- Hello everyone.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

We're glad you're here this week.

I'm Jenny Silek, and we've got a brand new show headed your way.

I'll take you out trolling for walleye on Lake Erie.

You won't wanna miss that adventure.

And Jimmy and Jordan have some other springtime fishing action for us this week too.

- Well that's right, Jenny.

We do have a couple more fishing stories on this week's show.

We're actually gonna kick things off on the Grand River chasing some steelhead.

Then we're gonna head west over to Lake Michigan and do some coho fishing just south of Saugatuck.

We have a lot of great fishing action on this week's show.

You stay tuned, 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 ♪ - [Jimmy] 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.

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(gentle music) (upbeat music) (boat engine running) (gentle music) - [Jimmy] A couple of weeks ago, I was able to spend a day on the water in a familiar place, on the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids with a couple of guys who loved to chase steelhead.

- Yeah, so we're down here, downtown Grand Rapids, chasing after some spring steelhead.

We're gonna be doing it mostly with fly tackle today, but we'll be doing a little bit of gear fishing as well.

Just float fishing a few beads through a few runs and see if we can find some steelhead working their way upriver today.

It's been a pretty good spring for us so far.

More day by day fishing, just depending on the conditions.

But overall, it's been a pretty good spring steelhead run for us so far.

- [Jimmy] Over the last couple of years, the spring steelhead run on the Grand has been pretty slow, so it was good to hear things are picking back up, and it didn't take us long to hook our first fish.

- I'm just trying to get to the reel right now.

I got the whole 120 feet of this fly line out right now.

There we go.

It might go over, I'm not sure.

- [Max] Yeah, say we can definitely go over if we have to.

Woo!

- That might be the coffer right there.

Oh, yep, we're over the coffer.

We're in the backing.

We are gone.

And this is the fun of the Grand River.

You got that big coffer down there, and now we gotta go chase him.

(rod reeling) (water flowing) (boat engine running) - [Christian] I got you in neutral.

Yep.

It's in there, it's around it.

Woo-hoo!

Let's go!

- There we go.

- All right.

What do you need me to do, Max?

- [Max] I'm just gonna drop us below this bridge here real quick.

- There we go.

That's the first steelhead of the morning right there.

I'm excited for now.

And that's a big fish.

That's one of my bigger ones so far in 2025 right now.

So let's go.

- That's a nice fish.

Man, it's bigger than any fish up north that we've been catching.

- I know.

I mean you can't complain about chrome like that.

Woo-hoo, that was a good one, dude.

I'm excited about that.

- [Max] Stress relief is gone, baby.

- Gone, dude, gone.

- We got one.

- [Jimmy] These two guys spend a ton of time on the river, and one thing they pay very close attention to is the flow, and it makes a big difference on when and how they fish.

- Flows dictate a lot of the movement of the steelhead.

When we're out here, the higher the water, when you get into that springtime, fresh push of rain gets the water moving, the temperature of the water also will get a lot of fish to jump up from Grand Haven and come up to the fish ladder.

All these fish are kind of milling around right now waiting to go spawn, and I'd say Max and I both love it above that 3,000 mark.

Anything below that, it's real tough out here how shallow it is.

So anything 3,000 to 6,000 is the sweet spot, over six, you're throwing a lot of lead and a big, big bobber.

But for the most part, what we got today is like ideal conditions, other than the cold front we've had for the last couple days.

But we are picking away at it right now.

We got another, I think steelhead, hooked up right now.

Could be the elusive sucker.

I've caught two of those already today, but this feels a lot heavier.

And it's actually some head-shaking.

- [Max] It's got some more weight to it, so.

Oh, you actually got them up here.

- Oh yeah, chrome, yep.

- Woo!

- It is a steelhead.

- I will say it's about a seven weight.

It's a little bit harder.

- [Max] It's a chrome hen.

- There we go.

Come on.

- Oh, look at that.

You wrestled her all the way up here.

- Bingo!

Let's go, dude.

- [Max] Nice, nice, nice.

- There we go, another steelhead, the one I got before was a buck, this is a female, may have got the spawning pair because they're right in the exact same spot together, but this is about your average sized female.

So, good to let her go, you want some more?

- [Jimmy] In addition to the flow of the river, water temperature plays an important role in dictating when steelhead choose to move up and down the river.

Putting all these pieces of information together is part of what these guys love about chasing steelhead.

- Water temperature, big thing is my mark is 42, I like to see for spawning fish, that's when I know they're gonna start thinking about it.

You'll get a lot of those holdover fish when the water's 38, 35, they'll sit in here and just hang out until that temperature switch.

Then they start heading up to go spawn or start thinking about spawning.

Right now, I believe we're at like 40 degrees is the last time I checked.

The nearest gauge is down in Eastmanville, so it's not super accurate of what's up here, but if Eastmanville is at 40, 42, up here is gonna be a little bit colder.

So we're probably at 39, 40-ish right now.

And once we get to that 44, 45 degree mark, that's when everything starts spawning and everything starts happening.

- Man, I think my favorite part about steelhead is that the migratory aspect of them, they're constantly moving around, whether it's fall, winter, or spring, they're always in different sections of river.

So it's just kind of the taking us to new sections of river, new places, new towns to fish in, and obviously the beauty of the fish, none of them are the same.

They all have different color phases to them throughout the year, and they are arguably my favorite fish to chase in Michigan here.

There we go.

- There we go.

- It's a baby seal hen.

I caught one!

- [Christian] You want him up there, Max?

You wanna come back here?

- You're good, I could just probably, it almost looks like a rainbow.

- [Christian] I was worried for you.

(Max laughing) I was more worried for myself.

- [Christian] It looks so resident rainbow-like.

- There you go.

That's our going home fish.

(laughs) (gentle music) - [Jimmy] After a fun morning on the river, we had one more stop to make.

Max and his dad Tom recently opened a new fly shop right on the banks of the Grand River, and I wanted to stop by and check it out before I hit the road.

- We're at the shop now here in Ada, Michigan.

This got started about three and a half months ago, and it was something that both Max and I always wanted to do was at some point, we wanted to open up a fly shop, just share our knowledge with the local community.

Seemed like there was definitely a need for it in the greater Grand Rapids area.

We're a full service fly shop.

We have everything from your fly fishing gear and equipment.

We've got rods, reels, waders, all of that stuff.

We've got fly tying material, we've got flies, lines.

So we're a full service fly shop, which means we also run guide service, and we're the only shop in West Michigan that has a full-time guide staff.

So we're out on the water pretty regularly on the Grand River, the Flat River, the Muskegon River.

And we can know all the changing conditions that happen.

So when you come into our shop and you wanna know what's working and what's not working, we're on it on a fairly consistent basis, and so we can give you that knowledge.

- We've had Max and Tom on the show before, and it's great to see their passion for fishing develop into a full-time business.

Thanks to both of them and Christian for letting me tag along on a fun day of fishing here in mid-Michigan.

Well typically, this time of year, if you wanna catch big numbers of coho, you headed about as far south as you can in Lake Michigan.

But just this past week, I was able to get out with some friends just south of the Saugatuck Pier, and we found cohos in pretty good numbers.

(gentle music) When did you put this boat in the water?

- We put this one in on April 1.

Yeah, so it's a late start for us.

Normally we're in by the 20, 22nd, and we've already got a handful of trips down, but until April 1, we had ice still floating in Lake Mac here, so we couldn't even get the boats in.

So April 1, this will be our first trip of the year, figure we call you up and see if you wanted to come out and catch a few fish yourself.

But we were gonna run down south and see if we could find some lake trout.

The water temps are real cold.

I expect it to be 34, 35 degrees.

Our trout fishing should be phenomenal.

Our season starts tomorrow.

We have trips booked tomorrow.

But what we heard, a friend of ours got a two man limit of coho just south of Holland just two days ago.

So we're gonna set up and run the shoreline here for browns and coho for a little bit, and then we're gonna head down south because if the trout are there, that fishing will go hot and heavy.

And so we're just having fun today and looking for some fish for the smoker.

- [Jimmy] So you're kind of pre-fishing a little bit?

- Pre-fishing, yep.

We're gonna run everything from thin fins to trout stuff.

See what we can get going.

Hey, what do you guys say?

(group chattering) So Dave here is the boat mechanic.

He keeps us going.

We keep you busy, don't we?

- [Dave] Yes you do.

- [Jimmy] Tim Becker is quite the character to say the least.

He was livestreaming parts of our trip today, which lets folks see just how the fishing is in live time, which is always fun and makes you wish you were on the boat with him.

And speaking of who was on the boat today, Tim had his son Brian along, as well as some good friends, Dave Lamer, Scott Rosenboom, and Randy Freza.

We did hit one fish but fished for an hour or more with no luck.

So we picked up and ran south to the Saugatuck Piers and dropped lines, and that is where the day went from slow to fast and furious.

- [Fisher] Got another one?

Is that what you said?

- Did it?

- Yeah.

- Nice.

- What do you think, Dave?

(group chattering) - [Dave] Right there.

- [Fisher] Lighten up, boys.

- Is that a triple?

- That's a triple, yes sir.

- [Tim] Keep going, Brian.

- Oh yeah.

- Nice.

- [Brian] Do you want me to?

- Jimmy, we got a mess.

- He's so beat.

You got 10 guys and (indistinct) go by.

Just drop it on the floor.

(fisher laughing) - [Fisher] We'll take care of it, buddy.

(gentle music continues) - Back up, Brian.

- Back up, back up.

(group chattering) - [Dave] You got him.

- It took us a while to find them.

So we were in some real dirty water and we had to move our way out of it to get into this green water.

As soon as we did that they, they just went, what do we have, seven on, I think?

Yeah, just bang, bang, bang.

Just as good as it is down south they seem to be up here by Holland Saugatuck.

Yeah, we're having a good time, and took us two hours to find the fish, but we're having fun now and we're gonna beat up on these for a while because that's the best table fare.

And then we're gonna go out and see if we can find some lake trout.

You got one?

Hey, we got another one on.

- Right here, I was taking the line out of it, and he hit it right now.

I was like, "What is that?"

Probably 30 feet behind the boat, Tim.

I was like, "What is that that just pulled?"

Nothing like a good tangle and a fish hits it right as you were taking a tangle out.

(laughs) That was cool.

I was like, "What is pulling on this right now?"

And there we go.

One of those nice beautiful cohos.

Oh, the good hook came out.

- Look at that.

- Yeah.

- Which one?

- Cool.

- [Jimmy] You know what you're doing.

(group chattering) - [Fisher] That was cool, man.

- [Jimmy] We definitely found the fish, and we had a hard time getting all the lines back in the water.

They were just one after another with lots of doubles and a few triples as well.

And all the baits seemed to be working.

- [Tim] Yeah, so we're getting them on spinny flies, we're getting them on thin fins.

I think we even caught one on a jointed rapala.

Water temps are 41 degrees, a little warmer then I was expecting it to be for this time of year, and anywhere from 15 to 25 feet of water has been hot today.

Yeah, definitely having a blast.

- [Jimmy] We were having a blast indeed.

Lots of fish today in this stretch of water.

Now typically you have to go a little further south at this time of year to get this type of coho fishing that we were finding today.

Michigan City St. Joe is where you would typically go to find coho like this.

So to have them this far north, well, it was a welcome surprise today for sure.

- Oh, it's been quite a morning.

We started out right at first light, slow.

We were up by Holland and we banged one up immediately.

I thought this could be great.

And then we trolled for, oh gosh, I'd say 45 minutes, an hour, no more bumps.

So I decided to pull them and run down south and set up in a little cleaner water.

Found that cleaner water, and no more than we set up, they started getting hot and heavy.

And I think we were 16 for 20 some in 30 minutes I'd imagine.

And instead of doing a north troll, a lot of time, these fish are troll-specific, we decided to pull them and run back.

And that was only about a 30 minute troll.

So took 10 minutes to run back, got line set again, and now we're five fish away from our 30, which is a heck of a good first run for the year.

- [Jimmy] A great trip for sure.

And to have some good weather and some great guys on board, well, it was all you could hope for.

(gentle music) (group chattering) - I said shake it.

- Oh!

(group chattering) - That's a good one, there we go.

Nice.

See, anybody can do this.

- [Tim] Anybody.

- [Jimmy] How long will the coho be here?

Well, who knows, but if you're looking for a great time, hit the skinny water from the Indiana line to at least Holland-ish.

It's one great way to spend a day here in Michigan's out of doors.

Well good job today, boys.

- [Tim] Thank you.

- As springtime rolls in here in Southeast Michigan, lots of people set their sights on chasing after walleyes.

I headed out a couple of weeks ago with some good friends of mine on Lake Erie trolling for Walleye.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) - Well, we were down here a couple weeks ago and did real well out by Stony Point.

So we'll probably start out there, look for the right water color and give it a go.

If that doesn't work, we'll head up more toward Fermi.

I've seen some good reports from up that way.

So just, with the wind that blew the last couple of days, we're probably gonna have to search a bit, but that's okay, we'll find some fish.

So we launched out of Sterling, headed up.

We initially went to Stony Point.

It was really dirty around there, too dirty.

And I'd heard reports that the water was cleaner as you went farther north up toward Fermi, Fermi's just over here to the west of us.

So we found the water color that we were looking for and set lines.

We've been out here a few minutes, Nothing to show for it yet, but we're both hoping, we got really good water color right now, and we just gotta find the fish.

We're running both Bandits and DDHJs, the Deep Husky jerks.

Running them probably 30 to 50 back, which runs them pretty high in the water column.

It's like maybe eight to 10 feet down.

That's pretty typical this time of year, you'll find the active fish up a little higher, especially in the dirtier water.

As the day wears on, and if we get into cleaner water, we'll run them deeper.

But at least initially, we're running them pretty high because that's really been, it's really been the ticket here so far this year.

- [Jenny] The winds were a little more intense than we had expected today, but Joe and John found fish on one of the first passes at their second setup.

- Our first fish, hopefully it's not our last.

(laughs) - [Jenny] No matter what conditions he's up against, Joe is in his glory when he's walleye fishing.

- [Joe] I just love being on the water.

You never know what you're gonna catch size-wise.

I love to walleye fish.

I like perch, beluga, and walleye.

They're the ones I like to eat, so that's what I like to fish for.

Jigging's a lot of fun because it's just the one-on-one, you know, it's just you versus trolling.

This is just set your lines and kick back and relax and hopefully reel in a lot of fish.

So it's all fun.

- Nice.

- It's slow.

- A little slow start, but we broke the ice, and hopefully it's one of many.

- [Jenny] Oh yeah, beautiful.

What do you think that one weighs?

- Probably three.

- Yeah, I'd say, three pounds easy.

Yeah, we start out at Sterling State Park in Monroe, came out, and the water in Brest Bay was quite dirty.

So we went around to the north up towards Fermi and found some cleaner water.

The wind condition drove us a little further north, closer to shore, and we found a little more clean water up here.

So we're just moving around.

Don't do so well in the dirtier water.

So pecking away at them, yep, that's what we're doing.

- [Jenny] We were fishing out here on March 25th, just before things heated up in the Detroit River.

John talked about what the walleye movement looks like heading from March into April.

- [John] So this time of year, it's pretty common to find them up shallower.

The bottom depth will be anywhere from 14 to 18, maybe 20 feet.

You'll sometimes find them deeper too, but they're kind of staging, getting ready to spawn.

The water temp is like 42 degrees right now.

That's pretty close to spawning temp.

Like it peaks out around 45 degrees.

I think some of the fish will spawn kind of right out here on the rocky shorelines.

But a lot of them will be heading up into the Detroit River.

So be shifting gears and moving to the Detroit River next week.

So this is probably my last time on Erie for a while as the fish will really be piling into the river.

And then it gets really good again right after the spawn, the same area.

It's really good right after the spawn, kind of the same story, 16, 18 feet deep, running body baits.

A lot of people run crawler harnesses too in May.

But I've been out here mid-April and done real well doing exactly what we're doing today after they've gotten done spawning too.

- They're not coming fast, but we're pecking away at them.

Lake Erie walleyes.

- As morning turned to midday, the wind just kept getting stronger.

So with a few fish in the box, the guys decided to pack up and head back to shore.

Springtime walleye fishing in Southeast Michigan offers lots of unpredictable conditions, but those delicious sport fish are so much fun to chase.

Thanks to the Thelen brothers for showing us how it's done here in Michigan's out of doors.

Thank you for watching "Michigan Out of Doors" this week.

We hope you join us in upcoming weeks.

We've got a lot of great things headed your way.

We'll take you out on the Detroit River jigging and trolling for walleye.

And then of course, we'll have our sights set on turkey season that opens on April 19th.

If you'd like to see where we are, what we're up to, and a little bit more about the show, you can always do that online.

- Well that's right, Jenny.

Online is a good way to kinda keep track of us.

You can see us on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, our website, lots of places you can be checking us out.

Make sure you are joining us over the next several weeks.

Get out and enjoy everything our state has to offer.

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

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We combine biology and heavy equipment to make pondscapes that are sustainable and fishable.

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Learn more at one of 10 monthly meetups or online at networkoutdoors.com.

Closed captioning brought to you by Double D Ranch Foundation, a nonprofit 501C3 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 (gentle music)