- Well hey, everybody.

Welcome to "Michigan Out Of Doors."

Thank you so much for joining us this week.

We've got kind of a special show this week.

We're gonna show you some wildlife fishing, we're gonna show you some carp fishing, and we're gonna show you some bass fishing, but we're gonna do it from 22 years ago.

Welcome to "Michigan Out Of Doors."

We have a brand new show for you this week.

We're gonna start off in the southeast corner of our state on the St.

Clair River with a couple of MUCC clubs and a great walleye fishing tournament.

- Yes, we are, Jimmy, and speaking of MUCC clubs, we're also gonna go out to Lake St.

Clair with the Michigan Bass Federation.

They had their youth divisional finals.

Kids from all over the country and Canada were there to catch some bass.

- And that's right, after that, we're gonna head to the northwest part of our state to Grand Traverse Bay.

Our own Gabe Van Warmer went up there to do a little carp fishing, something a little bit different from that beautiful part of our state.

We have got a brand new show for you this week, so make sure you stay tuned.

I'm Jimmy Gretzinger.

- And I'm Jenny Olsen.

And it's time for "Michigan Out Of Doors."

(bright guitar music) ♪ 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 ♪ ♪ Some day our children all will see ♪ ♪ This is their finest legacy ♪ The 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 Michigan out of doors that 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.

Details at countrysmokehouse.com.

- [Announcer] 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 a lifetime warranty.

More information available at glfallc.com.

- [Announcer] By True North Services, offering full service land management for residential and commercial property.

From overgrown acreage to wooded lots to shooting lanes, True North Services include cleaning and leveling for the next step.

Information and quotes available at truenorthserviceslm.com.

(dramatic music) (gun firing) (upbeat music) (bright music) (motor running) - [Jimmy] A lot of fishing tournaments that you see across the state start with a bunch of boats clamoring to be the first in the water.

Well that was not the case with this walleye fishing tournament sponsored by the MUCC Affiliate Club the Lake St.

Clair Walleye Association.

- This here is the third annual, it's called the Spring Classic, and it's between, the host clubs are the Lake St.

Clair Walleye Association and Gilbert's Sportsman's Club.

The tournament is a $20 fee to get in, and it includes a dinner also, and what happens is you enter your fish, and big fish is a price for big fish, and then when we enter your fish, you get a number.

And then the number gets put in a bucket, and you get drawn out of that bucket for a three man team.

So you could have a one pound fish and still win the first place in a team event.

And also all the tickets get put back in the bucket and it's called a mystery fish and they pull one out for a mystery fish.

So even if you had a little one pound fish, you could still win money with it, and it works a lot of good.

Anybody can enter.

You don't have to be a club member of either club.

It's open to the public, and the best thing you can do is just keep your eye on the bait shops.

We put all the flyers in the bait shops from Detroit all the way up to Port Huron so anybody can enter it.

That's what we're trying to do is open it up to the public as much as we can so everybody can have a little bit of fun.

Oh, we got a nice eye.

All right, got the skunk out of the box.

- [Skip] Got it here.

- [Mark] Let's see that there.

- [Skip] Yeah!

- Nice fish.

- Nice fish.

- Nice color today.

- [Jimmy] Fishing with Mark too today was Skip Auben, who had a quick double header going for a minute, but the bubble was burst when it turned out to be a little smallmouth instead of the targeted walleye.

One thing about this river and really all of Lake St.

Clair is that you can never be sure what is putting the bend in your rod.

Everything from a little perch to a giant sturgeon could grab your pole in these waters, which is one reason the guys who fish this body of water enjoy it so much.

- [Mark] It's a lot of fun.

I mean besides catching the walleyes here, at any given time you can catch a muskies, a smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, pike, perch, bluegills, the lake's a lot of fun.

I mean you can't go anywhere and catch as many variety of fish besides catching the walleyes, you don't come home without a basket full of fish here.

- [Jimmy] We weren't really expecting a basket of fish today, the fishing has been good, but not red hot by any stretch.

The guys having the best luck have been at night and even then, no real monsters have been pulled out this year, but at least for now, it looked like we had a good spot.

- It's looking good, we got two in a row now.

So we'll keep on the inside corner here.

We'll keep trolling it through here and see what we can do.

Maybe we can get a limit today before it's over with.

- [Jimmy] I think both Skip and Mark would've traded a limit for about an eight or nine pounder today, with another fish heading into the live well, we at least were assured of one thing, a nice fish dinner.

You see, the Gilbert's Sportsman's Club, another MUCC affiliate where the weigh-in would be at, takes all the fish that are donated and does a big fish fry for the guys in the tournament and whoever shows up.

I thought this was a great idea and it really seemed to draw a lot more people than if there was no dinner involved.

Funny how a fresh walleye dinner will do that.

I was very impressed with all that the Lake St.

Clair Walleye Association does.

They're not only involved in the community, but they do a lot with the youth of today.

- [Mark] Try to make it, you know, the best we can as a family-oriented fun club.

Every third weekend of the month, we have derbies we call them, and nothing to enter, anybody can enter it, and all the local bait shops around the area sponsor us and we have little prizes and stuff at the derby that area bait shops and stuff donate.

- [Jimmy] This club is very involved in the community, and as we brought in another fish, I was surprised to hear from Mark just how much this club has for kids.

- [Mark] What we do too now is we have a kids outing every year, we have two every year.

We have a winter one and a summer one.

The winter one is always on a free fishing weekend in February.

And then the summer one we have here, a local member has a big huge pond and he donates his pond for us and we have that at his house.

We have another big classic is we call it the Fall Classic and it's the same clubs to put it on and that's usually in September or October.

It's a nice club.

Everybody's friendly, everybody helps everybody fish.

So if you want to come and learn how to fish walleyes, it's a good club for that, especially in this area.

Oh yeah, that's a little bit better.

That's a little better, yeah.

- Take a round.

- What's that?

- [Jimmy] With another fish in the boat, we were doing pretty good today all things considered.

From the chatter on the radio, we were doing about as well or better than many of the boats.

With four walleye in the box, we started to pull lines to get back for the start of the 2:00 weigh-in.

The Gilbert's Sportsman's Club was just a few minutes down the road and was a perfect place to hold the weigh-in.

The clubhouse here is really something to see, and as the anglers rolled in, the scale came out to see who had the biggest fish today.

In this tournament, you only weigh one fish, and then you are randomly put with two other anglers, so any fish could end up on the winning team.

There was some very nice prizes and a lot of good food to come for all the participants.

Inside the club, I was amazed at how nice it was.

A fully stocked bar and a full service kitchen were very nice and made me wish I lived a little closer.

Outside, the fish just kept coming, and even Mark was able to put a decent fish on the board.

- That's 21!

- 21 and a quarter.

All right!

- Good job!

- [Mark] Is it gonna go three pounds?

Yeah, look at that!

- 3.23.

- [Jimmy] People kept showing up, some with a nice cooler of fish.

Once the fish were weighed and measured, the fish cleaners were ready to do their work.

Filet after filet were making their way to the dinner table.

This was a great event, and only one of the many this club holds.

It was encouraging to see sportsmen getting together for a day of fishing and then sit down to taste the fruits of their labor afterwards.

A big thank you to both MUCC clubs, the Gilbert's Sportsman's Club and the Lake St.

Clair Walleye Association for showing us that you can have a good time, be involved in the community, and get kids involved without losing the one overriding factor that makes all of this worthwhile.

- Sure a lot of fun to come out here and catch a fish.

(upbeat music) - Well, when you think of beautiful places here in Michigan, one thing that comes to my mind is the northwest part of our state, specifically the Grand Traverse Bay area.

And when you think of beautiful kinds of fishing that are out there, fly fishing jumps to mind.

But one thing that probably you don't associate with Grand Traverse Bay and with fly fishing is carp fishing.

- [Gabe] The sign says Golden Bones Charters, and this is Grand Traverse Bay.

For those not familiar with southern flats fishing, the fish being referred to is the carp.

Sometimes nicknamed the Golden Bonefish, these fish are quickly becoming one of the favorite species of fish to target with a fly rod for those who have tried it.

Bob Gwizdz is one fisherman who's caught carp fever, and says it's not as easy as it looks.

Like their saltwater namesakes, these freshwater bonefish are surprisingly spooky and can be very tough to catch.

- The idea is to find a fish that's feeding and try and put that fly three, four, five feet in front of them.

Let it settle to the bottom, see if you can get them to pick it up.

You're generally casting to individual fish that you see as opposed to just fishing blindly like you might with another wet fly.

And there's a lot of fish in here.

It's just a matter of picking out one that looks like he's in a feeding mode and putting it in front of him.

- [Gabe] There is a bunch of them in here, aren't there?

- Yes sir.

Quite a few fish in here.

It's a little bit of a difficult lay as you can see, you got a lot of reeds and stuff and the idea is to find one that's kind of a nice slow cruise feeding along and then get it right and deliver that fly right into his line of feeding.

You'll see him turn and take a fly once in a while, but generally speaking, you wanna put it right in front of his face.

It makes it a lot easier on him.

Okay, there's a fish right there coming this way.

- [Gabe] This time of year, the fish are in the shallows looking to spawn and feed amongst the reeds.

Fly Fishermen then have a chance to slip into the shallow flats and try to present a fly that imitates a crayfish, nymph, or other creatures that the carp might be interested in eating.

Jon Andrus owns Golden Bones Charters and has been targeting these fish for years.

Living on Old Mission Peninsula has allowed Jon to fish both East and West Bays all his life.

Through the years, he's discovered that the carp can be very finicky, and by closely observing the fish's behavior, anglers can quickly recognize which fish to go after and which ones will most likely not give the fly a second glance.

- There's basically three types of fish in this given area right here.

We'll call them spawning fish, cruising fish, and feeding fish.

The spawning fish, obviously that's self-explanatory.

The cruising fish are just going from point A to point B and hopefully when you see the feeding fish, that's exactly what it's doing is feeding, and it's pretty obvious.

When you watch them enough you can see the head down, tail up position, and a lot of times they'll be stirring the bottom up so you can see little puffs of mud coming up on them too.

So in that situation, if you have got all three fish in front of you, what you want to target is the feeding fish.

If you can't find a feeding fish and you've only got spawners and cruisers, then you'd wanna target the cruisers.

And if all you got is spawning fish, and then you want to kinda watch the periphery of any group of spawning fish, and there's times that you will see fish picking up the debris that's been kicked up off the bottom by the spawners.

- [Gabe] This little bay was chock full of carp, but it took a while to find some that were actively feeding.

The temperatures of the last few days were way below the late June average, and the fish weren't feeding as actively as they should be with warmer waters.

After finding two feeders, Jon concentrated on making good accurate casts without spooking the fish.

As it turns out, the competition between the two fish might have been their downfall.

As Jon's fly hit the water, one fish seemed to come quickly to investigate.

A small line strip was all that was needed to seal the deal.

- There, there, got him, got him!

Did you catch it?

- Oh yeah!

He came right up and sucked it in, didn't he?

- He sure did.

Because I did get him to run.

Must have just something rolled.

- [Gabe] What were you watching for as that one was coming closer?

- He turned and come at the fly.

He showed interest in it.

And so I just kept bumping the fly, keeping him coming forwards on it, keeping him interested in it, but not moving it so fast that you take it away from him, and you literally, you could see him bend down and take that fly.

- [Gabe] Jon played this fish well with his eight weight fly rod.

With the cold waters, this fish didn't go on the long screaming runs that are typical of the big fish, but it was a good fight nonetheless.

After Bob got a couple of pictures for the newspaper, it was determined that this fish weighed 13 pounds, which is about average for the fish we were seeing on this day.

On a typical warm day though, it's not uncommon to tangle with fish that are over the 20 pound mark.

The fish was released unharmed and ready to catch another day.

To fish carp with a fly rod, it's not all that difficult to get started.

A rod with a good backbone and a reel with lots of backing are absolute musts.

Waders during the summer are often optional with the warm shallow water.

And when it comes to flies, it's not too complicated.

Jon says the most important part of determining which fly to use is to take a good look at the bottom structure of what you're going to be fishing.

- I carry four basic patterns that I use most of the time.

Two are crayfish patterns, a gray and a brown.

I also use a nymph pattern here that looks like a hex.

And occasionally this which would be a deceiver or a closer type with a little sparkle in it that I'll use in muddied waters where you want a little bit more visibility to the fly.

All will work in any given situation.

Crayfish patterns, obviously, if I was to walk into an area I see carp and it's basically rocks or gravel bottom, I would probably start with a crayfish pattern because that's what's going to be there.

The bottom that we're standing in right now, because there's a lot of silt, I would probably start with an nymph type pattern because I think that's what's going to be on the bottom right now.

The last pattern that I use is this deceiver or claws type pattern.

You know, I mean typically out here you've got very, very clear water, so you haven't gotta worry about that, except when fish are feeding in a salty type bottom, they'll rile it enough that the extra little sparkle a lot of times will help the fish see the pattern.

- [Gabe] When it comes to picking out a rod for this type of fishing, Jon recommends something with a backbone in the six to nine weight range.

Reels most importantly need to hold at least 150 feet of backing or more.

Large arbor reels are nice for quickly picking up the line, but any large reel capable of holding lots of line will work.

Once you have your equipment, it's time to look for carp-holding areas.

Just like deer and turkey hunting, success is largely dependent on how well you scout for good spots.

- This time of year you're looking for shallow water, flats of of some kind.

Here we've got a lot of reeds and we've got a fairly mucky bottom.

Carp are going to be in here doing two things, spawning and feeding.

The spawning fish, what they're looking for is vegetation like you see out here that they can go through, drop their eggs into, and there's something for the eggs to cling to.

They don't put a bed down like bass or trout would do, so they have to have something for their eggs to adhere to in order for them to stay and hatch.

They're also in here feeding on crayfish, nymphs, different things like that.

And you can tell that a lot of times when you go into an area if carp are feeding into it because you'll find pod marks on the bottom just where they've been rooting.

It's just like a pig rooting.

- [Gabe] As the day went along, we moved to another spot to find some different fish-holding water.

This area had many spawning fish, but not many that were interested in feeding.

Spawning fish are not as likely to take a fly, but Jon says if you watch closely, many times there will be other fish following close by feeding on the bugs and crayfish kicked up by the spawners.

Jon found one fish following the others and feeding, and it wasn't long before the rod was bent over and another big fish on the line.

You cast into a pod of fish, huh?

- There was a single fish there.

- [Gabe] Oh, was there?

- Yeah, we worked on the outside edge.

That first run.

- [Gabe] As with most fishing, Murphy's Law still applies.

The fish was almost in hand, but as they say, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

- Whoops.

- [Gabe] That's okay, it's not going anywhere.

- Aw!

Broke off.

- Put just a little bit too much to them, didn't you?

- [Gabe] Well that's why they call it fishing and not catching.

During this trip, we had fished so close, you could count their scales, but only a few were willing to feed with the cold temperatures.

On an average day, skilled anglers can tangle with around five to 10 fish, but the key is to get out there and fish.

Whether it's cold, windy, or whatever the weather may be, like my father says, the fish aren't going to catch themselves, so grab a rod and a handful of flies and try some fly fishing on Michigan's freshwater flats.

- Well, for all of you outdoor television lovers out there, you're probably very familiar with some professional bass fishermen, and their names are pretty well known across the country.

You may wonder how some of those guys get started in the fishing industry.

Well, one place to get started is the Michigan Bass Federation.

(upbeat music) Bass fishing is one of the most popular sports across the country.

And last Thursday, a group of young anglers was preparing to compete in the Junior Bassmasters Northern Divisional Championship right here in Michigan on Lake St.

Clair.

The competitors and their parents traveled from six different states and Canada to take part in the tournament.

Matt Pied from Sioux Falls, South Dakota caught me up to speed on what was going on tonight.

- Oh, pretty much just getting our poles and our fishing loaders and things like that ready and then we're gonna at 5:00 have a meeting and come back, get the boat ready, get it all cleaned out, pretty much things like that.

- [Jenny] How'd you get started doing all this?

- A couple years ago, me and my grandpa went out fishing and I caught a huge bass.

It must have been, I don't know, 16 inches long, and I've liked bass fishing ever since.

- [Jenny] This was some serious bass fishing with lots of rules.

Everyone headed over to Gino's Surf on the lake for a rules meeting and to find out who they'd be paired up with in the morning and which boat they'd fish from.

Once that happened, the kids drew to see who would be in charge of deciding where to fish and running the trolling motor for the first half of the day.

After four hours, the authority changes hands and the other angler decides where they will go.

Everything in this tournament is strictly up to the kids to decide.

They're allowed no help from the adults except for driving the boat.

On Friday morning, the boats lined up to launch at the Metro Beach Park and were ready to hit the water.

The participants came from Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan, South Dakota, and Ontario, Canada, and did quite a bit to get here.

- The kids have to go through club tournaments in their states, and after they go through their club tournaments, they find the best kids out of each club to go to their state tournaments.

After they go through their state tournaments, it depends on how many kids compete at their state.

In Michigan, we have 42 kids that competed.

Out of 42 contenders, we take the top six to go to the northern divisionals.

The reason why I got into it a long time ago is because it's one sport that it doesn't matter if the kid is a big kid, what his religion is, what nationality he is, or anything else.

This sport can be done by anybody, and it's one of the cheaper sports too.

Hockey and stuff like this, it costs a lot to take these kids to different events and that.

This one you can fish with your grandfather.

Everybody fishes.

Everybody loves to fish, and you don't have to be a superstar or nothing, you just go out to have fun.

And the thing about fishing is that it's competitive out there right now, but once these kids come in, they're done with the weighing and that and they go out with their grandfather tomorrow or tonight or whatever else and they're back out there catching fish, they're having fun.

- [Jenny] Competitive bass fishing is a fun sport.

Many of these kids aspire to become pros someday.

One such young man is 15-year-old Danny Suttles from Cambridge City, Indiana, who would love to go pro in the future.

- It's just something I've always had a dream to do and I got 15 sponsors or eight sponsors, and for 15 years old, they tell me that's good, and I do pretty good.

It's just I start thinking too much when I'm on the water, and then when I second guess, I don't catch them.

I do better when it's tough.

I'm more patient, and a lot of times I catch fish when other people can't.

It's a good way to start out.

You're not fishing against grownups.

You kind of keep your caliber, and it's fun to go out there and fish against people.

I made more friends in this thing.

There's kids from Canada I keep in touch with.

We're really good friends, and yes, I definitely suggest fishing this.

- [Jenny] Tournaments like these not only develop lifelong friendships, but also an incredible sense of responsibility and sportsmanship.

As an affiliate club of MUCC's, the Michigan Bass Federation does a lot with their young members to develop an interest that goes way beyond fishing and into other areas as well.

- [Ron] The other thing that we do is we want the kids not just involved in just fishing, we want them involved with the environmental, the hunting aspect, and everything else.

So when they do join the youth club, they also join the MUCC tracks.

So they don't just learn about just fishing.

I want them to learn about biology, I want them to learn about conservation, hunting, fishing, all the rights, the rules, everything else.

You know, they're gonna be our senators, they're gonna be our legislatures and everything else once they grow up, and they need to fight for our sport.

And because of that, we work with MUCC so we can get the tracks to them so they can learn a lot more of the aspects besides just fishing.

- [Jenny] The kids were seeing a firsthand example of conservation at the tournament weigh-in.

After hitting the scales, the fish were rushed over to a release boat that was here courtesy of our neighbors at the Ohio Bass Federation.

As we take a look at some of the more successful anglers, I'd like to take the time to thank a few people who made this event such a fun time for everyone.

Ron Guilfoil Junior and the Michigan Bass Federation deserve a big thanks from all sportsmen in Michigan for keeping kids excited about our great outdoor heritage.

Glenn Casey Cook for being a wonderful MC.

Bill McElroy for lending his Scales and Tails boat as the camera boat for the day.

And Jon Maniachi for shuttling me around the lake.

And finally, BASS, and all the organizations who donated their time, products, and services to make this experience one these kids will never forget.

- Well everybody, thank you so much for watching "Michigan Out of Doors" this week.

Hopefully you enjoyed that look back, and we'll be back to new programming next week with a really cool event that just happened in the southeast part of our state, one of the biggest veteran fishing events that happens across the country.

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

- [Announcer] "Michigan Out of Doors" is presented by.

- [Narrator] 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.

GreenStone.

(bright music) - [Announcer] By Morgan Composting, a family business located in Michigan.

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

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

- [Announcer] By GreenMark Equipment.

GreenMark Equipment is a Jon Deere dealership network in Southwest Michigan and Northern Indiana.

GreenMark provides sales and services to farmers, commercial businesses, large property owners, and homeowners.

Information about pricing and products available can be found online at greenmarketequipment.com.

(upbeat music) ♪ When I wander away a dream stays with me night and day ♪ ♪ It's the road that leads to my home state ♪ (gentle piano music)