MARCH 2019 $4.

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2019 Deer Season

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WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 3
 2019 Black Lake sturgeon
By Tom Campbell...

Remember & Reminders

W e are extremely sad to
inform our readers that
season over in 78 minutes!
T
our ‘Mr. Boat Smart,’ Capt. Fred his year’s sturgeon
Davis has passed. A man who season on Black Lake
dedicated his life to the wa- (Cheboygan County,
ter has concluded his voyage. Michigan) ended at 9:18
Captain Fred Davis, 80, of Port a.m. Saturday, Feb. 2 – after only
Austin, died from cancer. He will 78 minutes of fishing.
be remembered for his passion, The fishing season, which in-
cluded spearing or hook-and-line
enthusiasm, concern and knowl- fishing, was scheduled to run Feb.
edge of all things that involved 2-6, or until the harvest quota had
the waters of Lake Huron. Capt. been reached. This year’s alloca-
Fred and his wonderful wife Pat Mr. Boat Smart... tion of sturgeon for Black Lake
have been ambassadors for the Captain Fred Davis anglers was seven fish, although
‘Top of the Thumb’ and Port Aus- Department of Natural Resources
tin. He will be missed dearly…his March column is on page 72. officials set a harvest quota of six
fish.
ANGLERS There were 403 registered an-
The MDNR will institute a new 25 fish limit on yellow perch glers on the ice Saturday, slightly
beginning April 1, 2019. The old limit of 50 will remain in effect down from 422 the year before.
in Lake Erie. Lake Gogebic in the U.P. has a limit of 25, how- Anglers of all ages again partici-
ever no more than five can be 12 inches or longer. pated, including a good number
“The major goal for lowering the yellow perch daily pos- of supervised youth.
According to the DNR, the
session limit was to better achieve an optimal balance between first four sturgeon harvested were
conservation and fishing opportunity, reflecting the importance males ranging from 52 to 60
and popularity of yellow perch in Michigan,” said Christian inches, and 25 to 47 pounds in
LeSage who works for the DNR’s Aquatic Species and Regula- weight. The final two fish were Rob Dodder of Cheboygan speared this 72
tory Affairs Unit. “Yellow perch are among the most sought-af- females ranging from 61 to 72 inch (6-foot), 80 pound sturgeon during the
ter game species in Michigan, and we want to ensure genera- inches long, and 54 to 80 pounds Black Lake sturgeon season, the biggest fish
taken. Rob was also crowned the Sturgeon
tions of anglers can continue to enjoy fishing for them.” in weight.
King at the Black Lake Shivaree. This stur-
Starting March 1, the 2019 Michigan Fishing Guide will Three of the six fish taken
geon was tagged in 2003, 2007 and 2012 on
had been captured before by
be available online and in printed copy form at fishing license Michigan State University and
the Black River.
retailers. Michigan’s annual fishing license is valid from March the DNR during spring spawn-
1 of a given year through March 31 of the following year. For ing runs in the Black River. A harvested 56-inch male originally was
more information, visit Michigan.gov/DNRDigests. captured in the 2009 spring spawning run. A 60-inch male had been
TURKEY HUNTERS captured and tagged during the 2004, 2010 and 2017 spawning runs. The
largest fish, a 72-inch female, had been captured and tagged during the
If any licenses remain after the drawing, unsuccessful ap- 2003, 2007 and 2012 spawning runs in the Black River.
plicants who possess a current base license may purchase a Participating anglers were notified of the season closure in a variety
leftover turkey license online or from any license agent on a of ways; including a fishing telephone hotline, text alerts to those who
first-come, first-served basis. Unsuccessful drawing applicants provided cell phone numbers,
may purchase one leftover spring turkey license beginning signal cannons, mortar rounds
March 11 at 10 a.m. EDT. Beginning March 18 at 10 a.m., any and fireworks. All methods were
hunter may purchase one license until quotas are met, includ- used to indicate the season’s
ing hunters who did not apply for a spring turkey license.n end within minutes of the final
fish being harvested. DNR law
enforcement officials and other
SEASONS department personnel again
were embedded in the on-ice
Now - March 15 – Walleye and pike open in Lower Peninsula inland waters fishing communities and were
Now - March 15 – Walleye and pike open in Upper Peninsula Great Lakes, inland able to quickly report harvested
waters & St. Marys River fish and contact all participating
Now - Mar. 31 – Squirrel; Fox and Gray (black phase included) Season anglers about the season’s
Now - Mar. 31 – Cottontail and Snowshoe Hare Season
Now - Mar. 1 – Fox (gray and red) hunting statewide. Coyote hunting season is
close.
open year-round “We allow for any licensed
Open All Year – Pike and walleye season on Lower Peninsula Great Lakes, Lake St. angler to participate – as long
Clair & St. Clair & Detroit Rivers as they register – so we need to
Open All Year – Salmon and trout season on Great Lakes, St. Marys River, Lake St. have a significant on-ice presence
Clair & St. Clair & Detroit Rivers of DNR personnel to protect the
Open All Year – Catch-and-immediate-release bass season on all Michigan waters population of lake sturgeon in
open to fishing
Now - March 1 – Coyote, gray and red fox, muskrat, and mink trapping seasons
Black Lake from overharvest,”
statewide. said DNR fisheries manager Dave
Now - March 31 – Raccoon trapping season open statewide. Borgeson. “This year was another
Now - March 1 – Bobcat hunting season in Units A, B and C (bobcat kill tags had to successful season for angler par-
be obtained prior to Nov. 30) ticipation, fish harvest and quick
Now - March 31 – Crow hunting statewide response times, as well as from a
March 31 – 2018 Fishing Licenses expire Stephanie Miller, the second successful safety perspective.”
April 22 - May 31 – Spring turkey hunting with various hunt units and dates. angler of the 2019 Black Lake sturgeon For more information on
*Consult the Michigan Hunting and Trapping Digests, Fishing Digest, or other spe-
cies-specific hunting digests for a more complete list of dates and regulations regard-
season, holds the fish she harvested lake sturgeon in Michigan, visit
ing each season or hunt period. shortly after the season opened. Michigan.gov/Sturgeon.
4 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 5
 BROWN TROUT
HUNTING
Casting a Crown
Mark Romanack page 34
MARCH
John Ozoga page 32 Ice fishing’s hot bites!
John Bergsma page 50 WALLEYE
More Big Bucks
page 37 Retrieve with MADNESS
‘Midwest Finesse’ Style
SCOUTING Dave Mull page 52
For Deer Hunters
John Eberhart page 42 Icing Saginaw Bay’s
Late Season Walleyes
Hunting Spring Gobblers Michael Veine page 59
SCOUTING
Darin Potter page 62 Flying and fly-fishing Kenny Darwin...page 12
Bill Kendy page 61 Dear Fish Diary...
Michigan State Parks NEWS On the day ‘Hell’ froze over,
CHROME CONFIDENCE
2018 hunting accidents did you go fishing?
Nathan Miller page 64
Jeff Pendergraff page 31 Ron St. Germain page 60
Late Ice and Big Water Michigan Meanders...
Mark Sak page 65 MDNR staffers honored Time Out, Time Off
page 68 Tom Huggler page 74

FEATURE PERSPECTIVE HOT TOPICS

Michigan’s A family affair Developing new participants
Fish Hatcheries History Tom Lounsbury page 20 grows with new initiatives
Bill Ziegler page 8 page 66

Outdoor Foundation MDNR Director...

Celebrating 100 years!
...page 28
Hunting with dogs...
Quartering and bird excitement
Len Jenkins page 75 Jonathan Schechter page 38
Michigan Deer Camp Traditions
Memories at the
Lil’ Ponderosa
Jake Dykstra page 76
FISHING
Make life easier on ice...
Bass Fishing Contest of 1910
Lessons learned the hard way
Mark Martin page 15 Take care buying a new boat
Covering water for steelies
Jim Bedford page 16
Guest Column...
Trophy Steelhead
Brett Hartford page 18
is good for everyone Eichinger draws on
Randy Jorgensen page 26 deep outdoor tradition
page 67
Michigan’s Mighty Letter: Recreational Rights
Meadow Vole page 68
Letter: Stop Asian Carp
Field Trialing with beagles page 68
Millard H. Holton page 58
Sporting Collectibles...
GUNS/AMMO
The World’s Championship Hunting Spring Gobblers Mossberg celebrates its
Terry McBurney page 70 SCOUTING 100th anniversary
Tom Carney page 40
Darin Potter...page 62
BOAT SMART... Black Powder Shooting
An honest commitment
Capt. Fred Davis page 72 Henry Hamilton... Dennis Neely page 54
“Hair Buyer”
Gun Chat...Cold
TRAIL CAM PHOTOS Darryl Quidort page 49 Lee Arten page 73
page 78
MARCH 2019

Woods-n-Water News
Michigan’s Premier Outdoor Publication
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DEPARTMENTS...
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2019 Deer Season
Trophy Pages. . . . . . 56 Classifieds . . . . 80-81
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SCOUTING
March Madness
News/Op-Ed. . . . 66-68 Real Estate . . . . 81-89
Mark Romanack page 22 WALLEYES

COVER PHOTO 1-810-724-0254

Hunting Spring

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Early Spring

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By Nathan Miller STEELIES • 100 Years of Michigan State Parks • Make Life Easier on Ice
P.O. Box 278, Imlay City, MI 48444
...page 64
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6 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS

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WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 7
 MICHIGAN’S
FISH HATCHERIES
HISTORY
R
earing fish in a hatch-
ery began in Michigan
shortly after the first
fish culture attempts in
the U.S., according to
Harry Westers (Michi-
gan’s long-time head of DNR Fish
Culture) in the Michigan Fisheries
Centennial Report. N. W. Clark cre-
ated his own brook trout hatchery in
Clarkston, Oakland County in 1867.
In 1874 Mr. Clark established a sec-
ond hatchery in Northville, which
was operated by his son until it was
taken over by the U.S. Fish Com-
mission around 1880.
The Michigan Fish Commis-
sion was established in 1873. The
Michigan Fish Commission oper-
ated under the belief that Michigan
waters depleted by excessive fishing
could be restored with reasonable
effort by artificially rearing desired
Trout feeding in the foreground in the “raceways” of the Cooks Run Trout
Rearing Station (Iron County) operated by the Depar tment of Conser va-
tion between 1934 and 1961. Alpha-Mastadon Historical Society photo
8 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
fish species. The original Michigan
Fish Commission was established
to promote the cultivation
of “food fishes rather than
sport and recreational fish.”
Some of the earliest ef-
forts by the Michigan Fish
Commission were to over-
come the state legislature’s
skepticism that fish could
be successfully artificially
reared in hatcheries.
Once the Commis-
sion’s experimental
By Bill Ziegler
fish culture was proven successful,
they could move on to increase rear-
ing facilities and fish management
efforts. The first documented fish
introduction effort by the Michigan
Fish Commission was to introduce
Atlantic salmon fry (20,000) to 15
Great Lakes tributaries including the
Au Sable River in 1873.
Marquette Hatchery employees working the trout in the raceways in
1926. The Marquette State Fish Hatchery was built at the headwaters
of Cherry Creek in 1922 and is still operating today. MDNR photo
The need for Michigan to have its
own public fish hatchery became
evident in 1873. Monies
were appropriated to build
Michigan’s first hatchery
at Pokagon, near Niles,
in Cass County. This first
Michigan hatchery was
named Crystal Springs and
was built on a large spring
water supply of 300 gallons
per minute. In 1874
this new hatchery
received 180,000
Atlantic salmon eggs from Maine.
The fry were reared and stocked out
in May in a variety of Great Lakes
tributaries going north as far as
the Ste. Marys River in Sault Ste.
Marie.
Historically, some hatcheries
were built where many Michigan-
ders today would have not expected
a hatchery to be located. More
hatchery space was needed in 1875
and a new hatchery was established
on Atwater Street in Detroit. In 1876
this new Detroit hatchery went into
production hatching out 10 million
lake whitefish eggs. A new hatch-
ery manager, Orin Chase, was hired
for the Detroit whitefish hatchery.
Chase developed a new method to
hatch out whitefish eggs with using
hatching jars. This method of hatch-
ing eggs is still used today, espe-
cially with warm water fish species
like walleye.
The Michigan Fish Commis-
sion was largely focused on rearing
whitefish at this early stage of their
management efforts. The increasing
need for more hatchery production
in 1883 resulted in the Detroit’s
Atwater Street hatchery being
replaced by a new Detroit hatchery
built at the corner of Lafayette and
Joseph Campau Ave. That same year
a new state hatchery was also built
in Petoskey.
In 1881 problems developed
with Michigan’s first hatchery, Po-
kagon’s water source, that resulted
in the Commission looking for a
new hatchery site. Paris in Mecosta
County was chosen for the new
hatchery site due to an “abundant
water supply” and good railroad
connections to distribute the fish to
be planted out. In the 1880s brook
trout rearing and stocking became
a higher priority for the Michigan
Fish Commission. The Paris Hatch-
ery worked to meet the brook trout
demand.
Water source problems also
became a problem for the Petos-
key hatchery and it was ultimately
closed. The Detroit whitefish hatch-
ery filled the need with increased
productivity. New whitefish hatcher-
ies were constructed at Sault Ste.
Marie and Charlevoix in the early
1890s. In addition, during that same
period a bass rearing station was
also created at Cascade Springs in
Kent County.
By the early 1900s the state’s in-
terest in inland fisheries had greatly
increased and the Fish Commission
moved toward meeting that demand
with development of their hatchery
system. At the turn of the century
the state’s hatchery system consisted
of six hatcheries: Detroit (now
walleye production), Drayton Plains
(bass), Mill Creek, near Grand Rap-
ids (bass and walleye), Paris (trout),
Harrietta, Wexford County. (trout
broodstock), and Sault Ste. Marie
(whitefish).
In 1921 Michigan Fish Com-
Hatcheries History page 10
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 9
Hatcheries
History:
from page 8
mission operations were absorbed
by the newly created Department
of Conservation (DOC). One new
policy change of the DOC was to
restrict the introduction of “foreign”
(nonnative) game and food fish spe-
cies to Michigan waters. In the early
1930s DOC took advantage of the
CCC and other federal government
work programs to rebuild, improve
and expand their hatcheries.
There was a proliferation of new
fish hatcheries in the early 1900s.
The state opened new trout hatcher-
ies in Grayling (1914), Thompson
-Schoolcraft Co. (1919), Oden
– Emmet Co. (1920), Harrisville –
Alcona Co. (1920), Benton Harbor
(1920), Wolverine -Cheboygan Co.
(1922), Sidnaw – Houghton Co.
(1922), Marquette (1922), Heart
Experimental - Oceana Co. (1927),
and Wolf Lake (trout and warmwa-
ter fish) -Van Buren Co. (1928).
Many of these trout hatcheries
had associated but separate trout
rearing stations helping them boost
their fish production. All of these
rearing stations are too numerous
to list in this article, although the
Cooks Run Rearing Station in Iron
Co. is a good example. Cooks Run
was started in 1934 and operated by
the nearby Watersmeet Hatchery.
A cabin was built by the CCC and
other federal work programs. The
raceways were relatively simple
in the sense that the trout streams
channel was blocked off by concrete
bulkheads and water control struc-
tures. Small fingerling trout were
transferred to the Cooks Run Station
from the Watersmeet Hatchery and
then reared in the stream “raceways”
Historical photo of the Detroit Fish Hatchery for whitefish located on the corner of Lafayette and Jo-
seph Campau. The Michigan Fish Commission built this hatchery in 1883. MDNR photo
10 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
Historical photo of the Paris Fish Hatchery that was built in 1881 by the Michigan Fish Commission. The site
was chosen due to its abundant water supply and good railroad connections for fish distribution. MDNR photo.
until desired stocking size.
During the 1920s and ’30s the
state addressed an increased de-
mand for walleye fisheries with the
construction of walleye hatcheries in
Bay City (1922), Days River – Delta
Co. (1931), Lake Gogebic – Goge-
bic Co. (1936) and Twin Falls – Iron
Mountain – Dickinson Co. (1936).
In 1942 the Fisheries Division
adopted a policy to “plant fewer
but larger fish.” Trout were the
primary hatchery production during
the period. The Division referred to
the period from 1950 to 1964 as the
“legal - size trout era.” Many trout
streams across northern Michigan
were stocked with legal sized trout
to support a put and take fishery.
Subsequent studies and many stock-
ing evaluations concluded the cost
of stocking legal sized fish could not
be justified in return to the anglers’
creel. In 1965 this policy changed to
stocking trout with more economi-
cal fingerling and yearling (sub legal
sized) trout into only trout waters
that could produce a put – grow
and take fishery. In addition, many
nonnative (brown and rainbow)
trout plants were largely curtailed
into native brook trout streams. As a
result of this change and cost versus
efficiency the hatcheries at Paris,
Watersmeet, and Benton Harbor
were closed.
In the mid-1960s the Department
of Conservation Fisheries Division
moved toward reclaiming the Great
Lakes Fishery. This major change
large scale introduction of nonnative
pacific salmon resulted in construc-
tion of a new Platte River State
hatchery at the site of an older rearing
facility. The conversion of Platte Riv-
er to the state’s main salmon hatchery
was completed in 1972. This new
three-million-dollar hatchery was to
add salmon production capacity to the
state’s system to meet the growing
need for coho and chinook salmon to
stock in the Great Lakes.
Many of the varied hatcheries
discussed above were relatively
short lived. Some were closed to
problems with their water source,
some replaced by more efficient
facilities and some due to lack
of demand or changing division
priorities for their specific species
best produced there. At the present
time the Michigan Department of
Natural Resources (name changed
in 1968) operates six hatcheries. The
current hatchery system includes
Marquette, Thompson, Oden, Platte
River, Harrietta, and Wolf Lake. All
of these hatcheries were in service
in the past although all were rebuilt
and modernized to maximize qual-
ity and efficiency. These hatcheries
have a more diverse fish species
production than in the past, although
their production is still dominated
by trout and salmon. These hatcher-
ies are generally much larger and
more efficient than the large number
of hatcheries that were closed over
time. Many improvements have
been made in a wide variety of fac-
tors including genetics and condi-
tion of hatchery fish to be stocked to
improve their survival and perfor-
mance in the wild.
Michigan has a robust history
in fisheries. Many Michiganders
live a relatively close distance to a
historical state hatchery facility. If
you are interested in history some of
these hatchery facility structures or
remnants still exist and can be found
with some exploration. In some
cases, the old hatcheries were taken
over by local authorities or they
were taken over by private hatchery
operations.
Visiting those facilities can be a
window to the past. Several ex-
amples of this are the Watersmeet
Trout Hatchery (private but open
to the public), Paris Fish Hatchery,
Grayling Fish Hatchery and Twin
Falls – Iron Mountain (hatchery
building). Visitors are welcome at
Michigan DNR’s six current hatch-
eries listed above. Most have visitor
interpretive displays which typically
include their historical information
and photos.n
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 11
 March is a month of
transition in Michigan...
The weather can be warm and
mild causing ice to melt and rivers
to rise or it can be brutally cold,
an extension of winter. Fast paced
walleye action can be influenced
by weather and anglers need to
adjust fishing plans to coincide
with changing weather conditions.

By Kenny Darwin

MARCH WALLEYE MADNESS

T
here was a slight mist in the warm
spring air as we vertically jigged
the 30-foot depth of the Saginaw
River under the Zilwaukee Bridge.
The sound of newly arrived honk-
ing geese filled the air and high
pitched whistling wings of merganser ducks ush-
ered in an early spring. Just a few days ago the
river was solid ice but heavy rain and bright noon
sun caused Saginaw River to belch and the ice
washed downriver and masses of pre-spawn wall-
eyes rushed upstream and stacked deep runs and
holes near Saginaw. The boat next to me landed
a big walleye and another came to net nearby. I
knew we were in a perfect location when all of
a sudden there was a solid thump on the end of
my line and I set the hook with a high overhead
rod jerk. I knew immediately it was a big walleye
because my rod bent double and the large fish
hugged bottom and violently shook its head. Each
pull on the rod brought in a little line and soon
a big hen tipping the scales around 10 pounds
charged the surface and swam into the net.
I admired the catch and quickly dropped
my minnow tipped Northland Tackle ½ oz. glow
jig to bottom. Soon as I reeled slack line and
tapped bottom POW! I was into another hog. This
fish was a beautiful 5-pound male fresh from the
open water of Saginaw Bay with white belly and
light greenish sides. I unhooked the prize, put a
new minnow on the hook and soon as I touched
bottom BANG! I was into another. In less than an
hour our boat had a live well full of big wall-
eyes and the non-stop fishing action was simply
madness. The brand of walleye fishing we all
dream about. But catching spring walleyes can be
a hit or miss proposition and the key to success
depends on your ability to locate schools of pre-
spawn active fish. Here’s why.
March is a month of transition in Michigan
and the weather can be warm and mild causing
ice to melt and rivers to rise or it can be bru-
12 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
tally cold and an extension of winter. Fast paced
walleye action can be influenced by weather and
anglers need to adjust fishing plans to coincide
with changing weather conditions. One thing is
certain, somewhere in Michigan walleye fishing
is simply off the hook pandemonium as pre-
spawn fish gather in massive schools. March is
when big water vagabonds migrate under ice to
river mouths seeking current and gravel where
they can lay eggs.
Walleyes begin to gather in February but
come March they are fired up, actively feed-
ing in preparation of spawning. The gathering
of monster walleyes is a phenomenon that is a
yearly pattern of nature. Huge fish from the Great
Lakes offer Michigan fishermen the opportunity
to cash-in on world class trophy walleye fishing
like no other, period. The impressive migration
peaks in March as zillions of mature fish gather
in massive schools. Some slip under the ice into
natal streams but the bulk of the run zooms up
Michigan tributaries when March brings a warm-
ing trend, longer days, increased sunlight, rain
and rivers become ice free with increased current.
One day waterways are solid ice but following
a warm front the ice quickly becomes unsafe as
spring break up arrives and increased flow clears
ice and walleyes put on their running shoes and
charge upriver. The trick to March walleye suc-
cess hinges on your ability to be fully prepared to
fish in a variety of conditions: from a boat, shore
or on solid ice.
If the weather remains winter-like, I rec-
ommend ice fishing on Muskegon Lake, Lake
Macatawa, White Lake, Portage Lake, Betsie
Bay, Manistee and just about any Great Lakes
drowned river mouth. Cold temperatures, over-
cast weather and extended winter will cause
spawning runs to stall, big pre-spawn hens will
mill around river mouths under the ice and fish-
ing can be impressive.
I cut my walleye catching teeth making daily
trips to Saginaw Bay from ice up until ice out.
Some years the ice blows out early and March
provides impressive catches for boaters trolling
stick baits at 1.5 mph. But if Old Man Winter
lingers and bay ice is solid the fast paced walleye
action takes place on the ice. March is when I
concentrate on schools gathering at the mouth of
the Kawkawlin and Saginaw River near the Bay
City State Recreation Area on the south end of
the Bay.
Sometimes limit catches come near the man-
made Gull Island, other times the edge of the
Saginaw River 30-foot deep shipping channel and
as spring fast approaches walleyes gather in the
3-7 foot depths of the Kawkawlin outflow. Savvy
anglers launch ice machines at the State Recre-
ation parking area and motor along the shore to
the east and fish off Lagoon Beach or Donahue
Beach.
I’ve got an ice fishing honey hole near a large
red shipping buoy at the mouth of the Saginaw
River where the deep channel and adjoining huge
shallow flats tend to funnel pre-spawn monster
walleyes. I launch my Honda quadrunner at the
DNR boat launch near the mouth of the Sagi-
naw River and motor north, the Saginaw flows
north, and go about ¾ mile to a red buoy. The
hot spot has a history of attracting and holding
huge schools of pre-spawn walleyes eager to
run up the Saginaw River. I’ll drill several holes
from shallow to deep water and tap bottom with
jigging lures tipped with minnows. Last year I
experimented with Moonshine Lures Shiver Min-
nows and caught many limits using size #2 Super
Glow Bloody Nose, JJ Mac Muffin and Super
Glow Perch. I’m convinced the ever increasing
flow and discoloration of the mighty Saginaw
in March create ideal water conditions for extra
bright glow lures.
I begin by working Shiver Minnows near
bottom in the 30 ft. channel during mid-day. If
it becomes overcast or as the sun moves toward
the horizon I move closer to the flats. Come
prime bite time at sunset I’m jigging on the edge
of the shallow flat and the channel. If there is
not too much snow machine traffic in the area
which spooks wary walleyes, I’ll often move to
the shallow holes and fish in depths certain to
attract feeding, aggressive walleyes. Few fish-
ing thrills can compete with fired up warm water
spring walleyes hooked just a few feet below
the ice. They slam the lure and when you set the
hook they almost pull the rod out of your hand
and strip line off the reel. Man, they go berserk!
Just set the hook on a 10-pounder and the close
encounter will give you an arm jolting, heart
pounding adrenaline rush.
However, March weather can be fickle and
all of a sudden winter turns to spring, snow and
ice quickly melt and area rivers become flooded,
discolored water and suddenly boat launches are
free of debris. If water is raging and stained like
heavily creamed coffee, fishing can be hampered
because fish have difficulty seeing lures in the
flowing mud. When the runoff hits the Great
Lakes walleyes put on their running shoes and
charge upriver. Some move many miles in a short
period of time and stack below area dam sites
like St. Joseph Dam, Grand River 6th Street,
Croton Dam, Tippy Dam, Homestead Dam and
more. Saginaw fish can charge up the Tittabawas-
see River, St. Charles, Shiawassee, Cass River
and Flint River.
The trick to catching limits of fish depends
on your ability to locate and entice moving
schools. On the Saginaw fish may stack in Bay
City, below the Zilwaukee Bridge, Hawg Alley
Carrolton, First St. in Saginaw, 675 Express Way,
Bliss Park, Rust Park, Wicks Park and more.
One of the hottest walleye locations on the entire
Saginaw system is where the Saginaw River
begins at the confluence of the Shiawassee and
Tittabawassee Rivers on the south end of Wicks
Park. Migrating schools often pause in the deep
swirling current at the mouth before they charge
upstream into the shallower rivers. Make certain
March often brings warm weather, heavy rain and
longer days resulting in Michigan’s waterways be-
coming ice free and walleye fishing is red hot. Au-
thor is impressed with a 10-pounder that slammed
his minnow tipped ½ oz. jig bounced along bot-
tom. Left: Walleyes congregate at the Coffer Dam
below 6th St. Dam on the Grand River on the op-
posite side from the post office. This angler is into
a trophy fish that smacked a black gnat fly drifted
along the rocky bottom in the swift current.
bottom or hop it upstream.
Don’t think for a minute I haven’t wet a
line in every inch of the water pouring over the
Dow Chemical Dam where I worked 11 years.
I’ve caught everything at the Dow Dam; perch,
crappie, king salmon, steelhead, brown trout,
catfish, northern pike and trainloads full of river
run walleyes. The fishing can be red hot but only
access is by boat. I’ve been at the Dow Dam to
see hundreds of walleyes leap over the spillway
and I’ve worked 1/8 oz. jigs tipped with plastics
in the foaming current when there were so many
walleyes their fins were sticking out of the water.
With fond memories I recall a March outing
to the White River Dam in Hesperia in search
to check DNR rules regarding fish size in pos- of spring steelhead. I arrived at the dam parking
session. The Fishing Guide says “Saginaw Bay lot at high noon in time to see several chromers
and Saginaw River upstream to Center St. Bridge leaping in the white water at the spillway. I put
daily possession limit is 8 with a 13-inches on waders, drifted a yard fly below a bobber and
minimum size limit.” Upstream from Center St. soon hooked a bright hen. I slid her on a sand bar
Bridge minimum size limit is 15-inches and you and made several more casts in the dead water
may not possess walleyes under 15-inches even that swirls back into the dam. When my bobber
if you legally caught them below Center Street went down I set the hook and immediately knew
Bridge. Fast melting March ice gives shore and it was not a steelie because the fight was less than
boat fishermen the opportunity to catch walleyes dynamic. I saw the fish roll in the swirling current
prior to the March 15 closure. and thought it was a large Great Lakes red horse
Remember I’m an old Midland High Chemic but when I beached the prize I was surprised to
and fished every inch of the Tittabawassee come see it was a 6-pound walleye. Great! Season was
spring. One of my best locations to cast jigs still open until March 15, so the fish went on the
tipped with twister tails is near the Caldwell stringer.
boat launch off E. Gordonville Road. Just walk Two hours later I caught my limit of walleyes
upstream a few hundred yards and cast ¼ oz. jigs but decided to try for steelies when my bobber
tipped with chartreuse twister tails. The trick is to
quarter cast downstream and swim the bait along March walleye madness page 14
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 13
March walleye madness:
from page 13
went down. After a long battle a
huge walleye came ashore. Lord, the
fish was huge, probably 34 inches
long with massive distended belly
full of ripe roe. I’d guess the weight
at 12-15 pounds. The monster drew
a crowd and when I released the tro-
phy unharmed a local fisherman told
me the river bottom was covered
with fresh run walleyes that charged
the Hesperia Dam after a warm rain
MARCH
15-17
14 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
melted snow and ice and caused the
river to belch. He claimed the night
fishing was outstanding.
I was tired from all the fun
fishing excitement and headed to a
friend’s cottage for hot coffee, food
and rest. For some reason I woke
up around midnight and decided
to try the Hesperia Dam at night.
When I arrived the parking lot was
full and the river bank was aglow
G A Y L O R D
ULTIMATE
HUNTING
EXPO2019
g ay l o rd h u nt i n g ex p o.co m
with lanterns used by hundreds of
fishermen. It was a walleye catch-
ing frenzy. Walleyes were landed
by old and young anglers and you
could feel the excitement in the air.
I walked the White River under the
full moon, fishing, talking to anglers
and catching walleyes.
The deep holes downstream
from the dam were alive with wall-
eyes splashing the surface like fish
at the DNR Little Manistee steelie
weir. Come dawn I was positioned
on Loop Road Bridge downstream
from the dam gazing into the clear
water watching a school of 50
ellison
place
walleyes hugging the sand bottom.
That’s when it dawned on me that
Michigan’s Great lakes tributaries
may someday become known for
fantastic walleye fishing rather than
trout or salmon. My point is do not
overlook the recreational value these
fish offer on traditional steelhead
streams come early March.
A couple weeks later found me
on the same Loop Road Bridge
watching pods of walleyes spawning
on the shallow gravel downstream.
Each large female was surrounded
by squadrons of excited males
squirting milt to fertilize eggs. I
noticed two SUVs pulled into a
parking lot and four adult males clad
in expensive fishing garb pulled out
a grill and began grilling thick prime
steaks, sipping on brandy and smok-
ing huge expensive cigars. After a
splendid feast they got out fly gear
and began casting flies to the spawn-
ing walleyes. Now this was after
the March 15 closure and soon they
were hooking walleyes, fighting
them to shore and gently releasing
healthy fish into the pristine trout
stream. They got me interested so I
slipped close, watched, listened and
determined they were intentionally
catching and releasing walleyes.
When I finally mentioned season
was closed they said “What’s wrong
with catching and releasing healthy
walleyes unharmed?” The expe-
rience got me thinking, with the
abundance of Great Lakes tributar-
ies teeming with spring walleyes
why doesn’t the DNR use slot limits
or catch and release management
policies to give state anglers an op-
portunity to get outdoors throughout
spring and better enjoy the resource?
Well, I discussed a catch and
release proposal with the DNR and
guess what? It was shot down. I
doubt if in my lifetime the DNR will
better manage Michigan’s valuable
natural resources like other states.
Why doesn’t the DNR have the
insight to better promote Michigan’s
world class stream walleye fishery?
Opening year round fishing with
limited take of one fish or using
catch and release management poli-
cies could increase license sales,
give anglers statewide a reason to go
fishing, recruit new sportsmen and
increase license sales.
March walleye madness is only
available to those who scout, locate
schools of fish and get lures in their
face. Depending on weather the
hottest fishing of the year may be on
the ice, vertical jigging from a boat
or casting from shore. The challenge
is for you to determine where the
fish are stacked. Keep in mind Sagi-
naw Bay is open to walleye fishing
year round. So keep your ice equip-
ment ready and have your boat pre-
pared to hit the water because you
may need all the equipment in order
to take full advantage of Michigan
March walleye madness.n
 Make life easier on ice...
Lessons learned the hard way
W
hile ice fish-
ing is fun, it’s
not always
easy. Extreme
weather con-
ditions can
make for less than ideal equipment
failure moments, which not only
means you’re hampering your catch-
ing ability but increasing the pos-
sibility of going home with broken
gear.
Probably the number one reason
some new students at my ice-fishing
schools might struggle to catch
fish at first is because they haven’t
learned all the little tricks my pro
staff and I have over the years when
it comes to keeping our equip-
ment in good working order. We’ve
all learned the hard way over the
decades.
It’s quite amazing, actually, just
how simple some of these tips are;
but man, do they make life easier on
the ice.
Nice Going Slick !
Nothing works as well in below-
freezing temperatures as it does
when warm. Shanty poles contract
and are harder to slide; zippers stick;
line and guides can freeze up.
One of the best products I have
found to remedy all this is to spritz
Blakemore’s Real Magic liberally
on all moving parts of my shanty,
as well the spools of my reels and
guides on my rods.
Originally designed to reduce
fishing line memory and increase
casting distance during the open-
water season, ice anglers have found
Real Magic helps keep water from
gathering up in spools and line
doesn’t freeze up nearly as bad. It
even helps keep my Berkley Fire-
Line Micro Ice free spooling when
air temperatures are well below the
freezing mark (superlines tending to
freeze up more than monofilament
or fluorocarbon). When sprayed on
guides, any ice that collects on them
just pops right out.
Before heading out on the ice, I’ll
erect my Clam Voyager X Thermal
Ice Team Edition shanty and spray
Real Magic on all its framework
where it slides in and out from one
another, and, at all pivot points. This
has made a huge difference on how
easily the shanty goes up and down,
which is a blessing when the weath-
er’s not perfect. Also, by saturating
the door zippers, getting in and out is
a breeze because water vapor doesn’t
collect onto it and synch things up. I
also spritz the swivels of the seats to
keep them spinning freely and keep-
ing them quiet.
Blown Away
One of the simpler yet over-
looked aids are ice anchors to hold
your shanty down.
Just this year, one of the instruc-
tors of my ice-fishing school on
Houghton Lake, Michigan, liter-
ally just leaned forward a little to
adjust his sonar while fishing in
high winds, and within the blink of
an eye his shanty toppled over. His
fishing gear was scattered for yards,
some broken, and his shanty severe-
ly damaged.
Clam’s Extreme Ice Anchor Kit
would have been a day saver, for
sure. These heavy-duty self-tapping
anchors are designed to keep shel-
ters secured in the most extreme
conditions. There’s also an Extreme
Ice Anchor Installation Tool, which
enables you to easily screw your an-
chors in with a cordless drill; great
for those days when moving around
a lot is crucial to catching fish.
Holy Moly !
Power augers are a must this
time of year now that the ice is at
its thickest of the season. But if it
doesn’t cut holes efficiently you’ll
be wasting your time and getting
frustrated.
Sharp blades make all the dif-
ference in the world; and that’s why
I always make sure to have extra
blades with me for my StrikeMaster
4-stroke Honda 35cc Lite auger.
Damage can be caused by the littlest
things, such as dropping the auger
down onto the hard ice blades first,
or, when drilling in shallow water
and hitting the lake’s floor. I’ve had
to go back to the vehicle and change
out blades before; without the extra
set, the trip would have been over.
How you start a 4-stroke motor
can make a difference in how long
your auger will last, as well. It’s best
to lay it down on the ice to start it
(like a chainsaw) rather than holding
it upright; this way the unit’s oil is
where it needs to be the moment it’s The author, Mark Mar tin, quickly drilling holes on Michigan’s Hough-
started. Upright and the crank case ton Lake during his Ice-Fishing Vacation/School; without sharp
starts up dry. blades, this would have been a chore.
Jeeper Creepers foot for bigtime traction where it’s guides. Anchor down that shanty.
Walking on the ice has its dan- needed most. Have spare auger blades on hand,
gers, with slips and falls the most
just in case. Lastly, wear those
obvious hazard. Think It Out cleats!
I make sure to have ice creepers While ice fishing is fun, it’s not
attached to my IceArmor Sub-Zero always easy. Extreme weather con- Mark Martin is a professional
X boots every time I’m ice fishing; ditions can make for less than ideal angler who lives in the southwestern
even when the lake’s surface has a equipment failure moments. corner of Michigan’s Lower Penin-
layer of snow on it. Korkers, for ex- Make sure you think out every sula. He’s also an instructor with the
ample, have Extreme Ice Cleats with little nuance that could occur while Ice-Fishing Vacation/Schools, which
quick-release buckle system and on the ice before you head out, and are held on several of the state’s
straps for easy on and off at your then prepare ahead of time. Lube up frozen lakes. For more information,
vehicle. There are 28 push-through those moving parts on your shanty check out his website at markmar-
spikes on the heel and ball of the and moisture-proof your line and tins.net.n
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 15
 COVERING WATER FOR STEELIES
By Jim Bedford
A
s I write this in
mid-December,
it is cold and
some rivers have
started to freeze.
The steelhead run
so far could be sized up as one that
is quite light in numbers. The good
news is that the steelies have been
larger than normal. This description
of the 2018-19 steelhead season is
illustrated by a trip a good fishing
buddy, Brett Hartford, and I took
to the Little Manistee River a week
ago. We explored one day and fished
familiar water the other, wading
over two miles of river each on each
day. We jockeyed the vehicle and
went from access site to access site
fishing with weighted spinners and
minnow plugs.
On the first day Brett caught
two steelhead and about 10 resident
browns while I caught a similar
number of browns but couldn’t find
a steelhead. However, I did catch
my largest coho ever (50 years in
Michigan and three trips to Alaska)
at 17 pounds. The next day I finally
found a modest pod of steelhead and
caught five while Brett had to “set-
tle” for one, but it was his lifetime
largest at 17 pounds after a monu-
mental struggle. (See his descrip-
tion of how this brute of a steelhead
almost and probably should have
escaped on page 18). moved to the bridge where they will
My initial title for this article
was “Bridge to Bridge for Steel-
head” but that would only fit for
some of our streams, mostly in
southern Michigan. Whether wading
or floating, covering a substantial
The author caught his largest coho ever (50 years in Michigan and
three trips to Alaska) at 17 pounds.
16 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
section of river will increase your
chances for finding relatively scarce
fish that haven’t been pressured
and are more likely to strike. The
monofilament and floats dangling
from the overhanging trees near the
access site tell you that the steelhead
get to see lots of angler’s offerings.
It follows that the fish in the holes
and runs that are far from the access
points will see a lot fewer lures.
Bridges and public access sites
will provide the starting and ending
points for your fishing outing. You
will have to experiment a bit with
how much time it takes to float or
wade a particular river. The larger
and more sinuous the stream, the
longer it will take you to fish the
section between two bridges that are
one mile apart. When wading small
rivers I can cover that mile in three
to five hours but if the river is large,
has lots of bends, and is on the
turbid side, it may take eight or nine
hours to fish it all. Floating usually
takes one half to two thirds of the
time compared to wading upstream.
Initially, fishing with a partner
and leaving a vehicle at each bridge
is a good idea. That way you can de-
termine how long it will take to fish
a stretch without being pressured to
get to the end at a certain time. Once
you’ve got a river down pat you
can fish two adjacent sections with
a friend(s) using only one vehicle.
The first angler or pair gets dropped
off at one bridge and the car is
finish. The second angler(s) fishes
to the next bridge where he or she
will be picked up by the angler fish-
ing to the car.
In the fall and winter steelhead
prefer river reaches with moder-
In the fall and winter the author knows steelhead prefer river reaches with
moderate flows and rocky or firm sand bottoms.
ate flows and rocky or firm sand My feeling is that I would not have
bottoms. Fallen trees, boulders, hooked a second fish if I had hooked
logs, and overhanging vegetation all the upstream fish first.
provide cover and a place for these Utilizing a personal watercraft
fish to rest on their river migration. works especially well when fishing
As spring approaches it will be time low, clear water. A small anchor or
to focus your efforts on reaches with brush clamp will allow you to stop
lots of spawning gravel. and fish as you go if you are using a
When wading it is a good idea canoe or small boat.
to move in an upstream direction. Jigs, spoons, weighted spin-
All river fish orient to the current. ners, crankbaits, and beads are good
Much of the time steelhead will lie lure choices for steelhead in rivers.
behind an obstacle or in the slot While weighted spinners are my
between a side eddy and the main favorite I have added minnow plugs
current, resting before proceeding to my arsenal and tend to match the
upstream. Since they are usually lure type with the river habitat and
facing upstream, approaching from how the fish are reacting.
behind or to the side and casting Weighted spinners are especially
above the fish is a good plan. This effective lures in moving water and
allows you to retrieve or drift your are a great choice when you are
offering with the current in a natural exploring and covering lots of water.
manner. They really get the attention of the
Another real big plus to fish- fish and have action at slow retrieve
ing upstream is that the fish remain speeds, which is quite helpful when
unaware of your presence. Steelhead the steelhead are not particularly
remain wary in their new, shallower active or the water is on the turbid
environment and it is important to side. While this lure doesn’t really
not be sending sand or ripples ahead represent any natural food it appears
of you. When floating you should alive and attracts the steelhead’s
try to be as quiet as possible and attention through both sight and
drifting by along the shallow edge sound. Spoons are easy to get down
of a good looking hole or deep riffle to the fish in deep holes but must
and then fishing it back upstream is be retrieved faster to impart their
often a good idea. Whether wading wobbling action. Thus, they are less
or floating, fishing the holding water frequently tied on my line, especial-
from the downstream edge up gives ly when the visibility is low. Plugs
you the best chance to catch more work especially well in situations
than one steelhead from the hole or where the steelhead can get a long
run. More often than not, hooked look at the lure, such as long runs in
steelhead run downstream when you relatively slow water.
put the steel to them and will likely As you search and explore for
spook any other steelhead in the run. steelhead from bridge to bridge
This was illustrated for me on the don’t forget your polarized sun-
trip described above. Twice I caught glasses and billed cap. They will
two steelhead in the same run and be a great aid in reading the water
the fish surged downstream immedi-
ately after being hooked each time. Covering water for steelies page 19
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TROPHY STEELHEAD
Continuation From
Jim Bedford’s story page 16
T
hat phrase, ‘go big or
go home,’ more or less
sums up my results
during the 2018 fall
steelhead run. In about
two dozen trips to the
river from October through Decem-
ber, I never had a “numbers day” to
write home about. In fact, on many
days, I would just “go home” with
nothing but the pungent smell of
skunk all over me. However, there
were a few special days on the
stream when I managed to tangle
with some heavyweight fish and
come out on top.
One of those days occurred in
early December, when my longtime
fishing partner Jim Bedford and I
decided to split up some unfamil-
iar water on a stream in Northwest
Michigan. Having never fished this
section before, I was happy to see
some medium sized brown trout
attacking my spinner as I waded
through water that was fairly high
from recent rains. The main goal of
the day was to sample some new
water, then maybe get lucky and
run into a steelhead along the way.
After nearly an hour into my explor-
atory mission, I came dangerously
close to sampling too much of the
18 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
Guest Column By Brett Hartford
water as I waded into current which
nearly crept over the top of my neo-
prene waders. Luckily, I managed to
stay dry, and shortly after the scare
accomplished goal number two
when a bright silver fish hit my lure
in a pocket of water near some logs.
After a spirited battle filled with 5
big leaps, I had a bright 27 inch fe-
male steelhead in the bottom of my
net. New stretch of water – Check.
Encounter with a steelhead – Check.
Feeling good about accomplish-
ing both goals, I started to relax a
little bit, and enjoy the scenery of
a cold December afternoon on a
Michigan steelhead river. As I casu-
ally casted my way upstream, I was
caught off guard when a large fish
darted out of a deep run, attacked
my lure, and started to roll on top
of the water. As the fish thrashed
on the surface I noticed its dark red
flanks and figured I was into a nice
coho salmon. At that very moment,
the fish collected itself, dove for the
bottom of the river, and blazed into
the bushes before I could even blink.
This coho had just turned into a big,
mad steelhead, and I was in trouble.
As I splashed my way down-
stream towards the tangle of brush
and logs, I couldn’t feel the telltale
throb of a fish on the end of my line.
GO BIG OR GO HOME!
A Personal Best:
17-Pound, 34.5 Inch Steelhead
Caught and Released
Just a tight, stuck, snaggy feel, and
my heart sank.
I knew he took me into the brush
pile, so I flipped my bail to release
the tension in hopes of possibly
salvaging my chances at becoming
reconnected with this fish. I fol-
lowed my limp line into the mess
of wood, and started to analyze the
puzzle of monofilament and lum-
ber, when suddenly my slack line
that was drifting downstream, was
now quickly zipping behind me and
headed upstream.
It’s free! Somehow, some way,
the fish managed to un-do itself in
the snag, and I was once again di-
rectly connected to it. After several
more heart pounding minutes of tug
of war, I had the dark, red striped
male steelhead lying in the bottom
of my net. The tape measure read
34-inches, and the digital scale said
15-pounds. A top 20 steelhead on
my all-time list!
After I released the brute, I
caught a few more small browns,
then met Jim at our rendezvous
location. We joked, laughed, and
swapped stories about our lunker
encounters, then got ready for the
following day on the river.
Day two left us with about four
hours of fishing time before we had
to return home. We decided to split
up water again, although this time
we plotted out some more familiar
stretches. After hour number three,
I had only two small browns and a
25 inch coho to show for my efforts.
No signs of steelhead, but I was still
reveling in the glory of the lucky
buck from the day before, so the
steelie skunk wasn’t smelling as bad
as usual.
No steelhead were encountered
in any of the good holes that have
produced in the past, and I really
didn’t have much more holding wa-
ter left before I had to start walking
out. As I flipped my silver spinner
into a run that I normally don’t pay
much attention to, I saw a trout-like
shadow follow the lure halfway out
of the medium paced current. I im-
mediately flipped back into the same
spot to see if the fish was still there,
and WHAM! The smallish fish that
I thought I noticed before was either
long gone, or an illusion that my
mind made up, because the fish I
was now hooked up with was BIG.
It instantly started ripping my
line downstream, and I was com-
pletely at its mercy. After 15 yards
it broke the surface and flopped
halfway out of the water sideways
like a humpback whale in the
Pacific. This steelhead was large,
energetic, and beating me up. As
I stumbled downstream, my line
became entangled in the only over-
hanging limb in the river for 200
yards. Just my luck – I was stuck,
and the fish was almost already back
to Lake Michigan. I had to flip my
bail during a fight for a second day
in a row, just to even have a shot at
landing the big steelie.
I finally got my line free from
the branch then noticed the fish
had taken me under a submerged
log that was three feet down at the
bottom of the stream. Well, not
that much time left to fish anyway,
so I might as well get wet and try
to free it. I reached down, and got
completely soaked, but managed to
get the large branch in hand and not
drop my rod at the same time. As I
was holding the branch, I noticed
the line continuing to peel off my
free-spooling reel. I watched help-
lessly as the 14-pound test reached
its last wrap on my spool and then
went limp. I untangled the mess
from the old branch and accepted
Covering water for steelies:
from page 16
and finding the submerged logs,
root wads, boulders and other cover
that these fish like to lurk near and
under. Try to cast and retrieve your
lures as close as possible to this fish
holding cover. Similarly try to judge
the currents and land your drifted
lure so that it will drift by the log or
rock. Having said this, it is better to
miss the target by being a bit wide
of the target rather than getting hung
up on the first cast. Make your first
presentation as close as you can
within your casting ability and then
try to get closer with subsequent
casts.
As I move upstream I have a two
cast rule to every good looking spot
for a resting steelhead. Your first
cast may get the fish’s attention but
the steelie may not see it in time to
grab it. If the spot looks really good
The author was still reveling in the glory from this 15 pound steelie caught the day before.
my defeat. minutes to free. minutes after I initially hooked the
At least the fish didn’t take the I pictured the fish laughing as goliath 100 yards upstream, I was
line completely off my reel, and he took my line through every snag staring at him in the bottom of my
I was going to be able to recover in the stretch before saying bye- net. My eyes couldn’t have been any
the 80 yards or so that it had taken bye. Still, in the back of my head, I wider, as I gazed upon the gigantic
from me as a consolation prize. I thought there was a tiny glimmer of 34.5 inch, 17-pound warrior that was
had to pull my line out of another hope, since I never felt the fish offi- now my personal best steelhead of
submerged log that I had to dislodge cially pull off. I slowly reeled in the all time.
with my boot, which took several slack just to see if it was possible. As I’ve been looking to put a trophy
I got to the large, slow pool where steelhead on the wall for a long time,
my line terminated, I slowly applied but the epic battle and the ridiculous
some pressure. Something slowly
applied pressure back. NO WAY!
amount of luck that I needed to land
this fish made my decision to release
The steelhead must have been the monster back into the stream an
sick of diving under all that wood, easy one.
because we were now slugging it Go Big or Go Home. I got to go
you will want to cover it with a out in a deep, open hole, and I was home with a big smile and an even
bunch of casts. Likewise, if a steel- starting to gain ground. Twenty bigger story.n
head follows, you see a flash near
your lure, or you get another hint
that one is present you will want to
make more casts. Changing to an-
other lure will also be part of fishing
the spot thoroughly. As I have been
preaching for a while now, utilizing
a black duo lock snap on the end of
your line will facilitate a quick lure
change.
Great sport still awaits you on
our steelhead tributaries this spring.
Perhaps the spring run will com-
pensate for the relatively light run
of fall steelies with a push of extra
fish. Most likely the steelhead will
continue to be larger than normal
so make sure that your tackle
can handle some double figure
steelies.n

Captain Roger Gibson U.S.C.G. Lic

Between Fort Meyers and Sarasota
Located in Tarpon Capital of the world
~ Boca Grande, FL
Large Groups Available
Snook & Redfish Year-round
Fly Fishing Available
Tarpon Season April-October
Contact me today to book your trip!
941-457-0509
captainrogergibson@gmail.com
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 19
 Frank’s Great Outdoors of Linwood...

A family affair
I
t all began whenever Frank Gorske
and his wife Margaret drove north
on M-13 from their home in Bay
City to visit family in Pinconning.
They had to pass by a wooded lot
for sale near Linwood that was
filled with white birch trees, and both fell in love
with the location. When Margaret happened to
mention this to her aunt who cleaned houses for
a dollar a day to make a living, her aunt let her
know she would loan her niece the $100 required
for a down payment, and $100 was a lot of
money during the mid-1940s.
Frank and Margaret put down the $100 and
signed an agreement with the lot’s owner, but
shortly after this, the owner was offered more
money for the lot by someone else, but the al-
ready signed agreement would stand pat. Frank
and Margaret would own their dream property.
I recently had a chance to sit down and talk to
Gary Gorske, his sister Judy (Zowislak) and his
brother Larry, who represent the second genera-
tion, and Larry’s two sons Pete and Andy, who
represent the third generation, about the history
of their family business started by the first gen-
eration, Frank and Mary.
Gary and his sister Judy can still vividly re-
member the first time as small children that they
accompanied their parents in 1945 to see their
new home, and how excited their father Frank
was to show it to them. They followed a drive
lined with white logs to a wooden house on the
birch-filled lot that had a small outside garage
near it. The house had a basement that had served
as a “blind pig” during Prohibition days, and still
The second and third generations of Frank’s Great Outdoors. Left-to-right Second genera-
had dusty glass mugs lining the walls. tion: Gary, Larry and Judy. Third generation: Andy and Pete.
Frank Gorske was an avid outdoorsman to the and hadn’t seen him in two weeks. That is when often it came in filled with minnows. Then there
core who had grown up during the Great Depres- Margaret discovered her family had just gone into was the job of hauling the minnows in 5-gallon
sion, hunting and fishing to help feed his family the fishing bait business fulltime. Needless to say buckets to the waiting water tank on a truck. This
during hard times. With World War II at an end this opened up a proverbial can of worms, and often required carrying a pair of buckets filled
and folks travelling and spending more according Judy, she wasn’t sure how her with minnows (which are actually quite fragile)
money towards recreation, he had great father survived while explaining matters up steep and rough creek banks and sometimes
plans for the future and decided to start to her mother when he got home that across fields. Gary readily remembers doing all
selling minnows for bait to fishermen, day with a load of minnows. However this while carefully stepping over rows of beans.
and M-13 near Linwood would be the the die was cast and they would deal During it all, his father Frank set the example by
perfect location. with matters and the future as a family. always being the hardest worker present.
This would all begin with a live- Frank’s Bait and Tackle was born. Gary also remembers the hardest part of sein-
stock water tank placed in the basement Margaret’s parents Joe and Lydia De- ing minnows was handling “the lead” on pulling
to hold minnows and a sign out at the shaw stepped in to lend a helping hand the seine in, and how his father Frank generally
road advertising such. Frank with Grandma Deshaw tend- handled this task.
worked at Dow and in his
spare time he seined min- By Tom Lounsbury ing the kids while Margaret
sold bait and tackle, and
Judy can readily remember the time she and
her brother Gary were supposed to be watching
nows to keep the water tank filled for customers Grandpa Joe helped Frank in catching the bait their baby brother Larry while their parents sold
and it was up to Margaret to sell the minnows in to sell. Besides selling minnows, they also sold bait, but got a bit sidetracked and suddenly real-
his absence. Both Gary and Judy remember their worms and nightcrawlers which had to be found ized the toddler was missing. They immediately
first job in the family bait business was to sit at as well. A favorite place for this “worm gather- raced to the minnow tank and retrieved Larry
the head of the stairs whenever their mother went ing” was at night in a cemetery near Bay City, who had been kept afloat by an air bubble in his
down into the basement to sell minnows. Marga- where they had permission to do so. Grandpa Joe rubber pants! Other siblings would come along
ret was not all that comfortable continually deal- was none too fond of this atmosphere, but he dili- and become a part of the family bait business
ing with strangers, and Gary and Judy weren’t gently helped Frank anyway, despite any qualms. which included Frank Jr., Elaine and Don.
sure what they as little kids could do in regards to Gary Gorske remembers becoming big Judy can remember when her dad decided
being “security,” but it all worked out. enough to help his father in seining for minnows to dig a “worm pit,” (which Frank stocked with
Then one day two strangers showed up to buy in the various cuts and rivers in the Thumb, and worms he had purchased up north) and it was her
minnows, and the one asked where Frank might how hard the work was. He remembers how job to use a fork to dig up and fill 20 cans with
be. Margaret said he was at work, and the strang- skilled his father was at reading the water and worms each morning during the summer, which
er said he wasn’t, because he was Frank’s boss where to spread out the 80-foot seine, and how at the time sold for 25 cents per hundred. She
20 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
fondly remembers Grandpa Joe frequently com-
ing out to help her put the worms in cans while
he sat on a box, chewed tobacco and told her
stories.
A large pond was also dug behind their bait
shop to store minnows, and it served a dual
purpose by also providing ice. Frank had learned
that ice added to the water increased oxygen
which distinctly aided longevity for minnows in
a bucket and even in the large tank when trans-
porting them. They always made sure fishermen
purchasing minnows from them, even in the
summertime, had a free chunk of ice. Of course
getting and storing this ice in a specially prepared
location (using sawdust for insulation) wasn’t an
easy task.
In the beginning, they used a large hand-pow-
ered saw that had seen use for collecting ice in a
bygone era, but Gary remembers when his father
purchased a circular saw powered by a 4-horse
Wisconsin engine which made cutting the ice in
large blocks which weighed 300 pounds much
easier. These in turn had to be pulled up a ramp to
be stacked, using a roped pulled by a truck (Gary
says his sister Judy always had the “gravy job”
of driving the truck) from the other side. Accord-
ing to Gary, you wanted to always be standing to
the side because if the block of ice broke loose, it
came crashing back down the ramp.
Besides bait, Frank and Margaret began sell-
ing fishing tackle in 1948, some of which they
See us at the
Ultimate Sport Show for
these exclusive deals!
BUY ANY
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Combo,
get a
FREE
BUY ANY
Rod, get a
FREE Rod Sock
The Gun Depar tment at Frank’s Great Outdoors.
hung from hooks on a tree outside. In 1950 they
obtained $1000 of fishing tackle from the Bay
City Hardware on credit, and stored it the small
garage. Unfortunately, shortly after this the ga-
rage caught on fire and burned down, destroying
all the new tackle. Gary remembers folks passing
by, many of them customers, stopping to give
a hand during the fire by throwing water on the
nearby house to keep it from burning too, using
minnow buckets and water from a minnow tank,
leaving minnows flopping all over the house’s
roof, but the house was saved.
Nothing was insured, but Frank and Margaret
paid off the debt and continued stalwartly on. In
1951 they built a cinder block building which
was used for storage, and added a stone building
on the front that would serve as the store. In 1974
this would be replaced by a large metal pole-barn
which would have six additions added as the
First 50 Paying Customers
at the Frank’s booth
Thurs., Fri., Sat., Sun.
will receive a FREE Bucket
Sorry Vendors Not Included
business grew. They also began selling ammuni-
tion, firearms, archery, kayaks and clothing and
eventually needed even more space. A 30,000
square foot building would replace the pole-barn
in 1999 and the family business would be called
“Frank’s Great Outdoors”.
Larry Gorske’s sons Pete and Andy would
soon become the third generation in the family
business and adding some new insight by offering
a whole catalog online as well as creating mail
order. When not in school, the fourth generation
is now playing a role in the family business too,
so there is no doubt at all the legacy began by
Frank and Margaret Gorske in 1945 will continue
on. The slogan for this family business is, “If you
take care of your customers, they will take care
of you.”
For more information, go to www.franksgre-
atoutdoors.com.n
NEW
Jointed Flicker Shad
HUGE SELECTION
1 Time Only SALE
Shimano Reel
IX 200RK
Reg. $13.00
SALE
$
7.77
WHILE SUPPLIES LAST
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 21
 50 Plus 2
Snap Weight
Trolling System
S
nap Weights are a
common fixture among
walleye anglers who
troll in open water.
Literally from the day
these trolling weights
were introduced to the public,
anglers have adapted to using them
for targeting walleye, and a
host of other species.
Fundamentals
The concept of the Snap
Weight is simple and that’s
one of the biggest reasons
why using these in-line
trolling weights has caught
on just about everywhere
trolling is popular. Avid
anglers know
that getting By Mark Romanack
their gear to
depth sometimes requires putting
weight on the fishing line. The Snap
Weight can be placed on the line in
an instant and also removed just as
quickly when fighting a fish.
The Off Shore Tackle Snap
Weight system uses the following
components including an OR16
(red) Snap Weight Clip, a split ring
and of course the fish shaped sinker
known as the Guppy Weight. It’s
important to understand that the
OR16 is not a line release, but rather
a patented line clip. A small plastic
pin indexes into a hole in the rub-
ber pinch pads. The fishing line is
placed behind this pin and cradled
by a pair of rubber pinch pads. So
long as the fishing line is placed
behind the pin, the Snap Weight is
fixed on the line until it is removed
while fighting a hooked fish.
Because the Snap Weight is
easy to use, it has become the most
practical way of adding weight to
crankbaits. Countless trollers use
the snap weight in combination with
their favorite plugs. The real ques-
tion becomes, when a Snap Weight
is added to a trolling line, how deep
is that plug running?
The Snap Weight Dilemma
If there is a dilemma associated
with Snap Weights it has to do with
the seemingly endless combinations
of lead lengths often incorporated
into trolling these in-line sinkers.
Unfortunately, it seems everyone
who uses Snap Weights has their
own “pet setup.”
Not surprisingly, new anglers
22 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
who are just getting into trolling get
easily confused over all these lead
length options. Unless you know
the “jargon” it might even seem like
trollers are communicating in secret
code!
Recently on a social media site
I read a guy’s post that was having
success trolling walleye
using Snap Weights in
combination with a Ban-
dit crankbait. This well-
meaning individual posted
he was fishing 25/2/25. In
case those numbers don’t
mean anything to you, this
amounts to fisherman short
hand for a trolling set up
that placed the
Bandit crank-
bait 25 feet
behind the boat, a two-ounce snap
weight was attached to the line and
then an additional 25 feet of leader
or what many anglers refer to as the
“dropper” was deployed.
Another guy responds and
makes a post that states his hot set
up is 25/2/50 and the next guy says
what works for him is the 20/2/40
and so on and so on. The never
ending list of potential lead lengths
and dropper leads is literally im-
possible to make sense of. No real
benefit comes from this informa-
tion because all of these anglers are
essentially using trial and error to Crankbaits like this popular Bandit 5/8 ounce are frequently used to
target walleye. Adding a Snap Weight to the line helps these lures dive
eventually blunder into fish that just
happen to be at the depth their gear deeper and also allows anglers to fish with shor ter overall trolling leads.
is running. leads and weight sizes to saturate diameter, a fixed leader length, a
Because none of these well the water column with lures is a two-ounce Snap Weight, measured
meaning anglers making social me- common approach to targeting wall- dropper leads and at carefully con-
dia posts actually have a clue how eye. The problem with this set up is trolled trolling speeds.
deep their gear is running, these it takes considerable time to figure The trolling data contained in
posts are pointless and useless to out what set up is producing the best the 50 Plus 2 Method is achieved by
other anglers. The key to catching on any given day. The trial and er- actually trolling hundreds of specific
more walleye in open water is first ror method will eventually help the set ups past a scuba diver who in
identifying the depth walleye are troller determine the best combina- turn confirms the diving depths. In
using and then targeting your gear to tion of lure, weight, lead length and doing so, PTD has been able to shed
that depth. trolling speed for that day. Eventu- light on the highly complex subject
Some guys might even argue ally is the operative word here. of trolling with crankbaits and Snap
that they don’t care how deep their The 50 Plus 2 Method Weights.
gear is running as long as the lures Thankfully, Precision Trolling The “standards” involved in the
are generating bites and the set up Data has taken the trial and error out 50 Plus 2 Method is important and
can be reproduced. Perhaps this of fishing Snap Weights in combina- in fact critical to replicating the data
is a good trolling strategy, but the tion with crankbaits. The 50 Plus 2 over and over again. By adhering
argument is a weak one considering Method establishes a set of “trolling precisely to these standards anyone
the fact that it takes a lot of time to standards” that can in turn be easily can duplicate the data produced by
experiment with all those potential duplicated on the water. The stan- PTD in their extensive testing ef-
lead length options. dards involved include the ability forts.
Too Much Trial And Error to pick a specific crankbait that is in
Using various different baits, turn trolled using a select line type/ 50 Plus 2 Method page 24
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 23
50 Plus 2 Method :
from page 22
In this case the standards include
using a 50 foot leader every time
and with every bait. The other stan-
dard is the PTD testing was con-
ducted using monofilament line ap-
proximately .0135 in diameter. Most
popular monofilaments match this
diameter with 10 or 12 pound test
lines. The third standard involves
using a two ounce Snap Weight. The
final standard involves adhering to
specific trolling speeds.
Lure and Trolling
Speed Options
Currently the 50 Plus 2 Method
involves 16 popular crankbaits. A
list of these crankbaits is published
at the www.precisiontrollingdata.
com web page. Other lures will be
tested and added to the Snap Weight
offerings as time allows. When this
data was first introduced in 2018 the
50 Plus 2 Method was based on 1.5
and 2.5 MPH trolling speeds. New
for 2019, several additional speeds
have been added for all 16 lures
included in this selection.
In 2018 some Android phone
brands did not allow the Snap
Weight Data to function. This soft-
ware problem has been solved and
all the lures featured in the 50 Plus
2 Method work flawlessly on all
Android and iPhones.
Getting the 50
Plus 2 Method
Laying hands on the 50 Plus 2
Method is easy. The data is avail-
able on both the PTD Android and
iPhone apps available respectively
at the Google Play and Apple Apps
Store. These apps are not sold by
Precision Trolling Data, but rather
by Google Play and the Apple Apps
Store.
The Snap Weight data for the 16
crankbaits currently available can
be purchased individually for $2.99
per lure. If a person already owns
the base data for one of the 16 Snap
Weight lures (say for example the
The author has made a career
out of identifying popular troll-
ing tactics, then testing various
lures, trolling weights and sinking
lines by trolling gear past a scuba
diver who in turn documents the
diving depth. This critical fishing
information is sold through both
an Android and iPhone app called
Precision Trolling Data.
24 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
Reef Runner 800 series), the Snap
Weight Data is provided to them
free of additional charge. This oc-
curs because the Snap Weight Data
appears in the line choice options
of the app, not as a separate app.
Customers who own the lifetime
app also get the Snap Weight Data
and future updates at no additional
charge.
If you own the data for one of
the 16 lures featured in the 50 Plus 2
Method and it doesn’t show on your
phone app, scroll the line choice
options to make sure the 50 Plus 2
Method is not on your phone. In this
case the phone app might need to be
updated. The PTD app is updated by
visiting the Google Play or Apple
App Store respectively.
Using the 50
Plus 2 Method
To use the 50 Plus 2 Method
simply pick one of the lures from
the list of 16 that have currently
been tested and set that bait back 50
feet behind the boat. The next step is
to add a two ounce Off Shore Tackle
Snap Weight to the line. The third
step is to deploy additional leader
length. This secondary leader is
called the “dropper.”
The PTD app calculates the total
lead being played out, including
the fixed 50 foot leader and dropper
leads up to 100 feet. By simply us-
ing the “feet back,” “feet down”
and “MPH” picker wheels on the
app, anglers can determine exactly
how deep their favorite crankbaits
are running with a two-ounce
Snap Weight. The 50 Plus 2
Method is based on actual tests
conducted with these select
lures and a standardized list of
variables including lead length,
line diameter, dropper leads and
trolling speeds.
The www.precisiontrollingdata.
com web page features a simple
animation that makes it crystal clear
The Snap Weight is simple to use, effective and helps anglers get their
gear deeper while using shor ter lead lengths. The only question is how
deep does all this gear dive? The Precision Trolling Data phone apps
answer that question with the new 50 Plus 2 Method.
how to rig up and use the 50 Plus 2
Method.
Why Is This Data Better
In the 50 Plus 2 Method there
are lots of variables and all of these
variables are monitored and con-
trolled precisely. By simply dupli-
cating these variables, lead length,
dropper leads, line diameter, trolling
speed, etc., anglers can also achieve
the same results as PTD achieved
while doing the actual testing.
Other methods have historically
been used to estimate the diving
depth of crankbaits fished with Snap
Weights. One such method involves
using the PTD app to determine the
diving depth of the crankbait based
on the lead length used. Next the
PTD app is used again to deter-
mine the diving depth of the Snap
Weight and then these two numbers
are added together. Common sense
would suggest that combining these
two numbers would provide exactly
the information anglers are seeking.
Unfortunately adding the data
from a crankbait to the diving depth
of a Snap Weight doesn’t deliver
the desired results. Adding a Snap
Weight to the line changes the orien-
tation or angle at which the crank-
bait pulls in the water. The only way
to determine precise trolling depths
for crankbaits in combination with
Snap Weights is to test both devices
together.
What Does
The Future Hold?
The 50 Plus 2 Method provides
trollers a staggering amount of
invaluable fishing information. The
question becomes, where will Preci-
sion Trolling Data go from here?
The first logical step will be to
test additional lures and add that
data to the 50 Plus 2 Method. The
staff of PTD has already identified
a list of a dozen different baits that
many customers have indicated they
would like to see tested and includ-
ed in the 50 Plus 2 Method.
It’s also logical that a similar
Snap Weight trolling system could
be established using a smaller Snap
Weight such as a one-ounce or
1.5-ounce model. This idea is inter-
esting, but not at as high a priority
as testing additional lures for the 50
Plus 2 Method.
The biggest problem with all this
is that trolling set ups that require
using weights also require doing the
testing in flat calm water. Flat calm
conditions are absolutely essential to
accurately establishing and main-
taining trolling speeds. Even mod-
est fluctuations in speed of .2 or .3
MPH can and do make a significant
difference in diving depths when
trolling with in-line weights.
Days that feature flat calm water
are rare, making it that much more
challenging for PTD to do their test-
ing and in turn document their find-
ings. The process of testing trolling
set ups, documenting the data and
publishing that data takes lots of
time. Fans of the PTD apps may at
times get frustrated with the slow
progress. It’s important to consider
that the goal at PTD is not simply
to create data, but to create the most
accurate trolling data possible.
Anglers who have questions
regarding anything included in the
PTD apps can get customer service
by visiting the www.precisiontrol-
lingdata.com web page and using
the “contact” menu bar.n
MDNR COs resolve two
UP wolf poaching cases
M
ichigan conservation of- wolf poaching cases. Illegally killing
ficers obtained confessions a wolf is punishable by up to 90 days
Tuesday from two Upper in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both, and the
Peninsula men suspected cost of prosecution.
in separate, unrelated wolf poaching Suspected poaching violations
incidents in Ontonagon and Menomi- may be reported 24 hours a day,
nee counties. seven days a week to the DNR’s
Prosecuting attorneys are review- Report All Poaching hotline at 800- incidents are typically sent to the are performed. For more informa-
ing details of the two cases, with 292-7800. DNR’s Wildlife Disease Labora- tion on wolves, visit Michigan.gov/
decisions on specific charges to be Wolves killed in poaching tory in Lansing, where necropsies Wolves.n
brought expected soon. Gray wolves
are a protected species under the
Endangered Species Act of 1973 and
as such, can only legally be killed in
defense of human safety.
The names of the men – a
58-year-old from Greenland and a
67-year-old from Menominee Town-
ship – are being withheld pending
their arraignments in the respective
county district courts.
“Wolves are examples of im-
portant wildlife species that play a
critical predator role in the ecosys-
tems of the Upper Peninsula,” said
Lt. Ryan Aho, a district law supervi-
sor in Marquette. “Our conserva-
tion officers did some great work
in obtaining confessions from these
two individuals who killed wolves
collared for study purposes by the
Michigan Department of Natural
Resources.”
DNR Wildlife Division person-
nel said they had received a mortality
signal from the collar of an adult fe-
male wolf in Ontonagon County. Sgt.
Marc Pomroy and DNR Conserva-
tion Officer Zach Painter went to the 40 MPH
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WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 25

 Foundation helps youth, clubs, conservation
Encouraging you to apply for grants relating to the outdoor education and participation sports

W
hen you think of our
Woods-N-Water News,
most likely you think of
monster whitetail bucks you see
on our covers or hopefully the
many interesting and helpful arti-
cles inside.
With that thought in mind,
when you think of the Woods-N-
Water News, we would like to
introduce the thought of our
Outdoor Foundation.
In the mid-’90s, working in
cooperation with Arctic Cat, we
were able to offer an Arctic Cat
ATV for live auction at the
Outdoor Weekend. During one of
our Outdoor
Weekend organi-
zational meetings,
Tom Campbell
(Editor, Business
Manager, and
By Randy Jorgensen
partner in this publication) said,
“Wouldn’t it be great if we could
use the money we raised from the
auction to help promote the out-
doors?”
Of course it would and why
not?
So thanks to Tom’s thought-
fulness, Arctic Cat’s and many
others generosity, the Woods-N-
Water News Outdoor Foundation
was developed and has been used
for a variety of needy outdoor
projects.
We enlisted the help of Janet
Bauer, President/CEO of Four
County Community Foundation,
which accepts the grant proposals
and is the administrator of the
fund for us. There is a strict list of
procedures we must follow. Four
County Community Foundation,
with a home office in nearby
Almont, offers a deep and long-
standing tradition in philanthropy.
The Foundation is dedicated to
bringing together human and
financial resources to support pro-
gressive ideas in charitable work.
You are welcome to visit their
website at www.4ccf.org.
“The creation of this fund has
helped support organizations dedi-
cated to promoting the outdoors,”
Janet Bauer said.
“This Foundation will benefit
individuals and outdoor organiza-
tions for a long time to come. I
hope individuals and businesses
who love the outdoors will also
join the Woods-N-Water News in
donating to this fund,” Janet went
on to say. door opportunities; in particular
We encourage you to apply for
grants relating to the outdoor fish-
ing and hunting sports. And we
are excited we have the fine peo-
ple of Four County Community
Foundation to help us and advise
us in our goals of helping charita-
ble organizations in Michigan.
Over the years, the Outdoor
Foundation has funded many
quality and wonderful projects.
Once a proposal is received,
there are six specific general poli-
cies and considerations that the
Outdoor Foundation’s Grant
Review committee to look at:
1) The Outdoor Foundation
provides grants to groups, clubs
and individuals through designat-
ed nonprofit organizations and
programs operating in the state of
Michigan.
2) Grants will be made to sup-
port progressive ideas that benefit
or enhance the outdoors and out-
hunting, fishing and the shooting
sports.
3) The Outdoor Foundation
gives priority to projects that
encourage outdoor education, par-
ticipation by youth and the physi-

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cooperation and   com.
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All checks
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made out to
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are PHO
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join forc- Woods-N-Water
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need t who, wha
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ture & __
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projects. Of course federal

charitable tax deductions are avail-
able.
So please join us in our efforts
to create an even stronger founda-
tion which can have a positive
impact on our outdoor community.
If you have any questions about our requests.
Woods-N-Water News Outdoor
Foundation operates without dis-
crimination as to age, race, reli-
gion, sex, handicap, or national ori-
gin in the consideration of grant

WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 27

 By Casey Warner - MDNR
Celebrating 100 years
of Michigan state parks
F
rom iconic destinations
like Tahquamenon Falls
State Park in the eastern
Upper Peninsula to lesser-
known gems like Hayes
State Park in southeastern
Michigan’s Irish Hills, the Great
Lakes State offers 103 state parks
to enjoy. Within these parks, there’s
hunting and fishing along with
campgrounds, boat launches, swim-
ming beaches, trails and lighthouses.
Whether it’s city destinations like
Belle Isle Park and the Outdoor Ad-
venture Center or wilderness areas
like Craig Lake State Park, Michi-
gan has plenty to offer.
But before 1917, our state
parks numbered only one – Macki-
nac Island State Park, which was
established in 1895 as a gift from
the federal government. It had been
the country’s second national park.
Interlochen State Park is considered
Michigan’s first official state park,
having been purchased by the state
Legislature in 1917.
At the beginning of the 20th cen-
tury, when Michigan’s population
rapidly expanded as the automobile
industry grew, cars became afford-
able and people could drive from
their urban homes to the country or
the lakeshore. But with few places
available for the public to enjoy
these scenic outdoor settings, it be-
came clear that a statewide system
of recreational areas open to every-
one was needed.
According to P. J. Hoffmaster,
Michigan’s first superintendent of
state parks: “The appearance of ‘No
Trespassing’ and ‘Private Property,
Keep Out’ signs has been a growing
one, all tending toward an approach-
ing era of exclusion of the great
mass of our residents and visitors
from wonderful recreational advan-
tages offered by the state. Through
this, if nothing else, has come the
setting aside of tracts of land and
water by the people for the use and
enjoyment of all.”
On May 12, 1919, the Michigan
Legislature established the Michigan
State Park Commission to oversee,
acquire and maintain public lands
for state parks.
To commemorate this historic
milestone, the Michigan Department
of Natural Resources will celebrate
the 100-year anniversary of Michi-
gan state parks throughout 2019.
“A hundred years ago, people
in Michigan were rallying to protect
28 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
the state’s most beautiful outdoor
destinations,” Ron Olson, chief of
the DNR Parks and Recreation Divi-
sion, said. “Fast forward through
time and you’ll find that generations
of residents and visitors have fallen
in love with these treasured natural
places.”
The centennial celebration will
encourage the public to get involved
by sharing their stories and pho-
tos, attending events taking place
throughout the year, exploring a
new or favorite park, learning more
about the history of state parks and
much more.
“We think about the centennial
as a nod to our rich history and an
energizing look forward,” Olson
said. “We’re celebrating by mark-
ing this milestone year with special
Photos: (Top) Michigan’s state parks sys-
tem includes 103 state parks – including
Hartwick Pines and draws more than
28 million visitors every year. (Middle)
Fayette Historic State Park, located in
Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, surrounds
Snail Shell Harbor. Visitors can immerse
themselves in history, experience cliff-
side hikes, camp and enjoy the unique
tranquility of the Garden Peninsula.
(Bottom) There are more than 300,000
acres of land in Michigan’s state parks.
A snowy view of Porcupine Mountains
Wilderness State Park in the western
Upper Peninsula – our largest state park
and one of the few remaining large wild
areas in the Midwest – is shown.
stateparks100.
An average of 28 million people
each year visit Michigan state parks
ranging from Milliken State Park
and Harbor in Detroit – Michigan’s
first urban state park providing a
green oasis in the heart of the city –
to Porcupine Mountains Wilderness
State Park, offering one of the few
remaining large wild areas in the
Midwest.
“State parks play a role in help-
ing visitors connect physically and
emotionally to all of Michigan’s
natural resources and outdoor recre-
ation opportunities, including inland
lakes, miles and miles of shoreline,
lush forests and a variety of fish and
events, podcasts, historical stories, wildlife species,” Olson said.
One way people can share their
videos, geocaching and lots more.”
connection to state parks is by
Learn more about how to get
involved in commemorating the contributing photos and memories
100-year legacy of Michigan state to the digital Michigan State Parks
parks – and about the parks and
their history – at michigan.gov/ State Parks 100 page 30
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WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 29
State Parks 100:
Memory Map.
“We launched the memory map
to capture the special memories –
camping trips, family traditions, fish
tales, Scouting excursions, day hikes
and more – that people have made
over the years,” Maia Turek, a recre-
ation programmer with the DNR
Parks and Recreation Division, said.
“It’s a virtual guest book of
sorts where visitors and staff – the
heart of Michigan state parks – can
share stories and photos.”
A few examples of the reminis-
cences people have contributed:
As a child my family and I would
go for walks on the trails around the
marshes. This remains such a spe-
cial memory of mine; one that has
truly sculpted who I am today. (Ster-
ling State Park, Monroe County)
Campsite #29 was the BEST lake-
front site I’ve ever camped at! Great
view, bald eagle hanging out and it
was so quiet and beautiful, loved it
sooo much. We will be returning to
this site yearly to continue making
memories. (Leelanau State Park,
Leelanau County)
A local suggested we hit the Lake of
the Clouds overlook for sunrise. It.
Was. Stunning!!! I will never forget
how magical that morning was.
(Porcupine Mountains Wilderness
State Park, Ontonagon and Gogebic
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counties)
More state park memories will
be offered as part of the centen-
nial’s Campfire Storytelling Project,
launching in May.
“There is something special
about stories around a campfire.
The stories always seem authentic,
honest and, often, heartfelt,” Turek
said. “With this in mind, we are in-
troducing the Campfire Storytelling
Project, where seasoned storytellers
will share their favorite state park
stories and memories.”
Turek said that campfire at-
tendees will also be invited to share
their anecdotes. Each event will be
recorded and distilled down into a
podcast that will be posted on the
centennial webpage and shared via
DNR social media.
Under the Radar Michigan, a
PBS television series featuring the
people, places and things that make
Michigan great, will help share state
parks’ stories with five new seg-
ments showcasing parks across the
state and a collection of state park
feature segments from years past.
Check out the Under the Radar
videos on the centennial webpage.
The 100-year anniversary cel-
ebration includes a series of centen-
nial events across the state. More
events will be added throughout the
year, so check back often. In addition to looking back on
State park enthusiasts can also the history of Michigan state parks
follow centennial activities on social and encouraging people to explore
media all year long. the outdoor recreation opportunities
The Michigan State Parks Cen- available in state parks today, the
tennial Geotour, kicking off May centennial celebration also focuses
23, will offer an opportunity to join on the concept of giving forward –
a worldwide scavenger hunt and ex- ensuring that state parks continue to
plore state parks while seeking out thrive into the future.
100 new geocaches created in honor Giving forward might include
of the 100-year anniversary. buying gear that supports Michigan
Those who want to camp at state state parks, trails and waterways,
parks during the official anniversary volunteering time to help with
weekend, May 10-12, can book their park stewardship and other DNR
favorite spots at the DNR’s updated efforts, or simply purchasing a Rec-
campground and harbor reservations reation Passport and visiting
website, midnrreservations.com. All a state park.
camping parties that weekend will Get more information about
get a complimentary commemora- Michigan state parks at michigan.
tive bumper sticker upon arrival. gov/stateparks.n
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 2018 hunting accidents
T
he 2018 firearm deer sea-
son started out tragically
with three shootings that
resulted in the deaths
of three hunters that all
occurred in the first few
days of the hunting season.
All three hunters were wearing
hunter orange as required by law. The
first incident happened on opening
day in Antrim County. The victim, a
38-year-old man from Sanford, was
hunting on private property and was
shot by another hunter, a 45-year-old
man who lives in Gaylord.
The Gaylord man has been charged
with three counts related to the shoot-
ing, including involuntary manslaugh-
ter, and careless discharge of a firearm
causing death.
It’s believed by the victim’s family
that the shooter was trespassing when
the victim was shot.
The lead officer investigating this
case is Conservation Officer Andrea
Albert who is assigned to Antrim
County.
The second fatal incident happened
on November 16 in Clinton County in
Bath Township. A 67-year-old hunter
Chong Yang was found dead. Accord-
ing to news reports Mr. Yang suffered
a head wound and his rifle and back-
pack are missing. Bath Township po-
lice have yet to determine whether the
shooting was intentional or the shoot-
ing was a hunting incident. Mr. Yang’s
family is offering an $8000 reward for
information related to his death.
The third fatal shooting occurred
in Oscoda County, the victim was
a 29-year-old hunter. This hunting
incident is being investigated by the
Michigan State Police.
To date there have been four other
hunting incidents reported in 2018.
On January 16, 2018 a 36-year-
old rabbit hunter was shot in Branch
County when there was an accidental
discharge from a shot gun injuring the
hunter’s hand
On September 1, 2018 during the
goose opener a 17-year-old hunter was
swinging to follow a flock of geese
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when a pellet from the shot ricocheted
off a fence and struck a 39-year-old
victim.
On September 9, 2018 a 71-year-
old hunter thought he was shooting at
a squirrel, but instead shot his 57-year-
old hunting partner.
The last reported accident
occurred on November 17 in
Clare County. A 32-year-old
hunter was sitting in his deer
blind with his firearm across
his lap. He reached out to
adjust his heater- with his
finger on the trigger. When
he bent forward,
the trigger was
bumped and the By Jeff Pendergraff
firearm dis-
charged striking him in his other hand.
According to F/LT Tom Wanless,
the supervisor of the DNR’s recre-
ational safety, education and enforce-
ment section, the DNR has been
keeping records on hunting accidents
since 1940.
• 1940 there were 718,334 hunting
licenses sold and that year there were
21 deaths and 49 injuries.
• 1971 there were 1,071,887 hunt-
ing licenses sold and there were 4
deaths and 128 injuries.
• 1977 there were 1,241,120 hunt-
ing licenses sold and there were 5
deaths and 102 injured.
• 1971 hunter safety training was
mandatory for first time for hunters
between the age of 12-16.
• 1977 hunter orange became man-
datory and in 1988 hunter safety train-
ing was mandatory for all first hunters
born after January 1, 1960.
Since 2000 there have been nine
years where there was only one fatal
hunting incident and there have been
9 years where there have been no fatal
hunting incidents.
Lt. Wanless believes the reason
for the drop off in hunting incidents
over the years is because of mandatory
hunter safety courses and mandatory
hunter orange requirements.
When I started as a Conservation
Officer in 1980, it had only been three
years since the hunter orange law came
into effect. It took some hunters a lot
of convincing to comply with the law.
But as they did the number of hunting
incidents have dropped.
In Monroe and southern Wayne
counties there were a lot of
farm fields then. You could
see a hunter wearing hunter
orange for a very long dis-
tance. If they were wearing
camo, you could drive by
them at a short distance and
if they were in the woods you
might not even see them. It’s
a very effective
tool to prevent
injuries and
even deaths.
But there are still some people
who won’t wear it. Conservation Of-
ficers normally issues tickets for that
violation because of the safety factors
involved.
Just in case you don’t know the
requirements under the hunter orange
law, you must wear a hat, jacket or
vest of highly visible hunter orange
that can be seen on all sides. Read the
DNR’s hunting and trapping guide for
more information on when you must
wear hunter orange.
I also believe that there are more
parents taking their kids out into the
woods at an earlier age and spending
more time with them and teaching
them about gun safety. I did that with
my grandson well before he was able
to hunt. I think this has also helped in
bringing the number of hunting inci-
dents down.
Firearm safety is everyone’s
responsibility. My father, who was a
WWII and Korean War veteran, taught
all six of his kids gun safety. Includ-
ing my three sisters who didn’t hunt.
He wanted his kids to be familiar with
firearms and not afraid of them and to
respect them.
At my deer camp when I had my
two brothers, brother-in-law, son,
grandson and nephew there hunting, I
always had a little safety talk with ev-
eryone. Even my brother and son who
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were both state troopers. Besides my
son and brother everyone else had very
little experience with firearms. I have
seen a lot of hunting incidents during
my career and I wasn’t about to have
one at my camp. I told everyone before
they returned to the clearing outside
the camp to unload their firearm and to
make it safe. And, as they were leaving
the clearing to return to their blind, to
reload at that time.
To some people this may seem
silly, but not to me. Accidental dis-
charges happen all the time and they
can happen to anyone, even someone
who carries a firearm everyday in the
course of their job.
If you see a member of your hunt-
ing party doing something that you
think is unsafe you should bring it up
to them. I can’t tell you how many
times I came across someone hunt-
ing and as I approached them their
firearm was pointing in my direction,
and I thought, this is the last person
who should be holding a firearm. Or
they laid a loaded firearm up against
a tree or their vehicle. Some even
having their finger on the trigger. I
can remember many times checking
hunters, noting their inability to handle
their firearm in a safe manner, I asked
them to hand me their firearm and I
unloaded it, for my safety as well as
theirs while we talked.
Once you pull the trigger there is
no taking the bullet back. Make sure
you know what your target is before
pulling the trigger. And keep your
finger off the trigger at all times until
you’re ready to shoot at your intended
target.
Another safety issue is loaded
firearms in a motor vehicle. Before you
let someone in your vehicle, make sure
it’s unloaded. You would be surprised
how many unloaded firearms have
killed people!
Let’s hope that in 2019 we don’t
have any hunting incidents and certain-
ly no fatal ones.
Author is Jeff Pendergraff, retired
Captain from the Law Enforcement
Division of the DNR.n
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pond dyes, chemicals,
aeration and fish pellets!
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 31
 By John Ozoga...The Science behind

CASTING A CROWN
T
he white-tailed largely controlled by hormones. seasonal changes in the amount testes.
deer’s cycle of This cycle involves a complex of daylight. The cycle follows More so than the timing of
antler growth, interplay between the tiny pineal the seasonal, rhythmic rise and other antler events, nutrition
hardening, cast- gland, the hypothalamus of the fall in blood levels of the male can have a strong influence on
ing (dropping off), brain, the pituitary gland, and hormone testosterone, which the timing of antler casting. In
and regrowth is the testes, and is a response to is produced principally by the fact, within a given region of the
country, the timing of a buck’s
antler casting will provide a
reasonably good indication of his
general health status. Prolonged
antler retention is indicative of
good health, whereas physically

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or visit us online to apply today. complex interplay between the
tiny pineal gland, the hypothala-
800-444-3276 mus of the brain, the pituitary
gland, and the testes, and is a
response to seasonal changes in
the amount of daylight.
exhausted, malnourished, in-
jured, or diseased bucks tend to
drop antlers early.
Antlers are cast when blood
levels of the male hormone tes-
tosterone decline, which in turn
are dependent upon the buck’s
dominance rank and physical
www.greenstonefcs.com condition. Because antler cast-
ing is under hormonal control, a
buck may drop both of his antlers
on the same day, possibly only
minutes apart, or, more rarely,
32 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
 A buck’s
nutrition and
general health
status, as well
as his domi-
nance rank
carry one antler for a week or and length
longer than the other. I observed of the breed-
one buck that had been injured ing season,
while fighting drop its antlers a interact to
month apart. determine
On northern range, where the time and
harsh winters tend to start in order in which
early December, bucks generally he casts his
drop antlers from mid-December antlers. Kenny
to late January. Large old domi- Darwin photos
nant bucks tend to drop their ant-
lers earlier than do small young
subordinates.
In the Midwest, where the
weather is not so severe and THE ULTIMATE WOOD HEAT
nutrition is better, antler casting
may extend from January to late Models available
March. Bucks with large antlers for any size home or
reportedly retain them longer application.
than do bucks with small antlers. More comfort for your entire home

By comparison, in the Deep

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may retain their antlers until
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difference in the timing of antler
casting. A buck’s nutrition and
general health status, as well as
his dominance rank and length of
the breeding season, interact to
determine the time and order in
which he casts his antlers.
We demonstrated, for ex-
ample, that artificially raising the
nutritional level of the Cusino
Enclosure deer herd via supple-
mental feeding greatly delayed
antler casting and caused many
bucks, especially two and one-
half year olds, to carry their
antlers until March or, in some
instances, even into April. Im-
proved nutrition for our northern
bucks, then, produced an antler
casting schedule more closely re-
sembling that of southern white-
tails, even though the breeding
schedule of enclosure does was
not prolonged.
In a nutshell, antler reten-
tion is a good indicator of nu-
tritional conditions for deer in
northern areas. If you see many
bucks without antlers during
the extended archery season, in
December, you’ll know range
conditions are not the best in
your general area. On the other
hand, if bucks in your area carry
their antlers until late February,
or longer, it’s a good sign that
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WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 33
 Brown Trout
As fishermen we tend to covet the things we can’t have or can’t have often
enough to satisfy our addiction. It’s true that “the tug is the drug” and for
me brown trout are an addiction I just can’t get enough of...
E
arly spring right after
ice out is one of the
best times to find
Great Lakes browns
concentrated in predict-
able places, but at the
same time weather conditions in the
spring are anything but predictable
or stable. Anglers can find them-
selves enjoying world class fishing
one day only to see success disin-
tegrate the next. And so it goes for
the Great Lakes angler who wants to
target brown trout.
Four factors control brown trout
fishing in the Great Lakes including
stocking efforts, water temperature,
water clarity and the presence of
structure. In those unique places
where all of these elements come
together, brown trout fishing can be
nothing short of incredible. Take
away any one of these important
keys to success and brown trout
fishing success quickly becomes
fleeting.
Stocking Efforts
For all sorts of reasons, brown
trout stocked in Great Lakes wa-
ters do not enjoy significant natural
reproduction success. Therefore,
sustaining brown trout in catchable
34 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
numbers requires sizable stocking
efforts. In many cases, brown trout
stocking efforts have been pitted
against other popular species like
king salmon or steelhead. When
push comes to shove and biologists
are limited as to what species they
can stock, brown trout are often
found on the bottom of the list.
Historically, the Michigan DNR
has been very active in brown trout
stocking efforts. Unfortunately, not
all the places that were
stocked historically pro-
duced noteworthy fisheries.
Two places in Michigan
that have enjoyed sig-
nificant success with brown
trout stocking include the
northern one-third of Lakes
Michigan and Huron.
Ludington,
Manistee and
Frankfort on
By Mark Romanack
Lake Michigan and Alpena on Lake
Huron have the right mix of habitats
to support good brown trout fishing.
While these areas of the state have
not seen brown trout stocking efforts
in recent years, starting in 2018 a
significant DNR stocking effort
began taking place in these ports. It
Wobbling plugs like this 3.5 Mag Lip by
Yakima Bait are impor tant tools for targets
not only suspended browns, but fish that
are holding on bottom structure as well.
will of course take two more years
before these fish are maturing, but
anglers who enjoy fishing these
ports should be treated to exception-
al fishing opportunities in the spring
of 2020 and beyond.
In effect, the Michigan DNR
has stopped stocking brown trout
in southern ports of Lake Michigan
and Lake Huron in favor of estab-
lishing fisheries in the northern parts
of the lake where the habitat is more
conducive to brown trout
survival.
Water
Temperature
Anglers anxious to
target brown trout are often
launching boats even before
ice has fully melted from
public access
sites. Ironically,
the best brown
trout fishing typically takes place in
water temperatures ranging from 45
to 55 degrees.
At ice out the main lake water
temperature is generally too cold
to support good fishing success. In-
stead anglers need to seek out select
areas where the water temperature
is a few degrees warmer. Drowned
river mouth lakes that pour nutrient
rich, stained and slightly warmer
water into the Great Lakes are prime
spots to find spring browns. Brown
trout will also concentrate near
smaller creeks and rivers that dump
in stained and somewhat warmer
water.
Warm water discharge sites from
power plants and municipalities are
yet another place where slightly
warmer water temperatures will
attract brown trout. Just one or two
degrees of water temperature can
make all the difference in where
spring brown trout turn up.
Most modern sonar/GPS units
feature a surface water temperature
probe mounted at the transducer.
Carefully monitoring water tem-
perature and concentrating fishing
efforts in places that are just a few
degrees warmer than the surround-
ing water routinely pays off in big
dividends.
Water Clarity
Water clarity is another criti-
cally important variable for the
angler targeting brown trout in the
spring. Crystal clear water may look
inviting, but clear water is missing
the key ingredients needed to sup-
port the building blocks of the food
chain. Water that contains lots of
zooplankton and phytoplankton has
the critically important ingredients
needed to attract baitfish and in turn
predators like brown trout.
Plankton rich waters tend to be
stained in color. To the trained eye
these waters appear “green” and
in fact lots of skillful anglers find
their most productive fishing spots
using nothing more than their eyes
and ability to identify water that is
laden with plankton. Some anglers
even claim they can “smell” the best
places to fish. Nutrient rich water
does tend to have a “fishy” smell for
lack of a better description.
Unfortunately, the subject of wa-
ter clarity is a slippery slope because
water clarity changes rapidly and
modest changes can and do make
a huge difference in fishing suc-
cess. In general, clear water doesn’t
attract significant numbers of fish
and on the other end of the spectrum
dirty water makes it hard for fish to
see and hunt for prey.
The “just right” water clarity is
stained enough that the prop on the
outboard can be seen, but the outline
of the prop is diffused. In other
words, water clarity that allows
things to be seen two or three feet
down is considered ideal.
When targeting spring brown
trout on the Great Lakes the water
pouring in from tributary streams
and rivers is often too dirty to be
ideal. However, when this dirty wa-
ter mixes with the clear water of the
Great Lakes the resulting mixture
is often nearly perfect for holding
baitfish and brown trout.
Stained water is not only created
just near river mouths. Often stained
water occurs when wind and wave
action stirs up sediment from shore-
line erosion. A ribbon of stained
water along the shoreline can be a
magnet for brown trout.
Structure
Bottom structure is the final
piece of the puzzle when searching
for the most productive brown trout
waters. While browns can and do
suspend in the water column to feed
upon pelagic forage species, this
species is most at home at or near
the bottom.
Brown trout are most likely to
be hanging out where rock, boulders
and various mixtures of gravel form
reefs, points that taper into deeper
water or shoals. In part, browns like
bottom structure because it favors
their ambush hunting style. Sec-
ondly, a lot of minnow species that
end up in the stomach contents of
browns are benthic creatures that
live their whole lives on our near the
bottom.
Good examples of bottom loving
minnows include spottail shiners,
This rather modest brown trout caught near the mouth of the Niagara River by lure designer Buzz Ramsey marks
a rather impor tant breakthrough in plug design. This 3.0 Mag Lip was the first prototype and Ramsey brought it
with him from Washington to test it out on brown trout in Lake Ontario while filming a TV episode with the author.
round goby, sticklebacks, suckers
and sculpins.
The Best Fishing Spots
The best brown trout spots tend
to be places where two or more of
these important fish holding ele-
ments are found. Find a place that
has stained water, good structure
and the right water temperatures and
browns are almost sure to be found
in large numbers.
Boards Are Best
Lots of anglers target spring
brown trout by long lining their
favorite plugs and spoons straight
out the back of the boat. In order to
maximize this simple presentation,
long trolling leads, light line and
hard to see line types such as fluoro-
carbon are popular.
It’s often said that brown trout
are line shy. Perhaps this is true to a
degree, but I tend to see this situa-
tion differently. Anglers who are try-
ing to use their salmon gear to target
brown trout might find their lines
a bit on the heavy side for browns.
Walleye trolling gear is in my mind
ideally suited to targeting spring
brown trout. I’m fishing a 7’-6”
telescopic rod produced by Daiwa
marketed as a walleye in-line board
rod. Matched up with a 300 size
Lexa Line Counter reel and 10 to
12 pound test green monofilament, I
caught countless brown trout on this
utilitarian set up.
Instead of long lining my lures
out the back of the boat, I use in-line
planer boards like the iconic Side-
Planer by Off Shore Tackle to stack
two or three lines out each side of
the boat. I use a rather unique board
rigging method that enables me to
trip or release the board when a fish
strikes and fight that fish without
having to clear any inside board
lines.
Known as the “loop trick” when
it’s time to put the board on the line,
I wrap the line over my index finger
and spin my finger a few times to
create a small loop of line. This loop
is placed in the line release on the
tow arm of the board. Next, I place
the line in a second line release
(OR16 Snap Weight Clip) mounted
to the back of the board. This re-
lease is unique in that it has a small
plastic pin that indexes into a hole in
the rubber pinch pad. When the line
is placed behind this pin, the board
is effectively “pinned” to the line.
This rigging method allows the
line to pop free from the release on
the tow arm when a fish is hooked,
yet the board is still attached to the
line thanks to that OR16 clip. Be-
cause the board is no longer planing
to the side, the weight of the strug-
gling fish pulls the board backwards
and away from the other board lines.
The beauty of this set up is fish can
be hooked and landed without hav-
ing to clear any of the other planer
board lines. To say rigging in-line
boards this way is slick would be an
understatement. Rigging boards to
release is essential for serious troll-
ing success.
Hot Brown Trout Lures
Brown trout will strike a wide
variety of lure types and colors.
Standards that every fisherman
should own include some shallow
diving stickbaits, deeper diving
wobbling plugs and an assortment
of medium to small size trolling
spoons.
When fishing near shore or shal-
low structure stickbaits are always
a good option. Stickbaits do an
excellent job of imitating smelt that
are often a mainstay in the brown
trout diet during early spring. Some
of my favorite spring stickbaits for
brown trout include the Yo-Zuri
Crystal Minnow, Rapala Husky
Jerk, Smithwick Perfect 10 and Reef
Runner Ripstick.
Trolling spoons are also a good
option for fishing in shallow water
or near the surface. In-line trolling
sinkers like the Off Shore Tackle
Tadpole Diver are a very handy tool
for fishing spoons in deeper water.
The No. 1 is the smallest size Tad-
pole and ideal for targeting browns
from near the surface down to about
20 feet deep.
Small mini-divers such as the
Luhr Jensen Mini Dipsy and Big
Jon Mini Disks are other good op-
tions for targeting brown trout with
spoons. The most productive spoons
for brown trout are the standard and
mini sizes. The Wolverine Tackle
Mini Streak has been my “go to”
brown trout spoon for many years.
Mini Streaks are the right size for
brown trout and they come in a host
of fish catching color options.
When brown trout are found in
deeper water, a diving crankbait is
an important addition to the tackle
box. Brown trout are readily caught
on a wide variety of high action
wobbling plugs. The best lures
in this category have aggressive
side-to-side actions, loud rattles and
plenty of flash.
Classic brown trout plugs
include the Storm Hot-N-Tot and
Wiggle Wart series, Yakima Bait
U20 FlatFish and Luhr Jensen
KwikFish series. Each of these lures
has earned the respect of anglers
who routinely target brown trout in
Brown Trout page 36
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 35
 Brown Trout:
from page 35
1916 - 2019 the Great Lakes.
A CANADIAN A new series of wobblers produced by Ya-
CLASSIC WITH kima Bait have literally taken over among plug
WORLD WIDE fishermen in the Great Lakes region. The Mag
RECOGNITION Lip family features seven baits including the
2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5 and 5.0 sizes. Among
anglers who target browns, the most popular sizes
FT include the 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 sizes, but I have also
Firetiger enjoyed excellent success using the 4.0 and 4.5
sizes as well.
What’s different about the Mag Lip plugs
is they have a great “hunting” style action at
slow, moderate and fast trolling speeds. Yakima
describes this as a “skip beat” action because the
plug will without warning dart out to the side and
then resume its steady rhythmic action. This built
in hiccup in the action triggers strikes unlike any
other plug.
The larger sizes of Mag Lip feature a sig-
nificant dive curve and are deadly when fished
in combination with planer boards. The smaller
sizes can also be used for deep water work by
fishing them on a simple three-way swivel rig
or in combination with Off Shore Tackle Snap
Weights to gain more depth from these lures.
Wobbling plugs fished in close proximity
to the bottom has evolved into one of the most
productive ways to target brown trout. The recent
popularity of plugs is not happening by accident.
Rather, the explosion of the round goby into
Great Lakes waters has fueled an abundant food
source for predators that are not afraid to hunt on
the bottom. Some biologists feel the current bio-
mass of round goby in the Great Lakes exceeds
all other forage fish species combined!
Brown trout, lake trout, smallmouth bass and
walleye are just some of the species that are feed-
ing more often on round goby than traditional
forage minnows like emerald shiners, smelt,
alewife and gizzard shad. Wobbling plugs do an
Genuine silver, excellent job of imitating a round goby scurry-
24k gold & ing around the bottom. Fishing these plugs deep
enough that they collide with and ricochet off
copper finishes rocks and boulders is one of the best ways to trig-
ger strikes while fishing plugs.
Brown Trout Colors
A wide variety of lure colors will catch brown
trout in Great Lakes waters. Painted finishes are
good, but it’s the plating finish that generates the
flash so important to catching brown trout. The
The original Williams most productive baits feature a metallic copper,
lure that started it all gold or silver base coat with contrasting accent
colors added over top of the metallic finish.
over 100 years ago. The most productive color combinations
• Multispecies change day to day as water clarity and light con-
ditions also change. Every serious brown trout
• Stabilising ridge fisherman I know carries an extensive collective
• 7 sizes, 29 colours of spoons, stickbaits and wobbling plugs in a
wide variety of color options.
Adding a Scent Stream
The vast majority of brown trout caught in the
Great Lakes are taken in March, April and May
when the water temperatures are cold and water
/williamslures clarity is stained. At this time of year it’s impor-
tant to also add natural scent products to stick-
www.williams.ca baits, spoons and plugs. Creating a scent stream
36 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
in the water does a great job of triggering strikes
from browns and also causes them to strike with
much enthusiasm.
The problem with most scent products is they
are water soluble and wash off almost as quickly
as they are applied. Pro Cure Bait Scents pro-
duces the Super Gel series of fishing scents that
are super sticky and super concentrated. Made by
grinding up real forage minnows and combining
with a sticky and odor free gel, the results are
potent fishing scents that generate a long lasting
scent stream.
A small dab of Super Gel about the size of a
pencil eraser is enough scent to attract fish for 30
to 35 minutes before it needs to be reapplied.
Custom Touches
A growing number of Great Lakes trollers are
going the extra mile to customize their favorite
spoons, plugs and stickbaits. Using after-market
hooks that do a better job of hooking and holding
the fish that bite is an easy way to add a custom
touch to baits.
Most manufacturers of spoons, plugs and
stickbaits equip their lures with round-bend style
treble hooks. Switching these out for wide bend
style hooks does an excellent job of keeping the
fish that bite buttoned up. My favorite after-mar-
ket hook is the Eagle Claw Trokar TK310 series
of wide bend trebles. For most lures I’d recom-
mend replacing the factory hook with the same
size Trokar. I carry a good assortment of No. 6, 4
and 2 hooks for this purpose.
Many anglers recommend using larger hooks
than factory supplied. This can be a slippery
slope as many lures are so delicately balanced
that adding a larger hook can actually destroy the
lure’s action.
When fishing plugs in contact with the bot-
tom, I’d also recommend removing the belly
hook to keep snags to a minimum. Most wob-
bling plugs will fish just fine without the belly
hook. Another option is to remove both the treble
hooks and replace these with single Siwash
hooks.
Adding two split rings to plugs and spoons
is another easy way to land more of the fish that
strike. Powerful browns often roll and jump when
hooked. Baits that feature multiple hooks give
the fish leverage that literally allows the fish to
“tear free” and escape. By placing two split rings
on baits, the hook can rotate more freely and it’s
much more difficult for hooked fish to shake the
bait.
It’s All Good
Michigan’s tradition of spring brown trout
fishing is currently in a slump, but the future
looks bright for anglers who can’t get enough of
these impressive fish. In the meantime, anglers
who aren’t afraid to put the boat on a trailer can
find great spring brown trout fishing in a host
of other ports. My favorite brown trout destina-
tions include Racine, Milwaukee and Sheboygan
Wisconsin, the Niagara Falls region of Lake
Ontario in New York and the Pulaski Region of
Lake Ontario near the Salmon River. All of these
destinations deliver limit catches of impressive
brown trout day in and day out in April
and May.
This spring, gear up and get out often. Brown
trout are the best way I know to shake the cob-
webs of winter and celebrate spring in the Great
Lakes.n
TROPHY
BUCKS

Dave Mroz of Oz Motor Sports in Almont

took this monster Lapeer Co. 10-pt. beast
Eric Ringstad of Columbus took this with a crossbow on Oct. 29. The 180
monster Lapeer Co. buck. pound buck should score in the 150s.

Keith Koster took

this record book
buck opening morn-
ing on state land
hunting a swamp in
Kalamazoo Co. After
Tracy Crammer’s thick the shot, the buck
tined buck was green took three bounds
scored at nearly 170
and was stuck in the
inches and should be in
mud. It should score
the top ten largest bucks
in the high 160s.
from Shiawassee Co.

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WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 37
 Michigan’s Mighty
Meadow Vole
E
astern coyotes love
meadow voles. The
record breaking sub-zero
temperatures last month
that slammed Michigan
did nothing to slow
down their love affair with these
tiny creatures that remain active all
winter and thrive under a wintery
blanket of snow. However,
it’s a one way love affair
because these slightly
pudgy meaty mouse-sized
morsels that we call voles
are delectable delicacies for
the wild canids that must
continue to hunt no matter
what Mother Nature brings.
As a
matter of
fact there
By Jonathan Schechter
is hardly a winter active predator
in Michigan that hasn’t developed
a taste for the meadow voles. The
vole-snatchers list includes red
foxes, owls, hawks, mink, weasels,
opossums, skunks, raccoons, feral
cats and domestic cats. And I sus-
38 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
pect a meadow vole might be a tasty
little nugget for a cougar or wolf in
our north country.
So what exactly is a vole?
The simple answer is this:
Meadow voles are a small somewhat
mouse-like rodent bearing the scien-
tific name Microtus pennsylanicus.
Voles, although related to mice,
are not mice even though
confusion reigns when they
are referred to as meadow
mice. And when a coyote
or fox leaps up in the air
and pounces down on a
meadow vole it’s called
“mousing.”
During the snow melt,
just prior
to the po-
lar vortex
spawned big freeze, a neighbor
noticed the abundance of exposed
vole tunnels in melting snow in his
yard and asked me if a vole is a
cross between a mole and mouse.
They aren’t that either; even though
at times voles may enter and emerge
A young
meadow
vole
from a mole’s tunnel causing even a cat brings one home as a ‘gift.’
more confusion. A vole is simply They are almost twice as heavy as
a vole and with that point of clari- our common white-footed mouse
fication out of the way, my rodent and unlike mice that have ears that
ramble is specifically about the most “stick up,” voles have rounded ears
common vole in my neck of the that are almost concealed and short
woods, the meadow vole. They are stubby tails. Meadow voles also
prolific breeders and often produce
six litters per year with their off-
have a ‘cute factor,’ perhaps because
of their beady black eyes and their
spring becoming sexually mature at luxurious appearing rather glossy
just one month old. We may not see fur coat. Another difference that the
meadow voles, but their evidence hungry predators do not care about,
during times of winter snow melt is but observant humans may notice, is
unmistakable. mice have a more pointed snout than
Meadow voles can easily be the rather rounded face of vole.
mistaken for a chubby mouse when Perhaps the most noticeable
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feature of the voles however, is not (“nives”) and refers to the open,
their appearance but rather their tun- shallow layer that usually forms
nels under the snow; runways that under deep, layered snow.” MSU
are lined with grasses. They are easy goes on to explain “The tunnels lead
to notice during periods of winter from entrances to sleeping areas
snow melt, and again in the earliest and to known sources of food. The
days of spring before grass greens entrance holes double as ventilation
back up. Voles create extensive shafts, allowing the carbon dioxide
runway systems through dry grasses created from animal respiration
that are above the frozen ground as well as carbon dioxide released
but beneath the snow. The runways from the ground to escape.” MSU
include hidden nesting areas that confirms that even when the winds
sometimes serve unintentionally may be howling and the mercury
as dining areas for their predators. plunging the subnivean zone the
That system of runways, perhaps temperate remains close to 32°F. This coyote sniffing out voles was
best described as meadow vole Being protected from the ele- caught by the author’s trail cam.
expressways, are about 1 ½ inches ments does not insure safety for
wide and may go on for dozens or meadow voles. Predators know along in their topside world. Unlike Walk slowly and look about
even hundreds of feet often in a mix where to find them, by sound and the bounding tracks of white-footed and the tunnels of voles and tracks
of crisscross patterns and occasion- sometimes by scent. Eastern coyotes mice that usually leave a clear four- of mice may be noted in meadows,
ally almost in straight lines. The are masterful mousers; skilled in the print pattern with their front feet parks, the edges of golf course
runways lead to areas where they survival art of listening and sniffing landing side by side as they travel fairways and along the thousands
feed under the snow on young tree for a vole in its tunnel nest or run- along the surface of the snow, and of miles of trails that crisscross our
bark, grasses and other plant materi- way, and then pouncing. One of my their hind feet landing side by side, state. And when the next big snow
als. trail cameras even captured a coyote the meadow vole generally leaves melt arrives, explore some more and
Their tunnel habitat is known on a midnight vole hunt at the edge an alternate-track trail with no feet you are sure to discover the tunnels
as the subnivean zone; the area of my woods. landing side by side. Mouse tracks of the mighty meadow voles, the
between the surface of the frozen Winter is a great time to explore tend to stay on the surface for a best fast food for the coyotes in our
ground and the bottom of the snow- the secrets of nature’s creatures, long time and often end at the base midst.
pack. The Michigan State Univer- even those in the subnivean zone. of a hollow tree - a perfect winter Jonathan Schechter is the Na-
sity Extension Service defines the Snow is deep now and most sub- home for a mouse—or near shrubs ture Education Writer for Oakland
word subnivean this way “The word nivean tunnels are hidden. But every where they have transformed an County Government and an avid
“subnivean” comes from the Latin now and then a vole emerges from abandoned bird’s nest into a winter explorer of the woods of Michigan.
words for under (“sub”) and snow a tunnel hole and scurries briefly retreat. Email: oaknature@aol.comn

Southeast Michigan Bowhunters Chapter - SCI OPTIMIZE SUCCESS WITH THE FOOD PLOT SHOP
28th Annual
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DEER SCHOOL 2019
heritage. The Southeast Michigan Bowhunters Chapter of SCI is on guard to assist with funding and
manpower wherever animal-rights extremists threaten our sport. Your support helps us build a solid Saturday, May 18th from 10:00am until 3:00pm
future for sportsmen and wildlife. If you enjoy our sport as much as we do, we welcome you to attend this
gala event and to join Michigan’s most effective organization in protecting your “Right To Hunt”. 9870 Clewley Road • Lachine, MI 49753 (Near Alpena)
Mail Order Form to: Rich DeLisle / SCI-Tickets, 4810 N. Fleming Rd., Fowlerville, MI 48836
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• JOHN O’BRION from Grandpa Ray Outdoors
------------------ SCI BANQUET Ticket Order Form -----------------
Ticket orders must be received by March 15th for advance ticket pricing! • ZACH HAAS from Creek Bottom Land Management
Please send ______ Fund Raiser Banquet Individual Ticket(s) only $85.00 per person .............. $__________ • BROOK ALLOWAY (Alpena and Montmorency District Forester)
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WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 39
 Mossberg celebrates
its 100th Anniversary
With the new MC1sc 9mm small, concealable pistol...
time was five dollars. This illustrat-

A
s it celebrates its
100th anniversary,
O.F. Mossberg &
Sons, Inc. is nod-
ding in the direc-
tion of its origins
with the release of the MC1sc, a
full-featured, 9mm concealed carry
handgun.
“A handgun from Mossberg?”
would be an understandable reaction
from those familiar with the classic
Mossberg Model 500 pump and its
other self-defense shotguns. But it’s
not unheard of. In fact, Mossberg’s
first production piece was a hand-
gun.
The “Brownie” was a .22 caliber
pistol that had four holes in its bar-
rel, one for each shot. “Mr. Trapper,
You need this pocket pistol in your
business,” reads a 1928 ad for the
Brownie. “Just the thing to finish
trapped animals.”
The cost of a Brownie at the
ed the company’s goal it maintains
to this day as it enters its second
century of existence: “a simple
dream to manufacture du-
rable and reliable firearms
that the working class could
afford.”
The MC1sc fits that
description perfectly.
The “sc” designation
stands for “subcompact,”
but the MC1 does not feel
like a tiny pistol. While
it’s difficult for a
layman to speak in By Tom Carney
terms of ergonom-
ics, suffice it to say that the MC1
simply handles in a way that just
feels “right.” It has an overall length
of 6.25 inches, a barrel length of 3.4
inches and a weight of 19 ounces
(with an empty magazine). Its
glass-reinforced, polymer frame and
stainless steel slide and barrel help
keep the MC1’s weight down. Addi-
tionally, the slide and barrel feature
a DLC (Diamond Like Coating) fin-
ish, which reduces slide friction and
wear resistance.
The trigger on the MC1
sc is very smooth to operate
with a 5 to 6 pound pull
weight. The smooth take-
up combined with the flat
trigger face offers a clean,
crisp trigger break. Trigger
guards are also oversized
for ease of access and com-
fort.
It includes
two single-stack,
“Clear-Count” magazines con-
structed of a transparent, lubricious
polymer compound, which provides
a quick and easy way to determine
the number and types of rounds
loaded. One magazine is a flush
6-round version; the other, a 7-round
extended.
A unique feature of the gun is
Mossberg’s patent-pending Safe
Takedown System (STS). Unlike
other brands of guns, this one does
not require the user to pull the trig-
ger during the disassembly process
or to fumble to engage a slide-side
unlocking lever. Rather, the STS
begins with the shooter opening a
sliding cover on the rear of the slide
in order to remove the striker assem-
bly. Also, the gun features another
patent-pending item: Mossberg’s
signature grip texturing, added palm
swell and grip angle (similar to a
1911’s) for a more natural and com-
fortable grip.
First available in January 2019,
the MC1sc comes in five iterations:
standard, cross-bolt safety, standard
with Tritium Pro sights, standard
with Viridian E-Series red laser and
a special Centennial Limited Edition
of 1,000 units with special serial
numbers and 24 karat gold accents

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40 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
engraved on the slide. The prices
range from $421 to $686.
In an online video pointing
out the features of the MC1, and
its durability (800 rounds fired in
two days) Mossberg spokesperson
Jeremy Stafford says, “None of that
makes a difference if you can’t pick
this gun up and hit the targets you
need to hit, quickly.”
And for my money, that’s where
this gun sings, in its accuracy. For
the purpose of this review you
should know that when it comes to
handgun shooting, I have no train-
ing or skills. Seriously. With my .22
pistol at a local indoor range, I have
trouble shooting a tight pattern in
the target at seven yards. Yet at a
recent press event to introduce the
MC1, the gun helped me to shoot
better than I can. At a distance of
about 25 yards, I hit the metal tar-
gets with eight out of 10 shots, the
last five in a row – on four different
targets.
So, not only did I have to re-aim
but I also had to refocus and mental-
ly recalibrate from one target to the
next. I have large hands, yet the gun
did not feel uncomfortable; in fact, it
felt just the opposite. The gun I used
was one of about a half dozen on the
And to tell you the truth, though
I’ve test shot probably at least a
dozen 9mm pistols, this is
the first one of which I can
honestly say it was “fun” to shoot.
In fact, it’s the first time I set down
a pistol after firing it that the
thought “I don’t need to look
any further for a handgun” entered
my mind.
The MC1 likely has what it takes
to be a most decent concealed-carry
gun for you, too. It’s tremendously
accurate. It’s durable and not overly
fancy or complicated. It comes in
at a very nice price point. And it’s
made in America.
Taking those qualities into ac-
count, at the press event, Kevin
Michalowski, Director of Content
for the U.S. Concealed Carry As-
sociation and Editor of its “Con-
Top left: The grip on Mossberg’s new MC1 pistol is meant to provide cealed Carry Magazine,” liked what
he saw. “It can be a real nice starter
both texture and smoothness in all the right places. Top right: The roomy
gun,” he said.
trigger guard on the Mossberg MC1 is meant to be roomy enough for a And from my vantage point, the
gloved finger to operate the trigger without restraint. Bottom left: One of MC1sc would also be a very nice
the affordable models of the Mossberg MC1sc comes with a Viridian Laser gun with which to finish.
sight. Bottom right: The four-shot Brownie was the first gun produced by For more info: www.mossberg.
O.F. Mossberg & sons, in 1919. O.F. Mossberg & Sons photos com.
For a video discussing the
bench at the range, so the choice of fired by many people before me that MC1’s features: www.mossberg.
guns was purely random. It had been day. And yet it performed admirably. com/mc1sc-features-overview/.n

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WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 41
 SCOUTING FOR DEER HUNTERS...By John Eberhart

I
’ve scouted properties
and prepared locations for
friends since the mid-1970s,
but something I’ve been
doing over the last sev-
eral years is professionally
scouting properties for other hunters
and while it’s been primarily private
properties, on three occasions it’s
been public lands in Michigan’s
Zone 3 (southern half of Michigan’s
lower-peninsula) which are the most
heavily pressured hunting lands in
the country.
As always I researched aerial
photos for marshes, deep creeks,
rivers and lakes to cross to access
remote areas and islands where most
other hunters wouldn’t put forth the
work effort to access. These remote
areas typically require hip boots,
chest waders or occasionally a canoe
or boat to access and understandably
they are the exact same areas where
mature deer and bucks in particular
that have survived through one or
more deer seasons get pushed into
during pre-season scouting ventures
and during season.
From personal experience these
remote areas are the only places
on heavily pressured public lands
where mature bucks can be killed
with any chance of consistency and
even then only if they’re hunted
using the right entries and exits and
seasonal and daily timing. Of course
for these areas to be most effectively
hunted they need to be scouted out The author begins his scouting with detailed aerial maps and a plan.
and locations be prepared during
post season (January through April) locations in the exact same man- intrusions it won’t take long before boils down to the simplicity of lo-
so as not to disturb the area during ner as if scouting private ground by the mature does and subordinate cating areas that don’t get pounded
pre-season or until it’s the seasonal focusing on destination locations bucks will become comfortable on a regular basis and then being
time to go in and hunt it. such as scrape areas, preferred mast moving within that area during patient and waiting until the rut
Once accessed, many of the trees such as oaks, fruit trees such daylight and will feed on whatever phases begin before hunting them.
public land locations I’ve set up as apple and crabapple, locust trees natural mast and browse the area All buck activity during the rut
and hunted over the years have that drop those long dark beans, has to offer until they leave the area phases revolves around doe activity
been; on small islands, in openings the most secure bedding areas and after dark. and any hunting prior to then will
within bedding areas, in dry cattail transition cover to them, openings The mature bucks on the other alter the very doe activity that the
marshes, and in swampy areas with where several runways may con- hand will likely remain somewhat mature bucks you’re pursuing will
interspersed tamaracks, cedars and verge and pinch points within transi- nocturnal until the rut phases begin be focused on. Depending on the
brush. In 1981 I took a state record tion corridors. and their testosterone levels rise to size of the area you may also spook
buck from an island within a cattail Once deer are pushed into dif- the point they begin moving some the deer from it with a morning exit
marsh from public land in zone 3. ficult to access areas they are still during daylight hours. Then they or evening entry as most of these
On many other occasions how- deer and will act as such if the will also begin moving within the types of areas require all day sits.
ever, once a remote area had been area warrants some secure daytime remote areas in search of estrous In actuality the pre-season
accessed it opened up into what movements due to the lack of hu- does during daylight and that’s the scouting and location preparation
I would consider normal timber, man or hunter activity. If a remote time frame when you can do dam- ventures and early season hunting
terrain or ground. When that was area remains devoid of pre-season age. pressure by other hunters in the easy
the case I searched for hunting scouting and early season hunting On heavily pressured lands it to access areas from the guard railed
42 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
public land parking lots immediately
eliminates those areas as places I
will even consider looking at, thus
eliminating a huge portion of the
property to scout.
But what really threw me off
from the scouting aspect were four
of the many private parcels I’ve
scouted. On these four properties
(two in Michigan and one each in
Ohio and West Virginia) the owners
had paid exorbitant fees to have land
management teams come in to show
them what they needed to do to the
property.
All four of the land management
suggestions were pretty basic like;
hinge cutting trees to open up the
canopy which will thicken up the
understudy to create dense bedding
areas, keeping those bedding areas
as sanctuaries that were never to be
hunted in, creating berms or using
storm fencing to funnel deer traf-
fic, planting several (too many in
my opinion) food plots, suggesting
where to prepare hunting locations
around perimeters of the exposed
food plots and a very general and in
my opinion strange hunting plan.
To impress the property owners
the two out of state land manage-
ment teams drafted long beautiful
dissertation pamphlets with nice
color pictures they had taken of the
property, what hinge cut bedding ar-
eas and lush green food plots looked
like, what type of forage plants to
put in the food plots and maps with
descriptions of where everything
needed to be done.
There are a couple seriously
good land management teams I
know of in Michigan and one of
them has been doing it since 1995
and I would suggest them to anyone
The author prepares a tree for the 2019 deer hunting season.
that wanted to improve their prop-
erty. What I definitely wouldn’t do
is base my decision on who had the
best horticulture background or who
created the most impressive bro-
chure because anyone can get basic
YouTube land management advice
online.
To me it’s all about fulfilling the
objectives of the property owner
which typically boils down to one
very specific goal of killing mature
bucks. While I’ve never owned or
leased any property and am not
into land management or creating
a deer utopia with so many mature
bucks that the sheer law of aver-
ages would aid in me killing one,
if I were, what I would research is
what mature bucks the land manage-
ment person or team had killed prior
to ever hunting on any managed
property because then I would know
they also knew how to hunt and kill
mature bucks.
The true meaning of quality deer
management (QDM) is keeping the
deer herd numbers in check with the
land’s carrying capacity or available
food sources and has nothing to do
with allowing lots of bucks to grow
to maturity. Over the past 20 years
however, many hunters associate
QDM to nothing more than trophy
buck management.
While I’m not an antler point re-
striction advocate, if you own 40 to
a couple hundred acres of land in a
heavily hunted state or area and it’s
surrounded by property owners that
don’t share your same goals or kill
criterias, if you want to improve the
property you better make sure the
land management team also knows
how to go about killing heavily
pressured bucks.
Remote areas are the only places on heavily pressured public lands
where mature bucks can be taken. These areas, to be most effec-
tively hunted, need to be scouted and prepared during post sea-
son; January through April.
Especially during the rut phases,
bucks will move beyond your
property lines and those that survive
their first antlered season in heav-
ily pressured areas will be much
smarter and not be as easy to kill as
the bucks commonly seen taken by
TV and video personalities and their
spouses and young kids from micro-
managed properties and pay to hunt
ranches that are large enough to
encompass many of the bucks entire
core living areas.
I asked all four property owners
why they called me to scout their
property when they had already paid
a land management team to suggest
land manipulation improvements
for growing and holding more deer
on their property. They all said they
had more deer and were seeing and
getting motion pictures of more
mature bucks on their properties
than before, but they were still hav-
ing issues trying to kill them from
the suggested locations which were
typically bordering their exposed
food plots. After all, that’s why they
spent the money in the first place, to
make kills, not to collect nighttime
motion pictures of big bucks in their
food plots or at their mineral licks.
I like to write about things while
they’re fresh on my mind and earlier
in the year the hunter from West
Virginia contacted me about scout-
ing his 145 acres. Two years prior
he hired a land management team
from Mississippi and they came in
and filled him with a bunch of fluffy
dreams about turning his property
into a hunting utopia like you see on
TV.
The Mississippi team never took
into consideration that West Vir-
ginia has one of the highest hunter
densities per absolute square mile
in the country and that his property
was surrounded by many smaller
parcels and that the area beyond his
fences got pounded by other hunters
that just wanted to kill legal antlered
bucks making any bucks he passed
on extremely vulnerable once they
crossed his fences. You simply can’t
scout properties and lay out plans
assuming that all hunting circum-
stances surrounding the property
you’re hunting are the same, be-
cause most likely they are not!
The team put together a glossy
copy and paste four page land
management document with all the
pictures and hunting verbiage previ-
ously described and added a few
pics of his property to make it look
more personal, what a crock!
He emailed me their document
and by simply looking at aerial and
topo (was in hilly terrain) maps on-
line I was shocked at what they sug-
gested he do and how they advised
him to hunt it. And that was even
before I knew what type of hunting
Scouting page 44
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 43
Scouting for deer hunters:
from page 43
pressure surrounded his property.
Their plan was as if the property
were nestled into and surrounded
by like-minded, micro-managed
properties in Iowa or southern Il-
linois and that was certainly not the
case. For the heavily pressured area
he was in, the one man two-day ven-
ture, $4,000 (not including flights
and hotel) cost Mississippi land
management plan document wasn’t
worth the paper it was printed on.
After some back and forth con-
versations I agreed and he flew me
out for a weekend in April to scout
and suggest to him what to change,
choose a few locations as if hunting
public ground, prepare at least one
of them so he would know how to
properly prepare the rest of them
and create a seasonal and daily hunt-
ing plan with proper entry and exit
routes.
He was a very good bowhunter,
had a couple good bucks on the wall
from Ohio, was detail oriented, kept
in excellent shape, hunted from a
harness as I do, which would make
preparing locations much easier
and had all the necessary location
preparation tools. As we walked the
property I was making notes on an
aerial photo.
It didn’t hurt that his property
laid in a lush valley with ample
amounts of dense bedding areas,
a large river running north/south
that bordered his east side and that
his home was dead center in the
middle of the property which gave
him many more quiet entry and exit
route options because the deer were
comfortable with the non-threaten-
ing routine traffic noise to and from
his house.
There were two ten acre crop
fields that bordered the river on the
east side of the property and they
were separated by a narrow swatch
of open timber. They had been in
corn every year and were left stand-
ing until gun season and the south-
ernmost field bordered a neighbor-
ing property owner that poached a
10 point the previous bow season
with a .22 rifle which he heard and
found the buck a week later in a nice
and neatly bedded position about
250 yards onto his property.
I suggested he abandon four of
the six food interior plots the land
management team suggested and he
planted and since crop yield money
wasn’t an issue I suggested he disk
up the southern field and leave
it that way so that mature bucks
wouldn’t move across it and onto
his poaching neighbor’s property
during daylight due to the lack of
security cover, which the standing
cornfield had so nicely offered in the
past.
44 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
There was a primary scrape area
at the SW corner of the northern
cornfield with ample perimeter secu-
rity cover in the form of the standing
corn as well as excellent transition
security cover from other bedding
areas to it. By plowing and leaving
the southern field bare it would also
cause the destination scrape area to
have more daytime traffic.
There was only one tree in
which every scrape would be within
shooting distance and it was huge
and had several large vines of poi-
son oak running up it. While prepar-
ing the tree I was pointing out what
needed to be cut for shooting lanes
and of course I got poison oak on
my wrists, neck and a little on my
face from wiping sweat. Number
one location was done.
The next tree I prepared was
dead center of the best bedding area
on the property which the manage-
ment team wanted kept as a sanctu-
ary area. The core of the bedding
area was a bit more open with inter-
spersed trees and brush making it
perfectly suited as a secure chasing
and breeding area. Again the large
tree I chose was covered in poison
oak and there were so many saplings
and vines spread out around the base
of the tree that it took half an hour
to cut them with a chain saw and
remove them from the area before
screwing in the first step.
I didn’t count them but within 30
yards of the tree there were at least
15 scrapes from the previous fall
and after about an hour and a half of
cutting vines and pulling them down
from the intertwined branches above
I reached the location in the tree to
perch in and finished the job. All
the time I was having the property
owner go to each scrape and making
sure there was a lane either to it or
to the runways that fed it. Keep in
mind this is a bedding area and we
used both a regular and an extend-
able Stihl chainsaw to cut shooting
lanes and move the cuttings to as-
sure they didn’t block any runways
and it took hours.
There is a great likelihood that if
a bedding/chasing/breeding area is
available and is not bow hunted dur-
ing the rut phases on very specific
all day hunts with extremely early
arrivals and after dark exits, that the
dominant buck in the area will go
unscathed during bow season and
possibly get shot during gun season
by a neighboring property owner.
This was his number two location
and without question, his best loca-
tion.
The last tree we set up was
where three different terrain features
dumped together. There was a steep
hill to the south with a creek run-
Within a bedding area the author checks out mature buck rubs from the
previous season. There were brow tine grooves four-foot off the ground
on the center rub.
ning east to west at its base, to the
north was a gradual rising ridge with
ample understudy security cover for
deer to move through and it was in-
terspersed with white and red oaks,
an old logging road along the east/
west creek in the valley and from
the north was another deep valley
with briars that dumped into the old
logging road. In all there were six
well used runways that were within
shooting distance of the third tree.
The maple tree we chose was
clean (no vines) and I asked him if
he wanted to prepare it and he was
all over it and did a great job. While
he prepared the tree I walked down
each runway and asked him to let
me know where the least amount of
cutting would be necessary to offer
a shot at. By the time I cut the all the
lanes he was finished in the tree and
together we moved all the cut trees,
saplings, brush and briars out of the
way of any runways. The number
three location was done and I had
enough time to shower and make
my flight home.
While preparing the locations we
discussed the best seasonal and daily
timing to hunt each and even though
he really didn’t need it because he
was already using ScentLok and do-
ing everything almost perfectly and
wasn’t getting winded, we still went
over a proper scent control regi-
men and the proper care and use of
ScentLok with a fine tooth comb.
There were two other locations
in funnels of transition cover that I
recommended he prepare which he
did. I also recommended he plant
a couple apple or pear trees each at
the first two locations we prepared.
At the cornfield scrape area location
I suggested both trees be planted
next to the scrapes so he wouldn’t
have to move around the tree to
shoot in a different direction and
within the bedding area to plant
them to the left of his hanging posi-
tion so he wouldn’t have to move
to shoot at them. It was also recom-
mended that he research which types
of apples fall late into the season as
that’s what he should plant.
As bowhunters we oftentimes
tend to overthink and make things
much more difficult than they need
be. When land management teams
suggest planting so many food plots,
they are creating many destination
locations that reduces the odds of
an opportunity with a hunt at one of
them. They are also not taking into
consideration that mature bucks in
pressured areas gravitate to moving
through transition zones offering
security cover and into destination
locations that offer perimeter secu-
rity cover.
For bowhunters pursuing mature
bucks in pressured areas, if your
sites offer some form of perimeter
security cover at them and transi-
tion security cover to them from
known bedding areas, the likelihood
for opportunities will be far greater
than if the site locations are visu-
ally exposed to open areas or there’s
no security cover understudy in the
area. If you’re happy taking subor-
dinate bucks, does or just like seeing
deer, you can hunt exposed areas
and be successful.
I have 31 bucks in the Michi-
gan record book from 19 different
properties and 19 P&Y bucks from
13 different properties on 22 out-of-
state bowhunts during Michigan’s
gun season.
While there are thousands of
hunters with several book bucks
taken in lightly hunted states or
from managed properties, what
separates my accomplishment of
having 50 record book bucks from
32 different properties (31 Michigan
and 19 out of state) from any other
hunter in the country is that I always
exclusively hunted on public and
knock-on-doors for free permission
properties.
Whether you hunt public, free
permission, family owned, leased,
managed or out of state properties;
you can attend one of my two-day
in-field/classroom workshops that
will give you the knowledge to take
those big bucks you get on cam-
era. For information on Eberhart’s
Whitetail Workshops please visit:
www.deer-john.net or e-mail at:
deerjohn51@gmail.comn
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 A Fur Trading Post, A Fort and A Dark and Bloody Era
Henry Hamilton…”Hair Buyer”
H
istoric Fort Detroit
witnessed the flags of
three different countries
rippling in the cool
breeze coming off of the
Detroit River. France
first raised their flag in 1701 when
Fort Pontchartrain du Detroit was
established on the west bank of the
Detroit River as a fur trading post.
The wilderness area around the fort
eventually became established with
missions, small farms, and several
Indian villages, all to benefit from
trade with the French.
The French flag was replaced
by the British flag in 1760 after the
colonists fought and won the French
and Indian War.
It wasn’t until after the Ameri-
can Revolution, in 1783, that the
American flag, Old Glory, replaced
the British flag and was unfurled to
wave above Fort Detroit.
However, it was during the
American Revolution, when the
British still controlled Fort Detroit
that a dark and bloody era occurred;
an era so despised by Americans
that it stained the reputation of Fort
Detroit until the growing
city of Detroit finally de-
molished the old, rundown
Fort in 1827.
The instigator of the
atrocities was a man named
Henry Hamilton, who was
well known among the Na-
tive Americans as the “Hair
Buyer.” Ham-
ilton, a former
British military
By Darryl Quidort
officer turned politician, was ap-
pointed by the Crown as Lieutenant
Governor and Superintendent of In-
dian Affairs at Fort Detroit in 1775.
At his new post, Hamilton soon de-
veloped a good relationship with the
Native Americans which developed
into a deep alliance. He knew the
art of giving. The Indians depended
on Fort Detroit for supplies and he
kept them well supplied with arms
and provisions. Hamilton was not
against giving out an abundant sup-
ply of liquor either. 17,520 gallons
of liquor per year was consumed at
Fort Detroit under his watch.
However, England was in dan-
ger of losing the American’s war for
Independence. A 1776 letter from
Hamilton to the British Governor
of Canada, Frederick Haldimand,
shows that Hamilton was consider-
ing using “his” Indians in the war by
sending them against the American
settlers, even though he realized that
it was civilians that would be killed.
In 1777 he was authorized
to encourage Indian raids on the
American frontier settlements for,
“Making a diversion and exciting an
alarm upon the frontiers of Virginia
and Pennsylvania.” (Now Ohio,
Indiana, and Kentucky.) The brutal
Indian attacks sent out by Hamilton
throughout 1777 caused the Ameri-
can settlers to call it “the year of
the bloody sevens.” Hundreds of
Americans were slaughtered by well
supplied Indian war parties sent out
from Fort Detroit.
Henry Hamilton is alleged to
have paid a bounty of 100 pounds
sterling for American prisoners
and 50 pounds sterling for scalps
brought back to Detroit. Sometimes,
painted and dressed as an Indian,
Hamilton joined the war dances
himself. He also developed strate-
gic plans to unite all Indian tribes
against the Americans. Thus he was
not just performing unpleasant duty
ordered by his superiors but was
eagerly inciting devastating raids
on American settlements and farms.
“Hair Buyer” Hamilton became
hated by Americans.
Although technically a civilian,
Hamilton himself led a large force
of military and Indians
to take Fort Sackville, at
Vincennes, (Indiana) from
the Americans. He captured
the fort on December 18,
1778 and forced all the
townspeople to swear an
oath of allegiance to the
British Crown. Then he
made the mistake
of overwintering
at the fort.
George Rogers Clark, who had
been sent by General George Wash-
ington to “clear up the Indian prob-
lem on the frontier,” led his men
on a daring winter march to attack
Fort Sackville. When the Americans
laid siege, Hamilton didn’t fight. He
knew he couldn’t hold the fort, so
he bargained for terms of surrender.
The Americans wanted to kill Henry
Hamilton. Clark hated the hair buyer
and considered what he had done to
be a “breach of civil order,” but he
refrained from killing him.
On March 8, 1779, Hamilton
was sent, under guard and in chains,
to Williamsburg to face the stern
justice of Thomas Jefferson. Jef-
ferson believed Hamilton was not
just a POW but was a war criminal
for paying a bounty on innocent
civilian scalps. General Washington
agreed with Jefferson. However,
due to professional legal advice on
international law, Washington was
forced to change his policy. Henry
Hamilton was eventually “prisoner
exchanged,” in accordance with
international law, and was sent to
London, England, in 1780.
The accusations against Henry
Hamilton were that he incited the
Indians to attack American civil-
ians and bring him scalps, including
those of innocent women and chil-
dren, and that he paid or rewarded
them for their grisly war trophies.
No one doubts that scalps were
taken. But Henry Hamilton denied
ever paying for scalps
Today, Hamilton’s legacy re-
mains mixed. Some modern histori-
ans have discounted the accusations
as legend, even calling it a complete
fabrication. Others maintain that this
is only an attempt to sanitize history.
Granted, there may be no written
proof that Hamilton paid money for
scalps but there are written records
of numbers of scalps received by
him; one time 81, another time 129,
etc. If he didn’t pay a formal bounty
on them, he certainly rewarded the
Indians for their atrocities against
the Americans.
Chilling evidence of the mag-
nitude of the atrocities exists in
a letter from British Governor of
Canada, Frederick Haldimand. The
war in the East was going badly for
the British. In this letter, Haldimand
requested scalps that the Indians had
taken be turned in from the frontier
British posts to be sent to His Maj-
esty George III in England as proof
of winning the war on the American
frontier. Fort Detroit, Presque Isle,
and Fort Niagara had large collec-
tions of scalps. The following letter,
from one of the Royal Indian agents,
accompanied the first shipment of
eight large, oilskin wrapped bundles.
More than 1,000 American civilian
scalps were in this shipment alone.
It is unknown how many shipments
were sent.
May it please Your Excellency,
January 3d, 1782
I herewith send to Your Excel-
lency, under the care of James Boyd,
eight packages of scalps, cured,
dried, hooped and painted with the
Indian triumphal marks, of which
the following is invoice and expla-
nation.
No. 1. Containing 43 scalps…
these are stretched on black hoops, 4
inches in diameter, the inside of the
skin painted red, with a small black
spot to note their being killed by
bullets. Also 62 of farmers killed in
their homes; hoops painted red, skin
painted brown. And marked with
a hoe… and a black hatchet in the
middle, signifying their being killed
with that weapon.
No. 2. Containing 98 of farmers
killed in their houses; hoops red,
figure of a hoe…a little red foot to
show they stood upon their defense,
and died fighting for their lives and
families.
No. 3. Containing 97 farmers...
killed in the fields…
No. 4. 102 farmers…18 marked
with a yellow flame, to denote their
being prisoners burned alive after
being scalped, their nails pulled out
by the roots, and other torments, one
was supposed to be an American
clergyman…
No. 5. …88 scalps of women, hair
braded in the Indian fashion to show
they were mothers, hoops blue, skin
painted yellow with little red tad-
poles to represent…the tears of grief
occasioned to their relations…17
others… they were knocked down
dead, or had their brains beat out.
No. 6. 193 boy’s scalps of vari-
ous ages…Knife, hatchet, or club as
their death happened.
No. 7. 211 girls scalps of various
ages… tears, hatchet, club, scalping
knife, etc.
No. 8. This package a mixture…
to the number of 122, with a box
of birch bark containing 29 little
infant’s scalps of various sizes,…
Hoops white…only a little knife
in the middle, to show they were
ripped out of their mother’s bellies.
One army’s war criminal might
be considered by the opposing army
as a war hero. Henry Hamilton re-
turned to Canada and was appointed
Lieutenant Governor, and then
Deputy Governor of Quebec. He
was later awarded Governorships in
the British colonies of Bermuda and
Antigua in the Caribbean. He died
on the island of Antigua in 1796.n
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 49
 Ice fishing’s hot bites!
Long Lake/Grand Lake
Very similar, and the depths and fishing strate-
gies used, are basically identical in these Alpena
County lakes. Perch can be found on
both the north and south ends of the lakes
primarily. Focusing on depths of 15-20
feet throughout the winter months are
usually the best. The fish will be shallow-
er at first ice in depths less than 10 feet of
water and gradually move deeper as the
ice thickens. Locating a weed bed will be
a gold mine as these fish like holding on
structure of some sort.
Late winter they will hold
just off the drop-offs out in
By John Bergsma
the deeper basin flats. Most people use tip-ups by
using a small treble and split shot at the business
end of the line. Jigging is another very produc-
tive method that shouldn’t be overlooked. Small
Swedish Pimples, mini jigging Rapalas, and Rus-
sian Spoons have their days also.
If the fish don’t prefer the active jigs, then the
dead stick method is usually king. Setting it just
like a tip-up with a small treble, split-shot, and
minnow, a foot or two off bottom have produced
limits of fish. These fish are aggressive and using
full size walleye minnows will keep the smaller
fish off the baits and usually produce only keeper
size fish.
with your host
n B e r g sm a
Jo h Now on...
CBSSN: Saturday’s at 7:30 a.m January-March
Fox Sports Detroit: Sunday’s at 7:00 a.m January-June
Online viewing at: www.fishermansdigest.com
Visit our website and find out about . . .
• Destinations • Fishing Reports •
• Our Show • Cooks Corner •
50 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
Hubbard Lake
Hubbard holds the biggest perch in the Lower
Peninsula producing many in the two-pound club
every day. If you are looking for one
for the wall, don’t look any further than
Hubbard for that trophy fish. The best
thing is these fish are caught in the mix
with the walleye catches all over the lake.
The best chance is setting your spread of
tip-ups on the drop-offs putting them in
30-50 feet of water. A simple #10 treble
hook and split shot and an active emerald
shiner will be the best bet. Taking home
a tasty catch of walleye is
even better with a few of these
jumbo perch in the mix.
If you’re interested in a winter charter, get
ahold of Steve Hubert from Chum Bucket out of
Alpena. Steve’s the best in the area and will get
you on the fish (989-657-4646). The nor th and south ends of Long Lake/Grand
Marquette County Lake in Alpena Co. offer good perch fishing.
Do huge varieties of fish species and multiple of fish, and if you want to put in a full weekend
(easily accessible) locations get you excited? If of fishing, you could put every one of them on the
so, Marquette County in the Central U.P. is where ice!
you want to be. Right now, in Marquette and Of all the fishing going on right now the slow-
Alger counties you can hit the ice in search of any est bite has been the walleye. The crystal-clear
of the following: pike, perch, walleye, bluegill, inland lakes have been slow at best and only pro-
crappie, splake, rainbow trout, coho, lake trout, ducing fish during the typical first light and last
white fish, burbot, the occasional brown trout and light hours of the day when they head for the shal-
in the coming days- smelt. That’s twelve species lower mud flats and submerged structure in search

of bait fish. If you’re targeting walleye right now,
your best bet is to fish the “dark water” systems
such as the reservoirs and dammed storage basins
that Marquette County has to offer. Jigging Shiver
Minnows, Northland glow shot jigs and spoons
tipped with minnow heads has been working best.
Perch fishing hasn’t been as good as it was,
but the perch being caught have been nice qual-
ity fish with a lot of them being in the 10 -14 inch
size range. Rosie red minnows and wigglers on
your favorite perch tackle has been the bait of
choice.
Southern Marquette County offers multiple
locations to target panfish as well as splake and
rainbow trout. The best bluegill and crappie fish-
ing has been coming during the last few hours of
daylight and has moved out into the deeper areas
of the lakes. For the splake and rainbows, light
green jigs and wigglers have been the top produc-
ers.
Munising Bay
The most exciting fishing right now is Munis-
ing Bay. Anglers are catching everything from
perch, whitefish, coho, splake and burbot - and
very soon you’ll be able to add lake trout and
smelt to that list. A lot of splake and coho are
coming on Swedish pimples with medium sized
minnows. Yellow and orange are two popular col-
ors right now and 40 to 70 foot has been the target
depth. The presentation of choice for the perch,
whitefish and smelt is a Hali jig with a wax worm
and single salmon egg.
If burbot fishing interest you - there’s no
shortage of them in Munising! After dark fishing
has been best and tactics for burbot have been
using any glow-in-the-dark jig tipped with dead,
medium sized minnows or frozen smelt and jigged
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This young angler found exciting pike fishing
in southern Marquette County.
right on the bottom.
If you do head to Marquette County on a
fishing adventure be sure to stop in at The Bob-
ber Shop. They are conveniently located in south
Marquette just as you’re entering town on Hwy 41
with easy in and out access. The Bobber Shop can
provide you with all the gear, bait and up to date
information you’re looking for as well as get you
out on the ice in one of their rental shacks that are
heated and ready for you to enjoy! Be sure to stop
in, give them a call at (906) 362-3634 or check
them out on Facebook.n
This recipe was provided by Chef Grant Bergsma at Fisherman’s Digest TV. For more recipes and excellent
video fishing reports check out www.fishermansdigest.com or on Facebook@Great Lakes Fishermans Digest.
Relax In Style!
Open:
Chef Grant’s Country Smoke House
Smothered Steak
with Roasted Vegetable Medley
Start preparing the vegetables; sweet
potatoes, brussel
sprouts, yellow bell
peppers - chop to
medium size pieces.
In large wok, heat
½ cup coconut oil
or butter, 1 tsp. salt,
1 tsp. garlic powder. Add sweet potatoes and
cook on “high,” after 5 minutes add brussel
sprouts and bell peppers. Sauté for 10 more
minutes on medium heat, stirring or tossing
every two minutes. Place sautéed vegetable
medley on large baking sheet and spread to
one layer. Roast for 8-10 minutes in 350-de-
gree pre-heated oven. Remove when potatoes
are fork tender.
To prepare the Country Smoke House
Beef Bacon and Mushroom Smother Sauce:
Melt ¼ stick of butter in a medium sized
sauce pan, add ½ lb. chopped mushrooms, ¼
lb. Country Smoke House Beef Bacon (small
diced), 1 Tbsp garlic powder and 1 Tbsp. salt.
Sauté until mushrooms are tender. Then add
16 oz. beef broth and bring to boil. Thicken
with a roux of 1 Tbsp. corn starch and 1/2
cup of water, blended fully. Do not add roux
before mushroom sauce comes to a boil.
Grill a 32 oz. steak of choice, seasoned
and cooked to your liking. Top with the bacon
& mushroom sauce, add slivered scallions
and serve with the roasted vegetables.
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 51
 Retrieve with ‘Midwest Finesse’ Style
M
idwest
Finesse
is a style
of fishing
that just
plain
catches lots of bass,
which is why it’s gain-
ing lots of fans. A big
key to success is how
you retrieve the little
lures.
By Dave Mull
While “finesse” techniques
include drop-shotting, split-shot
rigging and tossing smaller Texas-
rigged worms, Midwest Finesse uses
open-hook jigs, primarily with plas-
tic bodies, 2 1/2 to 4 inches long.
It calls for little jigheads—1/32- to
1/10-ounce—with relatively small
hooks (as small as No. 6 hooks
on 1/32-ounce jigs) and small soft
plastics.
Hair and marabou jigs were
common when the whole system
started in the 1950s. Ned Kehde, the
77-year-old namesake of the popular
“Ned rig” is sort of the Jedi Master
of Midwest Finesse. Kehde credits
the late Chuck Woods,
a Kansas City house
painter and devout bass
angler with developing
the technique.
In its purest form,
Midwest Finesse calls
for short casts with
these open-hook jigs in
relatively shallow
water (12 feet and
less), employing one
of six retrieves. When I fished with
Kehde back in October of 2016, he
demonstrated all six. Learn them,
and you’ll almost always be able to
catch bass (and other species) with
at least one type of retrieve on every
outing. The fish can show a distinct
preference.
Swim, Glide & Shake
Cast the lure and count it down
until it hits bottom. That’s your
bottom detection cast. Now cast
again, engage your reel and shake it
as it sinks. Count it one less count
and start slowly reeling before it
hits bottom. Make it swim back
towards you. Stop reeling and let

Ned Kehde poses with a largemouth caught with the Midwest Fi-
nesse techniques he has helped popularize.
the lure pendulum forward and its way to the bottom. Now reel two
glide towards bottom, but not touch. times around so the lure comes up
Shaking can happen during the and shuttles forward—not too fast
swim or the glide, and isn’t always or too high. Stop reeling. Shake rod
necessary. Kehde said if the fish are tip as the lure falls and repeat.
aggressively feeding, shaking often
can help get more hits. To shake the Drag & Deadstick
lure, just wiggle your rod tip a bit. The guy in the back of the boat
casts directly at shore, engages his
Hop & Bounce reel and lets the forward motion
In this one, your reel handle of the boat swing the lure around
creates the hops. After casting, point behind the boat. The “deadstick”
the rod tip downward, so it’s just happens when the angler peels some
Manufacturer of Fine Northern Hardwoods above the water surface. Shake the line off of his reel so the lure stays
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52 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS

ing again when the boat’s motion
tightens the line. The technique gets
a light jighead to the bottom in as
much as 12 feet of water.
Straight Swim
This started with a curl-tail grub
and still works with one. It’s a great
way to cover large expanses of a
flat with the wind pushing the boat
(Ned often deploys a sea anchor to
slow the boat’s progress in wind,
which is pretty much a constant in
Kansas). Ned says to take long casts
and reel so the lure comes steadily
back—much like the Charlie Brewer
Slider technique discussed in the last
issue. The late Charlie Brewer used
straight tail worms and imparted no
extra action. Ned notes that Z-Man’s
straight 4-inch Finesse WormZs or
4-inch Finesse ShadZs also work
great with this retrieve. I’ve had
good success with shortened Hula
StickZs (trimmed to about 3 inches)
and the 2.75-inch Finesse TRDs,
basically a straight, short worm.
Drag & Shake
Ned notes that this can work
best with a heavier jighead in deeper
water. I caught my personal-best
smallmouth, a 6-pound, 7-ounce
Lake Erie beast down 15 feet on a
1/6-ounce head and Finesse TRD.
Great lures for the Midwest Finesse style of fishing include (clock-
wise from top right) the Z-Man Finesse TRD, Z-Man 3-inch MinnowZ,
Keitech 4-inch Swing Impact and Z-Man Hula StickZ (shor tened
from 4 to about 3 inches).
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In shallower water, however, a
1/32-ounce head or a 1/20- or
1/16-ounce ShroomZ works best.
Cast and let the lure hit bottom. Reel
just fast enough to keep the lure
moving but touching bottom. Give it
an occasional twitch. Or just reel, as
Charlie Brewer recommended.
Strolling
This is the “drag and deadstick”
without the deadstick part. Ned
showed me how to do it from the
back of his 16-foot Alumacraft
tiller boat. Basically you just cast
off the corner of the back of the
boat at a 45-degree angle and let
the boat’s motion swing your lure
behind the boat. I believe the fact
the lure doesn’t travel in a straight
line as it swings has something to
do with its effectiveness. Veteran
weight-forward spinner and night-
crawler chuckers from Lake Erie
will understand this. Many bites
come as the lure swings. Strolling
has been an effective technique
with wind pushing my kayak
across a big flat.
Slack-line Snap
This is Number 7 and isn’t one
of Ned’s. Greg Mangus, a truly great
bass angler, showed me it one fall
day years ago, throwing Yamamoto
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Join the FNN
Want to join a cool bass fishing club? Drop a note to Ned Kehde at
nkehde@ku.edu and ask to be put on the Finesse News Network email
list. Ned, the reluctant namesake for the popular, diminutive Ned rig,
distributes his own log as well as notes from fishing trips of other FNN
members. You can also join in discussions on the Finesse News Network
Facebook page.
Kehde details his trips to reservoirs around his home in Lawrence,
Kansas, where he fishes nothing but Ned rigs, different styles on identical
spinning combos. Others contribute, too. Most logs detail wind speed,
weather, water temperature and clarity, but the meat is the fishing itself.
Anglers reveal what lure types and colors worked as well as how they
retrieved them—that last item extra important. For instance, a January
report from Steve Reideler of Denton, Texas covered a bank-walking trip
on a small impoundment near Dallas:
“On the lower or south end of the west shoreline, I induced my first
strike of the afternoon, and it produced a largemouth bass. This bass
was caught from the remaining stubble of a patch of submerged winter-
dead aquatic vegetation, which is situated about 25 feet from the water’s
edge in five feet of water. This largemouth engulfed a four-inch Z-Man’s
pumpkin Finesse WormZ rigged on a custom-painted chartreuse
1/20-ounce Z-Man’s Finesse ShroomZ jig. This combo was employed
with an extremely slow drag-and-deadstick presentation, with each cast
and retrieve taking three to four minutes to complete.”
Many fishermen find that sort of description interesting.
Double Tail Hula Grubs downwind forward. The effect is snap forward,
as a powerful breeze pushed his bass fall, snap forward, and it’s a good
boat across a big flat. Greg would way to get a reaction strike from a
hurl the grub as far as he could and fish whether you’re throwing those
almost immediately start pulling deadly Yamamoto grubs or any of
it back with the rod tip. He’d let the little Midwest Finesse lures.
some slack form in his line before Dave Mull will present finesse
he started the rod action, so the line fishing seminars at the Ultimate
would be moving, and when the Outdoors Show, DeVos Place, Grand
slack was gone, the lure would snap Rapids, March 14-17.n
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WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 53
 Getting Started...Black Powder Shooting
An honest commitment
“I’ve thought about
trying grouse hunting
with a muzzleloader,”
the fifty-something
gentleman in the camo
hunting jacket said.
“Is that possible? How
would I get started?”
“S
ure it’s possible,”
I said, picking up
the percussion
double-barrel
shotgun from
the table and handing it to the avid
upland bird hunter. “Put this to your
shoulder.”
Mindful of muzzle
direction, the fellow tested
the weight of the gun in
his hands, then scrunched
his graying eyebrows. “It
feels about the same as my
double,” he said with a lilt
of surprise in his baritone
voice. With a
smooth, fluid mo-
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54 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
tion, the walnut butt stock found the
hunt-stained suede patch on his right
shoulder. Most folks passing by the
canvas encampment at the 2018
Woods-N-Water News Outdoor
Weekend, held at the Eastern Michi-
gan State Fairgrounds in Imlay City,
paid no attention. He swung right,
then left, chasing fast-flying, imagi-
nary grouse.
“I’m amazed at how well this
double handles. I had no idea. I
could get used to this,” he said as he
looked back at his wife. She re-
turned a knowing smile.
“You’re holding the grandfather
to your modern double,” the familiar
explanation began. “Those smooth-
bores and double-barrel shotguns
fed a lot of families and
defended countless home-
steads. My grandfather
hunted with a muzzleload-
ing shotgun, and in his later
years, a Damascus-twist,
breech-loading, black-
powder side-by-side. I
suspect yours did, too. To
get started, all you
need is an honest
“Line up all three circles,” David Maddox coached Derek Palmer.
“Many times it only takes one or two shots, but the oppor tunity has
to be there to learn,” Maddox later said. Wild River tree photos
commitment.”
“How do I get started?” For
those individuals who are passionate
about America’s rich muzzleload-
ing heritage that common question
opens the door for an additional
opportunity to expound upon the
virtues of the black powder shooting
sports. Experienced shooters under-
stand that only a handful of listeners
will make the commitment, but that
knowledge never dampens the un-
paralleled exuberance that surrounds
burning black powder.
“Make an honest commitment.”
The greatest obstacle to any new
endeavor is making the initial com-
mitment. There is a big difference
between “I want to,” and “I will.”
The first allows escape routes and
excuses; the latter focuses effort and
commences action.
The upland bird hunter left the
show with an honest commitment
to hunt grouse with a double-barrel
shotgun that used black powder as
a propellant—either a muzzleloader
or a black-powder cartridge gun.
The timing of the Outdoor Week-
end provided a year of preparation,
which increased his probability of
success.
“Start with what you like.” One
of the first questions asked of some-
one interested in branching out into
the black powder shooting sports is
“What do you like to shoot?”
The lady who punches paper at
a club pistol league, a fellow who
enjoys long-range precision bench
shooting or a teen who shoots on
the high school trap team all possess
a commitment to a specific type of
modern arm. The transition to black
powder is easier if each individual
takes advantage of his or her exist-
ing skill levels and acquired profi-
ciencies.
Likewise, hunters should con-
sider matching a muzzleloader to
their favorite game. The percussion
side-by-side might work best for the
upland bird hunter or waterfowl en-
thusiast, a small-bore flintlock rifle
adapts well to the squirrel woods
or a good all-around gun for small
game, wild turkeys and deer is a
smooth-bored trade gun.
“Begin with a production
gun.” Purchasing an expensive
custom muzzleloader—pistol, rifle
or shotgun—is a common mistake
for those new to the black powder
shooting sports. On the other hand,
an inexpensive “bargain,” acquired
based on incomplete knowledge, can
quickly become a costly infatuation.
It is best to begin this lifelong jour-
ney with reasonable expectations,
rather than grand misconceptions.
The first year shooting black
powder is filled with educational
opportunities, both successes and
failures. Therefore, most veteran
shooters suggest starting with a
production gun, then upgrading.
A mass produced muzzleloader of
good quality is economical and reli-
able—plus parts are readily avail-
able, should that need arise.
A wide variety of front-loading
pistols, rifles and shotguns have
been produced over the years, either
with flint or percussion ignition
systems. A mentor, found at a lo-
cal muzzleloading club, perhaps a
friend who shoots black powder or a
field representative from the Nation-
al Muzzle Loading Rifle Association
can help narrow down the possible
choices.
“The search begins.” Muzzle-
loaders of good value abound, often
tucked in the back of a gun safe and
all but forgotten. A black powder
gunsmith can assess the physical
condition of a used arm, and some-
times a mentor can, as well.
Written specifications work better
than searching by model number or
specific maker. For example, one
might search for a rifle, .50-caliber,
full or half stock, double-set trig-
gers, brass mounted hardware with
percussion ignition. When a rifle
comes available, its pedigree is
compared to the specifications and a
buying decision made.
As with any purchase, network-
ing helps. A mentor can “put out the
word” that a newcomer is looking
for a starter gun. Online forums
dedicated to muzzleloading, liv-
The growing popularity of pistol
shooting among women is a
natural transition point to the
black powder shooting spor ts.
ing history or re-enactments often
have “trade blankets” or “for sale”
categories. Family, friends or work
colleagues are good sources, too.
Above all, buyers should be patient
with their search and stick to the
parameters set for that first black
powder arm.
“Learn from a mentor.” After
the purchase, the next step is to head
to the range. Here again, a men-
tor smooths out the learning curve,
helps a new shooter develop safe
handling habits, assists with avoid-
ing common and sometimes costly
mistakes and offers valuable guid-
ance for maximizing the efficiency
of the load and the enjoyment
Muzzle Loading State Events
March 3 - Contemporary Muzzle Loading Arms Show: Lapeer: 810-620-3175
March 10 - Clinton River Muzzle Loaders Winterfest: Detroit Sportsman
Congress: 586-292-6821
March 16-17 - Kalamazoo Living History ShowTM: Kalamazoo: 765-563-6792
March 30 - April Fool Shoot: Benzie Sportsman Club: 231-378-2145
March 31 - Winter 1/2 Scale Silhouette Match: Linden: 810-629-0478
For a complete 2019 shoot schedule, send a SASE or email to: Ron Fernwalt,
16808 Peach Ridge, Kent City, MI, 49330, or email Ron rbfern@triton.net
gained from shooting a muzzle-
loader.
Experienced black powder
shooters emphasize the need for de-
liberate, step-by-step actions until a
consistent rhythm is established. By
its nature, muzzleloading is a slow-
paced pastime, which facilitates
learning and relaxation. Rather than
chambering a cartridge, each round
must be “built” within the bore in
reverse order: “powder-patch-ball”
as the old adage goes. Thus, careful
attention to details is critical.
Black powder guns are loaded at
During a special training session, a newcomer to black powder
a bench, which is behind the firing skeet received individual instruction. The range officer, designated
line. Range officers follow a fixed by the orange baseball cap, stood close by, overseeing the lesson
protocol at all times. Strict safety while waiting to release the clay pigeon.
rules control loading, handling and
carrying the arm to and from the buy and what not to. if joking and good-natured kid-
firing line. This unique process must “Keep the muzzleloader clean.” ding abound. Once again, a veteran
be learned and followed—both on Guns utilizing black powder as shooter can guide the newcomer to
the range or when shooting on the a propellant must be thoroughly the most efficient cleaning method.
“back forty.” Note taking is encour- cleaned after each use. Corrosion The enjoyment, the sheer plea-
aged. from the fouling residue can be- sure of duplicating the marksman-
In addition, shooting techniques gin within a matter of hours. Left ship ability of our forefathers, using
are a bit different than modern arms. uncleaned, the bore can be rendered the arms that they used, is unsur-
The hold, sight picture and follow useless in a couple of days. passed in the shooting sports. All
through required for consistent Among modern shooters, this that is needed to get started in this
accuracy with a muzzleloader are cleaning process is villainized as joyous pastime is an honest commit-
different than that needed for mod- a prime reason for not shooting a ment.
ern arms. And all first-time flintlock muzzleloader. For most front-load- Give the black powder shooting
shooters experience an “adjustment ing guns, a proper cleaning takes sports a try, be safe and may God
period” when a small “forest fire” ten to fifteen minutes—a bit longer bless you.n
erupts inches in front of one’s nose.
“Assemble the necessities.”
Hand-reloading a modern cartridge
requires certain supplies and tools.
Likewise, each muzzleloader has
an accompanying list of necessi-
Randy’s Hunting Center
ties: black powder, flints or percus-
sion caps, round balls or shot, and M&P
40 SUB
patches or wads. A powder measure,
short starter, range rod, jag, patch
worm, ball puller, nipple wrench,
screwdriver, cleaning patches and
other sundry tools are needed to
support safe loading and handling of
COMPACT
these side-hammer arms. (Model 109253)
Experts suggest that when
purchasing a muzzleloader, be sure comes with 2
to ask the owner if some or all of $
these necessities come with the gun.
Often a production muzzleloader is
10 round double
stack magazines 319.99
a “one of a kind” item in a modern
shooter’s gun safe. When the sale is
FEATURES
made, the owner never thinks of the • Three Interchangeable Grip Sizes • High-strength Polymer Frame
supplies, which are deemed useless • Stainless Steel Drift Adjustable • Stainless-steel Chassis, Barrel
to him or her once the gun changes Sights and Slide
hands. An experienced shooter is a • Standard and Finger Groove • Picatinny-style Rail
great resource for what supplies to Magazines Included • Magazine Safety, No Thumb
• Scalloped Slide Serrations Safety
• Ambidextrous Slide Stop • MA Compliant
ALL BACKED BY OUR SMITH & WESSON LIFETIME SERVICE POLICY.
Availability subject to applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations, and ordinances.
Randy’s Hunting Center
721 E. Huron Ave.
Bad Axe, MI 48413
(989) 269-GUNS (4867)
www.randyhuntingcenter.com
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 55


TROPHY PAGE

Ed Wilson of Paw
Paw took this 10-pt. Cory Corneau with husband Matt of Dryden landed Nathan
Mark Bannister with
in Monroe Co. on the her first ever steelhead on a fly rod on the Pere Mar- Miller, 15, of
family farm during a dandy Lapeer Co. Casco Twp.
quette River near Baldwin over the holiday season.
muzzleloader season. crappie! An awesome trip and a memory for a lifetime! took his first
buck hunt-
ing with his
Uncle Rich
in Macomb
Co. He made
a perfect 60
yard shot
with his muz-
zleloader on
Dec. 8. Nathan has video footage of
this buck during bow season. He cap-
tured this buck on his trail cam several
times including a photo (above) just
Successful Hunting Family: On Nov. 5 daughter before he took the nice 7-pt., you can
Heather Lang took a broken rack buck in Lapeer Co. see his blind in the background. Uncle
Nov. 15 Mike Deitering took a nice 8-pt., Laurie De- Zac Alfrejd of Portage caught this Rich set Nathan up on several bucks
itering took a 7-pt. on Nov. 16 and grandson Logan before taking this one. Both hunters
Lang, 11, took a unique 4-pt. All three bucks were 42 inch, 20 lb. monster, on Lake
taken in Sanilac Co. near Applegate. Onekama! were extremely excited after this hunt!

Rob
Ritsema Pat
took this Meehleder
Jake
Hickman buck took this
with in Van 8-pt. bow
a nice Buren hunting
buck Co. dur- Bay Co.
taken in ing the Nov. 3. His
Lowell archery buck was
during season chasing off
archery with his a smaller John Freeman of Troy caught this
season. 8-pt. Saginaw Bay lake trout Jan. 27
Mathews
Jimmy Albrechy
bow. took this 7-pt.
opening day

Abby Kinzy
Knieper
of Clay
LoPresto,
caught 7, took
this nice her first
30 inch deer in
pike. She Hillsdale
checked to Co. Kinzy
see what
the pike loves the
was eating outdoors,
and found 55 perch in its stomach! walleye
fishing,
Levi Tubergan, 11, mush-
with his first rabbit
and it was taken Tank Kids Continue Hunting Success: (lt-rt) Libby Tank, 11, with room
with his papa’s gun her fifth buck and seventh deer, a nice 8-pt. taken during the hunting.
youth hunt. Maylee Tank, 9, with her third buck and fifth deer,
he received for a spike, and Bryson Tank, 6, with his first ever deer, a spike! All
Christmas. three bucks were taken in Sanilac County.
56 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 57
 By Millard H. Holton
Field trialing
with beagles
I
f you own a beagle or are
contemplating purchasing
one in the future you should
know that there are recre-
ational opportunities avail-
able beyond the cottontail
and snowshoe hare hunting seasons.
The beagle field trial season runs the
year around in Michigan and consists
of several formats, sanctioned by
the American Kennel Club (AKC).
It is very important for one to know
the background of a beagle puppy
prior to purchasing it. There is such
a varied make up of the gene pool in
beagles that an uninformed buyer of
a puppy may purchase one that will
have no interest in hunting or field
trialing at all.
The fact that all AKC registered
beagles, including those stylish
hounds that come from show or
bench backgrounds can be crossed
with each other, and can present a
real problem for a person trying to
purchase a hunting hound. When I
started hunting with hounds, over 60
years ago, some beagles could earn a
show championship on the bench, as
well as becoming a champion in the
field by pursuing both cottontail and
snowshoe hare. However, time con-
straints and travel costs caused many
contestants to specialize in just one
area. This caused many show beagles
to genetically lose their desire and
ability to pursue rabbits and hare in
a productive manner, as well as their
enthusiasm to search for and find
game also declining.
During and prior to the 1950s
and 1960s, there were basically two
AKC field trial formats in Michigan;
Brace Beagling on cottontail and
Large Pack on snowshoe hare. A few
hounds could successfully compete
in both formats. I personally bred
a female beagle to Field Champion
Laingsburg Mac, that had won a
brace trial and large pack on the same
weekend.
The 15 or so brace beagle clubs
were located primarily in zone III and
belonged to the Northern Association
of Beagle Clubs. The snowshoe hare
clubs ran their events primarily in the
Upper Peninsula and were members
of the Northern Michigan Hare As-
sociation. These associations still
exist today and their locations can be
found on the internet.
Unfortunately, the brace beaglers
decided to require a more accurate
trailing hound on cottontails and had
to be slowed down to accomplish this
58 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
sought after goal. After a couple of
decades of this new movement, the
brace beagle became more of a con-
test dog than a rabbit hound. As speed
is the easiest trait in the hound to ac-
quire, accuracy in trailing a cottontail
is the hardest quality to obtain and
retain. In the wild the fastest canine
caught the prey while the slow ones
often starved; therefore speed became
a dominant gene and is essential in
pursuing a snowshoe hare.
As many hunters became disap-
pointed in the usefulness of the brace
beagle as a hunting hound, they
dropped out of the clubs altogether.
However, many beagle owners across
the country petitioned the AKC for a
format that would return the competi-
tion to a style that credited the rabbit
hound for its huntable qualities.
This new format was titled Small
Pack Option and was usually run in
packs of four to seven hounds in first
series. Several small pack option
clubs still operate in Michigan today.
There are still several brace beagle
clubs operating in Southern Michigan
where beaglers that enjoy the chal-
lenge of developing a slower, more
accurate hound has a place to com-
pete.
The loss of a source where a
hunter could purchase an accomplish-
ing hound for hunting spawned the
creation of several new formats and
associations. The American Rabbit
Hound Association (ARHA) offered
a completely new registry and created
trials in Little Pack, Progressive Pack
and Gun Dog Pack, each with their
separate trialing rules. My beagles
were able to win many trials in the
Gun Dog Pack trials both on a local
and national level. The ARHA was
initially founded by Everett Morgan
and rapidly spread across the country
and offered a format for every type of
hunting hound.
Another opportunity exists for
beaglers in Canada, where the On-
tario Association of Beagle Clubs
hold similar trials in both brace and
small pack. All entries must be a
rabbit hound in order to compete. By
winning and becoming a Field Trial
Champion in both Canada and the
United States, a beagle earns the title
of International Field Champion.
Now an AKC beagle field trial
normally runs in four classes: 13 inch
males, 13 inch females, 15 inch males
and 15 inch females. All entered
hounds are subject to be measured by
the judges and if determined to ex-
The author’s hounds with Bud and Wayne Anderson in the U.P.
ceed 15 inches, they are not allowed
to compete.
The criteria for becoming an AKC
Field Champion is to win three trials,
licensed by AKC, as well as earning
120 points. A hound is awarded a
point for each dog in the class that he
wins, 1/2 point for a second, 1/3 point
for third place and 1/4 point for plac-
ing fourth. In other words in a class
of 60 entries, points are awarded
as follows: the winner receives 60
points, the second place hound earns
30, the third place gets 20 and the
fourth place receives 15. A hound
with three wins for 90 points can earn
the remaining 30 points with second,
third or fourth place points.
The hare hounds are trialed on
snowshoe hare in packs that can
exceed 40 beagles at one time. Now
the snowshoe hare, unlike the slower
twisting, turning, back tracking cot-
tontail, thinks he can outrun his pur-
suer so he depends on speed to outrun
the hounds, rather than creating tricks
in order to escape. Often a snowshoe
will lead the pack on a chase that
takes them out of hearing distance for
a long period of time before returning
to the area where the chase started.
It is unfortunate that individual
hounds in all of the listed AKC for-
mats can be interbred and registered.
Therefore, if a purchaser of a beagle
pup does not know anything about
the parents’ abilities as a hunting
hound, he could end up with a nice
looking hound or one that has no
desire to search for game, as well as
no patience or enthusiasm for hunt-
ing. Good conformation is impor-
tant in allowing a hound to drive a
hare or pursue a cottontail on an all
day hunt. Many beagles have loose
shoulders and short crooked front
legs that often wear the hound out
in a short time, especially on deep
or crusty snow. It would be great, as
well as useful, if more of our beagles
resembled the conformation dis-
played by the famous Uno, the beagle
that recently won “Best of Show” at
Madison Square Garden.
I personally know of a lot of
hunters that purchased a pup that
had no rabbit running qualities but
still ended up being a family pet.
Purchasing a beagle is a “short term”
investment (dogs of any breed don’t
live very long) and it doesn’t cost any
more to feed and maintain a good
hound than it does for a poor hunter.
Owning a top quality hunting beagle,
even though there is an overwhelm-
ing chance you will have to bury it
down the road, is the “price you pay
for a priceless experience.”
The AKC Beagle Field Trial Rule
Book states in Procedure 5-B, “that
an ‘ideal beagle’ should be useful for
all purposes afield, capable of serving
as a field trial hound, a gun dog or a
member of a pack on either rabbit or
hare.” I would add to this description
by saying, an ‘ideal beagle’ should be
able to pursue a cottontail or hare on
both bare, and frozen ground, as well
as on snow. Unfortunately a pedigree
doesn’t furnish much information
on the hunting abilities of the listed
ancestors.
This is the type of hound I always
strived to breed for and almost all
were able to meet the “ideal beagle
qualities.” My beagles were “adapt-
able” or had gears. They could turn
on the speed to push a straight run-
ning snowshoe out of hearing and
bring it back to the gun on one day,
as well as shift gears the next day and
push a cottontail without breakdowns
either in the field or at a trial. It
doesn’t get any better than that.
I have only scratched the surface
in this writing referencing beagle
field trials. It would require volumes
to detail all of the formats available
to beagle owners today. I apologize
for leaving out any group that I am
not familiar with or not recognizing
recent changes in formats that may
have occurred. Meanwhile get out
and enjoy the many opportunities that
still exist with beagles!
The author has raised, hunted and field
trialed hunting beagles for over 60 years.
He has judged field trials in many states,
and Canada. He has bred, handled and
finished many field champions in the gun
dog formats. Watch for his next article;
how an ‘Ideal Beagle’ should perform in
the field. n
 Icing Saginaw Bay’s
Late Season Walleyes
How to cash in on this fantastic fishery...
I
t’s no secret that Saginaw Bay serves
up one of the best year round walleye
fisheries in the world. Even during the
winter, when conditions are decent,
thousands of ice anglers hit the Bay
chasing those highly sought after wall-
eyes. Last winter’s DNR estimated winter catch
total for the Bay shattered past records at 123,793
walleyes. The DNR attributed the super success
rates to an ever increasing walleye population
coupled with very good ice fishing conditions
last winter. This winter has started off warm. As
I write this though we are in the grips of a late
January polar vortex that is making inches of ice
by the day that may very well last on the Bay
through the end of winter. Should that happen,
it’s well known that some of the best fishing of
the season occurs during late winter. Read on
for the scoop on how to cash in on this fantastic
fishery.
Capt. Brandon Stanton owns and operates
teamgunsmokesportfishing.com (989-963-0215)
offering guided ice fishing trips on Saginaw Bay
in addition to open water fishing charters too. He
departs from the east side of the Bay, but consid-
ers the best late winter walleye waters to be from
the middle of the shipping channel southward
towards the mouth of the Saginaw River. Stan-
ton said, “I believe that late winter walleyes use
the dredged river channel as a travel corridor at
that time of the year as they move back and forth
between the Bay and the river mouth. I really
like the area around the Spark Plug due to deep
water there being adjacent to some fish attracting
structure.” The Spark Plug is a fixed, red buoy
located six or seven miles from the river mouth
and is numbered Buoy 12 on charts.
There certainly are plenty of other spots on
Saginaw Bay closer to shore where anglers can
find fair to good walleye fishing. Stanton says, “If
you try shallow water the best fishing is going to
be the first and last two hours of the day. If you
fish deeper water though, the bite often lasts all
day.” Night fishing in shallow water is sometimes
red hot and shouldn’t be ignored, especially when
the ice is clear and the moon is bright and over-
head at night.
Brandon Stanton runs his guided trips on
snowmobiles. He said, “I used to have an airboat
but it was such a rough ride that it beat the tar out
of me, my clients and my helpers. Snowmobiles
and quads are a lot easier on the body on the
rough ice often found on the Bay.” However you
choose to travel on the ice, it certainly pays to be
extra cautious, as pressure cracks and open water
are common obstacles on the
Bay especially during or after
warm and/or windy periods.
Savvy anglers will exercise
every safety precaution when
fishing on the Bay. Only fools
take unnecessary chances out
there and they are usually the
ones you see on the news get-
By Michael Veine
ting rescued or worse.
Brandon Stanton relies mainly on jigging
spoons for consistent late season walleye produc-
tion. In deeper water he prefers ½ ounce spoons
that are about two inches long. Do Jiggers and
PK Spoons are his favorites with Wonder Bread,
Glow Red Dot, Bloody Nose and PK Flutter Fish
being his most consistent patterns last winter.
For shallow water though, I really prefer
jigging spoons that are styled like the old fash-
ioned Little Cleo with lighter, smaller sizes being
ideal. The extra flutter of these lighter spoons
seems to get more strikes in tight. The ¼ oz.
Moonshine Mainliner spoons in Glow Bloody
Nose and Wonder Bread are great for waters less
than 20 feet deep. Brandon Stanton also likes to
use minnow imitating, jigging lures on occasion.
Jigging Raps and Shiver Minnows are the most
popular. Stanton fishes them with a minnow head
on the bottom hook. He tips his spoons too and
elaborated, “We start out with everyone using
a different style lure and also vary the minnow
usage too. Some will have a whole minnow while
others have a half minnow, and some are tipped
with just a head. When one setup shows a prefer-
ence, we switch over everyone to that hot rig. We
use mostly perch minnows but on some days the
larger walleye minnows may work better, so even
the size of the minnows gets changed up now and
then.
Brandon Stanton shared a couple more tips:
“We target the bottom when jigging for walleyes
on the Bay. We actually pound the bottom, which
kicks up sand and silt. That commotion draws in
fish and triggers strikes. On days when the fish
are not aggressive though, they will often come
in and check the lure out without biting. When
we see that occurring on the sonar, we slowly
These late winter walleyes were a
blast to catch and made for some
fine table fare. Minnow imitating,
jigging lures like this Moonshine
Shiver Minnow are popular on
Saginaw Bay.
raise the lure up. Sometimes the lure is raised up
10 or more feet from bottom before they smack
it. On some occasions they will follow it all the
way to the surface and hit it just under the ice ris-
ing up sometimes 30 feet in the process. We have
actually looked down the hole and seen multiple
fish following a lure up from the bottom that
way.” Even if fish aren’t marked near the lure, it
often pays to incorporate regular, slow rises in the
jigging rhythm.
Stanton had some words of advice for land-
ing fish too: “Everybody in our group is provided
with a gaff. If a big fish is hooked, the gaff can
come in real handy. On smaller walleyes though,
we usually skip the gaff and just pull them up
through the hole by grabbing the line. On Sagi-
naw Bay we usually catch a lot of walleyes, but
instead of just tossing them out on the ice, we put
them in a plastic tub. This way they won’t freeze
delaying the cleaning process and it also keeps
your catch under wraps too.” If other anglers see
a pile of walleyes flopping on the ice, then they
often swoop in and set up right on top of you
oftentimes blowing fish right out of the area from
all their commotion. I just put the fish in a gar-
bage bag or better yet a plastic grain sack to keep
them nicely. Safe fishing.
The author offers fishing charters specializing
in Saginaw Bay walleyes. Contact Mike Veine at
www.trophyspecialists.com or 734-475-9146.n
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 59
 On the day ‘Hell’ froze
over, did you go fishing?
Dear Fish Diary:
S
Hell, Michigan, Jan. 31, 2019
hortly after the Federal
government reopened
after a long shutdown,
the Michigan State
government shut down
for three days due to ex-
treme frigid temperatures. The Fed-
eral government shutdown
was over building a wall on
our southern border and the
costs involved. Meanwhile,
folks in northern Michigan
were building walls just
fine with snow blowers and
shovels for free. Across the
Great Lakes State it will be
Dear Fish Diary...
infamously
known as the
By Ron St. Germain
day Hell froze
over. Record
temperatures
blew across the state, in some cases
breaking record lows that stood for
100-years. It was a pair of days that
even the devil himself was probably
wrapped up in a wool blanket.
When a friend asked to go ice
fishing during this polar vortex
storm, I actually took it as an insult.
“Hey, want to go fishing in the
Pinckney State Game area, over
near Hell today?”
“Why?”
“It would be cool.”
“Is that a joke?”
I mean, it was so cold I heard a
chickadee at my bird feeder going
“ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chick-ah-ah-ah-
ah-da-da-da-da-dee-dee-dee-dee-
dee-dee. Hot and Now was actually
closed. I saw a squirrel bouncing
off an electric fence, while a local
dog had to be chiseled off of a fire
hydrant. I’ve opened the refrigerator
to heat the house and I’m standing
in a corner because it’s 90-degrees.
60 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
Get it… the corner is 90-degrees.
Okay, well, whatever, back to
ice fishing in Hell on the coldest
day in 100-years. So why would I
want to do that? I know me, I know
I would light myself on fire by
standing too close to the propane
heater, and I’d probably do it more
than once. The only bonus I see ice
fishing on a day like this is that if
you’re not good at jigging,
the natural motion from
shivering will help.
So that my manhood
isn’t questioned, I thought
these were good excuses
not to go. (My fishing line
is only rated for 17-de-
grees.) See, this way I’m
blaming the
fishing line
and the manu-
facturers for
their inabil-
ity to make a fishing line that will
actually not snap or freeze solid in
temperatures under 17-degrees.
(Oh dang, I just lent my rod-tip
defroster to a friend.) Everybody
knows, that fishing in artic condi-
tions causes ice buildups in the eye-
lets of your fishing rod. The constant
jerking, bouncing and wiping off the
ice scares the fish and that actually
makes fishing kind of redundant.
Every fisherman will know, not hav-
ing your rod-tip defroster is a totally
viable excuse.
(Hey, listen, I’m looking at my
phone app for that area right now
and it says the fish are not biting at
all so don’t waste your time.) This
might be my best overall excuse.
You see, because I’m a published
outdoor writer, they put me on this
artificial pedestal but the pedestal
is not heated. They give me this
false sense of celebrity status, which
means, they would totally buy into
the fact that I would have a phone
app for every lake in the state. So if
I told them that my phone app for
Silver Lake, Pickerel Lake, Half-
moon Lake and Hi-Land Lake, all
said stay home, they’d believe me.
I’m a published outdoor writer, we
must have special agent apps like
this in order to get our secret infor-
mation. Without that secret informa-
tion we’d never be outdoor writers.
That’s how it works, just so you
know. Now, everything will work
fine until they read this.
Either way, it was so cold the
local high school kids were actu-
ally wearing their pants around
their waist and suddenly all of my
breakfast cereals are frosted flakes.
I think weather conditions actually
define our psychological state of
mind, not necessarily your man-
hood. If regular temperatures are
minus-20 and Hell has frozen over
and you’re out there fishing, you are
clinically crazy. The ice is forming
faster than you can drill it or chip it
away. Quit thinking about yourself
and think about the fish. By the time
you actually land a fish and get it off
the hook, it’s frozen solid and you
can’t release it if it’s too small…
because it’s FROZEN. (Please, this
is not a cue to start singing “Do you
want to build a snowman.”)
In weather like this my nose
runs but my truck doesn’t. Birds
fly south, bears hibernate, humans
complain, and we call them dumb
animals.
Oh, I know, we are Michigan-
ders. To most this was a major
snowstorm, to us it was Wednesday
and Thursday. While counties were
warning drivers not to go out, we
take it as a challenge and invitation
to go out and see what all the fuss is
about. Frostbite to us is just a winter
tan.
Still, my face hurts and my fin-
gers and toes are numb. You can go
ahead and go fishing without me, I’ll
be home asking God for forgiveness
for my winter language. Yes, I will
dress in layers…layers of donuts
while staying under the blankets.
You go ahead and go fishing. As
a published outdoor writer with ce-
lebrity status I have seriously impor-
tant things to do that don’t involve
freezing. I have to do research so
I may continue to give you proper
information. Such as, a cold snap is,
snap it’s suddenly brutally cold, and
not snap the cold is over. My biggest
mission and mystery right now is to
figure this out. When it is zero de-
grees and the weather man says it’s
going to be twice as cold tomorrow,
how cold will it actually be?
Funny fish stories wanted:
Strangest thing
you’ve ever caught...
Send a short description of your
“best or worst” fishing day, or worst
fishing-related adventure, or strang-
est thing you’ve caught to me. You
don’t have to write the entire story,
just a brief outline of what hap-
pened. If it has some humor to it
I’ll be getting in touch with you and
we’ll work on the completed story
together.
Contact - Woods-n-Water News
columnist Ron St. Germain by
calling (517) 626-2814, e-mailing
DaPhotoDude@aol.com. Visit the
author’s Facebook page www.Face-
book.com/BearwaveBooksn
 Flying and fly-fishing
W
hen I first got
into fly-fishing,
things were
simple. Rods
were basically a
two piece deal.
Everything has changed.
I recently had to fly for a two
week trip encompassing business,
family stuff and luckily some fly-
fishing. Since all of my prior fishing
trips were “road trips” I never
considered the logistical issues of
airplane fishing rod transport, much
less gear (another article). Also,
since I was driving I had room for
multiple weight fly outfits so I didn’t
have to worry about rod perfor-
mance with different weight fly
lines.
To find out the real deal on
today’s travel fly-fishing rods I
interviewed Jeff Miller who is the
L.L.Bean Corporate Merchant for
Hunting and Fishing. Miller has
been designing rods for Bean for 20
years.
Four Piece Only
“I have designed and built 4,
5, 6, 7 and even 8 piece rods, and
because of better components, ma-
terials and pure engineering, today’s
multi-piece rods are very similar
in performance to the original two
piece rods to the point where there
are very few two piece rods avail-
able anymore from anybody, not just
L.L.Bean,” Miller said. “We have a
couple of them but most of our rods
have transitioned to four pieces.”
Conversely L.L.Bean doesn’t
sell any fly rods that have more than
four pieces.
“The reason the five and above
multi-piece rods are not in the line
today is because while those mul-
tiple piece rods were super compact,
incredibly easy to travel and back
pack with hot products for a while
we found that most anglers only
needed one in their fishing quiver
and sales decreased,” Miller said.
Miller points out that while
the type of water you are fishing
dictates your rod choice, the nine
foot five-weight rod is really the
mainstay for most fly-fishing. That
equates to four sections housed in a
“travel friendly” 30-32 inches hard
case and is the most practical to
travel with.
According to Miller, when it
comes to multi-piece fly rods and
rods in general it is all about the
principle of deflection, or a rod’s
“flex profile,” which establishes and
identifies its action and power utiliz-
ing and in sync with the weight of
the line.
“Deflection is the flex profile.
When you cast the fly line the rod
is the tool that loads and stores
By William Kendy
the energy and that deflection or
flex is where the energy is stored,”
Miller said. “When the deflection
is released the energy is released
and that is when you perform those
beautiful classic casts over your
head.
A four piece rod has three over-
laps where the ferrules overlap each
other. These are basically “dead”
spots and with older materials and
technology, the flex in those areas
wasn’t very good. That affects how
the rod bends under the line load, its
performance and fly delivery. For-
tunately, engineering and modern
materials have basically negated that
issue.
“With lighter weight materials
and faster action rods you don’t no-
tice those spots like you would have
20 years ago, and it is easier to hide
the overlaps with the deflection of
the rod,” Miller said. “I think that if
blindfolded, only about two-percent
of the today’s anglers could tell the
difference between a two piece and
a four piece rod.”
Miller said that there are some
other considerations to keep in mind
when choosing the ideal travel fly
rod.
“When you are on the water, as-
sembling six or eight sections is just
cumbersome and time consuming,”
said Miller. “You have to align the
ferrules, line up all the guides and
with five or seven overlaps there
is more potential for a section to
loosen up.”
“Plus, because of the additional
ferrules, the rod will be a little bit
heavier,” he added.
As odd as it may sound, Miller
advised anglers to beware of odd
numbered piece rods that won’t
break down in half.
“As long as there are an even
number of sections you can break
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it down in the middle,
leave your line strung, it
is easier to store and ready
to go,” Miller said. “If it
is a three, five or seven
piece rod one section ends
up being longer than the
other which makes it more
vulnerable to damage
or breakage from car or
even fishing camp screen
doors.”
Line up or Line
Down?
While Miller believes
that it is best to stay
within the boundaries of
a matched outfit an angler The L.L.Bean Streamlight Ultra II 4-piece
can definitely “line up”
5-weight fly rod, reel and line is a compact
with a heavier line and
even “line down” lighter if
and packable travel fly-fishing outfit.
need be. pack either an additional reel or
“Almost all of today’s fly rods multiple spools. Miller supports the
are designed to be a lot quicker with former.
a faster action and will handle an “A spare spool is easier to
additional light weight fairly well,” travel with but I always recommend
Miller said. “Many of today’s fly bringing an extra reel with a spare
lines are actually a half line weight line up,” Miller said. “That way you
heavier than what is on the line. have a backup and, while it isn’t a
They notch them up because the big deal, you don’t have to fuss with
lightness, action and responsive- switching lines.”
ness of the rods have progressed so While Miller advocates that the
much and the slightly heavier lines five-weight, nine foot rod combina-
compensate for that.” tion is the best all-around fly-fishing
“If you go to a heavier line your choice, whatever weight and con-
presentation is not going to be as figured outfit an angler embraces
delicate but will allow you to cast should be matched and balanced.
a bigger dry fly, streamer or pop- “The five-weight is king and
per within shorter distances,” added the most popular of any line weight
Miller. because it is so versatile,” said
“Functionally, today’s fly rods Miller. “It can delicately present a
don’t perform as well going down dry fly on one hand and turn around
a line as up,” Miller said. “A lighter and effectively and accurately chuck
line, say a four-weight line on a a #4 or #6 Wolly Bugger or a big
five-weight rod would be adequate grasshopper pattern.”
and perform best at longer casts “You can have the best rod in
because there is more weight to the the world but if you put too heavy
line,” Miller said. or light of a reel on it and a line that
Additional Reel doesn’t perform as well because it’s
or Multiple Spools the wrong weight or taper, it can
If you are going to line up or really mess up your fishing experi-
line down that means you need to ence,” Miller concluded.n
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WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 61
 Hunting Spring Gobblers...
D
Wake Up Call
oes life ever slow
down? A forty-plus
hour work week, after
school activities with
your kids, family func-
tions, daily chores, and
unexpected events can oftentimes
put your spring turkey scouting on
the back burner. However, there is
a solution. Set your alarm clocks a
little earlier and do some scouting
on your drive to work. Dedicating
ten to twenty minutes in the early
morning at daybreak can mean the
difference between filling your
spring tag and walking out of the
turkey woods empty-handed.
While driving to work, take a
route through turkey country stop-
ping at higher vantage points along
the way. This will allow you to
listen for gobbles from several dif-
ferent directions. Secondly, scan the
tops of tree limbs with binoculars
or a spotting scope for any roosted
turkeys that are sky lined against
the morning sky. Once you exit the
vehicle spend a couple of minutes
After briefly scouting a small chunk of public land the author, Darin
Potter, was able to connect on a spring longbeard.
62 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
listening for any gobbles. If toms
remain silent use a locator call such
as a coyote call or an owl hooter to
reveal any toms if they are present.
Driving into work isn’t the only
time to take advantage of scouting.
If your shift ends late afternoon or
early evening, glass open fields on
your way home. When commuting
back and forth to work take mul-
tiple routes if possible and take note
of the locations where you have
found gobblers. Later on, use a plat
book so that you can determine the
landowners and secure permission
to hunt these areas before the season
begins.
Two of the most important items
that should never leave your vehicle
on the months leading up to spring
turkey season are a good pair of bin-
oculars and a locator call. You never
know when a gobbler might make
an appearance.
Boots on the Ground
Nothing beats good old-fash-
ioned legwork when scouting for
spring turkeys. Glassing turkeys
from afar in the early morning hours
and later in the evenings is only
half the battle. Now it is time to put
some boots on the ground and burn
some calories in the turkey woods.
Although birds are still in flocks,
any information that you can gather
now will put you that much closer to
tipping over a gobbler. Your ulti-
mate goal should be to find as many
places to hunt as possible so that
you have a variety of options once
the season gets underway. Relying
on only a couple of places to hunt
can result in disappointment and an
unfilled tag. Stubborn toms, pressure
from other hunters on public land,
and birds that travel to neighbor-
ing properties are just a few of the
problems that can put a damper on
your hunt.
Before heading out the door and
putting some miles on your hiking
boots grab an aerial map of the areas
you plan on scouting so that you can
highlight roosting sites, strutting
zone, travel routes, and feeding ar-
eas. Find these three things and you
have found the ticket to an opening
day paradise.
A GPS unit is also an invaluable
scouting tool that will allow you to
mark areas with turkey sign so that
you can return to these locations
once the season begins.
One of the most important pieces
of information that you can find
in the turkey woods is where the
turkeys are spending the night. Lo-
cate a turkey roosting site and you
stand a good chance of filling your
tag opening morning. They can be
easily identified by searching out the
tallest trees in an area with hori-
zontal branches. I have noticed that
large stands of white pines and ma-
ture oaks and maples are a popular
choice among turkeys in the areas I
hunt. While walking beneath roost
sites scan the ground for clumps of
droppings beneath branches, tracks,
and primary wing feathers.
Other important places to pay at-
tention to while continuing on with
your search for prime turkey hunt-
ing real estate are areas where birds
spend time feeding and strutting.
Toms prefer areas with higher vis-
ibility when strutting such as fields,
logging roads, and creek beds. To
find these areas scan the ground for
tracks, droppings, and wing drag
By Darin Potter
marks. Droppings left by toms and
jakes resemble a J-shape and can be
easily distinguished from the spiral-
shaped droppings of a hen. When
finding tracks, pay attention to how
long the middle toe is. A tom’s
middle toe will measure around two
and a half inches or longer.
As the temperatures begin to
warm turkeys will begin feeding on
green grasses, insects, and seeds that
are available. Fields planted with
clover, winter wheat or picked corn
fields with leftover kernels on the
ground can be magnets for spring
turkeys searching for food in the
springtime. If you find turkey sign
in these areas set up a tent blind
and return on opening day. Turkeys
generally feed in the early morning
and afternoon hours.
Trail Cameras
About three years ago I decided
to place a couple of trail cameras
along the edge of a fifteen acre field
that I had permission to hunt. Up to
this point I had used them only for
deer hunting. Judging by the tracks
and droppings that I found I knew
that birds were spending time in the
area, but I was uncertain which sides
of the field they preferred and the
time of day they traveled through.
Therefore, I wanted to pinpoint the
best location to place a tent blind.
After checking the cameras a few
weeks later I was able to catch sev-
eral nice longbeards passing through
the area on camera. They didn’t
smile, but their long beards sure put
one on my face from ear to ear.
I quickly found out that the deer
woods isn’t the only place for trail
cameras. These scouting tools have
now found a permanent place in
my turkey hunting arsenal. In our
fast paced lives they save time and
remove unnecessary guesswork on
where to setup up a tent blind or
lean up against a tree.
The best places to mount trail
cameras are along field edges,
food plots, old logging roads or
two-tracks, roosting sites, and strut
zones. Before mounting cameras,
take into consideration the size of
a turkey compared to a deer along
with the surrounding area. Hang
your cameras about chest high when
placing them at the edge of a large
field or opening to capture birds that
are further away. In places where
birds will be closer due to terrain
features or along a small two track
e.g. strap them around two to three
feet off the ground. To increase
your turkey sightings and cover
more territory consider hanging
multiple cameras in separate areas.
This will allow you to figure out
their travel patterns, the size of toms
in the area, and the best time of day
to set up in these locations.
Networking
I use to think that networking
was only for people who just gradu-
ated from college and were looking
for a job. However, as I became
more serious about turkey hunting
I soon realized that networking is
the key to finding out where turkeys
are spending time and helps you
land permission to hunt them on
private property. One of the easiest
ways to figure out where you should
hunt turkeys is by talking with the
mailman, farmers, DNR wildlife
biologists, NWTF chapter members,
or bus drivers. People in these types
of occupations cover a lot of terri-
tory and can be your “eyes and ears”
helping you speed up the time it
takes to find areas that hold long-
beards.
Keep A Journal
When I was a teenager I used
to keep a journal of camping trips
with my family along with hunting
and fishing adventures. However, as
the years passed my journal writ-
ing dwindled when I decided that I
would rely solely on my memory.
I learned quickly though that it is
impossible to remember every little
detail of each hunt, especially after
sixteen years of turkey hunting.
That’s when I decided to start keep-
ing a turkey hunting journal.
This type of journal is an invalu-
able scouting tool that will allow
you to record a variety of informa-
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turkey
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where
birds
have been
spotted.
Record-
ing this
informa-
tion will
allow you
to return
to these
locations
once the
turkey sea- Trail cameras are an essential tool for finding the best locations to set up on a spring gobbler.
son opens,
removing any guesswork. You can time. All of the useful information And most importantly it will allow
write as much or as little informa- that you have gathered each spring you to reminisce about your time in
tion as you would like. However, turkey season can be used to help the turkey woods with family and
the more detail you include the bet- you become a better turkey hunter. friends.n
ter your chances are of pinpointing
where gobblers are spending time
throughout the day.
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 COVER PHOTO...By Nathan Miller

CHROME
CONFIDENCE
I
started fishing for steel- next to me fighting these fish. I grew
head on my high school a hunger inside me I never knew
spring break in 1998 existed, the chase was on for steel-
at Tippy Dam. I was head, but I still had some learning
unsuccessful that week to do.
in catching a steelhead, Over the next few years I was
and little did I know then, it would found buying, reading, and research-
take two years at somewhat of a ing everything I could about river
decent attempt to catch my first fishing steelhead. I loved it and I
steelhead. I watched friends and had all the right equipment and read
other anglers fight these fish many all the stories and articles to become It took the author two years at somewhat of a decent attempt to
times through those two years, and a successful steelhead fisherman, catch his first steelie.
I can say watching the fish fight is but I was lacking the one thing I
what drew me to fall in love with never needed before: the confidence side others on a riverbank, asking told I spare no expense in my gear
the sport without ever reeling in one to go out and catch the fish. I grew questions when I could work up the and attire. He was right. Just as right
for myself. up fishing and hunting. It’s all I nerve, and taking a few guided trips as my wife every time I swipe that
It would be the spring of 2000 ever knew and it all came naturally when the money allowed. Hiring card to purchase the latest and great-
when I finally tore into a silver bul- to me. I was good at it. Steelhead a guide was one of the most unre- est. Everything from leader line and
let; running spin and float fishing though; they came with a price. A alistic ways to learn because I was split shots to waders and coats is
gear. Beneath my float was what my price my mind would have to pay catching so many fish with them I a must-need. I found that it solidi-
buddy Cam called a bumblebee fly. dearly for (and my wallet, I’ve lost sight of why I wanted to take fied my confidence over the years,
He had a half dozen tied up and we learned). the trip in the first place. knowing I was using the best or near
ran through all of them that day. It There was no steelhead mentor The high I got drove me back to best on the market. Side note: Be-
was my most memorable day on the in my life. Dad was always a big learn, so I had to book a second trip. lieve it or not, there are companies
water. I love watching other anglers walleye nut. I tended to fish along- I was mesmerized once again with out there that do not make good lead
the fishing and found myself off split shots.
course of the reason I was there, and My confidence was built over 20
 so I booked a third trip. This time,
though, something was different.
years of chasing chrome, but noth-
ing like the hours and days spent
 Somehow I could see my confi- on the bank or in the boat one drift
dence growing. I learned more from at a time: always learning, always
4 Birds $85 per gun watching the guide than I did asking trying to create a strike I wasn’t
questions. I knew my confidence sure existed. A year or so ago, while
TOWER SHOOTS was low on the river, but after catch- fishing a bank alone, I realized that
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64 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
 By Mark Sak

LATE ICE and

BIG WATER
I
t’s been quite a winter ing on the bigger waters dictates a
here in Michigan. A warm different rod set up. Good drags are
December had anglers a must as even whitefish can pull
in boats all over mid and plenty of line out on a run and lakers
southern Michigan and are always rough on tackle. Many
many did well. But it anglers are using 8-pound braid with
wasn’t good for hardwater anglers. a 2-3-foot fluorocarbon leader in
Ice didn’t start to form solidly until 10- or 12-pound test. Nothing quite
the last 10 days of January. Then compares to pulling a big trout or
it got cold. Crazy cold. Minus whitefish up from 100 foot with an
45-degree windchills make it tough ice rod.
fishing and the bite is usually off Next, we need to mention the
as well. But what all this weather Saginaw Bay and River for walleye
has done is set up some really good and perch. The bay always has bad
opportunities for late season ice ice somewhere so taking a guide is
success. even more highly recommended.
Many deep lakes throughout our But the evening walleye bite can be
state are last to freeze. The depths one of the best on the planet. Quick The author with a Higgins Lake whitefish.
can hold warmer water that adds to limits of 4- to 6-pound fish are com- river. The limit is still very gener- limits come easy, and other days
overall lake temperature, and big- mon, and many times those limits ous, with anglers keeping eight fish there doesn’t seem to be a perch
ger waves can develop and smash come quick. The Saginaw River has each down to 13-inches, some perch within five miles. Fish the packs and
up ice. But when they freeze, they a ton of fish and offers easy access could be bigger than the walleye move around the outside skirting the
can reach two to three feet of ice in many areas. Jigs and jigging kept. noise if possible. Always set a few
and more. These are usually the spoons as well as jigging Rapalas Last but never least is Lake St. tip ups on St. Clair as lots of wall-
lakes that offer the best late season take most of the fish. The trend Clair. There are days on St. Clair eyes are taken on them.
fishing but as always, every lake is lately has been leaning toward when the ice gets good and thick, Again, no ice trip is worth a life.
dangerous in its own way and no only using a minnow head on the shanty cities pop up and hold more There are lots of ways to make sure
one should ever run to a lake or area bait. anglers than the population of many the trip is a safe one. Use every pre-
without knowing how safe the lake Some crazy incidental fish can Michigan cities. It is truly an amaz- caution and don’t be afraid to talk to
is. come out of both the bay and river. ing thing to see thousands of shan- others. Most anglers understand the
One big problem that can affect Ice anglers have hooked sturgeon, ties running down a shoreline. An- importance of safety out there and
safety is slush build up and some steelhead and lakers. There is obvi- glers mostly go to St. Clair for perch will provide good information. I’ll
years it develops and ruins the rest ously a ton of bait in both bay and and there are some days when heavy see you on the ice.n
of the season. Wind also pushes ice
on big bodies of water and cracks
constantly develop. Talk to bait
shops and find anglers who are
fishing these lakes. Always go out
with groups. Guides are very cheap
and extremely knowledgeable of ice
conditions and technique and often
are on fish. Many ice guides are
very reasonably priced. They can
give you ten trips of knowledge in
one or two trips.
The Northern Lower Peninsula
gets the first mention as Burt Lake,
Mullet Lake and Higgins Lake all
provide tremendous ice fishing
for a multitude of species. From
super-jumbo perch in Burt Lake,
(anglers catch fish up to 16-inches),
to beautiful 3- and 4-pound wall-
eyes in Mullet Lake these lakes are
drawing a lot of attention from ice
anglers. When anglers fish Higgins
they are usually targeting big lakers
and whitefish. Higgins may also be
the top lake in Michigan for big pike
and a good number of anglers are
now targeting them.
Late season anglers in these
lakes will fish deeper. Thirty to
forty-feet deep for perch on Burt
Lake to 100 feet for lakers and
whitefish on Higgins Lake. Fish-
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 65

Developing new participants
grows with new initiatives
T
he National Shooting
Sports Foundation®
(NSSF®), along with
several other organiza-
tions in the outdoor
industry, announced at
the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor
Trade Show (SHOT Show®) a
number of initiatives designed to
increase participation in hunting and
target shooting both through reac-
tivation of those who have lapsed,
who have ceased to participate, or
participate only sporadically and
through recruitment of people com-
pletely new to the pastime.
Hunter numbers have declined
in recent decades due to a variety of
reasons, including lack of mentor-
ship, difficulty in accessing hunting
lands and shifts in cultural norms.
But there is cause for optimism.
Research shows that, despite the
decline in participating numbers,
many Americans continue to have
a strong interest in hunting, and
the programs announced today are
a clear indicator of progress being
made in developing the solutions
needed to connect those who are
interested in hunting, but haven’t yet
participated, with the resources they
need to get started.
“There’s a strong, well-
documented interest in this great
American pastime by people from
all walks of life, and one of the
keys to taking that interest to active
participation is through the support
of and encouragement by mentors,”
said Jim Curcuruto, NSSF Director,
Research and Market Development.
“Programs that provide that
connection, such as mentoring pro-
grams, are what’s sorely needed to
move people from wanting to get in-
volved to actually being involved.”
Curcuruto was joined in the
press conference by representa-
tives from the Council to Advance
Hunting and the Shooting Sports,
the Quality Deer Management As-
sociation and the Georgia Wildlife
Federation, all of which support
programs specifically designed to
increase participation numbers.
Curcuruto outlined several new
NSSF participation initiatives, in-
cluding its +ONE program, which
encourages experienced hunters and
target shooters to mentor youth and
adults and recognizes the efforts of
these mentors. This program and
others are supported by three new
major websites developed by NSSF.
LetsGoHunting.org is dedicat-
66 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
Hot Topic In The Outdoors...
Research shows that, despite the decline in par ticipating numbers,
many Americans continue to have a strong interest in hunting.
ed to all things hunting, everything
from discussion of calibers to use
for elk, treestand safety and how to
perfect one’s wingshooting skills to
working with Western big-game tag
draws and a wealth of tasty field-to-
table recipes. NSSF’s +ONE move-
ment is a central component of the
site, as are the “Where to Hunt” and
“Apprenticeship” links.
LetsGoShooting.org, LetsGo-
Hunting.org’s sister site is dedicated
to all things target sports, with a
comprehensive library of video
and reading resources, geo-locating
services for firearms ranges and
retailers, safety instruction,
shooting sports organizations and
more.
Finally, StepOutside.org fo-
cuses on cross-participation across
a spectrum of outdoor activities.
Using geo-locating services simi-
lar to that in the LetsGo websites,
StepOutside.org acknowledges the
mutual interests of, for example,
hikers and kayakers with hunting,
target shooting and angling pursuits,
and encourages participation.
An innovative program in Geor-
gia is underway to help college stu-
dents give hunting a try. Charles Ev-
ans, the Georgia Wildlife Federation
R3 coordinator, said this partnership
program with NSSF addresses sur-
vey findings that suggest that many
college students want to try hunting
and target shooting, but have never
had that opportunity. This program
offers an avenue to get started and
the tools to help students continue
on their own. “We recognize that
college students are curious about
hunting, the nutritional benefits of
game meat and the hunter’s role in
conservation. Lifelong habits start in
college, and hunting could be one of
the better habits students form,” said
Evans.
The sale of hunting licenses and
tags, along with excise taxes on the
purchase of firearms and ammuni-
tion, assist federal and state wildlife
conservation efforts, with more than
$1.67 billion contributed annually
by sportsmen and -women. They
provide the bulk of conservation
funding, so maintaining hunter ranks
and safeguarding this funding level
is vitally important for the nation’s
wildlife, the speakers said.
Another promising program
called “Field to Fork” comes from
the Quality Deer Management As-
sociation (QDMA). This modern
approach to attracting new hunters
works by connecting adults with an
all-natural, local, renewable, healthy
food source. Field to Fork spans the
entire hunting process from hunter
education to processing and prepar-
ing the harvest for a meal, and it was
recently adapted to allow industry
members to mentor and participate.
Hank Forester, Hunting Heritage
Program Manager for QDMA, said,
“Mentoring a new hunter can seem
daunting at times, but experience
shows that many people interested
in hunting will welcome a personal
invitation to try it. This is part of
what Field to Fork does, provide
that invitation that can really make a
difference.”
Forester added that, “People in
our own industry are interested in
learning to hunt, and we’re work-
ing to make sure that those desires
become a reality by having current
participants teach newcomers the
ropes.”
To learn more about opportuni-
ties to become involved in these
programs and to join the national
movement to recruit more hunt-
ers and target shooters, feel free
to contact Jim Curcuruto at jcur-
curuto@nssf.org, Hank Forester
at hforester@qdma.com, Charles
Evans at swanny.evans@gmail.com
or Samantha Pedder at samantha@
cahss.org.
The National Shooting Sports
Foundation is the trade associa-
tion for the firearms industry. Its
mission is to promote, protect and
preserve hunting and the shooting
sports. Formed in 1961, NSSF has
a membership of more than 12,000
manufacturers, distributors, firearms
retailers, shooting ranges, sports-
men’s organizations and publishers.
For more information, visit nssf.
org.n

Eichinger draws on deep outdoor tradition
Michigan DNR’s 21st director youngest to hold the post…By John Pepin-MDNR
A
s a boy, Dan Eichinger
could be found with a
spinning rod in hand,
haunting the tree-lined
banks of the Middle
Branch River, trying to
avoid the stream’s suckers in favor
of a tug on his line from a big brown
trout.
Like lots of good Michigan folks,
he loves the woods and water –
they’re in his blood.
Eichinger, 38, grew up hunting
deer in that same part of Osceola
County near Marion, a mid-Michigan
village of about 850 people, situated
along Highway 66 – about 10 miles
north of where the Middle Branch
flows into the Muskegon River.
Born in Cadillac, raised in Hol-
land, Eichinger’s paternal lineage is
steeped in natural resources conser-
vation advocacy and appreciation.
“My grandfather was Ryan
Bontekoe. He was a charter member
of the Pigeon River Advisory Coun-
cil and served on that group until
he passed away in 1994,” Eichinger
said. “So, he was involved from the
early 1970s to the mid-1990s.”
Bontekoe was the president of
Michigan United Conservation Clubs
in 1977. Not quite a decade later, that
same post was held by Eichinger’s
father, John.
“Later in his career, my dad was
the executive director of Safari Club
International and he was president/
CEO of the Ruffed Grouse Society
until his retirement last June,” Eich-
inger said.
Since those boyhood days in
Osceola County, where he got hooked
on fishing and hunting, Eichinger
has followed the boot prints of his
father and grandfather down a path
to devoted service and support of
numerous conservation and natural
resources endeavors.
He was schooled at Michigan
State and Central Michigan Universi-
ties, earning a bachelor’s degree in
political theory and constitutional
democracy and master’s degrees
in fisheries and wildlife and public
administration.
Eichinger worked as membership
director for MUCC, after a stint there
as an intern during college. From
2004 to 2007, he was a conservation
and natural resources policy advi-
sor to Lt. Gov. John Cherry during
the Jennifer Granholm administra-
tion. After that, he was hired by the
Michigan Department of Natural
Resources.
“From 2007 to 2009, I served
as legislative liaison, working under
then-Director Becky Humphries,” he
Hot Topic In The Outdoors...
said.
His work then included aid-
ing passage of legislation creating
Michigan’s Recreation Passport to
help fund state parks. The Passport
replaced vehicle windshield stickers
for park entry.
“I then joined the Wildlife Divi-
sion and worked with Russ Mason as
assistant to the chief,” Eichinger said.
He would help establish the DNR
Wildlife Division’s first Policy and
Regulations Unit, later serving as its
supervisor.
In 2012, Eichinger left the DNR
for an administrator’s job at Central
Michigan University, which would
bring him closer to his home and
family.
Two years later, he returned to
MUCC to become executive director
– continuing his family’s tradition of
holding top-level positions with the
country’s most effective state-based
conservation organization.
After the November 2018 elec-
tion, Eichinger said speculation be-
gan about who might serve in various
positions in the new administration
of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Eichinger
was urged by several people to put
his name forward, given his experi-
ence and situational awareness of
state government. Weeks later, he
said he was fortunate to find himself
on a short list of finalists for the DNR
director’s position.
He remembers getting the call
and the nod as a “great Christmas
present.”
“I was still in my PJs on a
Sunday morning when I found out,”
Eichinger said. “It was a little before
Christmas when I was talking to the
governor.”
His first day on the job was Jan.
2. Eichinger is the DNR’s 21st direc-
tor, standing on the shoulders of gi-
ants with names like Hoffmaster and
MacMullan.
“It’s a huge responsibility, only
outweighed by the honor of doing the
work,” Eichinger said. “This isn’t just
work that I do, this is how I live my
life.”
Eichinger’s home is in western
Isabella County, where he lives with
his wife and the couple’s 8-year-old
son and 5-year-old daughter. There,
they hunt ruffed grouse and American
woodcock. They also enjoy camping
and fishing for bluegill.
A waterfowl shooter, he is also a
birder. He said he has studied orni-
thology and has always been inter-
ested in bird biology.
“I am not a life-lister, but usually
travel with my Audubon guide so that
we can identify the different birds we
Dan Eichinger, new director for the Michigan Depar tment of Natural Re-
sources, shown in his office at Constitution Hall in Lansing. MDNR photo
find on our adventures,” he said. tem,” he said.
Eichinger sent a message to DNR With a declining user base of
employees soon after his appoint- hunting and fishing license buyers
ment. Eichinger said the DNR needs to
“Over the coming weeks, I look challenge itself to find solutions to
forward to reconnecting with many meeting funding needs heading into
of you, meeting those I don’t know the future. In the long term, he said
and learning about how we can the department needs to continue its
advance new priorities, celebrate and work to recruit, retain and reactivate
maximize our current success, and declining numbers of hunters and
continually strive toward personal anglers, reframing the conversation
and professional growth and develop- about those activities in rural commu-
ment,” he wrote. “As employees of nities, while remaining relevant.
the DNR, we are fortunate to wake “In the short-term, we’ve got to
up every day to work on things that change those trend lines now,” Eich-
matter to so many people.” inger said.
Looking ahead, Eichinger said he To do that, he wants to focus on
has a few top-drawer DNR priorities, enhanced efforts to make Michigan
including continuing to battle fish and more of a destination state. Eich-
wildlife diseases – with the scourge inger pointed to a recently released
of chronic wasting disease at the study commissioned by MUCC that
spearpoint of those efforts. Eichinger showed the statewide economic
will insist Michigan remain a leader impacts from hunting and fishing li-
in preventing exotic bighead and cense purchases support 171,000 jobs
silver carp from entering the Great and generate $11.2 billion annually.
Lakes, while coordinating state and Eichinger suggested making those
federal action to curb greater grass data available to a wider nationwide
carp proliferation in Lake Erie. He audience would increase interest in
also plans to continue fighting an en- greater development of Michigan’s
tire suite of forest resource pests and recreation economy prospects.
diseases, which can negatively affect During his first month on the
everything from commerce and ecol- job, Eichinger has been working to
ogy to recreation and employment. reacquaint himself with the DNR,
Eichinger said the DNR’s year- listening to constituents and partner
long park centennial celebration in groups, while developing his priori-
2019 reminds us of the century-old ties for the agency moving forward.
heritage of state park development “The biggest impression so far is
across Michigan. The downside of the quality of people we have work-
that benchmark is a reminder that ing here,” he said.
Michigan has a 100-year-old park Eichinger said DNR person-
system with a bulging backlog of nel see their jobs as “mission-based
unfunded park maintenance and im- work” they believe in because, like
provement projects. him, they are invested in natural
“I’m concerned that at some point
that’s going to crush the park sys- New director page 68
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 67
 Hot Topic in the Outdoors

“Recreational Rights”
I
Dear Woods-N-Water News:
thought that the Michigan
DNR’s article regarding
“mineral rights” was very
interesting (January 2019
WNW News). However, very few
Michigan sportsmen are directly
affected by mineral rights. The new
thing (“right”) that’s beginning to
flourish around the state is “recre-
ational rights.” In other words, prop-
erties are being sold but the original
owner retains exclusive recreational
rights to the property (hunting, fish-
ing, trapping, snowmobiling, bird
watching, hiking, etc.). The new
owner is banned from any such rec-
reational activity on the property.
In most cases, they can use the
property for agriculture and similar
purposes but that’s about it (each
arrangement may differ). That ar-
rangement/restriction is printed right
on the deed and even if the current
owner sells the property to another
person, the restriction remains in
effect. In most cases, it’s for the
lifetime of the original owner. That
person and invited guests are the
only people allowed to legally use
the property for any recreational
use.
It sounds unfair but it is a legal
arrangement enforceable by law. If
you don’t like it, don’t buy the prop-
erty or buy the property and wait
until the holder of the recreational
rights dies. I happen to know the in-
dividual that set the legal precedent
for retaining “recreational rights” in
Michigan some years ago. As word
got around, more and more people
are jumping on the recreational
rights bandwagon. In some cases,
they may have difficulty selling the
property with this stipulation, espe-
cially if the prospective buyer wants
to use the property for any recre-
ational purpose. However in other
cases, the new owner may not care
about any type of recreational use
and will purchase the property any-
way. This is something all property
owners in Michigan should think
about pursuing if they want to (or
need to) sell property (look at legal
precedents/consult an attorney).
Rick Casey
Paw Paw, MI

Stop Asian Carp: $778 million barrier

or restore native fish predators?
Dear Woods-N-Water News:
As you know the price of the
Brandon Road Locke Barrier to try
to stop Asian Carp in Illinois has
risen to $778-million, plus costs! In
my opinion this is blackmail pure
and simple. This is only one spot
of a 1,800 mile area. Plus they are
spreading east and west and will go
around any barrier you might have.
Will you build a $778-million
dollar lock for Duluth or picture
any place where Asian carp will
be next?
We have tried for 16 years to get
permission from the DNR to restore
what the biologists are calling for in
these studies. They can even do their
barrier thing…whatever.
The Asian carp is a fish, it re-
sponds to predators, Chapman told
me in its native land the little fish is
kept in check. You see we can make
the whole/any waterway lake river
etc. a deterrent to Asian carp by
species, so much so, the raised the
harvest limit and lower the size of
the walleyes.
It can be done, we only need the
DNR permission, when the Asian
carp get in our lakes and rivers
without predators no one will be
fishing or boating because they’ll get
smacked in the face! Or we could

New Director: the native fish population that we

from page 67
resources and recreation activities in
their own daily lives.
don’t have. We have an invasive spe-
cies population that is out of control,
183 invaders at last count. We have
the people; the worst thing that could
happen is more native fish, which is
restoring the native fish population
they will eat them while small eggs
etc.
stock the perch walleyes bluegills
and other native fish that the biolo-
gists call for?
The studies prove it can be Your call!
done, Saginaw Bay proves walleye Tom Matych
can and are restored with invasive Twin Lake, MI

DNR wildlife staffers honored

Eichinger will be meeting DNR
staffers face-to-face over the next
few weeks through a series of all-
employee staff meetings being held
from Bellaire to Sault Ste. Marie.
Meanwhile, amid the hectic pace of
his new job, Eichinger still plans to
find time to return to nature himself,
with his family and his hunting dog.
He said Beaver Island has be-
come one of his favorite places on
the planet. He also remains rooted
in destinations he enjoyed in his
younger days, including the Lake
Michigan shore near Holland and the
Pigeon River Country of the heart of
the Lower Peninsula.
The forests, lakes, streams and
elk there within the Pigeon’s 104,000
acres remind him of his grandfather
and make him feel very connected to
his family.
From time to time, his mind drifts
back to those beautiful blueberry
days down around Marion where
he spent those early formative years
exploring the Middle Branch River in
pursuit of German browns.
“I trout fish now, mostly with
a fly rod,” he said. “But I still spin
quite a bit, and that is how I first
started fishing.”n
68 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
for expertise, dedication
Three DNR employees recently were honored for
their work with turkeys and pheasants.
DNR wildlife biologist Brian Piccolo's commit-
ment to helping the National Wild Turkey Federation
achieve its goals for habitat conservation and preser-
vation of turkey hunting heritage was recognized last
month at the group's Michigan State Chapter Conven-
tion in Big Rapids.
“Brian has gone above and beyond throughout the
last few years to ensure that our collaborative projects,
partially funded through the DNR’s Wildlife Habitat
Grant Program, have been successful,” said NWTF
Michigan/Indiana district biologist Ryan Boyer. “Our
partnerships, projects and successes wouldn’t have
been possible without him. He is well-deserving of this
award.”
Conservation partners program specialist Mike
Parker and upland game bird specialist Al Stewart were
recognized by Michigan Pheasants Forever at January's
state convention in Lansing.
Parker was presented with the Michigan Pheas-
ants Forever Partner of the Year award. Parker was
nominated for the award for being an active member of
the Michigan Pheasant Restoration Initiative steering
committee and leading its Habitat Task Group. Parker
provides leadership to many involved with the initia-
(lt-r t) DNR Biologist Brian Piccolo, Conser vation par t-
ner program specialist Mike Parker, Upland game bird
specialist Al Stewar t
tive, including DNR staff, Farm Bill biologists and
Michigan United Conservation Clubs cooperative coor-
dinator Morgan Warda.
Stewart was honored with the first Michigan Pheas-
ants Forever Lifetime Service Award. His career has
spanned well over four decades in Michigan wildlife
management. He has been the state’s upland gamebird
specialist for close to 20 years, and before that, worked
as a wildlife biologist in southern Michigan. Stewart
has been a strong supporter of Pheasants Forever,
working at the organization’s National Youth Leader-
ship Council training meeting in Michigan, contribut-
ing greatly to its success. He also has been working
closely with Pheasants Forever on oversight of the
Enbridge Fund and the Adopt-A-Game-Area program.
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Michigan’s Premier Outdoor Publication
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WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 69

The World’s Championship Bass Fishing Contest
B
ill Jamison won the coin
toss the first morning of
the fishing contest. His
opponent was Anson
Decker, a skillful and
experienced fisherman
from Lake Hopatcong, New
Jersey and the maker of the
Decker Surface Water Bass
Bait. As the winner of the
coin toss, Bill had chosen
to fish a small cove filled
with water lilies and weed
beds reaching far out from
the shore at the north end of
Congress Lake. Bill’s bait
of choice was
Sporting Collectibles
his Jamison
No. 1 Coaxer,
a weedless bait
that he had
By Terry McBurney
designed in 1900 with production
first starting in 1904.
He also won the right to fish off
the front casting deck for the first
hour before changing positions with
Ans Decker for the second hour. The
two anglers then alternated back
and forth each hour from the front
to the back of the boat, as well as
determining where they were going
to fish. Bill felt the pressure starting
first, and he began by making long,
curving casts into the heavy cover
all the time working the Coaxer in
short jerks.
Bill Jamison was born on July
11, 1865 in Washington Court
House, Ohio, which is about 40
miles southwest of Columbus. He
grew up there and also in Cherokee,
Kansas, a small, rugged frontier
town where the family moved when
he was fourteen. After finishing his
Left; A photo of Ans B. Decker from a booklet published in 1925.
Rob Pavey photo. Right; A “Smiling Bill” Jamison holding a nice
steelhead. Bill Culler ton photo
70 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
June 16 - 18, 1910
schooling, Bill worked a govern-
ment claim for five years and then
went into the printing trade. It was
while he was travelling as a printer,
that he spent much of his free time
fishing, his No. 1 hobby. In 1893, he
traveled to Chicago dur-
ing the World’s Columbian
Exposition and was so
impressed with the many
business opportunities in
the area plus the scores of
nearby lakes and streams
that he and his wife moved
to Chicago. Printing re-
mained his occupation, and
he eventually
went to work
for the Chi-
cago Tribune
newspaper
all the while fishing close by lakes
and rivers in Illinois and Wiscon-
sin. Bill also worked on developing
new baits using his kitchen table
as his workshop. He eventually left
the Chicago Tribune and started his
tackle business full-time in 1904.
Jamison had a distinct advantage
over his challenger when fishing
weedy cover because his Coaxer
was almost weedless as compared
to the Decker Bass Bait, which was
not. Bill used the standard No.1
Weedless Coaxer most of the time
during the contest - a white pressed
cork bait with red flannel wings
and a red goose feather tail. The
single hook was hidden between red
feathers on both sides, and the hook
and feather tail were glued solidly
into the white cork body, which was
painted with five coats of white bi-
cycle enamel paint. The Coaxer also
Above; The Coaxer “Challenge” ad
from the May 1908 National Spor ts-
man magazine. Steve Lumpkin
collection. Right; Two examples of
the #1 Jamison Coaxer weedless
bait with the original box – one with
the stinger hook attached and one
without. Lang’s Auction, Inc. photo.
Bottom-r t; A nice example of the #1
Conver tible Coaxer and its original
box. It has a removable double hook
on the bottom. Otherwise, it is the
same as the #1 Coaxer. Crossroads
Angling Auction photo
came with a stinger hook that was
easily removed.
The No.1 Coaxer weighed in
at ½ oz., and the white body mea-
sured 1 ⅞ inches in length. The
total length of the white pressed
cork body and the red feathers
varied between 3 ¼ inches and 3 ½
inches based on the length of the
red feather tail. The only other bait
he used sparingly during the contest
was the No.1 Convertible Coaxer.
It was basically the same as the No.
1 Weedless Coaxer with the addi- earth”! In 1908, he had strong com-
tion of a double hook to the bottom petition from Heddon, Joe Pepper
of the cork bait. The double hook lures, Pflueger, Shakespeare, Woods
was easily removed to make the lure Expert Wooden Minnows, and many
weedless, and just as easily replaced popular regional baits. No national
when fishing more open waters. or regional lure manufacturer took
The first bass came out of the “the bait” so to speak in 1908, so
cove from “a clear spot deep among he wrote a letter that was reprinted
the lily pads” and was caught by in the June 1909 issue of Field and
Ans Decker, not Jamison. Soon, Bill Stream magazine.
Jamison hooked and landed his first Jamison wrote in this letter
bass near the entrance to the cove . . that his Coaxer lure was “the best
. and the contest was on. all-around effective and satisfactory
The idea for the contest actu- bait in the world, and I stand ready
ally started early in 1908 when Bill to enter a contest covering three
Jamison came up with the challenge days’ fishing from the same boat,
as a marketing concept to promote each contestant to fish the ground
the different fishing products sold half the time, and no man or kind of
by his Chicago company, the W.J. bait barred. I will be willing to go
Jamison Company. He ran Coaxer to any lake within 300 miles (later
ads in the April issue of The Outer changed to 500 miles) of Chicago
Book and the May and June issues which is unknown to both parties.”
of National Sportsman magazine. Then he talked about how points
The ads started out: “We claim that would be scored, and that he would
the weedless “Coaxer” will catch restrict himself to fishing with just
more bass than any other bait on Coaxers, “barring no man or bait,
earth, and we stand ready to prove it or a variety of baits,” which is an
at any time.” amazing statement allowing his
That’s quite a claim to “catch opponent to fish with an assortment
more bass than any other bait on of lures or even live bait. Lastly,

he stated: “Fishing to be in a lake
that has a fair amount of reeds and
lilies!”
Again, no one took him up
on his challenge . . . so he wrote
another letter, this time reprinted in
the February 1910 issue of National
Sportsman magazine and the March
1910 issue of Field and Stream
magazine. Jamison’s challenge
finally received a reply from An-
son B. Decker of Lake Hopatcong,
New Jersey. Born in 1862, Anson
grew up on Raccoon Island on Lake
Hopatcong, New Jersey’s largest
freshwater lake, where his father
ran a fishing guide service and also
worked as a commercial fisherman.
Ans, the nickname that he went
by, apparently started guiding in
1875 when he was just thirteen. He
became an accomplished and well
known fisherman and was in the lure
business as early as 1907 making his
Ans. B. Decker Surface Water Bass
Bait.
According to a recorded talk
that Anson gave in 1933 to a local
sportsmen’s club, he first developed
his topwater revolving head bait in
1882. However, none of the baits
were commercially sold until ten
years later when he had perfected
the lure’s design. They originally
were made in two sizes - 2 ¾ inches
and 3 ½ inches, came in white or
yellow, and the buyer could buy the
bait with single hooks to comply
with New Jersey’s stringent law on
hooks or with treble hooks.
The two fishermen wrote back
and forth to establish the rules for
the challenge, which were published
in the June 1910 issue of Field and
Stream magazine. It was to be a
3-day fishing contest on any lake
within 500 miles of Chicago. Each
day’s contest would be for a total
of eight hours. Jamison insisted
that whatever lake was chosen, it
“should contain at least at an aver-
age amount of rushes, lilies and
other vegetation,” and the chosen
lake had to be unknown to both fish-
ermen. Each bass of legal size, ten
inches in length or larger, counted
as one point. Bass landed under
legal size was given a one point
demerit, and whoever caught the
most legal bass over the three days
was the winner. Weight was not a
factor. Other species caught were
not counted unless agreed to by both
contestants.
The two anglers were to fish
from the same boat each choosing
where to fish and the position in the
boat half of the time changing every
hour. Each contestant would occupy
a seat on either end of the boat with
an oarsman who sat in the middle.
Bill Jamison was to fish with the
Coaxer, and Decker stipulated that
he was going to use a white Decker
Surface Water Bass Bait. The con-
test was to take place on June 16, 17
and 18, 1910.
The location was 300-acre Con-
gress Lake near Canton, Ohio. The
lake and the grounds were owned
by the private Congress Lake Club
of Canton,. The club closed the lake
to all spring fishing by its members
through June 19th. They also invited
all interested area fishermen and the
general public to Congress Lake as
guests during the contest.
Day one started out poorly
with steamy conditions and a glass
smooth Congress Lake, so the
opening time was moved back from
8 a.m. by a half an hour. Mr. J.
William Macy was one of the three
judges. He represented Field and
Stream magazine and wrote a “play
by play” account of each day’s ac-
tion that was later published in Field
and Stream and of great interest
to its readers. Macy reported that
Jamison was using one of the newly
popular shorter 5 ½-ft. split bamboo
bass rods matched with a Talbot
casting reel - the same outfit that
Jamison fished with on fishing trips
around the Midwest, as well as used
in distance casting tournaments that
he competed in. He had a second
identical combo waiting in the boat
that he used when he switched from
fishing a standard weedless Coaxer
to the “Convertible” Coaxer. Decker
fished with a 7-ft. rod that he made
himself made out of sassafras wood.
He matched it up with a Meissel-
bach Takapart casting reel. He also
carried a second outfit - the identical
7-ft. wood rod mounted with a Vom
Hofe casting reel.
By noon, Jamison was in the
lead six fish to two for Decker. A
well earned lunch break was taken
near noon, and soon a thunderous
summer storm moved through the
area for 40 minutes. Fishing started
again at 3 p.m. with slow action
except that Jamison picked up four
bass here and there while Decker
only scored with one additional fish.
The first day’s score was Jamison
ten bass versus Decker with only
three.
Day two was sunny and hot with
almost no breeze blowing, so the
start time was delayed until 9 a.m.
Jamison’s luck was still with him as
he landed five more bass before a
break for lunch. Decker managed to
land just one fish, but it was a lunker
weighing an even four pounds.
The score continued to rise for Bill
Jamison with the score Jamison fif-
teen bass and Decker with only four
fish to his credit. The two anglers
started fishing again at 2:30 p.m.
with Decker landing the first two
bass, and then the two opponents
landed two bass a piece. They de-
cided to stop early and take a break
and then get back on the water later
hoping that the heat would drop
An unfished,
near perfect
example of
the Decker
Surface
Water Cast-
ing Bass
Bait with its
original box.
Bill Lands-
tra’s Auction
lure.
and the wind would pick up. They Weedless “Wobbler”, the Jamison’s
started again at 7 p.m. for two hours Humdinger, the Struggling Mouse,
of fishing with just one fish caught, the Jamison Barbless Fish Hooks,
another bass for Decker. The score and my favorite, the Shannon Twin
now stood at Jamison seventeen Spinner. Bill also continued tourna-
bass versus Decker with nine fish, ment casting with much success,
an imposing lead. and he was one of the founding
The last day of the contest “54” original members of the Izaak
started with overcast skies with a Walton League, the American envi-
slight breeze but with a promise of ronmental organization founded in
clearing later in the day. The fisher- 1922 by a group of sportsmen who
men were on the water by 8:15 a.m. wished to protect fishing for future
with the best fishing of the contest generations. Sadly, he died on No-
about to start with each angler vember 9, 1926 after a second bout
catching quite a few bass. The two of pneumonia.
fisherman stopped for lunch and I would like to acknowledge
then at 4 p.m. to take photos of their the many excellent articles written
catches. Then they finished up with about Bill Jamison, Ans Decker,
another one and a half hours on the and The World’s Championship
water with both Jamison and Decker Bass Fishing Contest found in the
catching two more bass a piece. The NFLCC (National Fishing Lure
final score was Jamison 28 bass with Collectors Club) Gazette and in the
Decker landing sixteen fish over the NFLCC Magazine. I would also like
three days. This gave Jamison the to thank Bill Cullerton for the help
victory. he gave me in researching his Great-
Both Jamison and Decker took Grandfather, Bill Jamison. I would
advantage of promoting the contest especially like to thank good friend,
in their ads. Jamison promoted his Stephen L. Lumpkin for his newly
outright victory in numbers of bass published book entitled Jamison VS.
caught. Decker emphasized the fact Decker, The World’s Champion-
that he had consistently caught the ship Bass Fishing Contest of 1910.
larger bass over the three days. Ans Steve’s seminal book was published
Decker continued selling his Decker in 2018 by The Whitefish Press
lures for many years but was only (www.whitefishpress.com).
moderately successful. He continued Feel free to contact the author
guiding fishermen for the rest of his at antiquefishing@comcast.net with
life while living on Lake Hopatcong your questions. Photographs are im-
until his death in 1940. Bill Jamison, portant, so please send them. They
or “Smiling Bill,” continued add- help me with identification and give
ing new lures to the Jamison lineup me an idea of the condition of the
adding the “Nemo” Bass Bait, the item.n
IT’S SPORT SHOW TIME AGAIN....
Ultimate Sport Show, March 14-17
Devos Place, Grand Rapids
Dick VanRaalte and I will again be setting up our antique displays at the Ulti-
mate Sport Show in Grand Rapids. I will be exhibiting my “Made in Michigan”
fishing tackle collection and offering FREE appraisals on old tackle brought
into the show. Dick VanRaalte, from Starboard Marine Restorations in Grand
Haven, Michigan, will be exhibiting a display of vintage outboard motors. Dick
will also be answering your questions and offering free appraisals. Bring in
your father’s or grandfather’s tackle box, old rods and reels, or a vintage out-
board motor. We will be happy to answer your questions, as well as offer FREE
appraisals. We are also interested in buying old sporting collectibles for our
collections. Please stop by and enjoy our displays. We will see you there!
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 71
 Take care buying
A NEW BOAT
Editor’s note: We are extremely lakes. As our family grew, and four
sad to inform our readers that our daughters came along, we all en-
‘Mr. Boat Smart,’ Capt. Fred Davis joyed fishing, cruising and what I’ll
has passed. A man who dedicated call, “Life on the damp side.” The
his life to the water has concluded girls really loved their sled rides be-
his voyage. Captain Fred Davis,
80, of Port Austin, died from hind the boat and as they got older, After intense research before buying, the author’s new boat gets
cancer. He will be remembered for water skiing was a favorite. checked out by Coast Guard Auxiliary. Author photo
his passion, enthusiasm, My daughters all uses. I owned boats made of wood, chase the buyer needs to look into
concern and knowledge of had friends who began fiberglass, steel and rubber; over before he signs on the dotted line.

M
the waters of Lake Huron. to join us for fun on the a dozen in all. Most of the time I One of the biggest problems in the
y parents water. We often took some was able to find a used boat to suit boat building industry has always
owned small of them along on cruises my needs but I did buy a brand- been warranty service.
boats 14 to across the lake to Tawas new one near the end of my boat- Problems stem from a variety
18 foot that and beyond. When each of ing days. Because of my extensive of reasons. Dealers are not paid a
carried us off- the girls was old enough boating background, I would like fair amount for correcting factory
shore a short distance from to pass the operators class, to offer some advice for you to defects thus they are reluctant to do
they were consider.
BOAT SMART
the harbor in warranty work when they can make
Port Austin allowed to Boat shows are a popular des- a better profit on out-of-warranty
for fishing. take our tination this time of year because
By Capt. Fred Davis
repairs. Another problem for the
This type of small Boston boaters start thinking about getting servicing dealer is; he may replace
boating was Whaler out on a new boat. Problems may have or repair a boat under warranty
always enjoy- their own and been encountered with a used boat only to find out the manufacturer
able and led me to spending much their pals went along. purchase and there is seldom an disclaims responsibility. Thus the
of my life working on the water. As my love of the water pro- option of going back on the seller. dealer is left without reimburse-
When I married, I discovered my gressed, I purchased and sold This fact often provides the incen- ment.
wife was unfamiliar with big wa- many boats of various types, sizes tive to take the plunge and shop for Getting parts needed for repairs
terways, she had only visited inland and styles for numerous intended a new boat. can present challenges. If a manu-
Buying a new boat can present facturer can only get enough parts
risk. Major boat manufactures may to keep his assembly of new boats
ED'S NEW DVD have changed hands, some more going, he may back order replace-
than once. A new company taking ment parts. The dealer therefore, al-
ULTIMATE over will have the bottom line as though willing to make the repairs,
CORN-BASED an objective. A manufacturer of cannot get needed parts. I have
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72 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
 GUN CHAT:
COLD
W
hen I was a kid
I read articles
about hunting
in the cold in
Alaska, or the
Arctic. One of
the things mentioned was the need
to get all the oil, or grease, off of a
gun before hunting in extreme cold.
Powdered graphite was used to
replace all other lubes. I might have
tried it on my deer rifle, if I had
figured out where to find some.
Despite not having graphite ap-
plied to them my guns have
almost never had a problem
while hunting, or shooting,
in the cold. (These days my
guns tolerate cold much
better than I do.)
My son, Ethan, and
I went deer hunting on
the last day of the season
GUN CHAT
some years ago. It
was snowing lightly
in town but in the
woods it was flying
past us sideways. We
By Lee Arten
had taken scoped rifles, but should
have brought shotguns with peep
sights and slugs. The rifles filled up
with snow but didn’t seem bothered
by the cold. We spent a lot of time
clearing scope lenses, and trying to
keep the rifles somewhat dry. We
didn’t get any shots but I think they
would have worked okay. Back at
home we had to wipe them off sev-
eral times because they condensed
heavily in the warmth of the house.
When K.I. Sawyer Air Force
Base was still outside of Marquette,
I used to drive from the Western
U.P. to shoot NRA Hunter’s Pistol
Silhouette matches there. I was
driving a small Chevy pickup with
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a cap then. I’d put my cased pis-
tols in the back. One spring match
was held on a particularly raw and
windy day. The Ruger Blackhawk
.357 I was using got really cold in
the truck. When I got on the line the
hand that was supposed to rise and
lock the cylinder in line with the
barrel would not rise. The cylinder
just spun freely. I had an H&R .22
revolver along and switched to it.
The .22 cartridge and the four-inch
barrel didn’t work well on the steel
targets at 50, 75, and 100 meters.
The Ruger Blackhawk
had never failed me before,
and hasn’t since. With
practice and matches I’d
been shooting it a lot and
cleaning it less often than I
should have. Gunk and cold
combined to mess up my
match that day.
Later I hunted
deer in muzzleload-
ing season with a
friend. We were
in an area that had
recently been logged outside Trout
Creek. It was eight degrees with
a stiff wind. It felt so cold that, at
noon, my friend drove into town and
bought a new pair of hunting pants
to wear. I should have done the
same. The old, red, wool trousers
I was wearing had lasted through
many seasons. That day, however,
it felt like there were no knees on
them at all. The wind knifed through
them and I was cold all day.
My friend was bowhunting but
I didn’t think I could shoot a bow
well in weather that cold. Instead,
I used a sidehammer .50, percus-
sion gun, modeled after the Jenks
Carbine. It had worked well for me
Serving
Lower
Michigan
DeerMeadows4U@gmail.com
on the range but I had never taken dusk and I got out to make the gun
a deer with it. The only deer I got a safe by firing it into the snowbank.
good look at that day was a big doe. The first time I pulled the trigger
She stood on a logging road and the hammer fell but the rifle didn’t
looked at me for a while, and then fire. It had been so cold when I
walked off into a little swamp and loaded up that morning that I
stood broadside. She wouldn’t grow didn’t get the cap seated completely.
antlers for me no matter how much I I cocked the hammer again and
wished she would. the rifle fired on the second try.
Back at the vehicle I stood the The blast and flame from the
carbine in the snow and got in to muzzle ended my deer hunting for
warm up. My friend showed up at that year.n
BOOKS/DVDS BY RICHARD P. SMITH
Great Michigan Deer Tales
MORE BIG BUCK STORIES
Tracking Wounded Deer
Lots of NEW INFORMATION and ALL COLOR PHOTOS
Quantity Cost
____ *NEW* Great Michigan Deer Tales - Book 7 ($16.50) _______
____ Tracking Wounded Deer - 3rd Edition ($25) _______
____ Black Bear Hunting - 2nd Edition ($40.00) _______
____ Walking with Whitetails DVD ($24.00) _______
____ Deer Hunting - 4th Edition ($35.00) _______
____ Great Michigan Deer Tales - Book 6 ($16.50) _______
____ Great Michigan Deer Tales - Book 5 ($16.50) _______
____ Great Michigan Deer Tales - Book 4 ($16.50) _______
____ Great Michigan Deer Tales - Book 3 ($16.50)
____ Great Michigan Deer Tales - Book 2 ($16.50)
____ Great Michigan Deer Tales - Book 1 ($15.50)
_______
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____ Deer Tales Set - 2/$28; 3/$40; 4/$50; 5/$60; 6/$72; 7/$82
Please specify which books sent to the same address.
____ Stand Hunting for Whitetails ($19.00)
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SEND FOR YOUR ____ Animal Tracks & Signs of N.A. ($23) _______
AUTOGRAPHED COPIES TODAY.
Name
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Address
City State Zip
Phone #
Please remit by MasterCard, Visa, Check or Money Order.
Circle card type:
MC/Visa #
Expiration Date Signature
Make checks payable to: SMITH PUBLICATIONS
814 Clark St. • Marquette, MI 49855
www.RichardPSmith.com
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 73
 Michigan Meanders...
Time Out, Time Off
A
fter a while it gets
to you, this habit of
keeping a schedule
and having to be
somewhere, on time,
all the time, and ready
for whatever. We learned this be-
havior early in life (“Don’t be tardy
again for school; next one’s
a detention!”), and now
that we’re supposed to be
retired, it’s hard to change.
After all, there will always
be a grandkid to pick up
from school and a doctor’s
appointment to keep.
Maybe you, too, have
By Tom Huggler
to be dependable
because you’ve
always been that
way and the people you care about
have expectations. If you don’t
cook, they don’t eat. That kind of
thing.
So, every now and then you
have to cut yourself loose and get
out of Dodge to use an old cliché.
Go fishing or hunting, for your san-
ity and theirs. For me, at least, that’s
Come stay at
Whispering Cedars Lodge
Your home away from home!
Year-round outdoor sportsmen’s
lakefront paradise just 20 minutes
from Alpena. Beautifully decorated, it’s
a 4,400 sq ft luxurious home with all
the modern comforts – that sleeps 14!
Hunters, snowmobilers, ice-
fisherman and winter lovers come
enjoy this majestic space on the
shores of Hubbard Lake, an 8,850
acre lake known for its excellent
bass, trout, walleye and yellow perch
fishing and as a winter ice-fishing
spot. Access to 450 acres of hunting
land included in rental.
GREAT TURKEY
HUNTING THIS
SPRING
For more information and
rental details visit:
https://www.vrbo.com/3934142ha
or Call 989.916.7280
74 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
also a problem. Because I’m a natu-
ral pack rat, the stuff I own tends to
breed more stuff. Fishing trips, for
example, require at least an hour to
load all the rods and reels and tackle
boxes, waders, spare clothes, rain
gear, cameras and other equipment.
Going hunting is worse because
I must also think ahead and
pack food, water, kennels,
leashes, and beepers, bells
and whistles for the bird
dogs as well as the usual
checklist of shotguns, shells
and extra boots for me.
Like me, don’t you ever
wonder what it would be
like to go out-
doors, just once,
without having to
take anything or anyone else along?
One morning in late March,
on the pretext of scouting for wild
turkeys, I decided to find out.
I slipped on a jacket, after
checking the pockets to make sure
they were as empty as my jeans,
and walked outside. I ignored But-
terscotch, our yellow Lab, pressing
her black nose against the kennel
fence and whining to go along.
When I told her “No,” she sank into
a blonde pile, buried her head in
paws, and sulked.
“It’s just me today.”
Driving to a public hunting area,
I walked through a field along a sod-
den path of decaying leaves and into
a dark patch of woods beyond. I sat
on a felled oak, placed a big poplar
between my shoulder blades, and
leaned backwards.
Now I was outdoors, alone, and
for the first time since I don’t know
when, there was nothing to do. I had
no camera. My shirt pocket held
no notepad and pencil. There was
no story deadline and, therefore, no
need for them. The watch on my
wrist said 10:30. How long would it
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take before boredom arrived?
But it was hunger, not boredom
that stimulated me to return home,
nearly four hours later. The last time
I had sat that long without stirring
was during deer hunting season four
months earlier. Even then, though, I
had a book to read (No, I didn’t get
my buck).
On this spring morning I saw no
deer, but I did hear a pair of turkeys
gobble. A catbird—no doubt an
early arrival—mewed from the dog-
wood thickets along a tiny stream
that murmured through the woods
before disappearing in a culvert. We
kids used to hear catbirds along a
stream we visited in a place where
the odor of wild spearmint was
sharp and where the leopard frogs
were visible only to boy hunters
who knew where to find them.
A mourning cloak wandered
in and out of the forest edge that
joined the meadow I had crossed
earlier. I wondered if sixth graders
still caught butterflies for science
class as we used to do. Death by
chloroform in a Ball canning jar was
just another hazard for the prized
monarchs heading to Mexico.
Odd, isn’t it, how a person
thinks about stuff like that when
he’s left the cell phone in the truck
back at the parking lot. There, in the
deer-empty woods, I experienced
moments of absolute solitude which
reminded me of something Paul
Gruchow said about experienc-
ing a landscape in his book, The
Necessity of Empty Places: “You
must go alone into it and sit down
somewhere quietly and wait for it to
come in its own good time to you.”
During my four-hour sojourn it
came often, in the form of birds and
butterflies and memories from long
ago. Had I brought writing materi-
als, I could have penned a chapter
for a book, which would have been
exactly the wrong thing to do. After
all, this was supposed to be time off.
Had I been bent over engrossed
in a book, I might have cracked
my neck when a red-headed wood-
pecker suddenly drilled into a
nearby snag. The shock made me
think of an air wrench tightening
lug nuts at the local auto shop. After
startling each other, the bird flitted
off like a drop of blood rising and
falling through the naked woods.
This uncommon species, along with
other woodpeckers, is making a
comeback, a positive consequence
of the emerald ash borer’s impact in
Michigan.
One could argue that time spent
in woods without a gun or even
a mesh bag for collecting morels
is a waste. But every point has its
counterpoint, and I wouldn’t trade
those hours for anything. That’s also
because that evening my family and
I enjoyed a special chicken dinner,
thanks to a revived cook who sud-
denly felt creative.n
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 Dog Training...By Len Jenkins
Quartering and bird excitement
M
any dogs quarter natu-
rally but still need a little
training to develop this
ground covering pattern.
The cue to turn and/or go forward
to hunt is two toots on the whistle.
These toots should be snappy and
cheerful, sufficient in themselves to
instill enthusiasm. Note that this sig-
nal is much different from the heavy
authoritative long blast command-
ing the dog to come. Should your
dog initially want to come in upon
hearing the new signal, send him
out again, making sure that there is
no confusion in his mind as to what
these two very distinct signals mean.
Get your dog fired up and urge
him to go forward, tooting twice.
When he gets out twenty to thirty
feet to the side, give two toots again
and tug on the checkcord, this time
using your spiked force collar. As
you proceed across a field of short
grass (so your line doesn’t get
tangled), zigzag in a way that you
signal and tug on the checkcord so
that your dog learns he is to cover
the field in windshield­wiper fash-
ion. Your pattern should be two
toots--tug, two toots--tug, two toots-
-tug so he learns to turn eventually
on the two toots, thereby preventing
the discomfort caused by the tug.
You should periodically give him a
long, hard blast to come in, thereby
demonstrating for him the difference
between these two signals. If he gets
excited and seems reluctant to come
in, give him a pull and the spiked
collar will remind him that he is to
obey this previously learned com-
mand.
Praise enthusiastically when
your dog masters the new signal and
automatically turns on two toots. In
order to refresh his memory, heel
him in for the conclusion of the les-
son, routinely giving him a Whoa,
heeling again, and then perhaps
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sending him out again on a cheer-
ful two-toots, only to be called back
on the long blast! Now this is really
putting the pieces to the training
puzzle together!
You’ll have to work your dog on
quartering a few times before you
can trust him to consistently go for-
ward and/or turn on the designated
signal. When you feel secure that he
understands and will comply, drop
the checkcord.
Keep giving the signals to either
turn or come in. If the dog misses
his cue, run and step on the cord and
give the proper tug. Just be quick
about it! From then on as you’re
training, let the dog drag the check-
cord. He’ll never even know you’re
not actually holding the other end.
When you’re really confident
in your dog, replace the 30-50 foot
cord with one which is ten feet long.
Once again you’ll fool your dog
and now he’ll work nicely with less
drag.
The next step is to remove the
short lead–and even the spike collar.
Now you have a dog that consistent-
ly heels, comes when called, quar-
ters and goes forward on command,
works a field in a zigzag pattern,
and searches for something birdy, to
point. Let’s go on to the next stage.
The excitement builds–for both
dog and handler!
Excitement Over Birds
Throughout the training process
you should remind your dog that the
name of the game is birds, birds and
more birds! This is done through
frequently using the word Bird when
your dog is around birds, or sees or
smells birds. Make the dog use all
his senses. He should hear the word
bird, see the bird, and best of all,
smell the bird. Now this is what a
bird dog was bred for!
A good way to get a bird dog fired-
up over birds is to snag a pigeon in
a fishing net and tease, saying “Bird,
Bird, Bird,” and then “Whoa!” At
this point the dog should immedi-
ately freeze on point. This process
should be repeated a few times.
After your dog has had his memory
refreshed, another technique you
can employ is to take the pup into a
pen of game birds, or even chickens.
In this way the dog will once again
hear the word Bird, see the bird, and MDNR photo
then smell the bird–all at once.
After this you should try a more flies off, make a lot of noise, trying
challenging technique. Use your to simulate the commotion your dog
pigeon release harness and place a would hear if guns were fired. Do
pigeon in high grass, out of sight but this several times. Before too long
upwind of the pup. Let the pup go you’ll be able to fire a blank gun and
on point when you know he should then a .410 or 20 gauge near your
smell the bird. You will know this dog.
because you will always work the Soon it will be time to shoot a
dog into the wind. bird over him, thereby showing him
After the dog is on point, several that the point really does culminate
feet from the hidden pigeon, lift the in total, absolute, unadulterated
bird by the string and gently swing satisfaction. All the pieces to our
it in such a way as to lull the already puzzle are beginning to fit! It’s now
pointing dog into an even more time to concentrate on the finer
hypnotic point. Then, flush the bird aspects of pointing. This is getting
by snapping the harness. As the bird to be fun!n
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WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 75
Michigan Deer Camp Traditions
A series of stories about Deer Camps
in the Great State of Michigan
Memories at the
Lil’ Ponderosa
I
t was in the early 1960s
when Don began looking
for deer hunting prop-
erty. Having completed his
service in the U.S. Coast
Guard, it was his intent
to use his mustering out pay for a
much-desired deer camp of his own.
With a strong inclination towards
the U.P. Don bought a completely
furnished cabin on 40 acres located
in Paradise. Nestled half a mile back
in the Tahquamenon River Swamp,
this remote getaway provided many
years of excellent deer hunting well
off the beaten path.
As time progressed, so did the
responsibilities in Don’s life. The
annual retreats to Paradise became
increasingly more difficult with
young children clinging to
Don, begging for dad not
to go. On one of his final
trips to the Tahquamenon
River Swamp, Don shot an
impressive 10-point deep
within the woods. Before
retrieving his buck, Don
hitchhiked his way to the
local bar for a
brief refresher.
After conversing
By Jake Dykstra
with the locals for
some time, Don of Wildlife Realty
mentioned that
he had just shot a dandy buck way
back in the swamp, which would be
almost impossible to retrieve. The
gentleman that he was sitting next to
Don happened to be involved in the
4-Wheel Drive Club. Quite proud of
his club’s abilities, this four-wheel
aficionado boldly exclaimed, “There
ain’t no place we can’t go.”
Not long after, Don and a
crew of club members effortlessly
dragged his buck back to the cabin.
Once the deer had been hung, it
wasn’t long before Don’s newly
found friend began to express his
interest in owning a property just
like Don’s. Knowing how difficult
this past trip had been on his fam-
ily, Don sold the club member the
property in 1975.
With young future hunters to
consider, Don wasted no time in
searching for the next property to
sink his deer camp tradition roots
into. That winter a treacherous ice
storm blew across the Lower Pen-
insula. Despite the conditions, Don
walked 30 acres in Mason County
76 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
along the Ruby Creek. It took little
convincing; Don knew immediately
this was the right property for him
and his family to continue to grow
their deer hunting traditions.
With just a few short months
left before the hunting season, time
was of the essence. Right away
Don and his family constructed a
Wicks A-Frame cabin with a sign
above the door naming the camp
“Lil’ Ponderosa.” By October 1 of
1976, the Lil’ Ponderosa was camp
worthy. In 1982 Don’s hunters built
a pole barn for tractor storage and a
dry place to keep fire wood. It didn’t
take long before more and more of
Don’s family and friends called this
camp theirs as well. In 1986 Don
purchased the neighbor’s 10 acres
and added a mudroom to
the cabin.
Even with the addi-
tional storage space for
hunting gear, the need
for more indoor living
quarters grew each year.
The camp continued to
add members from Don’s
family and work
sphere. In 1988
a large twenty-
foot square living
room was added
and in 1990, Don
and his fellow deer hunters built
“The Apartment.” This was a two-
story addition that not only slept
more members, but also met the liv-
ing standards of Don’s wife Phyllis.
Now fully complete, Don’s hunt-
ing cabin was soon to become the
focal point of many a deer hunter’s
annual retreats.
Adorned in knotty pine, the
interior of Don’s deer camp was a
sportsman’s dream. The bulkhead
separating the living room from the
kitchen serves as the focal point of
both conversation and aesthetics.
Deer antlers adorn both sides of the
beam, wrapping around the liv-
ing room as well. With each set of
antlers hangs a figurative story from
hunters of the past and present.
From some of the racks hang
ball caps worn by Don’s hunters,
each with a special meaning of their
own. A large wood stove heats the
kitchen and dining room, filling the
air with a pleasantly subtle aroma of
smoke. The kitchen boasts a large
island which serves as the filling
Another successful year at Don’s hunting camp.
station for many hungry and thirsty
hunters.
The fame of Don’s deer camp
grew each and every year. Every lo-
cal deer camp knew that on Novem-
ber 14, Don would be cooking the
hind quarters of a deer and everyone
was welcome. It wasn’t uncommon
to have twenty to thirty deer hunt-
ers packed in the kitchen and living
room. Hunters came from miles
away for Don’s world-renowned
gravy that smothered both venison
and potatoes.
After dinner and card games,
it was lights out at 11 p.m. sharp.
Don ran a tight ship and no one
questioned it. By 5 a.m., Don was
flipping the light switches on and off
alerting his hunters with the ritual
morning greeting, “Rise and shine,
daylight in the swamp, let’s hit it”!
Everyone knew they would be
hunting all day in cold conditions
but knowing that the evening of No-
vember 15 was Don’s annual Steak
Night gave every hungry hunter
something to look forward to!
Equally as good as the feasts
that Don hosted was the hunting
on the Ruby Creek deer camp. By
the early ’90s Don’s camp grew to
50 acres in size, but it also abutted
vast spans of state land. With almost
two decades of hunting experience
on this acreage, Don and his son
Ted knew their property well. The
majority of the property consisted
of poplars, oaks, cherries, and other
hardwoods. Although an abundance
of hardwoods often provided great
annual acorn crops, there were still
some holes in the habitat that could
be improved. Don and Ted spent
many summers clearing food plots
with a chainsaw.
Due to the very sandy soil
conditions, thousands of pounds of
lime and horse manure had to be
spread and worked into the ground
with the camp’s John Deere tractor.
It took six years or so to build up the
ground to enable green growth in
these plots. With many years behind
them, these plots now boast tremen-
dous green carpets of winter wheat
that the deer find irresistible. With
blinds positioned systematically
around these plots, Don and Ted
have really set up their fellow deer
hunters for success.
Each blind has been appropri-
ately named and each holds a very
special meaning. Phyllis’s blind was
rightfully named after she harvested
her first and only deer. Then there’s
the Regency, the Gully Blind, the
Red Roof Inn with the Thunder-
bird seat inside, Thump’s Blind,
and the Green Barren. The Wal-
doorf was named after Don’s good
friend, Boone. Before he passed,
Boone pointed to an exact location
on the property that should have a
box blind. Although Boone never
had the opportunity to hunt it, The
Waldoorf was named and positioned
in his honor. The dates of every deer
that has been successfully harvested
from this blind and the caliber that
was used is etched into the walls of
the Waldoorf. These are just a few
of the many ways that Don’s family
members and friends still continue
to remain part of the hunts.
Most of Ted’s friends and hock-
ey teammates harvested their first
deer at Don’s camp. One couldn’t
ask for a better mentor or proving
grounds. Don made it his priority to
set his hunters up for success both
in the woods and in their everyday
lives. Whether it was a question on
ballistics, navigating the woods, or
providing wisdom on the many dif-
ficulties of life, it was Don’s mission
to make an impact on all those that
hunted with him.
One Thanksgiving morning, Don
had gone out and harvested a nice
buck. Rather than tracking the deer
himself, Don went back to the cabin
and woke up a sleepy Ted. This was
how Ted was to learn to track a deer.
After bundling up, father and son
made their way back to the location
of the shot. Slowly and methodically
Ted followed the blood trail all the
way to the source. It was an incred-
ible moment for the father and son,
even though Don knew where the
deer lay prior to inciting the help of
Ted.
As Ted grew older, many more
of his friends began to attend the
annual deer camp retreats. Hunting
at the Lil’ Ponderosa was a tradition
that everyone looked forward to. On
one particular evening, one of Ted’s
friends elected to go to bed early.
After he fell asleep, Ted and his
pals “fast-forwarded” the time on
the early retiree’s wristwatch. They
also adjusted his alarm and moved
ahead the other clocks in the cabin.
When the alarm clock rang, showing
6 a.m., the hunters in the cabin acted
as though they were changing and
heading out! Eager to be the first to
his stand, Ted’s friend shot out on
his three-wheeler while everyone
else went back to bed! The young
hunter returned from the stand
an hour later knowing something
wasn’t right. He soon learned why
when he was greeted by the gang
anxiously waiting to tell him it was
only 4 a.m.!
Every deer that has been har-
vested since the first camp in Para-
dise has been accurately recorded
on the Grid Sheet and the log book.
Whether it was your first deer or
last, your name, date, and weapon
used went onto this sheet. The log
book accurately reflects each day
someone is up at the cabin, again,
dating back to Don’s first camp in
Paradise over fifty years ago. In it
contains the weather conditions,
how many deer were seen, where
you sat, and any shots taken on a
particular hunt. This too is a manda-
tory part of hunting at Don’s camp
as this log book is referred to often.
Ted’s daughter Eliana shot her
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first deer here as well. Having been
up to the Lil’ Ponderosa for the
opening day of rifle season, Ted
drove back on Friday pick Eliana up
from school at noon. A pop-up blind
had been set up with Eliana spe-
cifically in mind for this hunt, but
before the Ted and Eliana were able
to get to it there were deer feeding
in the oaks. Unfortunately, the deer
had to be spooked. A bit discour-
aged, Eliana wondered if they would
see anything more that evening,
but before the blind could even get
warm enough to turn down heater,
her moment had come
Ted was watching through his
binoculars as the evening unfolded.
A large doe was walking through
the oak trees feeding on acorns.
Eliana placed the crosshairs on the
deer but was uncomfortable with the
shot angles she was presented. Like
a seasoned veteran, she patiently Eliana’s first deer taken at the Ruby Creek Deer Camp.
waited. Communicating quietly locate and follow a blood trail. cades ago continue to grow. The
back and forth, Ted whispered to Eliana’s doe laid right where she lessons and woodsmanship skills
Eliana that her shot opportunity was shot it. Being her first deer, Ted that Don has passed along continue
now. Before the words were out of graciously field dressed Eliana’s to impact hunters now three genera-
his mouth the rifle cracked. Startled, doe. It was Ted’s way of teaching tions later. Over the years, many
Ted lost the deer in his binoculars. Eliana the anatomy lesson that Ted hunters have come and gone, but
Neither Eliana nor Ted were fully had learned from his mentor many most everyone comes back. Whether
confident the shot had met its mark. years before. One couldn’t help but it’s for the hunting opportunities, the
Immediately, Eliana was ready smile as father and daughter rode great food, the camaraderie or even
to track her deer. Ted, having (years back to camp together with another for guidance in life, all of Don’s
ago) learned these lessons from “first deer” straddling the back of hunters know the wisdom they will
his father, took the opportunity to the four-wheeler. receive and the memories they make
explain why they needed to wait. The fruits of Don’s deer camp will be cherished for the rest of their
This time, there was no need to efforts that had started many de- life.n
e n Je n ki ns
L
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 TRAIL CAM/OUTDOOR PHOTOS
Join us in sharing interesting and sometimes rare
trail cam and/or outdoor photos with our readers.
Send your photos to: wnw@pageone-inc.com

Joe Misiak says, “It’s January but looks more

like spring in Macomb Co.”

Richie Perry’s trail cam caught Paul Vogel’s trail cam caught a pair of Michigan
these feuding does in the Lowell rooster pheasants near Loomis.
Flat River Game Area.

Lauren Trainor’s trail cam caught this coyote

on the prowl.

Larry Piotrowski got a close up of an

R.J. Happley sent this unique trail cam photo of Oakland Co. buck with great poten-
does lined up with one peeking out from behind. tial.
Taken near Howell.

This Smokey Gray phase turkey was captured

on film in Oakland Co. by Larry Piotrowski.

Randy Carrol of Fennville Randy Landheer’s trail

Bob Lester caught this found these does mixing camera caught this Mus-
Joe Misiak of Macomb Co. had this peregrine falcon fish- young moose in Mar- it up on his trail cam on kegon Co. buck searching
ing with him and captured the catching on his camera. quette Co. on Nov. 13. Christmas day. for does behind his house.
78 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
 Your Woods-N-Water News is
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 Woods-N-Water News Classified Section
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used. As seen on TV. Cost $1700. unique background in forestry
and planning and I can create 16842 Werheegen East, Leroy, for reservation. Major credit HUNTING LAND FOR
Sell for $695. 989-832-2401. M-4- MI. Info. 231-250-4951. FS-3-3 cards accepted. See me on ROOSTER RANCH - RENT: 100 plus wooded
14-TFN and implement a strategic manage-
ment plan for your property. Visit facebook. F-3-1 great pheasant hunting, 15 acres. Manistee Co. 231-590-
.............................................. different farms! Excellent cover. 1136. HL-3-4
AN AMISH LOG MSWhitetailHabitatManagement.
com or call 231-679-1294. S-12-6 Your dogs or ours. Field hunt or
HEADBOARD AND QUEEN
pillowtop mattress set. New. Sell all GUNS CANADA FISHING:
Want to go fishing? Come to
European style. Meals, lodg-
ing, dog training. Half, full or CONSCIENTIOUS
for $275. 989-923-1278.
WANTED BERETTA SHOTGUNS – Ag- Northern Walleye Lodge for multi-day hunts. Open 7 days MICHIGAN SPORTSMAN
M-4-14-TFN
ing hunter must downsize. Beretta Great Walleye, Small Mouth, a week, now through April would like to lease land near Fenton
..............................................
TIMBER: Buying all types of tim- 686 Silver Pigeon I Over-Unders: Northern, Jumbo Perch, Lake 30th. Any size group. Gift cer- for hunting. TOP $ paid for prime
AMISH LOG BEDS, ANY
ber, 5 acres or more, top price paid. 20 ga., Good Condition, lightly Trout for 6 nights $450 U.S. per tificates available. Since 1986. property. Please email at
SIZE $199. 5 drawer log chest person with 4 or more. Includes roosterranch.com 989-658- mcannon550@gmail.com,
Cash in advance. Improve wildlife used, $1,500; 28-ga., Like New,
$199. Good quality. Lowest prices remote lake front cabin with 2332. H-11-TFN or call Mike at 919-348-5059.
habitat. Patco Forest Products, less than two boxes shot through
in Michigan. 989-839-4846. M-4- own dock, 2 people per boat,
989-539-7588 after 6 p.m. W-11- it, $1700. Grand Rapids area. Cash HL-3-1
14-TFN 15hp electric start Yamaha ..............................................
..............................................
12/18 only, please. Call or text: 248-321-
.............................................. 0475. G-3-2 motors, fish finders and swivel ELK & DEER GUIDED
seats. Upgrade boats available. HUNTS 100% success, Northeast
Black bear hunts available. MI no license needed. Plus, great REAL ESTATE
To reach an immense outdoor market use the . . . 3.5 hours North of Sault Ste. fishing for bass and bluegills, cabin
with boat and motor. Text or call
Woods-N-Water News Classified Marie. See web site for specials SPECTACULAR LAKE
and more info . . . 989-493-2909. H-9-12/18 SUPERIOR VIEW, beach right
www.northernwalleyelodge.com .............................................. out your front door without the
Classified ad rates: $30 for the first 20 words taxes! Combined corner lots offer
Every word over 20 is .25¢ per word -- Box your classified, $5 additional charge email: fishingtrips@outlookcom
Toll free 1-877-434-2440 NORTHERN ONTARIO more than a 1/2 acre for building
This effective advertising is simple to do, place your ad by . . . BEAR HUNTS your dream home in the village lim-
• Calling 810-724-0254 Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm F-12/17TFN
GUARANTEED TAGS! its of Ontonagon, MI. $68,000. Call
• Email your ad to wnw@pageone-inc.com
• Faxing your ad 810-724-8552 Booking now for September 2019 & 906-475-6766. RE-3-2
• Complete your Classified online at www.woods-n-waternews.com 2020 starting May 10th and May ..............................................
25th. No fall hunts this year.
• Mailing your ad to Woods-N-Water News, P.O. Box 278, Imlay City, MI 48444
HUNT CLUB Includes comfortable cabin, boat FOR SALE: Hunting, fish-
Classifieds MUST be paid in advance of publishing; MasterCard, Visa accepted. Make
and motor, baited stands. Very ing, trapping, camping on these
check/money orders payable to Woods-N-Water News. Classified ads can not be THE OPPORTUNITY: A 54 experienced guides. High success
billed and once a classified is processed no refunds can be made. Limit of 75 words. year old, 440 acre hunting camp in 63 acres in southern Sanilac
rate. 3 hours from the Soo. Co. All pines and hardwoods
All classifieds posted to our website FREE! Hillman Michigan. 7 Members, 2 References on request. $1,650 U.S.
retiring. Nice clean cottage with full surrounding stream that runs
Use one of these useful classified categories... single hunter, including taxes and year-round through the proper-
kitchen, family room with fireplace, non-resident bear license/tag.
A = Archery FP = Food Plots HW = Help Wanted SM = Snowmobiles and 14 person bunk room (split into ty. $255,000 call 810-712-1175.
ATV = ATVs FW = Firewood M = Miscellanous T = Taxidermy Cheaper rate for more than one RE-2-2
7 sections). Deer, turkey, bear, hunter. $650 deposit required. Call
B = Boats G = Guns RE = Real Estate TK = Trucks
D = Dogs H = Hunting RR = Resorts/Rent TR = Trailers grouse. Barn with 6 ATVs and 2 705-869-3272. www.texasandsons.
F = Fishing HL = Hunting Leases RVC = RV’s/Campers W = Wanted sleds. Food plots, 15 heated blinds, com H-8-12/18 52 ACRES OF OUTSTAND-
F = Free tree stands. $30k to join, refundable .............................................. ING RECREATIONAL
APRIL 2019 CLASSIFIED DEADLINE MARCH 4, 2019 if you ever leave. Annual dues
PROPERTY IN WESTERN
range between $4k-$5k. Great
LENAWEE CTY. Has woods,
CLIP AND MAIL place for family getaway to the out- TROPHY RANCH HUNT
HOGS, Rams Longhorns, Big water, low land, native grasses, till-
Woods-N-Water News Classified Advertising doors. Call 248-705-5732. HC-3-1
.............................................. Lodge, Butcher Shop. Call for
open dates and free tours. 989-
able land. Within a few miles of
several lakes. A property of this
(Please print clearly. We are not responsible for unreadable orders.)
Make sure phone number is included in your ad! 658-8634. www.trophyranch. caliber is hard to find and price is

NAME
HUNTING com. H-2-3 only $4,000 per acre. Call Larry at
Faust Real Estate, LLC 517-270-
WESTERN KENTUCKY: If 3645. RE-3-1
ADDRESS you want to kill a really good buck ..............................................

CITY                                           STATE                      ZIP you have to hunt areas that have
good bucks. We have thousands of
acres of private farms on both sides
DAYTIME PHONE NO.
of Kentucky/Tennessee border.
These farms are some of the best
VISA/MASTERCARD#                                                       EXP:
hunting around, but you do not have
CLASSIFICATION OF AD                      MONTHS TO RUN to take my word for it, come visit me
and my farms and you can decide
for yourself. Text or call for informa-
(1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6)
tion. 270-348-4281.
H-3-3
(7) (8) (9) (10) (11) (12)
(13) (14) (15) (16) (17) (18) BEAR PAW TRAIL
CAMP NORTHERN ON-
(19) (20) $30.00 $30.25 $30.50 $30.75 TARIO. Excellent bear hunt-
ing service. Baited stands,
$31.00 $31.25 $31.50 $31.75 $32.00 $32.25
preparation meat and hide for
you to take home. Average
$32.50 $32.75 $33.00 $33.25 $33.50 $33.75
size bear 200 pounds, we’ve
taken 500 pound bears before.
$34.00 $34.25 $34.50 $34.75 $35.00 $35.25
$1200 U.S., $200 deposit, book
now for spring and fall. Over 25
$35.50 $35.75 $36.00 $36.25 $36.50 $36.75
years of experience, call Willie
705-369-2013, PO BOX 149
Enclosed is $                                               for
Opasapika, Ontario Canada
BOX MY CLASSIFIED - $5 Extra
words to run                     months. POL-1Z0 H-2-3
80 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
RESORTS/RENT
TRAILS END RESORT
ON BIG MANISTIQUE
LAKE, Curtis Michigan -
Hunting, fishing and sightsee-
ing. 2 Bedroom modern house-
keeping cabins. Boats, motors
and pontoon rentals. Call 906-
586-3515. R/R-3-3
CABIN FOR RENT ON
BEAR CREEK
MANISTEE. Sleeps 5, kitch-
en, sat. TV, AC, BBQ. Over
3,400 feet of private access
frontage and miles of wooded
trails available. Clean quiet and
safe. 231-590-1136. R/R-3-4
Classifieds Work!
(810) 724-0254
32 PRIME HILLSDALE
COUNTY ACRES! Mix of hard-
woods, thickets, grassland and
large pond. With food plots and
trails. Land contract available.
$125,000. Call 419-304-5051.
RE-3-1
..............................................
WOODED HUNTING
PROPERTY IN HILLS-
DALE, MI 78.65 acres. Ask-
ing $289,900. For additional
information call Scott at 734-
732-1164. RE-3-1
IN
CAMPGROUNDS FOR
SALE One in the U.P. with Great
Lake frontage $485K. One in North
Central Michigan $700K. Briggs
Realty www.briggsrealtyonline.com
616-942-1071.
RE-3-1
..............................................
More Classifieds Next Page
 Real Estate
Woods-N-Water News
Classified
Section
REAL ESTATE
THE BEST BEAR HUNTING IN MICHIGAN.
9.9 acres with new footings under cabin, re-rod in foot-
ings, mostly furnished. New septic tank, septic field and
new well. For more information call 810-724-8027.
RE-3-2
PAGES 81-89
.......................................................................
160 WOODED ACRES WITH 900’ FUR-
NISHED CABIN IN IOSCO COUNTY NEAR
EAST TAWAS. Cabin has furnace and wood stove
with well water, cell phone and internet service avail- Spacious Ranch with 3 bed/1.5 bath w/heated attached garage & detached
able. Prime hunting, 2 ponds with Kunzy Creek running garage. Full basement, landscaped yard, etc. $198,000 #316501
through the back of the property. Lots of deer and other
wildlife including partridge, coyote, bobcat, coon and Affordable 3 bed/full bath home w/attached garage & large yard located in
more. Also listed on Zillow with many photos. Asking
$289,000. 989-225-0362. RE-2-3
country. Close to harbor, snowmobile trail & state land. $47,500 #315891
....................................................................... Village Living – 3 bed/1.5 bath w/updated carpet, paint. Large attached
garage. Close to snowmobile trail. $60,000 #316510
DOGS
3 bed/1.5 bath updated home on full basement. Many improvements,
FOX BREED POINTING LAB PUPS AKC, windows, furnace, floors, baths, etc. Close to harbor. $54,900 #314962
UKC, OFA grand master background out of 2XNC
3XGMPR HRCH Reno's Black Ice MH. $1,200
REDUCED – Move in ready 2 bed/full bath updated home with attached
Rheaume's Kennel www.fb.me/rfamilydogs.com garage, large yard, fruit trees. Quiet country location. $55,000 #313271
989-864-8606. D-3-1

CHOCOCLATE ENGLISH LAB PUP-

STATE WIDE REAL Check out our web site for
additional properties of all types.
PIES. AKC OSA out of excellent hunters. ESTATE OF HAWKS www.statewideofhawks.com
Rheaume's Kennel www.fb.me/rfamilydogs.com OF HAWKS FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT ONE OF OUR AGENTS: 989.734.4840
(989) 864-8606. D-3-1

33 ACRES OF 80054 - 80033 -

GERMAN SHORTHAIR POINTER PUPS:
Males and females available. Excellent hunting
dogs and superb family pets. Close working dogs
Two bedroom Immacu-

NATURES BEAUTY
with strong point and retrieve instincts. Reasonably
priced for the sporting family. Money back guaran-
tee. Eulenhof Kennels, Gladwin, MI.
http://www.eulenhof.com 989-426-4884 D-1-3
GUN DOG TRAINING AT ITS BEST! Over
35 years experience with pointing and flushing
breeds. All inclusive 4 week class customized to
meet your dog's needs. Excellent for young dogs
starting out, for experienced dogs tuning up, or for
dogs with issues. $700. Rheaume's Kennel
www.fb.me/rfamilydogs.com (989) 864-8606.
D-3-1
VACANT LAND – 33 ACRES: Untouched
AKC CHAMPION GERMAN SHORT-
HAIR POINTER PUPPIES FOR SALE:
Outstanding field stock, great hunting dogs and
partners. Wonderful household companion, calm
temperament, good with kids. Call 734-770-6109.
D-3-1
BRITTANY PUPS AKC Hall of fame back-
ground out of NAFC DC AFC Renegade's Kansas
Kid O-W and L-W $1,000 Rheaume's Kennel
www.fb.me/rfamilydogs.com (989) 864-8606.
D-3-1
Classifieds
work!
home on 25 acres
designed for “off
grid” recreation,
garden area, propane lights, solar panels, private drive,
lots of wildlife, morel mushrooms, wild berries, fruit
trees, indoor inverter for power. $79,900
111 N Sylt Road
Lake Leelanau, MI
Atlanta, Michigan 599-18-0060 - 1 bedroom; 1 bath;
hardwoods, flowering brush, ferns and 1 story; 1500 sq ft. This is a unique piece of property! 40
wildflowers. Natural habitat to local acres with state land on 3 sides and an 800 acre hunt club
on the north border. There is a 50 x 100 solid built pole
wildlife, including whitetail deer,
bobcat, turkey, rabbit, and grouse. barn with a 1500 sq ft self sufficient home built inside,
Excellent hiking and hunting! Beautiful which is run on solar, and an LP generator and it has a
landscape of hill and valley, lowland flowing well. There is a well maintained apple orchard
and highland, woods and clearing. that is fenced. Beautifully wooded property with a build-
ing site that has an additional 1000 gal septic tank that
GREAT will allow for a lodge looking over the Blue Ribbon Trout
POTENTIAL: Stream, the Gilchrist Creek of which there is over 1000 feet
a wonderful of frontage. The Gilchrist Creek and the Greasy Creek meet
homestead, on this property. There are 5 deer blinds set up for your
hobby farm, hunting pleasure. This property has produced numerous
or ‘up north’ Big Bucks. The property also holds ample wildlife such as
hunters
paradise!
deer, bear, turkey, partridge, bobcat, rabbits.... Don’t miss
out on this one! $239,900
late custom
built home
on 40
beautiful
wooded acres with your own private pond/
small lake right out the back door. Custom
kitchen with beautiful cabinetry, open concept,
formal dining room, central vacuum, Anderson
Windows and life time shingles. 3 nice sized
bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths on the main floor, at-
tached garage, partially finished basement with
a walkout to the water and the beautiful yard.
There is a work shop, 3 car garage, and much
more $374,900
80056 -
Log sided 3
bedroom, 3
bath chalet
on 40 acres,
bordering
State Land with several deer blinds, trails, a 2 car
garage, barn, and more outbuildings. Garage
has nice attached room with separate outside
door which could be an office, man cave, hobby
or work room. A creek runs through which is a
tributary of the Thunder Bay River. Property has
apple, pear, plum trees, and blueberry bushes.
Much, much more $259,900

$279,400
(810) 724-0254
Monday-Friday 9am-5pm
12631 State St.
or try our website Carolyn
PO Box 663
woods-n-waternews.com Telgard Atlanta, MI 49709
Realtor
email: wnw@pageone-inc.com Cell: 231-642-7117
989-785-2600 Office • 989-657-4904 Mobile
www.woods-n-waternews.com carolyn.telgard@cbgreatlakes.com aerorealestate.usa.mls.com
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 81
 CALL
810-724-0254
TO PLACE YOUR
AD TODAY!


P.O. Box 278 • 594 N. Almont Ave. • Imlay City, MI 48444
Phone: (810) 724-0254 • Fax: (810) 724-8552

Check out our website:

www.woods-n-waternews.com

Thinking
of Buyingof
orBuying or Selling?
Selling?

Brandon Cropsey Sou

26
thern Michigan David Cergnul Mid-Michigan
989.324.9443
9.816.3010

N | BROKER,CALL LAND(office)
BRANDON SPECIALIST
| (office) 269.357.7036
269.357.7036
BROKER, LAND •SPECIALIST or (cell) 269.816.3010
MOSSYOAKPROPERTIES.COM
(office) 269.357.7036 or (cell) 269.816.3010
ICAL
AST CED
LY MOSSYOAKPROPERTIES.COM
CT
IVE
MOSSYOAKPROPERTIES.COM
EW
LIST
ING
SO
LD ICE ED
PR C
DR EDU A N DU
R RE

Cass County Berrien County

Barry County 67.6 +/- acres 94 +/- acres
99.6 +/- acres List Price $258,400 - An Calhoun County List Price $279,000 - 94 +/- Ontonagon County
List Price $549,000 - exceptional mixed use 67.6+/- 100 acres acres of primarily wooded 80 +/- acres
Beautiful cabin parcel of ground in Cass County, List Price $299,000 - EXCELLENT hunting property List Price $119,000 -
overlooking a spring Michigan with EXCELLENT Recreational Paradise in Berrien County, Michigan Wooded acreage in the
fed fish pond on Hunting, potential building with rolling woods, just South of I94, and directly Western Upper Peninsula
rolling wooded sites, and tillable ground a creek, swamp, and across the road from Point O’ with beautiful turn key
acreage generating farm rent yearly potential building sites Woods Golf Course D-style log cabin

EACH MOSSY OAK PROPERTIES OFFICE IS INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED

82 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
 15+ YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
& 70+ MILLION IN
MICHIGAN LAND SALES

52+ Acres, Benzie County,

Alcona/Alpeana County,
408+/- Acres, Incredible Retreat,
3 Lodges, Large Pole Barn, Beaver
Creek Frontage, Tons of Wildlife
$1,400,000
Arenac Co, 167+/- Acres, 3,500+/- ft
Lake Huron, 6 Bedroom Lodge, Guest
Cabin, Great Duck & Deer Hunting.
$550,000
Arenac County, Au Gres, 773.42 Acres,
Whitetail Paradise, Road/Trail System,
Large Pond, 10 Gun Shacks,
Awesome Deer Hunting Property.
$1,850/Acre
Near Interlochen and Traverse City,
Great Road Frontage, Beautiful
Build Spots, Great Hunting,
Nation Forest Adjoins Property!
$99,000
Calhoun County, 74 Acres, Calhoun County, 67+/- Acres
1/2 Tillable ,1/2 Wooded, 300 ft. All Sports Prairie Lake,
Trophy Buck Genetics Tillable Acreage
$275,000 $275,000

Calhoun County, 80 Acres, Big Buck
County, Lots of Deer Sign,
Oak Ridges, Rolling Hills.
$275,000
Roscommon County
480+/- Acres
Jackson County 38.14 Acres,
Gladwin, 142 Acres, Isabella County, 80+/- Acres, Duck Log Home/Cabin, Tillable,
Fully furnished Deer Ranch. and Deer Hunter’s Paradise, Over Timber Value, and 30 year old
The Rack Ranch a mile of Pony River Frontage. Walnut Timber Stands!
$835,000 $160,000 $255,000

LD
SO

Jackson County, 105+/- Acres, WRP
Program, Mature Hardwoods, Great
Deer, Turkey & Waterfowl Hunting
$199,000
Jackson County, 537 +/- Acres,
Excellent Duck, Deer & Turkey Hunting.
Area of Other Large Property Owners.
“Man Cave” w/Game Cleaning Station.
$1,074,000
High Fence Deer Rach, First Class Lodge and
Lapeer, 102 Acres, This property offers
House, 120’x60’ Pole Barn, Quality Deer Herd. room for multiple building sites and is
just 3 Miles from the city of Lapeer.
$2,900,000 $340,000
Lake County, 7 Acres, Little Manistee
River Frontage, Cozy Cabin,
Great Hunting and Fishing
$125,000

6+ Acres, Mis-
saukee County,
Secluded 34’x16’
Pole Barn - Deer
Camp! This is a
MUST SEE with
an incredible
track record of
harvesting 38 Acres, Newaygo County, 80 Acres, Newaygo County,
40+/- Acres Mecosta, Fenced Midland County, 80 Acres MATURE Newaygo County 4+/- Acres White Cloud Cabin/Home, Five Food Plots, Mature Timber Value,
in pastureland and pond. Perfect for 12 Miles to Mount Pleasant, Whitetails! Muskegon Riverfront, New cabin, Mile Creek Frontage, Deer, Loaded With Deer And Turkey,
equestrians and cattle owners! Excellent Hunting Price Right!! Beautiful landscaping, Secluded woods. Bear, Turkey, and Seclusion! Economically Price!
$97,900 $176,000 $55,000 $220,000 $169,000 $160,000

L D
SO

Newaygo County, 125 Acres, Three
spring fed lakes, Excellent Deer,
Turkey and Waterfowl hunting
$325,000
Oceana County, 67 Acres, Great Deer
and Turkey Hunting, Tillable,
Thick Forest Floor, Food Plots, Pond,
Hunting Shack and Pole Barn.
$159,000
Osceola County, 120 Acres, Trail
System, Near Reed City, Tons of
Deer and Turkey Sign, Food plot areas
$255,000
Osceola County, 163+/- Acres, Great
Trail System, Awesome Hunting,
Rolling Hills, Must See!
$245,000
Osceola County, Evart, 278 Acres,
Major Deer Sign, Multiple Food Plots,
Rolling Terrain,. Thick Bedding Cover,
Near State Land, Great Deer History.
$517,000
Presque Isle County, 1,500 Acres,
High Fence Deer Ranch, 50,000+ sq. ft.
lodge, rolling hills, caretakers
house, and pole barn.
$6,400,000

SELL YOUR PROPERTY WITH US!

BLAKE VER WOERT: 616-308-3122
JAKE DYKSTRA: 616-916-8354
CURT BRYAN: 616-745-2759 WWW.WILDLIFEREALTY.COM
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 83

GreatLakesRealtyandAuction.com
EXECUTIVE RETREAT
AND HUNTING RANCH
ULTIMATE HUNTING
PROPERTY
Log Home on 400-Acres of Pristine
Rolling Woodland with Grass Airstrip
2700-Feet Long. North Fork Ranch
is a One of a Kind Executive Retreat
Perfect for Entertaining. Motel Style has 4-Bedrooms and 3½ Bathrooms.
Guest House with 3-Units Sleeps 6.
Bunk House sleeps 9 with Bath and
Kitchenette. Fly-In Hunting Property
with Hangar and Additional Out Building Laundry
next to the Runway. Detached Garage
has Huge Commercial Kitchen, with
Heat and A/C. Corral Fenced for Horses Sheridan Valley, McCormick Lake can
20-Food Plots, Heated Deer Blinds,
Excellent Black Bear Hunting. Land
Contract Available with $700,000 Down.
$2,400,000 • 400 ACRES
OFFICES IN ATLANTA AND UNIONVILLE, MI • (866) 637-8851
3 BD, 1 BA mobile on 10
acres. It has been used
as a deer camp, yet has
all the comfort of home.
Can be lived in all year,
has a 10x14 shed for
storage and plenty of
room to roam.
MLS 18031425 $34,900
2.4 acres of vacant land.
Access from a county
maintained road with
electric available at the
street. Ideal camping
location close to town
and amenities. Land
Contract Terms Available.
MLS 18012543 $7,900
84 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
HIGH FENCE
GAME RANCH
High Fence Hunting Property For Sale
in Northern Michigan. All 260-Acres
total with 120-Acres Enclosure has
10-Foot High-Fence with 3 separately
Fenced areas within the enclosure can
be closed as needed. Main Lodge
Great Room boasts a Stone Fireplace Granite Countertops, water purification
with amazing Views of Sheridan Valley.
Bunk House has 3-Bedrooms, Kitchen,
Room and Family Room that
looks directly into a Deer Feeding
Bay Golf Resort. This could be a great
Area. Additional 20 x 20 1-Bedroom
Cabin. Spectacular views overlooking
be seen from parts of this property.
Land contract available.
$799,000
10 wooded acres with
an older 1 BD, 1 BA
trailer, well and septic.
Access to the beach is
right up the road and
federal land is only a 1/4
of a mile away.
MLS 18043192 $39,900
1.8 acres within Baldwin vil-
lage limits. Great year round
location on one of the main
corners. Property has front-
age on 3 roads and has the
potential of being split for
further development. Land
contract available!
MLS 18052522 $9,600
Diane
Ives
(989) 306-0372
HOME ON THUNDER BAY
GOLF RESORT
Beautiful custom engineered 2
bed/2.75 bath log home built in 1996
and complete modern renovation in
2018. A Large Loft upstairs has its
own bath. Mostly hardwood floors
with some tile, and carpet in the loft.
system and new appliances. Wrap-
around decking. Located on the 8th
Fairway of a Par 5 hole on Thunder
income property, a place to just stay
and golf or your year-round home.
$249,900
Wooded 10 acres with
trails throughout, ma-
ture trees and under-
growth with lots of wild-
life. Comes with a well
kept mobile home that
offers sleeping for up
to 7.
MLS 18048689 $50,000
Land Contract Terms
Available: Nicely wooded
2+ Acres vacant land. A
perfect spot to get away
up north for the weekend
to go camping! Close to
public lands yet not too
far off the beaten path.
MLS 18013168 $12,500
JJ Scott
Earl
(989) 350-1711
Whitt
(989) 370-3171
FARM FOR SALE IN
NORTHERN MICHIGAN
160-Acres with 4-Bedroom Farm
House, Excellent Hunting with
several Deer Blinds and Pond.
90 Tillable Acres are Tiled and
Irrigated. Irrigation System with
2-Pivot Irrigators are available
for an Additional cost. Storage
Barn: 60 x 112 with separate well
& pump Machine Shed: 120 x 30
Machine Shed: 30 x 70 Shop:
50 x 60 with water & bath.
$375,000
3 BD cabin in the Big
Star Lake area! Located
on a quiet, paved road
in a great recreational
area. Sitting on an acre
of land with a detached
2 stall garage.
MLS 18054346 $55,000
Land Contract Terms Available:
Wooded 2.5 acres in un-zoned
Cherry Valley. State land is just
down the road. For those who
love riding the trails, the Tin
Cup Spring Trail is close by.
Electric is available at the road.
MLS 18036625 $13,900
Matthew
Farkas
(248) 884-8616
PRIVATE HUNTING &
FISHING CLUB
Charming country home great for first-time
home buyer or up north retreat. This like-
new Chalet features tongue & groove pine
ceiling in the loft, open floor plan, sliding
door in the living room to deck, full finished
basement with laundry, and 2 1/2 car garage
for toys and ORV. Finished basement w/3
carpeted rooms, inc. utility and laundry
room. New siding, new roof, and nice deck
to enjoy the great outdoors. On 5 lots with
privacy, enjoyment of a natural setting.
Conveniently located 15 min. from Atlanta
or Onaway for all your shopping needs.
On Canada Creek Ranch, a 13,500-acre
Private Hunting & Fishing Club.
$110,000
1 BD, 1 BA, block home
with great potential! To-
tal of 20 acres with at-
tached 2 car garage for
plenty of storage. Con-
veniently located just
south of Baldwin right
off of M-37.
MLS 18014254 $79,900
Land Contract Terms
Available: Nicely wooded
2+ Acre vacant land. A
perfect spot to get away
up north for the weekend
to go camping! Close to
public lands. Access is
from a county road.
MLS 18018478 $14,500
 WEST BRANCH HALE WEST BRANCH
R S ALE R S ALE
M-33/M-55 OFFICE F O OFFICE F O LOOP OFFICE
1953 S. M-33 3160 North M-65 2575 S. I-75 Business Loop,
West Branch, MI 48661 Hale, MI 48739 West Branch, MI 48661
10 miles north of I-75 exit 202 “Gateway to Huron National Forest” 1 mile north of I-75 Exit 212

Local: 989-345-2662 Local: 989-728-2540 Local: 989-345-0315

Toll Free: 800-535-6520 www.CAHANES.com Toll Free: 800-495-2540 www.CAHANES.com Toll Free: 866-345-0315

“UP NORTH” HOMES AND COTTAGES

LITTLE CLEAR LAKE!! 20 ACRES!! FANTASTIC LOCATION!! WELL-INSULATED!! AMISH REMODELED!!

Lovely 3-bdrm, 2 bath home that is move-in ready w/little
updates needed and 90 feet of canal frontage leading to
30 acre private lake! Open floor plan, newer appliances,
master suite, 31x15 deck with fantastic lake views!!
$59,900 1853977
3-bdrm home on full basement with garage!! Some
recent updates include updates to kitchen and
bath. Outside there is a large covered deck w/
beautiful views and trails for walking or the hunter!!
$154,900 1840412
This 2-bdrm home with attached garage sits on AN ACRE
of property and is just a short distance to all sports Lake
George. Has wood flooring, large front deck, full base-
ment, paved driveway and a second 24x28 garage!!
$69,000 1844224
Nice 3-bdrm home located in great recreational area near
many lakes and state land! Would make the perfect year
round home or an excellent weekend or vacation getaway!
Large fenced yard for your pets & deck for relaxing!!
$59,900 1851030
Gorgeous 3-bdrm w/custom cabinets, mobile
kitchen island, Amish built furnishings, FP, 2
covered porches, oversized garage and all NES-
TLED ON 20 ACRES w/groomed trails & 4 blinds!!
$249,900 1855393

2.36 ACRES!!
Spacious brick and vinyl 2-bdrm home with 1674 square
feet of living space, formal dining, some appliances, family
room w/its own entrance, huge 72x39 heated 5-car garage
plus 24x32 pole bldg, both wired for electric & much more!
$134,900 1848848
BEAUTIFUL LAKEFRONT!!
SPACIOUS CUSTOM BUILT 3-bdrm, 3 bath
home, large lot, full walkout bsmt, garage,
open floor plan, wood floors, AC, gorgeous
kitchen, master suite & so much more!!
$232,500 1854973
ACROSS FROM NAT’L FOREST!!
This 3-bdrm home sits on a deep lot with some shade
trees and has been freshly painted. On almost an acre
of land and located in great recreational area and not
far from lakes. Exterior of home does need some TLC!!
$45,900 1848661
ACROSS FROM LAKE!!
Well-maintained 2-bdrm home with a beautiful view of
all sports RIFLE LAKE and just across the road from 20
foot access spot! Spacious living area, hickory cabinets,
knotty pine interior, carport, deck, covered porch & more!!
$79,500 1847245
SPACIOUS CHALET!!
Over 2300 square feet of living space, 3-bdrm, 2 full bath
and 4-car garage. Home has beautiful views from multiple
decks & is located in great subd w/access to 2 all sports
lakes, golf course, tennis courts, trails, camping & more!!
$143,900 1846541

1.25 ACRES!! LARGE DOUBLE LOT!! GETAWAY OR YEAR ROUND!! MOSTLY FURNISHED!! NICE VIEWS OF E TWIN LAKE!!
Affordable 2-bdrm, 2 bath home w/large rooms, appliances, Cute 3-bedroom, log home in great rec- 2-bdrm mobile in need of TLC on 10 WOOD- Well-maintained 2-bdrm home w/garage Updated 2-bdrm home near many all sports
lots of kitchen cabinets, generator, 16x14 sunroom, paved reational area not far from lakes and State ED ACRES for hunting or watching wildlife. on 10 ACRES. Fenced yard, pond, trails, lakes!! Laminate floors, stainless steel ap-
circular drive, breezeway from home to 24x24 garge, newer lands. Wood stove, garage, screened porch Wood stove, appliances, deck, 30x40 pole screened bldg to enjoy the wildlife and also pli, attic that could be dbrm #3, garage &
windows & newer roof & you can walk to State land!! and mostly furnished!! bldg & more!! near many lakes!! pole bldg!!
$49,900 1849274 $49,900 1850311 $42,900 1856509 $70,000 1856192 $84,000 1856575

GREAT COUNTRY SETTING!!
3-bdrm home on OVER AN ACRE, fronts
paved road near many lakes & thousands of
acres of hunting lands! Being sold in “as is”
condition.
$31,900
VICTORIAN WEST BRANCH!! DEEDED LAKE ACCESS!! OVER 22 ACRES!! WEST LONDO LAKE!!
Spacious 3-bdrm, attached garage, open 2-bdrm, 2 ba home just down the road from Beautiful home, fantastic views, 2 garages, Nice 2-bdrm home w/garage & 120’ on 180
floor plan, AC, master suite, full bsmt, natural boat access & near sandy beach! Wood AC, wood floors, stunning kitchen w/custom all sports lake! Wood floors, 2 full bath, floor
gas heat, blacktop drive, porch, generator & floors, nice kitchen w/lots of cupboards, deck, cabinets, stainless steel appli, open floor to ceiling windows, beautiful views, some fur-
more!! 2 story garage & more!! plan and your very own pond!! nishings, AC & much more!!
1856854 $89,000 1856504 $114,900 1849895 $139,000 1856423 $314,700 1856419

WATERFRONT LOTS AND WATERFRONT ACREAGE

SUPER SUBDIVISION!!
Almost 3 ACRES, with 250+ feet of water
frontage on Ogemaw Creek. Located in great
area and in subdivision with many fantastic
amenities!!
$76,000
BEAUTIFUL WATERFRONT!! PLEASANT LAKEFRONT LOT!! EXCELLENT FISHING!! 9.82 ACRES!!
Nice partly wooded lot with vegetation to wa- Nice property and potential site for building Nice lot with frontage on the beautiful Rifle Great hunting acreage with property fronting
ter’s edge and 80” of frontage on private “no your new home or vacation or weekend get- River and fantastic views or potential site for on Nester Creek and a perfect spot for your
motor” Fawn Lake. Also near other lakes and away in great subdivision and with frontage building your new home or vacation or week- home or hunt cabin. Electric at road with a
the beautiful Rifle River!! on FLOWAGE LAKE!! end retreat. Adjacent lot also for sale!! driveway and shed already at the property!!
1855915 $15,900 1850114 $101,000 1763735 $22,900 1843577 $35,000 1851406

RIFLE RIVER!!
Mostly cleared lot with some shade trees and
gorgeous views of the Rifle River. Great spot
for excellent fishing, kayaking and canoeing
and potential site for building!!
$22,900
BEAUTIFUL LAKEFRONT LOTS!! 1.9 ACRES!! 2.4 ACRES!! ELBOW LAKE!!
Over a half acre of waterfront property front- Beautiful wooded property with frontage on Nice property with frontage on Ogemaw Nice waterfront lot and a fantastic spot for
ing on popular, all sports Lake Ogemaw with Turtle Lake, an 8 acre small fishing lake. Creek and in super subdivision with many building your dream home or vacation get-
gentle slope to water. Located in fantastic Also not too far from many other all sports nice amenities like natural gas and municipal away with 94 feet of frontage on 42 acre all
subd & potential bldg site!! lakes and near State lands!! well & sewer and great spot for bldg!! sports lake. Elec at road!!
1843574 $69,900 1790612 $14,900 1835692 $81,000 1855918 $54,900 1846598

FOR MORE LISTINGS

VISIT OUR WEBSITE: WWW.CAHANES.COM
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 85

VISIT OUR WEBSITE TODAY!
statewiderealestate.net
• Houghton
Crystal Falls • Manistique •
Escanaba •
• Gladstone
• Powers
Menominee •
Marinette
Contact Your Nearest State Wide Real
Estate Office To Buy or Sell In Michigan
ALPENA
1100 W. Chisholm, 49707
email: alpswre@speednetllc.com
989-356-2142 • Fax: 989-356-2144
ALMONT
844 Van Dyke Road
lafrancesharon@yahoo.com
810-798-8591 • Fax: 810-798-8079
CRYSTAL FALLS
225 Superior Ave
Crystal Falls, MI 49920
PH: 906-874-3500
PH: 906-396-3002
email: steve@statewide.estate
CURTIS/NEWBERRY
Main Street, P.O. Box 305, 49820
email: swcurtis@sbcglobal.net
906-586-9606 • Fax: 906-586-9607
ESCANABA
2209 Ludington Street, 49829
email: escanaba@statewiderealestate.net
906-786-1308 • 800-900-0777
Fax: 906-786-1388
GLADSTONE
1401 Delta Ave.,
Gladstone, MI 49837
906-825-9000
email: judy@statewiderealestate.net
86 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS
Offices Serving Lower &
Upper Michigan
Bringing people and places together since 1945
Marquette
• Newberry
Curtis •
•
Linden •
HARRISVILLE
430 S. US-23, 48740
email: sold@anjstatewide.com
989-724-5711 • 800-655-5735
Fax: 989-724-6833
HAWKS
8383 Hwy. 451, 49743
email: rita8383@yahoo.com
989-734-4846
HILLMAN
14938 State Street, P.O. Box 98, 49746
email: statewidehillman@yahoo.com
989-742-4523 • 800-228-7856
Fax: 989-742-3931
HOUGHTON
500 Shelden Ave., 49931
email: dick@statewideofhoughton.com
906-482-6955 • 800-676-6323
Fax: 906-482-7699
HOWELL/LINDEN
1285 S. Michigan Ave., Howell, MI 48843
email: statewid@earthlink.net
517-546-9060 • 800-531-4449
Fax: 517-546-9148
MANISTIQUE
10 N. State Highway M-149
Cooks, MI 49817
906-644-2304
email: dekeysermary@yahoo.com
YOOPER SPECIAL!
E6809 E SANDENE • IRONWOOD TWP 49911
80 Wooded Hunting Acres Renovated
4 Bdrm, 2 Full Bath, 2200 Sq Ft. Farm House.
PRICE REDUCED $279,900
Onaway
• • Hawks
Hillman
• •
• Atlanta
Alpena Near W
N
3,960 ft
Mio • • Harrisville Marlette S
in Sanilac 121
County Acres
$
314,600
40 acres of Hunting Bliss. Ranch home OR
• Almont with a full walk out basement, 3 bedrooms, Will $
2 full baths, gourmet kitchen. All season consider 2,600 per acre
Howell • Sun room with separate entrance. Attached 1,320 ft
all offers.
3 car garage plus a 32’ X 48’ Pole Barn (can
fit 2 semi trucks) 14 ft doors. Deer, rabbit
& turkey are bountiful. There also is a small
pond and swamp area on the property.
Hunters Paradise is at 2152 Five Lakes Rd,
Metamora, MI 48455 $460,000
MARINETTE, WISCONSIN
1460 Marinette Ave., 54143
email: statewidemarinette@yahoo.com
715-735-9964 • Fax: 715-732-1107
MARQUETTE 28 ACRES ADJ. STATE LAND! Remodeled with 180’ ON WILDWOOD LAKE. This value
856 W. Washington, 49855 BH&G style décor. Over 2100 sf featuring 4 bed- packed home offers 1800 sf of living space, 3
rooms and 3 full bathrooms. Stone fireplace, all bedrooms, 2 full baths, a screened porch, cozy
email: sw@statewiderealestate.org seasons sun room, stone & stained-glass accents! sun room, fireplace, an attached 2 car garage
906-228-9312 • Fax: 906-228-8069 Includes a 30x40 pole barn with a sauna and an plus a second 2 car heated garage. Awesome
28x32 man cave-studio w/an 8’ covered patio. fishing and all sports lake with easy access to
Great hunting! $218,900 #316334 (Cheboygan) I75. $168,000 #317479 (Wolverine area)
MENOMINEE
3631 10th Street, 49858
email: statewideone@newbc.rr.com
906-863-9905
Fax: 906-863-7935
518’ LAKE NETTIE. Affordable up north get-away on a quiet 149 SECLUDED ACRES! Trail roads, 11 estab-
all sports lake. 3 bedrooms, 2 bath home with a full-length lished blinds, small clearings for food plots, trail
MIO deck overlooking the lake, a breezeway, tiered landscaping and roads and a creek. Nicely wooded with a mix
102 West 8th St., P.O. Box 395, 48647 boat dock. Great fishing, swimming and year-round sporting of evergreens & hardwood, mostly high ground.
activities. Snow trails & state land close by. Motivated seller Abundant game. Close to Hammond Bay Har-
email: info@statewidemio.com wants an offer! $129,000 #308591 (Millersburg area) bor. $148,250 #313641 (Millersburg area)
989-826-3292
Fax: 989-826-2108
ONAWAY
M-33 & M-68,
P.O. Box 478, 49765 325’ OCQUEOC RIVER FRONTAGE! 3 13 ACRES W/PRIVATE LAKE & 380’ ON
email: bigdan@frontier.com ACRE PARCEL ON A PRIVATE ROAD. Gen- THE OCQUEOC RIVER. Beautiful rolling
989-733-6522 tly rolling land that’s ideal for a walk-out parcel in a secluded setting. There’s a
basement. Great place to camp or build your small cabin roughed in, a hunting blind
Fax: 989-733-2427 up north cottage. Trout fishing or kayak- overlooking the lake with its own deck, a
ing. Land contract terms possible. Reduced! well and electric hook ups for your camp-
$25,700 #295457 (Millersburg area) er. Land contract available. $99,900
POWERS RE/MAX NORTH
W3776 US2 & 41, 49874
Carol Steiger, Associate Broker
906-497-4190
(231) 627-9991 Office
Fax: 906-497-5328 (989) 351-0110 Cell
holly@statewiderealestate.net email: carol.steiger@remax.net
846 S. Main, Cheboygan, MI
www.liveupnorth.com
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 87
 12.6 Acres Lake Huron
and 330 ft Water front
of water- – 99 ft of 223 W. Main, Edmore MI 48829
front on waterfront
all sports comes with a www.eaglerealtymi.com
Jewell Lake. Victorian style
Includes a 2 4 bedroom,
bed, 1 bath
home. Plus,
a bathhouse, bunkhouse, storage bldg. and fire-
2 bath home.
Home has
been modernized while still retaining its roman-
888.967.4140
wood shelter. All in the heart of the Huron Nation- tic charm. Included is a gazebo, sun room, 2 car
al Forest with groomed snowmobile trails, ORV garage w/finished 2nd floor. Located in town and MECOSTA: 100ft Private frontage on Horsehead Lake. Enjoy wonderful
trail head, golf courses, other inland lakes, and within walking distance to amenities, Harrisville
Lake Huron minutes away. $215,000 18-0092 harbor and boat launch. $370,000 18-0082 panoramic views of the lake while sitting in front of the wood fire on cool
fall nights or out on the wrap around deck. MLS#18054498 - $259,900
120 Acres 40.53 Acres of fabu-
– Your lous recreation prop- RESTORED FARMHOUSE on 60 acres within a short drive to all Sports Crystal Lake in
Own Play- erty with many possible
ground! home sites and hunting Montcalm County. Owner Custom built 40 x 70 heated workshop plus additional office
Groomed just off a county main- with conference room and bathroom. Also included is a restored hip barn. $549,900
trails thru tained road. Square
the high, 40 acre parcel has nice
dry and ridges and valleys. Ma- EDMORE: Doublewide on Sixth Lake. This larger ranch home
hilly prop- ture oaks, a variety of sits on an acre with channel/lake frontage. Great fishing and
erty. Includes stocked pond with sandy evergreens and other you will be one of only a few with access. POLEBARN. $159,900
beach and bridge to the small island. Plus, a 3 hardwoods. Lots of deer
bed, 1 ½ bath renovated home, hunting cabin activity and buck rubs.
and 30x40 pole barn. $275,000 18-0070 $56,000 18-0102 LEROY: 2010 Built 4 Bedroom Ranch home on the
Eastern shore of McCoy Lake in Osceola County.
61 Acres Lake Hu- 60 Ft. of Water Frontage. MLS#19002944 - $98,900
of hunt- ron Water-
ing land front – 3
that has bedroom, BARRYTON: A total of 4 lots (one waterfront) come
rolling 1 ½ bath with this seasonal cottage w/67 Ft. of Frontage to
hills, flat home locat- Martiny Chain of Lakes. MLS#18034651 - $59,900
terrain, ed in one of
wooded the best
a r e a s , locations TOWNLINE LAKE MONTCALM COUNTY waterfront year-round home. This three bed-
open areas for food plots, and spring fed on Lake Huron. Many updates in 2012 in- room one bath walkout basement home has panoramic views of the lake from most of the
pond. Borders State Land on one side. In- clude new roof, Anderson windows, sliders, rooms for a little more investment you can own the property across the street. $224,900
cludes a 1,500 sf hunting camp w/walkout exterior paint and more. It’s your time to
basement, 22x31 pole barn and 15x10 start making memories along Lake Huron.
shed. $165,000 18-0095 $319,000 18-0107 VESTABURG: Log Cabin Cottage on shaded East bank
of all sports Rock Lake. Enjoy the beautiful panoramic
Barbara Bartlett • 989-590-0238 view of the lake. +Back Lot. MLS#18046701 - $117,500
Debbie Lewis • 941-270-0503 EAGLE REALTY REALTORS® DO NOT CHARGE
Shirl Hall • 989-302-6322 ADMIN FEES OR MAINTENANCE FEES.
430 S US 23 CALL US TODAY “WE WILL WORK FOR YOU”
Harrisville, MI 48740

88 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS

APPROX. 186 RANDY MINTO
NEW
250 DEER
ACRES Always Working Hard for You!

REALTOR
SANILAC COUNTY APPROX. 100 ELK Direct:
Amazing Applegate Hunting Preserve! 1/2 Million+ 810.449.1286 170 ACRES GENESEE COUNTY
Dollars Worth Deer/Elk Inventory Included in Sale. - OR - Amazing Ranch Home & Guest House,
Ranch Home & Lodge - Several Outbuildings Office:
Private Lake
*DV 810.653.4500
$1,250,000 *DV $1,650,000
SPECIALIZING IN UNIQUE, LUXURY AND LARGE RECREATIONAL PROPERTIES
DEER & NATURE LOVER’S DREAM PROPERTIES

NE LAPEER COUNTY 66 ACRES 370 ACRES

W

Beautiful Banquet Hall 10,000 SQ FT Fantastic Development Opportunity. Drummond Island - Cabin
Tuscola County Engineered Drawings Available & Cottage on Lake Huron
*DV $299,500 $419,000 $949,000
*DV *DV
COMMERCIAL BUSINESS/LAND
TUSCOLA COUNTY

LDCLUB
PARADICE HUNT
NEW
10 ACRES

SO
4.36 ACRES
$3,950,000
LAPEER COUNTY
Excellent Commercial New Construction, 2000 sq ft Open Floor
Landscape Business building site Plan, 4 BD, 2.5 BA, Covered porch
$129,500 *DV $49,500 *DV $299,000
1,120 ACRES
OGEMAW & ROSCOMMON
D CLARE COUNTY
SOL
LAPEER COUNTY COUNTIES

192 ACRES 60+/- ACRES

Beautifully renovated historic Victorian Bed Deer Hunter’s Dream Property, Multiple Cabin & 2 Mobile Homes,
and Breakfast with horse facilities. lodges-Homes-Pole Barns, 2 Private Lakes 1 Mile+/- on Muskegon River
*DV $1,490,000 *DV 15 Miles of trails, 11 heated Blinds *DV $149,000

NEW NEW
GENESEE COUNTY 36 ACRES
NEW
SANILAC COUNTY

GENESEE COUNTY
6 ACRES
5 Pole Barns, 2-Story Home, 55 acres + 38 Bonus Hunting acres,
Beautiful Home, Private Lake Great Business Opportunity Gorgeous Home plus Hunting cabin
*DV $425,000 *DV $450,000 *DV $459,000

30 ACRES LAPEER COUNTY 289 ACRES

SANILAC COUNTY 5-8 ACRES LUCE COUNTY

Deer Hunters Dream Property Great Building sites 1,800 SQFT Cabin, Completely Solar
Commercial Properties in Davison 700 acres of state land From $69,900 to powered, 90% Wooded
*DV $85,000 - $595,000 $119,000 *DV $89,900 *DV $349,000

D
SOL ACRES
24 LICENSED DEER RANCH SANILAC COUNTY
PRICE
REDU
TUSCOLA COUNTY 34 ACRES 60-80 DEER CED
Log Home, Pond, 30x40
GENESEE COUNTY 10-15 TROPHY BUCKS 40 ACRES
10 Acres+/- Pole Barn, Watertown Woodland Deer Ranch in Davison, 6-car garage, Gorgeous 3270 Sq Ft Ranch with
St. Clair County Township pond, 5 blinds, 3 lg feeders, Lg polebarn, 4BD, 3BA loft, built 2011, 2 Pole Barns.
*DV $139,900 *DV $249,900 *DV $835,000 *DV $399,000

DRONE
*DV VIDEO GO TO: MIDREAMPROPERTIES.com
OR CALL 810-449-1286
WNW NEWS MARCH 2019 89
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90 MARCH 2019 WNW NEWS

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