- Hello everyone.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

We're so glad you're here.

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

Jimmy and I will take you up to Cheboygan, Michigan out on Black Lake for the annual sturgeon spearing season.

It was a quick one again this year, 17 minutes, but a lot happened in that time.

You won't wanna miss that story.

And Jimmy's got some open water winter fishing in store for us this week too.

- Well, that's right, Jenny.

There is good ice in lots of places, but there is also some good open water fishing.

And if you'd like to learn a little bit more about how to chase steelhead this time of the year, we're gonna have a great story from West Michigan for you.

And I think we have time for a bragging board as well.

Lots of good stuff on this week's show.

It's all brand new.

You stay tuned.

I'm Jimmy Gretiznger, 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 ♪ ♪ As the wind comes whispering through the trees ♪ ♪ The sweet smell of nature's 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 ♪ - [Announcer] "Michigan Out of Doors" is presented by.

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Holiday gift boxes can be assembled in store or online.

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(upbeat music) - [Announcer] By Angler Quest Pontoons, offering fishing pontoons designed by anglers for anglers.

Angler Quest Pontoons are built with a multi-functional layout to support a variety of fishing adventures.

Learn more at anglerquestpontoons.com.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] Jay's Sporting Goods, trust the tradition.

- [Jenny] The Sturgeon Shivaree here on Black Lake is a celebration of our sturgeon spearing heritage here in Michigan, and it coincides with the spearing season each year.

This year's 63rd annual Shivaree was underway.

Hosted for many years now by the local Sturgeon for Tomorrow chapter.

I caught up with Jay Woiderski Friday afternoon to hear about all the weekend activities.

- Well, we're out here on Black Lake, putting on the Shivaree.

We have been here since 2013 as far as Sturgeon for Tomorrow putting it together and we're ready to do it again.

This year we've got great ice, we've got plenty of people out there looking like they're ready to fish.

I've got a report, it's about 600 people registered for the season.

A lot of people signing up for our fishing contest.

Our poker run will fill up.

We've got kids events tomorrow from 11 to 4.

So a lot of things going on.

Yeah, last year, we just didn't have the season at all.

Two years ago, we had a great party, great season.

It went quick, 36 minutes, tied our first record.

And then, like I said, I expect this year to be as good.

- [Jenny] Sturgeon for Tomorrow plays a big part in the success of our state's growing sturgeon population.

The group also lobbies for our fishing rights at the Capitol when need be.

- We still would not have any fishing at all without Sturgeon for Tomorrow.

There's no question.

When the group went down to Lansing in 1999, it was basically we will do whatever the deal needs to be done just to save something.

And they literally wanted to close it for 10 years and then come back and revisit it.

And if the group wouldn't have been there, that's exactly what would've happened.

And they never would've went back.

Wouldn't have happened.

- [Jenny] Good friend John Rash was kind enough to take me out onto the lake the day before the season started to check out all the action.

- Just a great time to be with everybody out here on the lake and stuff.

- [Jenny] You got your own little cluster of shannies going.

- We got our own little group out here.

It's gonna be seven of us spending the night out here tonight.

Try that.

- All seven?

- All seven of us.

- [Jenny] So are we gonna walk through your setup?

- We'll go through my shanty and take a look.

And everybody's got their own setup out here, but chili for lunch tomorrow.

We got coffee for the morning and we got all kinds of, everybody's got something to cook in the morning and stuff, and yep, we're gonna stay out here till Sunday.

Even if the fishing season is over Saturday, we're still spending, we're gonna start, you know, wildlife fishing later and stuff, so.

- [Jenny] All right.

Have you spent the night on the ice before?

- I have in Oswego Lake about three weeks ago.

We spent Friday to Sunday down there.

- Pretty fun?

- It was awesome.

This is the new fishing.

But yeah, it's all ready to go.

- [Jenny] How much ice do you have?

- [John] Well, we have about, we're cutting about 10 inches of ice, just about 22 feet of water.

- [Jenny] What are you hearing about the season in the morning?

- [John] It's the way I've been talking about people about seeing stuff.

I don't think it's gonna last very long.

- [Jenny] Have you seen anything down your hole yet?

- [John] I have not seen a thing yet.

- [Jenny] Okay.

All it takes is one at the right time.

- [John] That's right.

I don't wanna see it till tomorrow.

- [Jenny] That's right.

And have you speared one here on Black Lake?

- [John] I have got six out of here.

- [Jenny] Six?

Okay, You're like an old pro.

- [John] It takes a little bit to get one, but some people get them their first year.

Some people, it's been probably 10 years since I've seen one or got one.

- [Jenny] What's the biggest one you've speared?

- 95 pounds.

- Wow.

Very nice.

- Yep, 95 pounds.

- Great.

- Yep.

- [Jenny] Well, cool.

Thanks for the tour and I hope you sleep tight out here.

- Oh, we will.

We'll be nice and toasty.

- [Jenny] All right.

Good luck in the morning.

- Thank you, Jen.

- All right.

I caught up with Conservation Officer Thunic, who is getting ready for the season two.

What's your role tomorrow?

- Ensure that people are being safe and that we don't go over on the number of fish we're allowed.

- [Jenny] Are you gonna be out here patrolling and spreading the word?

- Oh yeah.

- Is it crazy, or is it challenging, or do you guys have it pretty streamlined now?

- It's much better than it was in the past, with the texting now, it makes it a whole lot easier, about half the time when we get to a shanty, yep, I know.

Okay, do me a favor, take your flag down.

So the big thing is making sure, especially the outliers, you got big groups of people that we're really, we focus on everybody obviously, but then you have one that's off outlying, so we gotta make sure we get to them as well.

So it's a mad minute, if you will, while we're getting things shut down.

- [Jenny] Well, cool, thanks for doing what you do and being part of this fun time.

- Oh, absolutely.

- [Jenny] A visit out on the ice isn't complete without stopping into Scott Orshambo's brick spearing shack.

Hey Scott.

- Hi Jenny.

How are you?

- [Jenny] How's the brick house?

- It's as heavy as ever.

- [Jenny] What's your technique?

What do you got, anything different?

Any special secrets that you wanna share?

- Stop playing on your phone.

Be looking down the hole.

- [Jenny] Short season, right?

- It's gonna be probably short.

- [Jenny] Okay.

That's the word on the street?

- Well that's what my buddies that have time to fish every day say.

- [Jenny] Okay.

Sounds Good.

- Cool.

- All right, well good luck tomorrow.

Hopefully we'll hear you hooping and hollering.

We'll see ya for the fish.

Well, our plans didn't quite go as expected.

Later Friday night, I suffered the effects of food poisoning and couldn't leave the hotel the rest of the weekend.

Luckily, Jimmy was also in town and running another camera.

- [Jimmy] The evening festivities are a big reason folks enjoy this so much.

And after not having the Shivaree last year, folks were chopping at the bit to head north, relax for a fun weekend of all sorts of shenanigans, and oh yeah, by the way, some of these folks were actually gonna be fishing in the morning.

With about 800 folks signed up, the season wasn't going to be very long.

- Sir, we got the Black Lake sturgeon season happening today.

We have 797 anglers registered to fish today, so cold, crisp morning, but hoping for a successful safe season.

- [Jimmy] And how many fish are we taking today?

- The limit is six fish.

One six fish have been harvested, the season will close.

- [Jimmy] And people come from all over for this or?

- [Neil] Yep, come from all over.

All over Michigan, but also other states as well.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

So anybody can come and do this then?

- [Neil] Yes, yes, just need to have a Michigan fishing license and register online.

Online registration is free.

- [Jimmy] Well it didn't take long at all and the first fish was at the registration table.

- Name is Gavin Green.

- [Jimmy] Gavin Green, tell me what happened out there today.

- Well, this morning, Owen got our first text that season had started, unraveled the decoy and dropped him down.

And I actually, the first one that come through, I missed this morning.

- Oh really?

- Yeah.

And then my brother and I are sitting there watching, we were sitting together in the shack and all of a sudden I seen a shadow that appeared and I'm like, "Man, that really looks like a fish."

And by the time I decided that it was a fish, he was almost out of the hole.

So I hocked it down there and first there wasn't a whole lot of movement, so I was a little nervous I missed another one.

And then when I finally broke him free from the bottom, you could see the spear starting to kick all over the place and take off.

- [Jimmy] Wow.

How far down was he?

- He was, we're in about 18 foot of water and right on bottom.

- [Jimmy] Wow.

Is this the first time you've speared a sturgeon?

- Yes, it is.

We've been out here for, man, almost seven years now.

And it's the first one that I've got a shot to spear.

- Nice.

Well congratulations.

- Thank you.

- [Jimmy] Well, in just a matter of 17 minutes, the season was over, and the word was sent out to all the anglers to stop right away.

- Number six fish confirmed.

- [Officer] Season's over.

- Black Lake season is over.

Black Lake crew, season is over.

- [Jimmy] With the season over, we waited for the anglers to come in and register their fish.

And Debbie, what happened this morning?

- Well, I seen a fish at like 7:57 and we're just waiting a couple minutes and then we're like 8:01 or 8:02, that one came right by my decoy.

- Really?

- Yep.

- How far down was the decoy?

- Like a foot off the bottom.

We were in like 17 foot of water.

- [Jimmy] Oh, so pretty deep.

Have you done this kind of thing before or?

- [Debbie] I've always went, but I've never got a sturgeon before.

- [Jimmy] Wow, awesome.

Well congratulations.

- [Debbie] Thank you.

- Hey, did you do that one?

- I did.

I got the other one.

- [Jimmy] Tell me your name.

- [Keegan] My name's Keegan Freel.

- [Jimmy] And what happened this morning?

- Well, I got a sturgeon, first time.

- [Jimmy] Tell me what happened.

- One came in, same thing about five minutes early, and he ended up coming in about six feet below the ice and I chucked the spear.

- [Jimmy] Wow.

And have you done much spearing before?

- I've speared three fish in my life.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

Wow.

And were you out there all night or did you just come out this morning?

- We just come out this morning, yep.

- Nice.

Well congratulations.

- Thank you.

Thank you.

- [Jimmy] I was surprised how many people were here from Wisconsin as well.

- Jared Guelig from Fond Du Lac Wisconsin.

- [Jimmy] Nice.

Tell me what happened this morning.

- I was sitting there and there's a bunch of commotion going on.

A couple people got a fish around me and this one came right in.

- [Jimmy] How far down was he?

- He was on bottom.

- [Jimmy] How deep water were we in?

- We were about 17, 18 feet.

- [Jimmy] So that's pretty a good throw.

Have you done a lot of spearing before?

- Yeah, we do a lot of spearing on the Winnebago system.

- [Jimmy] Okay, nice.

Well congratulations.

- [Jared] Thank you.

- Austin Dreifuerst from Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

Tell me what happened this morning.

- Pretty much just got set up, had two decoys down.

He came right in between the two decoys.

- Wow.

How far down was he?

- Probably 18 feet.

- Wow.

He's down their aways.

- Yep.

- [Jimmy] Nice, have you speared any sturgeon before in your life?

- This is my eighth one.

- Eighth one.

- First one on Black Lake.

Rest came off Lake Winnebago.

- Nice.

Congratulations.

- Thank you.

- [Jimmy] There was actually seven fish harvested instead of the six they were hoping for.

- Came floating in from the side and speared it.

(laughs) - [Jimmy] And did you see any other fish this morning?

- No no.

- Just the one.

And how far down was he?

- We were in like 21 feet of water, probably halfway down approximately.

- [Jimmy] Speared a sturgeon before?

- [Rich] About a dozen of them at home, yeah, down in Wisconsin.

- Awesome.

- Yeah.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you.

- [Jimmy] It was a fast and furious morning, man.

Once the season was over, some folks stayed to fish and many brought their sacks back to shore.

This whole weekend of events is so great for this part of the state and brings in some much needed folks to help out the local businesses and hotels.

Ton of fun up here, the festivities, even though the spearing season's done, we got a really cool tent going on, kind of a beer tent, party tent.

Mike Ridley, who does our opening theme song, is gonna be there performing a little bit later, so we'll stop in and see him.

And just a really fun time up here on Black Lake.

If you're ever looking for something to do in this beginning of February, end of January, whenever they do the season, definitely worth coming up here and giving it a shot.

♪ When I wander away ♪ A dream stays with me night and day ♪ ♪ It's the road that leads to my home state ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man - We had a great weekend and lots of folks are here to fish, some just for the festivities.

It is really cool to keep this time-honored tradition.

Maybe we'll see you here next year, right here in Michigan's out of doors.

Well, as you can tell, we had a lot of fun up there for the sturgeon spearing season.

Thanks to everyone that made that happen.

What we're gonna do now is shift gears and do a little open water fishing this time of the year chasing some steelhead on a West Michigan River.

(bright music) - We're gonna be fishing a river here in West Michigan.

We're gonna be float fishing some beads, some bait, some jigs, some bags, a little bit of everything.

- [Jimmy] A little bit of everything.

And how do you pick a spot for something like this?

- With this kind of water, you gotta kind of know where to fish.

Today we're gonna be fishing like a little bit of a roller section.

- [Jimmy] Trevor Johnson was the one who got us together today.

Trevor started a new bait shop in Grand Haven and after seeing his shop, I figured I'd join him for a day of fishing.

- The game plan is try to hook a couple fish, get the bead bite going, see if we can get some wax worm spawn bag bites.

Just see what the day has in store for us as far as what the fish are wanting.

- [Jimmy] Ryan Ham was also on the boat today.

It was fun to hear from both Justin and Trevor about how they started their businesses in the outdoors.

- [Justin] About four years ago, I started painting in my basement and it kind of just went from there, and now I paint seven days a week.

- Really?

- Just about, yeah.

- [Jimmy] And different sizes, different colors.

- [Justin] Yeah, different colors, different sizes, different rivers, I mean, we're fishing clear water, a lot of times you fish natural colors.

- [Jimmy] And you're all all around the country then?

- Yeah, we own bait shops from Washington all the way to New Jersey.

So yeah, we have a lot in the Midwest and a lot of Wisconsin.

I'm from Milwaukee, so I did a lot of brown trout fishing over there before I moved over here and met a lot of cool people on this side of the state.

And it's been a lot of fun watching this grow over the last few years.

- good for you.

- It's pretty cool.

- [Jimmy] Well there wasn't much happening the first few hours of our trip, but we started to slowly find some fish.

- It's a little trout.

- Got the net, John?

- I've got it.

- It's a little trout, little skipper.

That's a rainbow.

- Nice.

- Got it on the Space Cowboy.

Let's send her home.

- There you go.

- [Fisher] Good job.

- [Jimmy] That one hit the bottom bead?

- Bottom bead, Space Cowboy.

The new one we just came out with.

- [Jimmy] How do you come up with these names?

- [Justin] Oh, we watch a lot of TV when we're painting beads.

(group laughs) That's very true.

- [Jimmy] Well, no matter the name, these beads were starting to find some really nice fish.

Hey hey hey!

Now that's a fish.

Look at that guy.

These steelhead are such pretty fish.

We were releasing everything we caught today.

And as we moved from spot to spot, I asked Trevor how he ever decided to start a bait and tackle business.

- Well, honestly, it was a kind of a spur of the moment deal.

Me and my wife were talking and she knows how adamant I am about fishing and how I loved fishing.

And Grand Haven didn't really have a bait shop that was accessible for every type of fishing, meaning your big lake fishing, your pier fishing, rivers, panfish, I mean the bayou is around Grand Haven are so good in so many ways.

And we just kinda went out on a limb and I started the bait shop and brought in everything that I could and I had a lot of help from some big lake charter buddies that are down there that were like, "These are the brand names that we use, these are what we need."

So I brought them in and it's just kind of been a continuous growing thing in every aspect of the different types of fishing.

It's been great.

Like I can't thank the supporters of Crispy enough and I could have never imagined that I would be where I'm at right now and then within the year, purchased a building to be able to grow and continue serving the community.

- [Jimmy] Nice, and so I'm assuming as a bait shop owner, you get to fish all the time?

- [Trevor] Unfortunately, no, I don't get to fish as much as I would like to.

- [Jimmy] But you probably hear a lot of fish stories though?

- [Trevor] I do, I get to hear a lot of fishing stories and guys catching great fish and I'm happy that I'm the person that they can come to for their bait or their lures or whatever they're using and I'm glad they share their stories with me.

- [Jimmy] Well the bead bite was picking up for sure and we were finding some very nice fish.

I had Justin run us through our setup for today, - Nova Tackle Fix Float running a 5/8 down to a tungsten inline by PNT Tackle.

And then we were running two one gram BBs and then we run two eighth gram and then we run two half gram right here.

And so you run big shot to little shot, so it kind of flows in the water column.

Kind of like you when you're running over rocks and when you're fishing rollers, it'll actually get down into where those fish are kind of sitting beneath that fast water.

So your main weight is just for stabilization of your float basically.

And then the shot line is kind of like what creates the flow underneath the water, so you can get down to where you need to be.

Because the bigger weight, you'll roll over the big boulders and then the smaller shot will, you'll get down into the crevices and the rollers and we'll find those fish that are sitting.

- [Fisher] That's a beauty.

That's a good job.

- [Jimmy] Holy cow.

Look at that.

- [Trevor] And the colors on that thing.

- [Jimmy] Wow.

What a good way to end the day right there.

Well that would be a good way to end the day, but the fish had other plans.

We tied into a couple more nice ones.

- [Trevor] Oh-ho-ho!

(bright music) Pretty.

- [Jimmy] Nice.

- Way to go.

- That's right.

- [Jimmy] So after a great day on the water, we headed to Trevor's shop to get a tour and see what all he has to offer for big lake, small lake, river fishing, you name it.

And bait shops are always a good spot to hear some good fishing stories as well.

And to see what hot spoon or gear you may need that you didn't even know you needed.

- We were using the Nova Tackle hooks, split shots.

Also we had some of this Ice Be Gone on our eyelets so it didn't freeze or help to not freeze.

- [Jimmy] Well, thanks to the guys for letting me tag along today, and to all the bait shop owners and tackle producers out there, thanks for making days like this possible right here in our grand ole state.

(light upbeat music) (light upbeat music continues) (light upbeat music continues) (light upbeat music continues) - Thank you for joining us this week for "Michigan Out of Doors."

Make sure you stay tuned in upcoming weeks.

Lot of great wintertime adventures still headed your way.

We've got our sights set on Thursday, February 20th.

We will be in Novi at Outdoorama.

We'll have cameras rolling that evening for our Big Buck Night East.

You won't wanna miss that.

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

- Well, that's right, Jenny.

Online is a good way to kind of keep tabs on us.

Probably Instagram and Facebook are the best two ways to see what we're up to.

And make sure you are joining us over the next several weeks.

We are excited for both Outdoorama and the Ultimate Sports Show for Big Buck Night East and Big Buck Night West.

Those are a lot of fun.

If you've never been to one of those events, you might wanna consider going this year, we've got some really great giveaways happening at both locations.

Make sure you join us over the next few weeks here for "Michigan Out of Doors."

There's so much happening around our state.

Get out and enjoy it.

And if we don't see you 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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SCI supports and funds conservation programs in the state of Michigan.

Learn more how you can get involved at a chapter near you.

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The show features tackle, trips, boats, outfitters, the trout pond, and of course, Big Buck Night.

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(upbeat music) ♪ When I wander 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 whitetail deer in the tall pine trees ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man (bright music)