- Hi, everyone.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors".

I am Jenny Ciolek, and we've got an exciting show headed your way.

I'll take you out fishing on Lake Huron out of Alpena, where we're chasing after lake trout using jigging gear.

You won't wanna miss that story.

We had a riot out there.

We'll also check out a brand-new product that's geared towards making viewing wildlife a little more fun.

- Well, that's right, Jenny, we have a story on digiscoping on this week's show.

And what that is is basically a really cool product that allows you to hook your phone up to a spotting scope or binoculars to not only take some pictures, but also record video, a kind of a new gadget that you might wanna use as you scout for deer and turkeys this year.

Make sure you stay tuned, lots of good stuff on this week's show.

I'm Jimmy Gretzinger, and it's time for "Michigan Out of Doors".

♪ From the first spring rains ♪ To the soft summer breeze ♪ Dancing on the pine forest floor ♪ ♪ The autumn colors catch your eyes ♪ ♪ Here come the crystal winter skies ♪ ♪ It's Michigan, Michigan Out of Doors ♪ - [Hunter] What a beautiful day in the woods!

♪ Some day our children all will see ♪ ♪ This is their finest legacy ♪ Wonder and the love of Michigan ♪ ♪ As the wind comes whispering through the trees ♪ ♪ The sweet smell of nature is in the air ♪ ♪ From the Great Lakes to the quiet stream ♪ ♪ Shining like a sportsman's dream ♪ ♪ It's a love of Michigan we all share ♪ (upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Michigan Out of Doors" is presented by, by Country Smoke House, a sportsman's destination since 1988, featuring varieties of homemade sausage, jerky, brats, and gourmet entrees.

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

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

(upbeat music continues) - We are headed out to jig for some lake trout on Lake Huron out on Alpena, I'm gonna go hit some deep water structure, and it's gonna be a great day.

- Lots of- - Who do you have with us?

- We have my wife, Amy; and we have my son, Brady, so.

- Okay.

You guys have done this before?

- We've done this before, it's a lot of fun.

We were out yesterday, did real well.

Amy caught one that was just a touch under 18 pounds.

That was her personal best.

Well, actually, her first lake trout jigging, so that was pretty cool, so- - [Speaker] Awesome!

So Amy, what did you think of it yesterday?

- Well, it was exciting, and I've never caught a fish that big that way, but kind of compare it to like when we were perch fishing, the same type of setup when you drop it down and they hammer it- - Yeah.

- And it was fun.

(chuckling) - [Speaker] A little bit bigger than perch.

- Way bigger than perch, but it was fun.

- But yeah, it's a lot of fun, we got a lot of fish around.

And jigging form is a little bit different than trolling, so rod in hand, a lot of action typically.

You gotta find them, but once you find them, it's pretty steady, so.

- [Speaker] All right, so we're gonna be out looking for them first.

- [Erich] Yep.

So we're gonna be targeting some deep breaks and deep structure, and looking with the electronics.

And once we locate them, we'll spot-lock on top of them.

Typically in that deeper water, we're not casting for them, we're just vertical jigging, dropping on them, and then using a variety of baits like the hair jigs, spoons, and tubes.

So you never know day-to-day what they're gonna wanna eat, but we'll find out, so.

- Okay.

- Fishing the tops of these humps adjacent to deeper water.

So the water's really warm out here right now, so you gotta get deep.

These little marks right here- - Mm-hmm.

- [Erich] Are lake trout on the LiveScope.

So we're gonna drop down here in a minute, and we're gonna catch some of those suckers.

That didn't take long, did it?

- No.

(Erich chuckling) I've been out here about three minutes.

(Erich and speaker chuckling) - Oh, he's off.

- Oh, no!

- Mammoth.

That's it, on the drive by on me there.

(fishing reel buzzing) Oh!

(chuckling) What the heck is going on here?

(chuckling) This is ridiculous!

Oh, wow!

- Fish on?

- Fish on.

Feels like a decent one here too, so.

They've been a little finicky this morning here, so.

A lot finicky.

Actually we've (indistinct) what we lost for.

- Yeah.

- So just not fully committing or chasing, so it's not quite standard rock, but I'll tell you what.

- All right.

(fishing reel buzzing) (Erich chuckling) - Whoa!

- This is what it's all about right here.

(speaker and Erich chuckling) A lot of trolling for lake trout's fun in its own way, but there's nothing like doing this jig in here, so this is pretty good fish, so.

Basically we're gonna, we're trying to look for pods, the biggest pods we can find.

So sometimes those bigger ones are a little more solitary, but we're dropping down.

And if you see them on bottom, usually I'll try and stop the bait just above them, and then get them to see it and chase it.

And sometimes they'll chase, and it's a little bit of a game, sometimes they just eat it right away.

- Boy!

- All right.

Whoa!

- Beautiful fish!

- [Speaker] Sweet!

- [Erich] Lemme get him outta the net here real quick.

- [Speaker] Wow!

- [Erich] Okay, I got you.

- [Speaker] Whoa!

What do we think this one would weigh?

- This is about a 10 pounder.

Maybe a little bit better than average, but our average fish is...

I'd say our average is eight to 10 pounds so, but they sure put up a fight, man.

It's a heck of a lot of fun, I'll tell you, so.

- Sure, right.

- He ate that one good here.

- [Speaker] Fish number two, eh?

- Fish number two.

- [Speaker] Erich says there's a good window of time for this type of fishing.

- [Erich] Really starting in May, you can catch these trout jigging like that.

They really start to concentrate once you get a thermocline set up, and they'll kind of gather on the structure a little bit stronger.

Earlier on in the year, they're a little more sporadic, and I mean, you get into areas around structure where the fish are, and that they can be, they're still super-aggressive, but they can be a little bit harder to find.

- Nice!

- Nice!

Just in the back of the boat doing your own thing.

- You know what, sometimes I just like to do my own thing.

(speaker and Erich chuckling) The thing with it being down so far that it takes awhile.

- [Speaker] Yeah.

That's the fun of it though, right?

- It is, it is.

- [Speaker] Oh yeah.

(water sloshing) Nice!

- Nice fish!

- Woo-hoo!

- Nice job!

- [Speaker] Love that when you get him in the boat.

- He ate that.

- Yeah.

- That's on that hair jig.

- [Amy] Same one as yesterday.

- [Speaker] Cool!

Nice job, guys!

- Thanks.

- She's getting- - Team effort.

- [Erich] Yeah, she's getting the hang of that hair jig.

- Yeah, you're- - We have a nice job, we're hooked up right here.

- Oh, oh!

- We're hooked up right here.

- Hooked up behind us.

- Oh, wow!

Perfect!

- Yes.

- [Speaker] Sweet!

Now they're snapping.

The Carlsons had found an active pod of lake trout here using the electronics.

- I could see them on the, just off bottom on the LiveScope, and I watched him charge it, and then I just set the hook.

- [Erich] On the 2D sonar, you can actually pick the fish up better in this deeper water with the 34 transducer on the Garmin.

It works great, you can see those...

I can see those fish down at depth, but you're not seeing all of them.

So with that high chirp sonar, I can see some separation from the bottom, so those lake trout, a lot of them will lay right dead on the bottom.

And when I'm marking a few on the live imaging, usually there's several more down there that we can target, so kind of use that in conjunction with the LiveScope a lot of times, so.

(speaker mumbling) - [Speaker] What a pretty lake trout you got there!

We were keeping a few fish for some dinners and sending the rest back into Lake Huron.

Erich, Amy, and Brady had some great success at the first area Erich had stopped this morning, but he wanted to check out some other spots where he hoped some bigger fish might be.

It didn't take long for Brady to connect with another lake trout at the next stop.

Erich says that folks of all ages join him as charter guests and they all enjoy jigging for lakers out here on the big water.

- [Erich] That's a lot of fun.

We've got a great trout population, and you're active, right, you're not... Trolling, it's a lot of fun, and I love to do that, and I'm good at that too, but some people don't wanna troll, some people want rod in hand, and it's a little more active, and just a ton of fun.

So always something going on, whether you got reel it up to move spots or whether you're just catching fish or somebody else has got one on or- - Yeah.

- So it's a lot of, it's really enjoyable.

(Amy chuckling) - [Speaker] What's going on here?

I just have a fish on.

- [Speaker] Nice!

(Erich chuckling) (fishing reel buzzing) A little smack talk going on.

- Yeah, a little smack talk 'cause this would be a few more than Brady.

- [Erich] The only tricky part is the weather, and I make the calls on that.

And I'm not gonna take people out if it's too rough, and thankfully we've got some options, fishing outta Alpena sometimes you're making long runs, but I can also fish out of Presque Isle, which is just a few miles to the north, you don't have to go as far.

- [Speaker] I gotta a double.

- That's a good one there.

- [Speaker] You're gonna have some netting to do.

- Yep, I'm... Oh, oh, my God, look!

- Oh, wow!

(Amy chuckling) - Woo!

(Erich chuckling) All right, (indistinct) release the netter.

(chuckling) - Oh, gosh!

(Amy chuckling) (upbeat music) - [Speaker] Sweet, look at this!

(Erich and Amy chuckling) It's a race to see who gets in first, (Erich chuckling) and who has to net- - Oh!

- Their own.

- Whoa, my net off!

(fishing reel buzzing) - [Speaker] Oh, no!

- You got a big one, Brady?

- I think, yeah (mumbling) (upbeat music) - (mumbling) he separates.

- There we go.

- Oh!

- Woo-hoo!

- Another laker.

- [Speaker] Is that your limit?

- That's my limit.

Finally caught up to mom.

(speaker chuckling) - [Speaker] Nice!

(upbeat music) With two and three fish on at a time, it's easy to see what Erich is talking about.

- Woo-hoo!

- These lake trout are a riot to hook into, and put up a sporting fight on their way up.

Eric was battling a foul hooked fish, which does happen occasionally out here.

Lake trout like to make a pass or two before committing to striking a bait, and sometimes they'll inadvertently catch a hook in the body on the way by.

This fish was handled quickly and carefully, and sent back into the water right away.

These guys make it look easy, but there's a lot more to it than you may think.

- [Erich] I think the hardest thing about doing the lake trout jigging is putting in the time to find spots.

So I think that aspect of it, people just gotta be patient and use their electronics.

It's key to have a good 2D sonar.

You can see those fish down in a couple hundred feet of water.

The other aspect of it is, I think where I see people making mistakes is they're not active enough with their bait or don't work a bait right.

So lake trout are kind of aggressive and they like to chase things.

So if you keep that bait moving, especially if you're dialed in, whether you're using 2D or you're using a Garmin LiveScope, you can drop that bait on those fish and keep that bait moving.

They like to chase it and you keep it reeling, and all of a sudden they'll, I mean, sometimes you can be reeling full speed, and they'll just about rip the rod outta your hand.

- I did it.

(chuckling) (Erich chuckling) I had a lot of coaching by Erich, we switched from the hair jig to the tube, and this guy we watched him on the screen, and he came up and took it.

They fight like crazy, this is a blast.

If you haven't tried it, you gotta come out and give this a whirl.

Lake Huron outta Alpena, and we are jigging for lake trout.

Thanks again, Erich.

- You bet, anytime.

- [Speaker] Thanks to Erich Carlson of Reel Effect Charters; and to his wife, Amy; and son, Brady, for making this a trip to remember, and for showing us one more way to enjoy fishing the Great Lakes here in Michigan's Out of Doors.

(upbeat music) - All right, well, we are here today with Thomas from Vanguard, and we've worked with you guys over the years.

You're a Michigan based company, but you're worldwide.

And we're gonna look at some of the different products and how this all works, but explain to me what digiscoping is, and how does that affect the sportsman here in the state of Michigan?

- Thanks, Jimmy.

Yeah, digiscoping has become very popular.

- Okay.

- It originated in the photo, video, and birdie market, but now with those hunters and the sportsmen, we're starting to adapt it for preseason scouting.

You could even do it for personal life where you have your kids' sporting events, family functions.

- Okay.

And you hook up your... Basically you're hooking up a phone to, whether that's a monocular, binocular, spotting scope, whatever it might be.

Is that a hard process to match it all up?

It seems like that would be kinda tricky, but not so much.

- You would think it's tricky, but once you get used to knowing what your phone does in the multiple lenses- - Okay.

- It's pretty quick.

- Okay.

- And yeah, you can mount it to a monocular, a binocular or a spotting scope.

Vanguard actually has two different attachments.

This is a universal digiscoping attachment.

- Okay.

- That will work on a monocular, binocular, or a spotting scope, but it is larger.

We also came out with one that's more designed for a monocular or a binocular.

- Okay.

- It's a little bit more streamlined, and it'll work easier, and not take up a lot of space in your pack.

Now a lot of phones, I see you have an Android or Apple.

- Yep.

- I use an Android, so in the beginning, phones only came with one lens.

- Yeah.

- It was really simple.

You hooked it up to that lens.

Now when you have multiple lenses, either two, three, you gotta decide what lens does what.

- Okay.

- Easiest way to do that, I'm gonna turn on my phone.

- Yep.

- And I'm gonna turn on my camera.

So when I put on my camera, it pops up to my primary lens.

- Okay.

- The way to figure that out, take your finger, do not touch your lenses 'cause you don't wanna put fingerprints on it.

Is it covered up?

- Nope.

- Is it covered up now?

- Yes.

- So I know my primary lens is my center lens.

- Okay.

- If I zoom in, is it covered up?

- Yep.

- My bottom lens is my zoom lens.

- Okay.

- Now if I go all the way out, which is referred to as macrophotography, my top lens, is it covered up?

- Yep.

- So I know my top lens is my macro.

- Okay.

- So to set this up, now the phones are gonna have buttons on the side.

You wanna make sure when you set this up, we are not pushing any of those buttons.

- Got you, okay.

- Because you're gonna be giving your phone a command, and it's never gonna come off that command, so your battery is gonna go dead, and your phone's not really gonna like it very much.

- Okay.

- So as you can see, I'm pushing down on that, and on that, so I'm getting a nice snug fit.

- Yep.

- Now a lot of people will say, can I use it with my case on?

The answer is yes.

- So then you hook that up to your primary lens, unless you're wanting to zoom like four or 500 yards, would you just use the regular lens?

- I usually go 500 plus, put it on your zoom.

- Okay.

- Anything in, I just use my primary lens.

So as you can see, there's an opening right there, and I'm just gonna cover my primary lens.

I'm gonna snug it down.

Now let me reverse this back around.

You can see I have what's called a little bit of vignette.

- Yep.

- Because I'm going through a circle.

- Okay.

- To get rid of that, I zoom in a little bit, it's gone.

- Nice!

- I can still use this as a standalone camera.

- Yep.

- I can still make phone calls, but now it's lined up, I can hook it on to my binocular, my spotting scope or- - Wow!

- My monocular.

If you wanna come right over here, Jimmy, - Take a peek at that.

- Yeah, no problem.

How far do you think those trees are out there?

- Oh, it's at least 400 yards.

- 400 yards, and let me turn up my brightness a little bit.

So we're in the soybeans, we're just gonna come right up, and we're on those trees.

- Wow!

- And you can see, you cannot really see the dead branches, you cannot see all the junk at the base.

- Yeah.

- Now I can.

- Wow!

- You got a little bit of vignetting 'cause I'm coming through a barrel.

- Just zoom in a little bit.

- Yep, we're just gonna zoom in.

Done.

- Oh, okay.

- I can also put this on video and capture the video.

- Okay.

Wow!

Nice!

- So there's multiple uses.

What I've been using it for over the last two years is preseason scouting.

- Yeah, it seems like that would be a big... - I can look at the mass at the antlers, I can see if there's any type of drop times, any type of stickers coming out the side, the mass on the main beams coming out.

- Nice!

- The digiscoping is taking my preseason scouting a whole new level.

- [Jimmy] That's awesome.

- [Thomas] You can also attach to a window mount.

- Okay.

- So don't forget, I could take the spotter, put it on this, I could take my binocular and put it on this, use it right from my truck or car.

- Perfect!

- Or side by side.

- And just so that we're all on the same page here, this is not just for Vanguard optics, you can put this on any... - 100%.

- Pretty much any optics that are out there.

- If you own a Vortex, a Leupold binocular, spotting scope, this will adapt to it.

- Okay.

- We have found one optic manufacturer, Swarovski, it has a tapered eyepiece.

This has an issue grabbing onto that eyepiece.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

- But as long as you have the straight eyepieces like that one right there, and that's probably 90%, 95% of the optics out there- - Hmm.

- You're gonna have no issue.

- [Jimmy] Special thanks to Thomas for showing us this digiscoping technology, and good luck to all of you scouting for that monster buck for this upcoming season.

- Thank you so much for joining us this week for "Michigan Out of Doors."

Make sure you come back in upcoming weeks.

We've got a lot of great things still headed your way this summer, including chasing after salmon on Lake Michigan and muskies on Lake St. Clair.

If you like to see where we are on a daily basis or check out a little bit more information about the television show, you can always do it online.

- Online is a good way to kinda see what we're up to, and probably Instagram and Facebook are the best ways to do that on a day-to-day basis.

And make sure you are checking out our website as well, we kinda revamped the whole thing, we have old episodes as well as old recipes you can check out.

Check out our new merchandise as well, lots of stuff you can see there.

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

- [Announcer] "Michigan Out of Doors" is presented by... - Get away from it all (car tires screeching) to your own place.

(water sloshing) (swooshing music) 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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- [Announcer] By Green Mark Equipment.

Green Mark Equipment is a John Deere dealership network in Southwest Michigan and Northern Indiana.

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

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

- [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 want 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 in 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 (upbeat music)