- Hello, everyone.

Welcome to "Michigan Out-Of-Doors."

I'm Jenny Ciolek, and we have an exciting show put together for ya this week.

Now, if you watched last week's show, you know that Jordan has been after the buck of a lifetime on his property.

We are gonna see an update on what's happening with that, if he was able to catch up with that buck or not.

We'll check that out.

And we've got some other excitement in store for ya this week.

- Well, that's right, Jenny, we do have a few more things on this week's show.

We're actually gonna kick things off in Northern Michigan by doing a little cast and blast, a little trout fishing and some upland hunting.

And then we're gonna take you on a goose hunt and a grouse hunt.

And to be quite honest, (laughing) we did not have a lotta success, but we did have a lot of fun with some really good people, so we thought we'd bring you those stories anyways.

Lots of good stuff on this week's show, you stay tuned.

I'm Jimmy Gretzinger.

It's time for "Michigan Out-Of-Doors."

♪ From the first spring rains to the soft summer breeze ♪ (wave rolling) ♪ Dancing on the pine forest floor ♪ (gentle rolling music) ♪ The autumn colors catch your eyes ♪ ♪ Here come the crystal winter skies ♪ ♪ It's Michigan, Michigan Out-Of-Doors ♪ - What a beautiful day in the woods ♪ Some day our children all we'll see ♪ ♪ This is their finest legacy ♪ Wonder and the love of Michigan ♪ ♪ As the wind comes whispering through the trees ♪ (goose honking) ♪ The sweet smell of nature's in the air ♪ (gentle rolling music continues) ♪ From the Great Lakes to the quiet stream ♪ ♪ Shinin' like a sportsman's dream ♪ ♪ It's a love of Michigan we all share ♪ (gentle rolling music ending) - [Jenny] "Michigan Out-Of-Doors" is presented by: - [Smokehouse Presenter] By Country Smokehouse, a sportsman's destination since 1988, featuring varieties of homemade sausage, jerky, brats, and gourmet entrees.

Holiday gift boxes can be assembled in store or online.

Details at countrysmokehouse.com.

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From job sites to weekend adventures, we've got you covered, with locations in Milan and White Pigeon, Michigan.

We carry PJ, Big Tex, Diamond C, and more.

More information is available, at drtrailer.net.

(gentle rhythmic music) (heavy rhythmic music) (machine clanking) - [Boss Presenter] At Boss Shotshells, we make all our shotshells right here in Michigan and deliver them direct to your door.

(heavy rhythmic music ending) (bright energetic music) (bright energetic music fading) (low rolling music) (river running) (water splashing) - We're in the north branch of the Au Sable.

It's early October, and we're throwin' some small streamers tryna find a nice big brown trout.

The fish spawn here in about two or three more weeks, so we're at the prespawn right now.

The biggest thing this year is the water levels are extremely low and things have been warm.

But these fish are gettin' active, it's just been very, very sunny.

And then today we got rain, so it should be good.

- Well, yeah, so Jordan told me the other day he was comin' up here to do a cast and blast with Kelly and one of his buddies, and Kelly we've had on the show before.

And I said, "Cast and blast?

That sounds kinda fun."

So we're on the Au Sable tonight, and then the plan is hopefully catch a handful of nice fish.

And then tomorrow, we're doing the blast of the cast of blast.

So we're gonna do a little bird hunting, which is right up my alley.

And so Jordan was runnin' the camera and I thought I'd tag along and see if I can't stumble into a trout and maybe a grouse tomorrow.

So it's early October, just a perfect time to be outside, and I'm lookin' forward to tonight and tomorrow.

So, we'll see how it goes.

I'm legendary for not being able to catch anything on a fly, so.

This is a streamer, so it's a little one.

- [Kelly] What we got there?

- Just a little guy.

Ugh.

(net clicking) You gotta be kidding me.

(Kelly laughing) (Jimmy sighing) - [Kelly] Well, it looked like a brown.

Oh, what's that?

- Bam!

A grouse.

(Jimmy and Kelly laughing) Well, there was our cast and our blast.

- [Kelly] I was gonna say!

Oh, I just came back from the Betsie, from the last six weeks of guidin' there.

And some of the early fish, we keep a few of 'em, and they're just wonderful in my smoker.

And there's still some salmon comin' in.

- [Jordan] What's goin' on with the fish tonight?

(Jimmy and Kelly laughing) - This is the only fish that's shown itself today.

I gotta try some of this.

- [Kelly] Just watch out for the bones.

- Yeah, the fish are definitely winning tonight.

Thank you, sir.

What's your secret brine you use?

- I just used brown sugar and salt, a cup of each and a gallon of water.

- [Jimmy] Yeah?

- [Kelly] And a slow smoke.

(bright oscillating music) (river running) - [Jimmy] Well, no fish were harmed in the filming of this segment, that is for sure.

But it was still a beautiful night to float down the Au Sable River.

We were hoping that things would go, well, a little bit better the next morning.

(bright oscillating music continues) (river running) - [Kelly] What's that?

- Bam!

A grouse.

(bright oscillating music continues) Well, we're hoping for good things on the blast 'cause the cast did not work as well... Well, there was a lotta casting, just not a lotta catching.

So we're just gettin' ready to get on the ground here for our blast of our cast and blast.

It's a perfect day to be bird huntin'.

There's a little bit of a breeze, it's high 30s.

(dog barking in background) The sun's kinda pokin' through the clouds right now.

From what I hear, we've got a couple good dogs we're gonna be chasin'.

So it should be a great day, I'm lookin' forward to it.

- We're around Higgins Lake, I guess you could call it South of Higgins Lake, huntin' close to cities where that's common, and tryin' to shoot a couple grouse and shoot some woodcock.

We've had a couple points, just couldn't get on 'em.

Got an English setter, Mystic, and Honey's out with us right now.

Hopefully, we can kill a couple and she can retrieve 'em for us.

- [Jordan] And tell me a little bit about what kinda cover you're lookin' for.

- [Cameron] Well, right now, we're lookin' for poplars obviously.

Whereas right now, we're kind of on the edge of some tags and stuff.

But once we get back to the road, we get back into poplars and hunt those edges, and we'll cross the road and hunt an edge of a swamp.

Ya know, right now, we're just kind of following the dog's nose and got off track.

But ya know, the dogs know more than we do, right?

(leaves crunching) - Oh, it's sittin' right here.

The bird's right here, Jordan.

Right by those leafs.

I'm gonna have a tough time shootin' here probably.

- [Cameron] Well, we should talk to Kelly about it.

- [Jordan] We can send the dog in.

- [Cameron] Hold on, Jim.

Alright, you're good.

- Oh, he's- (Mystic's bell clanging drowning out Jimmy speaking) Oh, can't shoot.

(Cameron's gun firing) - (wincing) I scared that was gonna go... (laughing) - [Jimmy] I had a feeling he was gonna go right at me.

- [Jordan] That's alright, that was a cool video.

- [Kelly] Did he get him?

- No, he didn't.

- No, but that video was sweet!

- He went right over top of your hat.

- [Cameron] You can use that, can't ya?

- Oh yeah.

- I thought about bringing it back.

I figured- - [Cameron] That's alright.

I mean, it just flew over my head and I... (laughing) - [Jordan] No, you did all ya could.

- [Cameron] Yeah.

- [Jordan] There's a reason why they stick around for a while, they're pretty smart.

- [Cameron] That was cool though!

- [Jordan] Dognubbit.

- [Jimmy] Well, we were finding plenty of birds, but having a tough time getting many good shots, which is usually how it goes in the bird hunting world, especially early season when the leaves have yet to drop.

(sticks cracking) - Right there!

(Cameron's gun firing) Kelly, Kelly!

(Cameron's gun firing) (Kelly laughing) (Mystic's bell clanging) - [Jimmy] What happened out there?

- [Kelly] I don't know.

- [Jimmy] Oh, I shot and I missed.

(laughing) - [Kelly] Come on!

- [Jimmy] (laughing) He'll like that.

(whistle blowing) (Mystic's bell clanging) - Oh!

(Jimmy's gun firing) (Mystic's bell clanging) - [Jordan] Well, we had some excitement.

- Yeah, watch on that tree.

And I was dead on- - She's gonna bring it to me.

Come here, Myst!

- On this limb.

(laughing) We had two woodcock.

(Kelly yelling) Hey, we got a woodcock.

We had two woodcock, actually, three woodcock and a grouse all come out of about a 30-by-30 area here in the woods.

- [Kelly] Do you want her to bring it to ya, Jim?

- I don't think I got it, but somebody did.

- [Kelly] Come on, Myst!

- [Jordan] Let's see that bird!

- Well, we are definitely finding enough birds today.

We probably have 20 woodcock at least, most of those are pointed.

Some wild flushes, which this one was, but this was a point, bird went up, and a grouse came out of a tree.

And then we wild flushed two woodcock in here, and one of 'em flew right out to Kelly.

It must have died of old age 'cause- - [Kelly] He died of fright.

- Right when his gun went off.

- Mystic, come here!

(everyone laughing) Come here, come here!

Mystic!

- [Jordan] Lots of birds, just a little better shooting we'd probably have, what, four or five?

But, we finally got one.

Lots of good points, and some wild flushes.

It's been a good hunt.

- No, I was just right behind him.

- [Jordan] A little better shooting.

It was nice, wouldn't you say, Jim?

That woods weren't as thick.

- [Jimmy] Yeah, we could actually see in there a little.

- [Jordan] So that's why eagle-eyed Kelly got his bird.

- [Kelly] (laughing) Yeah.

- [Jordan] Tell me about our pup here today.

- So Mystic's from Kansas.

(Mystic panting) You know, and I spent time in Colorado.

I mean, he is an English setter, he looks a lot like a Brittany, but he's got a long tail.

But he's out of a breeder in, I'd say, Northwestern Kansas.

And he was really bred for quail, but he's adapted since we moved back to Michigan the last few years.

And runs a little big, but that's alright, he holds point pretty well.

- [Kelly] It went down, didn't it?

- [Jordan] There we go.

That's a cool video.

(Honey panting) - She brings it to dad all the time.

I didn't kill this bird, but she just wants to give it to her dad.

(laughing) - I think this is the bird that we had a nice point on just, I don't know, 50, 60 yards back there.

We got that, but the bird didn't seem to be there.

We shut the camera off, we started to move.

And it had walked off, as they do, these little woodcock are gettin' pretty fast on their feet, but dog relocated on it.

And I was able to get a nice shot, and finally, it stayed out of the leaves, so.

(laughing) Wow, what a good hunt today.

- So originally I got her, she was my duck dog and we lived in Colorado.

And I've always had setters.

And now that I'm back in upland country, she's kind of worked in with... Ya know, she's not the best workin' with the pointing dog, but she stands by me and she's good at finding those cripples or finding the dead birds.

It's kinda nice, she'll be lookin' for the dead ones, where Mystic can still try to find the ones that we're hopefully gonna kill again.

But, she's really good to have around.

'Cause you saw, I mean, there's been birds I haven't found and one I've found with him.

And I'm not super loyal to one breed.

I mean, I've had English setters my whole life, but it is nice havin' her along with me.

(Mystic's bell clanging) - [Kelly] Dead bird, dead bird, dead bird!

- There it is!

(Jimmy's gun firing) (Kelly laughing) Special thanks to Kelly and Cam for letting me tag along today.

I've been out a handful of days so far, and from what I've seen, bird numbers seem pretty good.

And as the leaves drop, hopefully the shooting will improve as well.

But fish or no fish, birds or no birds, walking or floating through the woods in early October as the leaves change, well, there isn't much better here in Michigan's out-of-doors.

(gentle rhythmic music fading) Well, as you can see, we did have a ton of fun on that story, even though we did not have a ton of success.

And that's kinda the theme for this next story.

Early over the last week and a half or so, I've been out on two different hunts.

And some would say they weren't very successful at all, but I tell you what, we had a lotta fun.

And it just is a good reminder that you can have a great time in the out-of-doors, even if you don't have a full game bag at the end of the day.

(warm bright music) Just a week or so back found me at the headquarters of the Muskegon State game area.

I would be following Kevin and Izzy Essenburg for a day of waterfowl hunting.

Our plan was to hunt the afternoon draw, and we were looking forward to meeting up with some friends and hitting the fields.

- We have shooting hours ending at 6:46 PM today.

You can see the fields on the board, green is alfalfa, yellow's corn, red's soybeans.

I counted 300 geese and 10,000 ducks out there, and about 1,000 of 'em were mallards.

There's a safety zone on the perimeter of each field.

You have to be within 200 feet inside of the safety zone, and stay about 200 feet or more away from the rig road.

Field numbers each have an A and a B-side.

- [Jimmy] Well, being the only group here for the afternoon draw, we figured we had pretty good odds and the kids were pretty excited about that.

- Oh, number one!

Number one's first!

- Yay!

Yay!

- [Jimmy] Even if the birds didn't fly today, we were all having a pretty good time.

Once the draw had happened, we had to wait 'til noon to get into our field and start the process of setting up our decoy spread.

- Wind today, if we get any, is supposed to be southeast, which is directly behind you.

Birds should be coming in from out in front of us.

So the idea is just make it really easy for 'em to come around the side of the spread.

Should line up right in front of us if they do it right.

- Okay.

- Yup.

And how many years have you hunted this area?

- [Kevin] Oh, I've probably been up here about 30 years now.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

- [Jordan] And it's always been a draw area up here?

- [Kevin] Always has been.

So some things have changed over the years with the crop management and new personnel and such, but it's usually a pretty consistent hunt as long as you put the work in.

- [Jordan] Okay.

And how did you end up pickin' a spot today, how did you know where the birds might be?

- [Kevin] Scouting, I was up here last night.

You can get a permit from the county.

We're actually state of Michigan, but we're guests on the county's property.

And they hand out permits, you can come up and scout.

And then just unfortunately, did not see any birds in fields last night.

But we're in a pretty good traffic zone, a lotta flocks of geese passed over.

We have a creek in front of us with some ducks on it, hopefully a fuel will pop up off that.

- [Jimmy] The girls definitely kept us laughing most of the afternoon, and with some downtime, they even had time for a nap.

We were hoping the birds were gonna show.

- [Jordan] How does the sturgeon guru end up over here in West Michigan?

- Listen, I got an invite from buddies and they tell me.

Anytime I can hunt over corn legally without DNR showin' up, I'm in.

(Dennis and Jordan laughing) But we've been comin' out here in Muskegon a few years, with our buddy, Kevin.

(geese honking) He invited us out, and then our girls became friends.

And what more you want?

You want the girls to hang out and shoot ducks and geese?

Absolutely.

- [Jimmy] Well, as expected, the birds didn't fly until right before shooting hours.

There was a lot of birds getting up off the water treatment fields, and some even went our way.

And just another reminder that even if you don't have a full game bag at the end of the day, you can still have a great hunt.

Now, fast forward up to this past weekend, I was able to get out with some folks and tag along for a day of grouse hunting in the Northern Lower.

Mike Mapes, from Second Chance Bird Dogs, was the one who invited me along today.

Well, Mike, what's the plan here, young fella?

- The plan is to kill some birds.

- Yeah?

- That's the plan.

So we got a couple good dogs.

It is November 2nd, in an undisclosed location, far, far away from Michigan of course.

- [Jordan] There ya go.

- I lost track of where we were about Novi.

- [Mike] Yeah, yeah.

- [Jordan] I think that was the Mackinac Bridge I saw back there.

- Yeah, we were goin' south.

- [Mike And Joe] Yup.

- [Mike] Yup.

(Joe laughing) - [Jordan] Joe, how do ya know Mike?

- I know Mike through, what was it, first on social media?

- [Mike] Yeah.

- Had him on the "Bird Camp" podcast, probably somewhere in the beginning of that.

- [Jordan] Okay.

- And yeah, now we're huntin' together, and we trust each other with guns around our dogs and the usual things with that.

- [Jordan] Nice.

- This is my dream gun.

I sold a buncha stuff for it.

I have a Merkel 20-gauge side-by-side.

- [Jordan] Whoo-wee!

- And it handles like lightning, and it's everything that they told ya it would be from the manufacturer.

It will shoot birds, it'll kill birds.

And it's really, really nice to look at.

(Jordan laughing) - [Jordan] Kinda like you?

- Exactly like me!

(Mike laughing) - Yeah, exactly.

(leaves crunching) - [Jimmy] Sometimes the camaraderie around the truck is some of the best parts of the day.

Brett DeGraff was also with us today, showing us a few of his spots, and we were excited to hit the woods on a perfect morning.

We did get a couple of shots off early on in the day, but nothing much to show for it as we finished our first spot.

- Well, we had about a half-hour hunt.

Four birds flushed.

Joe got a shot off on one that came out of a tree pretty early in the game, but most of the rest of 'em flushed away on ahead of us.

- [Jordan] Okay.

- Thick pines, sun in our eyes.

So, good start to the day though.

- [Jordan] Good deal.

(leaves crunching) (bright rolling music) - Honey, go get it.

Oh, oh, oh.

Go.

(bright rolling music continues) (bright rolling music continues) - [Jordan] Alright boys, gimme a summary of today, how'd we do?

- [Joe] The birds won, they won real bad.

- [Mike] Birds won, like they normally do.

- [Joe] I have one barrel to clean outta two.

You gotta clean both barrels.

Your gun still has yet be fired in anger.

- Yup, nope, I don't have to clean any barrels.

- [Jordan] And what'd we move, five, six maybe?

- Yeah, six, I think.

- Yeah, yeah.

Six I think is on my counter, yeah.

We started out strong.

- Alright.

- [Joe] We did, we started out real well.

I saw one and missed.

- [Jordan] Well, that's why they call it huntin', right?

- [Mike] That's why they call huntin', not shootin'.

- [Joe] This is clearly huntin'.

- [Jordan] Well, thanks for lettin' me tag along.

- No problem.

- You're welcome.

- Well, sweet November is finally here.

And if you are a bull hunter here in Michigan, there is no better time of the year to be in the tree than right now.

Along those same lines, we're gonna wrap up this week's show by taking a look at what the last few weeks of season have been like around here.

(birds chirping) (gentle rolling music) Well, back out here tonight, just climbed into a blind.

Not my preferred method for bow hunting, that's for sure, and this is the second time I've ended up in one so far this season.

Mainly just 'cause I can't get good winds.

There's a ton of northeast wind so far, and it's been hot, and it's just been really difficult to get to some of my better treestands.

However, the buck that I'm chasing did walk right by this blind the last time I saw him.

So I sat here like, I don't know, six days ago, saw the big buck I've been after across the field.

Two days later, wind switched, I was able to go hunt the stand I have across the field.

He came out on that side too far away, and then came all the way across the field and literally made a scrape right underneath this blind.

That was Thursday, it's Monday.

So that was the last time that I saw him, was Thursday night.

He was all over the place, made a buncha scrapes.

I haven't seen him or got a picture of him since, but also haven't been able to hunt this area since just because of the wind.

And I'm back in here tonight, gonna need some luck.

But that's always the case, so we'll see what happens.

As I somewhat expected, the big buck did make his way to the field, coming out within bow range of the stand I was sitting in last time I saw him, and never making it anywhere near the blind I was in.

The next night, I was able to sneak out into that same stand, only to have him pop out in the field about 100 yards away.

A few days later, I was back in the blind, just trying to stay dry.

Well, I'm back in the blind tonight, and whew, I'm thankful that I'm in here and not in a treestand.

I actually wanted to go sit in a tree with my rain gear tonight because there's a couple storms rollin' through, and it's supposed to clear out pretty nice in the evening.

Because of the camera here, I decided that I couldn't really do that 'cause there was a chance of rain.

And it's currently pouring, so I am happy to be in here.

Hopin' that this is just a small storm that blows through and the deer will get back to normal.

Actually, I saw a few deer right off the bat 'cause I got in when it was still pretty nice.

And geez, there's just a wall of rain comin'.

(rain pouring) Yeah.

Yup, good to be in the blind tonight.

(rain continues pouring) Cat and mouse game continues.

He just stepped out right in front of the treestand that I've been hunting him in the most.

It's like 30 yards from the tree.

But it's pretty early, it's about 5:50.

Depending on what this rain does, he could be on his feet for a while.

He's gonna have to cover some ground to get here, but definitely possible.

After pushing a few does around the field, he did end up coming my way, making it to about 50 yards before I ran out of light.

This marked my closest encounter yet.

And over the next several days, he would continue to be visible and elusive.

But as October came to a close, his patterns started to shift.

(bright rolling music) Once again, right in front of the treestand where I've tried to hunt him a couple of times.

He's a little ways out from it this time, probably 40 yards.

But every time I sit there, he doesn't walk by.

(bright rolling music continues) (bright rolling music fading) Well, I'm back at it tonight.

Where the whole season really started for me is sittin' on this small food plot.

Still after the same buck.

It's been a grind, he's been a tough deer to figure out.

Although I saw him a lot early in October, later in October, he just kinda disappeared.

So I'm kinda just not sure what to do, so I'm goin' back to some historical stuff, what he did last year.

I know he was alive as of two days ago, and just kind of goin' off that.

This food plot is kinda set up downwind of the bedding area he's been usin'.

Obviously, November 2nd, I don't think he's got food on his mind, so I don't think he'll come here for that.

But there's a couple scrapes on this food plot, he might come here just to check those.

So I'll be as surprised as anyone if he steps out here, but gotta keep tryin'.

I'm gonna be runnin' out days here.

October came and went with only the one close call.

In the first few days of November, he was nowhere to be found.

At this point, I'm holding onto hope that he's still around and will eventually make a mistake and give me an opportunity.

Good luck to all of the other bow hunters out there.

Make sure to enjoy your time in the woods and stay safe.

(bright rolling music) - Thank you so much for joining us this week for "Michigan Out-Of-Doors."

Make sure ya stay tuned in upcoming weeks for sure.

Next week, we'll be getting ready for the firearm deer season opening day, if ya can believe that.

It's almost here.

We'll also check out a ladies event with some upland hunting and waterfowl hunting, and all sorts of things in between.

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

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

Probably Instagram and Facebook are the best two ways to do that.

Make sure you are joining us over the next couple of weeks, lots of brand new stuff coming.

And we are just days away from the firearm deer season, it's hard to believe that it's already here.

Make sure ya get out and enjoy everything our state has to offer.

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

- [Jenny] "Michigan Out-Of-Doors" is presented by: - [GreenStone Presenter] Get away from it all to your own place.

With GreenStone's recreational land loans, we'll help you finance acreage of any size, so you can own your own place in the great outdoors.

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Career opportunities are available.

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(low rhythmic music) 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.

(bright rolling music) (bright rolling music continues) (gentle ascending music)