighbors, right?

- There we go.

(group laughing) - All right, you ready to hit the water?

- Absolutely.

- Let's do it.

- Cool.

- Travis's wife, Jane, would also be joining us this afternoon and helping out as first mate.

We launched at the Lac La Belle boat ramp and made our way through the channel to Bay Degree Bay and Lake Superior.

As we headed out, Jimmy and Anna talked about the show she hosts on Detroit Public TV.

- So "Great Lakes Now" is really a show that's about the climate, environment, culture, people, issues, all that stuff, in the Great Lakes region.

So we really cover everything from travel and recreation to science stories and looking at habitat restoration efforts, all kinds of stuff.

- And is it just in Michigan or do you go Wisconsin, Canada, Ohio?

- All of it.

- Okay.

- The whole basin.

So, everything from Erie, Pennsylvania to Chicago to Minnesota up in Duluth area to here in the Keweenaw and down in Detroit, all over.

- [Jimmy] I mean, we're highlighting sportsmen and women typically around the state, trying to encourage people to get out and use the outdoors and, you how, accessible it is.

So I think there's a fair overlap with what we're doing and what you're doing.

- Absolutely.

So, all right, like I said before, I'm a novice.

I've gone out trying to catch fish before, but I never actually have been successful.

So, what are some things that I should keep in mind once we get set up and we have, you know, the poles and everything going on?

- Well, the main thing is listen to the captain.

- [Anna] Okay.

- [Jimmy] So, he'll tell you what to do.

And so, a lot of times, you'll see the rods start to move.

Typically, he'll grab it or, Jane, right, will grab it and set the hook then pass you the rod.

- [Anna] Okay.

- [Jimmy] And so your job is just to reel it in.

- [Anna] Okay.

- [Jimmy] And they'll kind of teach you a little bit about how you can kind of pull it in and then reel back down, then kind of pull it in and reel back down, and they'll just kinda walk you through.

But in a trip like this, the captain's really doing all the hard work and all the fishing.

So he's deciding what color lures, how deep, what he's gonna run, how far back he's gonna run it.

And then, you know, that's why charter boats are nice because they do all the work.

Yeah, we'll walk you through.

And Jenny's really good about coaching as well.

So she'll be right there with you to kinda help you do it.

But, yeah, you'll do great.

- [Jenny] Captain Travis was into the fish right away.

And as Jimmy predicted, Anna was doing great bringing in her very first one.

- All right.

Jenny, how's my form?

I'm trying to do it how you told me.

- You're doing great.

- All right.

- The captain said you don't even have to pump the rod like we were telling you.

Sometimes you need to.

- Okay.

- It just depends.

If it's a really big one, we will.

If it's kind of an average, we may not need to.

- Travis said that this one's nice and close, so you don't have to... Do you feel some weight on it?

- Yeah.

- All right, cool.

- Oh, yeah.

So now I'm gonna have you kind of take one step to the right so I can see through here.

- [Anna] Okay.

- [Travis] And you're gonna keep- - You can see it.

(Anna gasps) - [Anna] Whoa.

Oh my gosh.

- [Jenny] You got your first fish.

There he is.

- Whoa.

(group laughing) - Look at that.

- It's pretty big.

- Good job.

- Wow.

Awesome.

(group laughing) - [Jenny] Good job, guys.

- Good coaching, thank you.

- Nice work, Anna.

- So he fell for the old spoon.

(group laughing) - All right, did it.

Caught a fish.

Yeah.

- Mission accomplished.

- Mission accomplished.

- Nice.

(group laughing) - What kind of...

So there are different kinds of trout, right?

- Yup.

So this is our lake trout.

- Okay.

- So this is our native apex predator and they're kind of a deep water species.

- Okay.

- So they basically, this time of year, they live anywhere from hundreds of feet right up to the top.

So they eat everything from other fish to bugs.

- Wow.

- And they've got a lot of teeth in there.

- Oh, yeah, all the way back.

(group laughing) - So they are the wolf of the lake, really.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

- [Anna] Oh my god, thank you.

- [Jimmy] There is the fish bags.

- You guys, that is cool.

(group laughing) - [Travis] First one.

- Wow.

- Good job.

You did it like a pro.

(Anna laughs) You're a natural.

- Hey, I have a lot of experience all around me, and that helps too.

- So we're currently off the tip of the Keweenaw Peninsula and we're fishing on Lake Superior.

We're out offshore about a mile or less.

And this is what we consider our nearshore trout fishing.

So we're basically following the contour breaks that come off the Keweenaw which are really steep and fast breaking.

And this time of year, our fish are really scattered.

So we've got fish on the surface all the way down to the bottom here on our downriggers.

So I'm currently resetting this downrigger.

We just got our first bite, and that was on our deep line.

So we were running that about 10 foot off bottom.

So, basically, we've got our spoon out back about 30, 40 foot.

We're clipping it on here and we're gonna send that down.

Now, in Lake Superior, you can run stackers on your downriggers.

It gets you two rods off of that same weight.

So that's what I'm opting to do today.

So we're gonna send this down about 25 foot and then we're gonna put a second clip there, a second relief.

And we'll send our second rod back, clip it, and then drop 'em both down.

So this is a really effective way to catch fish that are down along the bottom, as well as some of those fish that are suspended up a little ways.

We'll have this two spoon pair basically about 25 foot apart with the deepest one 10 foot off bottom.

- [Jenny] Travis has been guiding for 16 years now and works with the Great Lakes Research Center, helping with marine engineering projects and freshwater science.

He's definitely in tune with the fishery here.

- Well, so far, it's been kind of a strange year.

We've been catching a lot of lake trout recently, but we were having to run a little ways out to find them.

Near shore, we had great fishing a few weeks ago.

And for whatever reason, those fish kind of disappeared.

So, it has a lot to do with the bait fish.

Everything out here follows the bait fish just like every other ecosystem.

And the last couple years, we've had Unprecedentedly good fishing with a cisco, small herring year class.

So cisco, our lake herring, and we had a year class in '22 that was basically off the charts.

It was one of the largest year classes ever recorded by the USGS who does our prey fish assessments on a yearly basis.

And as those fish have been growing and maturing, we had really great fishing both on trout and salmon in the lake here.

They were taking advantage of that abundance of small fish that were close to shore.

Now that year class of cisco are all about eight, nine inches.

They're getting quite large.

So our large trout can still prey on them, but our smaller trout and two-year-old coho, two or three-year-old kings, they're no longer able to take advantage of 'em.

So, we saw a really great uptick in fishing in the last few years, and now things have kind of returned back to maybe what I'd call normal.

But one thing we're seeing is that our trout have had really excellent growth in size the last few years.

So, the average lake trout size has increased maybe a couple pounds over the last five years from maybe a four-pound average in the near shore environment to closer to a five, six-pound average with a lot of fish in that seven, eight, nine-pound range.

So they're really great fish, excellent eating size fish and pretty good abundance.

But so far this year, you know, the fishing's been up and down.

It depends on who you talk to.

You just really gotta be continuing to move, continuing to look for those bait fish and keeping on top of it 'cause it's been changing daily.

- The lakers were on a steady bite, and Anna was fighting in her second fish of the day.

- Burry the bottom of that rod right at your hip bone or your belt line.

Wherever's comfortable.

- All right.

- [Travis] This one feels a little bigger.

- This one does feel bigger.

Let's see.

- [Jenny] Anna and I had a double on for a few seconds before mine popped off.

How's it feel, Anna?

- It feels heavy.

I wonder if it's gonna be a trout or something else.

- We'll find out.

- Let's see.

- [Jimmy] What's your number?

(Jimmy faintly speaking) - We're at 73.

- [Jimmy] Okay, stay down.

- Making me fight for it.

- [Jenny] It's always so much fun being a part of somebody's first time fishing.

And watching Anna experience the fight of a big lake fish was just about as fun as reeling one in myself.

- There, we got him.

- Wow.

(crowd cheering) - Nice job.

- Thanks.

Oh my gosh.

- Nice one.

- My arms are gonna be sore tomorrow.

(group laughing) - [Jenny] Good work.

- Oh, yeah.

- Look at that.

- [Anna] That one is about double the size of the first one.

- I'd say.

- It is, yeah.

- Right?

- [Travis] So there was our lucky spoon.

- [Anna] Okay.

- That color is more to catch us than anything.

(Anna laughs) Look at that.

- Wow.

Thanks.

- Beautiful.

- Here we go.

All right.

- There you go.

- Trout number two of the day.

(group laughing) - [Jenny] Get in there with her, Captain.

- Absolutely.

- [Jimmy] Nice job, guys.

- [Jenny] As Jane brought in the last fish of the evening, Jimmy shared thoughts on this beautiful place.

- [Jimmy] Superior is kind of a unique bird, and it's so much bigger and deeper.

And that's why I'm excited to kinda learn from Travis tonight too 'cause we don't get out in Superior as many times as we'd like.

So this should be a fun night.

- It's...

It's actually a little steelhead, yeah.

Okay, that's a little steelhead.

We'll see if he's not too messed.

Oh, he's kind of messed up.

We'll probably end up having to eat this one.

That's okay.

Beautiful fish.

- [Anna] Oh, yeah.

- [Travis] Yeah.

- [Jimmy] Okay, we are just getting off the water here in beautiful Lac La Belle.

What'd you think of the fishing experience tonight?

- It was really fun.

Parts of it were like harder work than I expected.

Like, reeling in did use a lot of upper body strength, and I wasn't expecting that.

But it was really great, and I think just kind of, it's fun to be focusing on the fishing but also just enjoying the company and talking and learning.

It was great.

- For sure.

And Travis does such a nice job, even and his wife, Jane.

If you come out to this part of the state and you're looking for somebody to take you fishing, he is the guy to take.

So, yeah, super fun.

I think we ended up with six or seven fish.

All lake trouts, except the last one was a little steelhead.

So you got a little bit of variety, and you got some good fish to take home.

- Oh, yeah, absolutely.

I'm looking forward to it.

And Travis was such a wealth of knowledge.

It was really great to learn so much from him.

So, Jimmy, this was awesome.

Thank you.

- Oh, well, thank you so much.

It was super nice to see you in person and not just on TV, and hopefully we can do this down the road more often.

- Definitely, I'd love that.

- Thank you.

- Thanks.

- Well, as you can see, we had a lot of fun out there with Anna on Lake Superior, and thanks to Travis for making that happen.

If you've never seen "Great Lakes Now," you might wanna check it out.

It's on most of the PBS stations around the state.

We're gonna shift gears now and head to Mid-Michigan and sit down with a wildlife artist who does all of his work with sharpies.

It is pretty impressive to say the least.

(bright music) - [Jordan] A few weeks back, I was able to spend some time near the town of Midland, learning more about an artist who specializes in drawing wildlife with a sharpie.

- I grew up in the Black Hills, South Dakota.

A lot of small streams up there.

Started fly fishing, I was about 12.

Just doing a lot of outdoor stuff, hiking.

Really liked trout fishing.

Did a lot of bird hunting and college.

Lived in Aberdeen, South Dakota.

Lots of migratory birds and really liked drawing birds in college.

And it just kind of morphed into more fish just because that's what I spent a lot of time doing.

And then as my wife and I started moving across countries and stuff, we settled in Wyoming for quite a long time and started guiding on the North Platte River in Casper, Wyoming for the Ugly Bug Fly Shop and just started drawing stuff on fly boxes for clients just as like a thank you and a gift.

Majority of it was done with sharpie.

It was kind of something different.

Started doing catch and release artwork probably about 12 years ago.

I, you know, have a client in my boat catch a really nice fish, take a bunch of pictures of it.

And then during the winter when I wasn't rowing, I would draw it for 'em like Christmas gifts and stuff like that, and that's kind of how it all started.

This is just kind of a random red fish that I've been working on.

This part, the first part of the Red fish was actually done for Sawyer Oars and they were putting it on some awards that they were giving out and some fundraising stuff for Captains For Clean Water.

And I just had it sitting around, so I decided to finish it.

And this is kind of the one that I just sit around with art shows and I work on a little bit 'cause I can just stop and start.

That's the one cool thing about sharpies too, is like, yes, it is dry on there, like I can touch it and kind of move it around.

But even though it's been sitting for a while, I can still kind of blend out that that color.

- [Jordan] Although Ty has done several different forms of artwork over the years, one of his favorites is catch and release artwork.

Something that started years ago as a way to preserve a memory without going through the process of getting a mount done and continued to grow in his time as a fishing guide.

- Kind of started with my own ideas.

Like, my wife really didn't like mounts and stuff in the house, so I started kind of just drawing some of the fish that I caught and, you know, framing 'em and putting 'em up on the wall.

And then I started getting clients that started catching these fish.

And it's a little more personable because, like, if you just send off, you know, a photo of your fish to, like, get a fiberglass reproduction or whatever, a lot of times, the color and the kind of the, like, personality doesn't really come out in it.

And with my sharpie artwork, it's, you know, kind of different because it's a sharpie, so it's, you know, not like I can just keep repainting it and repainting it to try to get the colors match.

But I try to do the best I can.

And then just try to match up everything like every little dot, you know?

I've done it where put the client's hands holding the fish with like their wedding ring in it.

I've done one where it's the dad and their son with his first catch.

And so both sets of hands in there.

Kind of a different process.

I draw it out all on a piece of paper first, try to get all the dimensions correct and, you know, the spots and the color and the shading.

And then I transfer onto this plastic paper and then I start doing my sharpie artwork on it.

A lot of times, I work off a photo.

This one's just kind of out of the top of my head.

So, like, that's kind of the cool thing with the catch and release, is like I really try to, like, from the photo, try to match exactly the shadows that are coming through.

You know, kind of the, you know, color or the highlights of the day.

And I've taken some really bad photos from people and, like, tried to recreate 'em, which I think have turned out pretty good.

Like they have an old photo of, like, their grandpa or something with a cool fish.

I've done a few of those too.

- [Jordan] As we switch gears from fish to a picture of an old hunting dog, I asked Ty where his passion for artwork began.

- [Ty] My mom was very artistic.

She used to do salt dough ornaments a lot.

And my grandma was pretty good at painting and stuff too.

So when I was a kid, I used to go to like all the craft fairs with those two and, you know?

Then I'd go home, and it'd usually end up drown a bird, drown a fish, something like that.

- [Jordan] Before we wrapped up for the day, I had to ask him one question I had been thinking about the entire time.

Why sharpies?

- So I get asked that a lot.

It's just something different.

Yeah, I can paint, and I do acrylic painting too.

Like, some of my bigger pieces, I actually have to do acrylic 'cause I can't get the piece of plastic that big.

And plus, to carry that sharpie color that far is really difficult to do.

So the bigger it gets, sometimes I actually switch over to acrylic paints.

Sharpie is just something different.

You know, like, I go to, like, arts and craft shows or fly fishing shows and people are watching me draw and they're like, "Oh, what paint do you use?"

I was like, "It's sharpie."

And they're like, "No.

Like, special kind of sharpies?"

I was like, "Nope, just normal old fine tip sharpies."

And it kind of blows their mind, and yet to get that much accuracy and definition in sharpies is just something, like, you just don't see.

So that's kind of why I just stuck with it.

It's just something different.

- [Jordan] The amount of time and attention to detail that goes into this type of artwork is simply incredible, and it was really interesting to see the process firsthand.

Special thanks to Ty for showing me around and for teaching us all a little more about what goes in to sharpie artwork.

(bright music) (uplifting music) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting music continues) (uplifting 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 summertime adventures headed your way here on the show.

If you'd like to see where we are and what we're up to, you can always check us out online.

- Well, that's right.

Online is a good way to kind of keep tabs on us.

Probably Facebook and Instagram are the best ways to see what we're up to on a day-to-day basis.

In our website, michiganoutofdoorstv.com, you can actually go and look at a bunch of old shows there, recipes, whatever you wanna look at there, and check out our new merchandise as well.

Make sure you are getting out and enjoying everything our state has to offer.

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

- [Announcer] "Michigan Out of Doors" is presented by: - [Announcer 2] Get away from it all to your own place.

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(serene music) (spirited music) - [Announcer] Closed captioning brought to you by Double D Ranch Foundation, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) foundation working to make hunting and fishing accessible for those with disabilities.

(gentle lively music) ♪ When I wander far away ♪ 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 and the tall pine trees ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man.

♪ I am I am Michigan man ♪ That's 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 a Michigan man ♪ Ask where I'm from I'll show you my hands ♪ ♪ Lord above I love this land ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ I'm Michigan man (solemn music)