- Well, hey, everybody.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

Thank you so much for joining us this week.

We are glad that you're here.

You know, we as Michiganders, we're pretty fortunate we can access Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, Saginaw Bay, Lake Erie, Detroit River.

A lot of those places, though, do need a boat to access those waters.

And we had a few viewers recently that reached out saying, "Hey, could you show us some fishing where we don't have to have a boat and all that fancy gear?"

Well, that's what we're gonna do on this week's show.

We're gonna start in downtown Grand Rapids and show you some great fishing opportunities right downtown for some suckers.

Then we're gonna head to the northwest part of the Lower Peninsula to Elk Rapids.

Show you what it looks like to catch some bass from shore right there.

And then we're gonna head further south down to Pentwater and show you a father-daughter team that's doing some bass fishing right off the Pentwater pier.

Lots of great fishing opportunities on this week's show.

You stay tuned.

I'm Jimmy Gretzinger.

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

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(exhilarating music) (upbeat music) (people chattering) - (indistinct) I know there's fish in it.

(gentle music) - Well, I'm just fishing with the right crawler and a pyramid sinker and, you know, it's sucker fishing.

You just throw it out, let it set.

Nothing too complex at all.

- [Jimmy] And how far down is that?

That's gotta be, what, 40, 50 feet?

- Oh, yeah, it's gotta be all of that.

It's a ways down there.

I've actually known about this thing for 40 years.

I've known John for at least that long, but I just never made it down here.

And then like three years ago after I retired, I thought, "Well, I'm coming down here," you know?

And I thought, "Man, this is really cool."

I had a blast.

Last year we were in our ice fishing gear.

- [Jimmy] Really?

- It was so cold.

But, yeah, it was just a neat thing.

(indistinct) You know, we need to get this on "Michigan Outdoors" or whatever, you know, because it's such a cool thing, and it's mostly the west side Polish community, Polish Falcon guys that come down here and stuff.

It's just a neat event and it's a lot of fun.

It's kid friendly, big on kids.

Usually, there's a more kids down here.

- [Jimmy] And is it mostly suckers?

Or you guys kind of reel in about anything?

- [John] Well, we just met a two baby walleye in the net a minute ago.

Two smaller walleye.

Once in a while, a steelhead, but mostly suckers, red horses, and mullets, and white suckers.

- [Jimmy] When Dan reached out to me to tell me about a sucker fishing tournament in downtown Grand Rapids, well, I really didn't know what to expect.

I had no idea how it would work right here in the middle of the city on the Fulton Street Bridge perched way above the river.

But what I really didn't expect was the long history of this event and the family this event really is here to honor and its history of dip netting.

- You'd be able to sell 'em.

You sell 'em two, three for a buck, something like that years ago and can't do that anymore, so.

And I understand that too, but, I mean, we've done it for 50, 60 years.

They had dip nets all up and down the river down to wastewater plant and on down farther, so a lot of west side tradition in this.

- [Jimmy] Okay, and how long have you been doing this little tournament?

- Probably the last 10, 15 years.

- [Jimmy] Really?

How did it get started?

- Well, we were down here with the net and, well, I had a couple buddies come down.

We always sucker fished and I said, "Well, why not have some fun and have a little tournament?"

And it's nothing fancy.

I mean, I pick up three small trophies and say, "Okay, largest one wins."

And 8:00 to 4:00, and people just come and go as they please, and we run it from there.

And, you know, it's a good time to see a bunch of friends.

They come down once a year and visit.

Family come down.

They come and go all day long.

So it's kind of been an annual event.

- [Jimmy] Nice.

- And I like, especially now we're getting more kids.

I like to get the kids down here, have people bring their grandkids and kids.

I say, "You guys hook them, let them reel it in, and they're in the running for a trophy."

- [John] Got him.

Silver marker on the board.

- [Speaker] Sun's out.

Reel him, reel him.

- [Child] Sun's up.

Yeah, we want fun!

- [Gray Shirt] Can hardly lift him over the net, John.

There's a nice one.

- [Child] There's a nice one.

- [Gray Shirt] Yeah, that's a nice long body.

- [Child] Yeah, that's a nice one.

- [Speaker] That's bigger than you.

- [Gray Shirt] Ain't he cool?

- [Child] Yeah.

- Can you hold him?

Yeah, he's pretty strong.

He's pretty strong.

I'll hold on him, okay?

We'll get a measure.

- [Jimmy] I was getting quite the history lesson today on the family tradition of not only this event, but really the years of the sucker camps that really were the start of all of this.

- Oh, it's our family reunion, the Barszewski reunion.

We do netting and fishing and have tournaments with our boy cousins.

We're the younger girl cousins or older girl cousins.

- Yeah, I'm the youngest kid.

- Yeah, and we've been netting since back in the '60s with our dads, so we just carry on their tradition.

- Yep, our dads all fish together out here all the time.

And then my husband and my son started coming doing it with the net with the boys, and it's been a good time.

It's been nice.

- [Jimmy] And you were doing it as kids too then?

- [White Glasses] Oh yeah, back in the '60s over on Market Street.

They would have a regular camp there with couches around the bonfire.

Our bathroom was an outhouse but it had all doors with doorknobs so you had to know which one to use.

And then they even had all the carpet in the camp.

And they had a telephone in there, which the phone didn't work, but because we're Polish, it's just the way we are.

And then when they would net though, the guys, I remember this and it was in the '60s, they would net and then we'd take the suckers that we'd get, and then we'd knock 'em on the dock to knock 'em out, and then we'd wrap 'em in newspaper, and then our folks would sell 'em for a quarter and then they'd use that money and go towards their Canada trip.

- [Jimmy] Wow, you've been doing it all these years.

- [White Glasses] All these years, yep.

So we come down here now and just good weather, bad weather.

Sometimes we have a camper right here.

- [Red Glasses] Usually a camper.

- And the guys stay overnight- - On the bridge.

- Yep.

- [Jimmy] Kind of a neat family tradition then.

- Yes, it is.

- It's fun.

- [Red Glasses] They come out throughout the day.

- [Jimmy] Some of the traditions of yesterday are gone, but some new ones like this little tournament are keeping at least part of them alive and well.

- Yeah, we used to bring our camper down here, and then we just, we'd sleep overnight for a couple nights, maybe sleep Friday or Saturday night, and then we cook our food in there.

And a lot of times if the weather was bad, you could go inside and relax a little bit and get out of the weather.

We used to put a grill right here on the bridge and cook up burgers or whatever else we wanted to have.

- [Jimmy] And you guys would sucker fish the whole time?

- [Dan] Oh yeah, yeah, yep.

And then we figured we'd been on this bridge about 50 years.

- [Jimmy] Really?

- [Dan] Yeah, my dad and uncles started dip netting on this bridge probably in mid '70s, early '70.

Originally they did it hand over hand.

There wasn't any boom like we have now.

And they did that for a couple years and then they rigged up a couple 2x4s with a pulley on the end of it and then they pulled that.

Well, the city didn't like that because we were blocking the sidewalk.

There used to be a little welding shop right here where the S-curve is right now.

And the guys came over and they said, "We can rig you up something that we can hook right on the bridge."

And that's how we got the rig that we have now.

These guys in that welding shop made that up for 'em, because they were sitting right there watching us all the time and then they said, "Well, we can come up with something for you guys."

- [Jimmy] Down the way on the other side of the bridge was Bob Brown.

Bob is in his 80s and has fished this bridge for many years.

I just happened to notice him fighting what looked like a huge fish.

So I wandered down to see him fighting a very large catfish, which he was targeting, as he says it's his favorite to eat.

So with a little help he was able to bring this to net.

This was a huge fish.

- [Bob] That's a good one.

That's a good one.

That's a big one.

That's a big catch.

- [Jimmy] Wow.

- You gotta get lucky once in a while.

- [Speaker] Make sure he's legal, Bob.

- 28.5 inches.

- [Jimmy] 28.5.

That's a dandy.

What a day.

I got to see two great stories today.

Bob here in his 80s landing a great fish, on camera no less.

I also got to hear the story of the Barszewski family and see how the next generation is keeping the legacy alive by doing a fun, one-day sucker tournament.

All this on one bridge in one town.

Just think how many other great stories our grand old state has yet to tell right here in "Michigan's Out of Doors."

Well, as you can see, everybody had a great time there fishing off the bridge in Grand Rapids.

And what we're gonna do now is head to the northwest part of the Lower Peninsula to a beautiful part of our state, Elk Rapids, to show you what it looks like to catch some bass from shore.

(upbeat music) - Okay, we're gonna be fishing here in Elk Rapids by the power dam and a little way out in the waters going out towards the marina.

The target for the today is gonna be smallmouth bass, and we get big ones in here, 16, 17, 20 inches.

Legal size is 14.

But we always throw those back because there's big ones out here.

We're gonna be mainly using two baits, light line, four pound test, and hopefully we'll be catching some big fish for the show.

- [Jimmy] The plan today was to target smallmouth bass while fishing from shore, highlighting a fishery that almost everyone can take advantage of using pretty basic equipment with a little different setup.

- Yeah, I have a 7-foot bass rod.

It's an ultralight.

I have a ultralight reel, and I spool a reel with a 8-pound test, and I usually use braid and fluorocarbon, but because there's no stretch between the braid and the fluorocarbon, I put about three to four feet of mono in between, and that acts like a little shock absorber if you get a real strong hit.

And if you can see that's the knot right there.

That's my line.

Then I have my shocker tied up to my terminal.

And I use a three-way small number, 12 three-way with about an 1/8th of an ounce weight on the bottom.

And then I have about 24 to 26 inches of 4-pound test leader.

But this year I switched from braid to a new Berkley Nanofil, and I'm very happy with it.

It casts extremely far.

It doesn't bunch up, or it doesn't get any wind knots in it, and it's got no stretch and I'm very happy with it.

You know, this is probably a 13-inch smallmouth, but they're really, really healthy.

They got a nice fat body, nice color to 'em.

With a weighted jig head, usually an 1/8th of an ounce weight, either split shots or an 1/8th of an ounce jig head will get you across.

And count of three gets you on the bottom bouncing.

I'm using tubes like I do imitating the gobies.

I just throw it out, just let it drift and give it a quick twitch with the tip and just let hopefully nature take its course.

Well, it got a pretty good hit on a tube pumpkin green flake and he came right in.

Doesn't look like it'll be a big one, but like I say, ounce for once, smallmouth are probably one of the most fightingest fish.

Through the years we found that probably the best size tubes are roughly 2.5, 2.75, no more than 3 inches.

I kind of equate to an adult with a couple pieces of M&M candy on the table and a great big 5-foot candy.

But you're more apt to grab the couple M&Ms and then come back for seconds.

- [Jimmy] As we continue to catch fish, Don filled me in on some of the changes to the Elk Rapids area over the last decade.

- I've seen quite a turnaround through the years.

People kind of bypassed Elk Rapid.

It's right on 31 between Charlevoix and Traverse City.

You're either going to Charlevoix or Traverse City.

Not too much to offer in Elk Rapids except little small town restaurants.

Maybe a little fishing.

But now in the last, since we've been up here almost nine years, there's been a lot of new stores opening, a lot of wine and craft shows, tours, a couple breweries are in here.

So business is really good.

It's kind of like an area you wanna put the hub of your wheel and work out from to see a lot of the beautiful things in Michigan in the immediate area.

But there's a lot in Elk Rapids.

We got a lot of stores, new stores, a lot of nice restaurants.

And just a simple, it's just basically a little three-block long city.

But it's beautiful to walk down.

And a little small guy.

Maybe the big fish didn't get the memo that they should be in, but this is roughly about the size you're gonna be catching during the hot summer months coming up July, August.

The smaller ones, we got a little small guy, he's probably legal, barely 14 inches.

Nice color, and nice design on these babies.

They're built for speed, and they're built for power when they fight.

Yeah, this is a little bit bigger.

(reel cranking) Still want to jiggle.

Well, actually, it's not bad.

We've been catching fish not the way you'd like it to be.

I've had days where almost every other cast you catch a fish and big ones.

I was out yesterday morning and caught 10 nice big ones over 16 inches.

But this morning they're running slow.

Maybe it's national donut day, and all the big ones are at the donut shop.

I don't know.

- [Jimmy] It's pretty unusual to have someone tell you exactly where they are catching fish and even more rare to have them show you how to do it.

So if you live near the Elk Rapids area, you may want to take advantage of the free fishing seminar at the end of the month.

Special thanks to Don for showing us another way to catch smallmouth bass here in northern Michigan.

- Well, that is a great fishing opportunity right there off the shore in Elk Rapids.

What we're gonna do now, head south down to Pentwater, and we're gonna show you a father-daughter team fishing off the pier right there and camping in the state park.

(upbeat music) A few weeks back found me on the Pentwater pier on a day that really nobody would pick to go fishing, but when you have to pick a day, you go with what you got.

Today I was joining Katie and Dean Monson, a father-daughter team that loves to fish all over, and they just happened to be camping at the state park here in Pentwater, which is really where Katie got her start.

(upbeat music) - I got started fishing because my dad's always been a fisherman so he started me off pretty young, and I just loved it right away.

I loved being outside, I loved catching fish.

First started off with, you know, some bluegills, perch, and then just worked my way up, and I'm still working my way up.

- [Jimmy] It was actually an old timer who got in touch with me who fishes this part of the state who said I just had to meet this young lady who has become one heck of a fisherman.

I have to say he was right.

She was on fish right away.

Nice job.

- Thank you.

- [Jimmy] All right.

Well, to start, nice job.

- Thank you.

- [Jimmy] Now Dean wasn't sure we would even catch fish today, but he does know this stretch of water very well.

- I've been fishing here since I was a young boy.

I just started fishing here.

When I was camping, our family would always come up here to camp, and I started fishing for whatever fish.

There's always a big variety of fish to catch here, but I really enjoyed the smallmouth bass because they're the really good fighters in that and challenging.

So I just kept on from there.

We use like a light spinning rod with about 8 or 10 pound test line.

We like drift a crawler or sometimes a pikeminnow, put a split shot about probably a foot to 16 inches up above there, and we'll kind of drift it right off the bottom there.

And the fish usually pick it up there then, so.

- So it's fun, it's fun being outside.

You get to meet new people.

Like, it's so pretty up here, especially around here, Lake Michigan, it's so pretty.

I just love everything about it.

- [Jimmy] I know I am biased living on the west side of the Lower Peninsula.

But to be honest, so many parts of our state have such beautiful places to fish, it's really a great part of getting folks interested in the outdoors.

- Well, start 'em out young and start 'em out where they can catch fish.

Like, usually a marina is a pretty good place to go where the action is, you know, pretty good action where they can catch like bluegills and that.

And, you know, usually when they're that young they don't really care what they catch as long as they catch something.

And then you just keep on as their skill level increases, just keep on, you know, moving 'em up from there to more challenging fish.

So, you know, she picked up on it really quick.

It's just funny how quick she picked up on it and started just catching some really nice fish in that.

Then the boys, they didn't know how to react to a girl fishing and a girl being successful at fishing on top of it, you know, so they were kind of intimidated by her.

But, you know, she's good fisherman, so.

- [Jimmy] I think we all wish we could spend more time with our kids in the outdoors.

Katie is 17 and finding time for them to get away is tough.

So when you have time carved out, make sure that you go, even though like today where the conditions are not that great.

It does help when you're targeting such an aggressive fish though like a smallmouth.

- Oh, they're just kinda aggressive fish, and they're really great fighting fish.

You know, I think pound per pound, they're like the best fighting fish pretty much.

You know, you hook into a 20 incher on that and you have your hands full with light tackle on that.

And I know Katie enjoys it too.

She enjoys the fight of the fish and that, so it's great having your kids out there with you on that.

It's good bonding experience with 'em and, you know, I'm just glad she picked it up in that.

So that's something she's probably gonna do the rest of her life is fish.

- [Katie] There we go.

- [Jimmy] Nice job.

- Thank you.

- [Jimmy] Well, you're finding a few down there.

- Yeah, I guess so.

- [Jimmy] Are these about the normal size, or are they smaller or bigger?

- We usually catch quite a bit bigger.

- [Jimmy] Oh really?

- Mm-hmm.

- Whether you're on a camping trip or you can squeeze in a few hours after school, take the time to take your kids hunting and fishing.

You will be glad you did.

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

If you missed part of this week show or if you wanna see something again, you can always check us out online.

And speaking of online, we're actually gonna do something a little different.

We're gonna have a couple different stories that are only gonna air on our online platforms.

We recently spent some time with our friends at the Country Smoke House.

We wanna show you some of the new things they have going on there.

And then a couple weeks back, if you caught the show, we were talking with the DNR about our wolf population here in Michigan.

Well, there was some rather controversial statements that were made in that story.

And so our friends at the DNR, they said they wanted to kind of clarify some of the things that were said, and so they sent us something that we're gonna read to you, the viewers, and kind of get your reaction on that.

So if you wanna see what those two things are about, you can check out our website or you can check us out on YouTube.

And whatever you do, make sure you join us right back here next week on your PBS station.

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

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- [Announcer] By GreenMark Equipment.

GreenMark Equipment is a John Deere dealership network in southwest Michigan and northern Indiana.

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

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

By Morgan Composting, a family business located in Michigan.

Morgan Composting offers a variety of products, all powered by Dairy Doo organic compost for homeowners and farmers.

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

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

(upbeat music) ♪ When I wander far away ♪ A dream stays with me night and day ♪ ♪ It's the road that leads to my home state ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan Man ♪ Changing seasons paint the scene ♪ ♪ Like rainbow trout in a hidden stream ♪ ♪ The white tail deer and the tall pine trees ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan Man ♪ I am, I am a Michigan Man ♪ Ask where I'm from, and I'll show you my hands ♪ ♪ Lord above I love this land ♪ I am a Michigan Man ♪ From the Keweenaw down to St. Joe ♪ ♪ Kalamazoo east to Monroe ♪ Sault Ste.

Marie and back again ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan Man ♪ I am, I am a Michigan Man (gentle music)