- Well, hey everyone.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

Thank you so much for joining us this week.

We have got a ton of brand new stuff on this week's show.

We're gonna kick things off at a really cool turkey camp that Jordan was able to get to recently, and I was able to get out on Lake Michigan just a week or so back out of the Port of Manistee.

We heard they had been catching some big kings, and boy were they right.

You won't wanna miss that.

And we're gonna have a salmon recipe for you as well.

Lots of variety on this week's show.

You stay tuned.

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

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(stream trickling) (light acoustic music) (gun bangs) - [Jordan] A couple of weeks back, I was able to spend some time at Turkey Camp near the town of Port Hope.

For this segment, I'd be highlighting a couple of outdoor groups putting on a Turkey hunt for veterans and first responders.

(gun bangs) - [Bystander] That's a tagged bird.

(laughs) Yeah.

- [Brandon] We are up here in the thumb, we're at Turkey Camp.

And the plan is we get here early on a Thursday, we pattern our guns and we get out tomorrow and hopefully get on some turkey if they cooperate with us.

Tonight we're gonna actually put together some food, grill up some salmon, everybody hasn't met each other, so introduce everybody and have a good time.

This whole thing started off by Andrew and I connecting through a networking partner through a member about a year and a half ago.

And so that networking partner said, "Hey, I love what you guys are doing at Network Outdoors.

You need to meet this fellow who's part of this veterans group.

He takes people outdoors, and that's all I know, so talk to him."

So Andrew and I connected and obviously hit it off, and all we wanted to do is be a part of whatever he was gonna be doing.

And what this whole weekend came together was two first responders, two veterans, getting them outdoors, some of them for their first time.

And so this was an opportunity to get them out, stress free, have fun, couple days with Hot Shot Outfitters, guided turkey hunting up to the thumb of Michigan.

Yes sir.

- [Jordan] The plan for the morning was for me to tag along with our two veteran hunters, Andrew and Cory, with the other two hunters set up in a different location a few miles from us.

We posted up on a small food plot where we saw tons of birds, just no turkeys.

However, the other two hunters had some luck, and their guide Gary was able to capture the whole thing on camera.

- [Gary] Okay, one, two, three.

Sweet.

Get ready.

- [Hunter] I don't have a shot.

- [Gary] I'm good.

(call squawking) Pick your targets.

You gotta go on three though.

- [Hunter] I don't have a shot.

(turkey gobbles) There we go.

- [Gary] Stay on your targets.

You got your targets?

(hunters whispering) One, two, three.

(gun blasts) Yeah!

Woo!

Dude, you guys just doubled up on two nice Toms.

Let's go.

Let's go.

- [Hunter] I didn't even hear your gun.

(group laughs) - [Gary] Dude.

- [Brandon] It's amazing what the outdoors does.

If you witness it yourself or experience it yourself, you understand.

But I've always said anything I've ever done successfully was due to networking, meeting other people.

You get an opportunity to meet people that are interested in similar things to you, but maybe come at it from a different angle.

And so the outdoors, putting on events and having hunting camps and fishing camps, you get to, it's almost like an expedited friendship, and people like doing business with people that they like, know and trust or who are like themselves.

And you find a lot of that through these outdoor experiences.

Network Outdoors is a group of business professionals, outdoor enthusiasts all around the country.

Specifically in Michigan, there's 10 chapters, and each one meets monthly for our monthly meetup.

We eat food, we network and we break some clays at a local sportsman's shop.

Aside from that, it's really important that we also pool together and we put on events to support nonprofits either they're having to do with conservation, land, habitat, new angler programs, new hunter programs, veterans, first responders.

- [Jordan] While the rest of us were busy eating lunch, Andrew was able to sneak out and fill his turkey tag, which meant three of the four tags had been filled.

And while we were checking out his bird, we received a phone call that there were a few turkeys near the food plot where we had hunted earlier that day.

So we loaded up our gear and headed that way.

- [Andrew] Slow, slow.

Watch your barrel.

Try to keep it in the window.

- [Jordan] After about a half hour, we had three Jakes work their way in, and by the time we saw them, they were well within range.

- I think the one that's in the front.

- Whenever you see them.

- [Andrew] Take the back one if you can.

- [Cheyanne] Easy.

- [Andrew] Take him if you can.

I'm gonna run on a... (whispers) - [Cheyanne] At the base of the neck.

(hunter whistles) (hunter smacks lips) (call squawks) (gun bangs) - [Andrew] Nice shot.

Nice shot.

- That's called a smoke show.

- [Cheyanne] That's perfect, oh my God.

- [Cory] This morning we came out to the same location, and the birds were regular.

Didn't see anything though.

No birds at all.

So we went back, regrouped and came back out.

Little intel told us that they were here, so we came back out.

- [Cheyanne] We snuck in and they seen us.

But they didn't cut, they just went walking in the woods.

And then we just kept waiting.

We were just talking about to leave, and all of a sudden I look out my window, and here they come, just walking right towards us, right where they were supposed to be at.

And the back one was all by himself, all alone in the back.

So we took him, and you smoked them.

- [Cory] 33 yards.

- [Cheyanne] 33 yards.

- [Cory] As a veteran, being outdoors in general is therapeutic.

It just is, it's therapeutic.

No matter what you do outdoors, it's just great.

So to be able to go to different fishing events, hunting events, different things like that, it's great 'cause you have the comradery, which is very important, and then being outdoors, and then the actual hunting itself or the fishing itself.

Very passionate about both hunting and fishing.

I love them very much.

I could do them every day (chuckling) if I could get my wife to sign that, but that ain't gonna happen.

Anyway, it's just, it's fun.

It's a good time.

- [Brandon] We live in America, and it's a... Our freedom is due to a lot of individuals, and we owe it to...

The least we can do is give back to those organizations that are helping our veterans and first responders.

So an important part of that is allowing them to get out and be outdoors and enjoy what we love to do, offer them experiences.

So we put together deals with different outfitters like we are here up in the thumb, and we put them up for two days, three days, whatever the trip is.

And we make some food, we get to share stories.

We all walk away as friends, and it's a pretty special deal.

So yes, it's helping veterans and first responders, but us in Network Outdoors, it's fulfilling to see somebody shoot their first turkey or catch their first fish or personal best.

- [Jordan] Congratulations to all of the hunters in camp and thanks to everyone involved for letting me be a small part of it.

What a great couple of days at Turkey Camp here in the thumb of Michigan.

- Well as you can see, they had a lot of fun at that Turkey Camp over in the east side of the state.

We're gonna now head to the west side of the state to the Port of Manistee.

I'd been hearing all these stories about all these big kings that they're catching this spring, and so I wanted to go up there and check it out.

And I tell you what, they were right.

There was a lot of fish hitting off the Port of Manistee.

(warm acoustic music) - [Lenny] Well, it's early, early May.

It's probably two weeks earlier than when we normally go out and seek out the kings.

But they arrived early this year, so we're gonna go out and try to get some fresh kings there.

- [Jimmy] And they've been hitting pretty good?

- [Lenny] Yeah, the last week, I've never seen fishing in 20 years this good, this early.

- [Jimmy] Really?

- [Lenny] It's unbelievable.

The light winter we had and the warm temperatures I think really had a big factor in the water temperature and where the bait and the kings moved this past winter.

And I think they just set up and they never left.

From the fall, they just stayed over all winter and they're here.

So we're gonna go out and see if we can get a bunch of them in the box.

- [Jimmy] We have had Lenny on our show a handful of times, and it's usually worth getting to Manistee when he says the fishing is red hot.

So that's what happened here.

Lenny said get up here if you can, and he was right.

We had three fish on before we could even set all the lines.

It was looking like the beginning of a good day on the water.

- [Lenny] Well we have four on.

We had actually five on, lost one.

So we have a little chaos going on right now, but we're gonna work it out and we're gonna get them.

Not here yet, but I just wanna... - This one's at least three pounds.

- [Lenny] That one's at least 20 pounds.

- [Mark] It's a nice one, but not as big because of that.

- [Jimmy] Good fish.

Nice fish.

Got a fish here.

Net this one.

- Behind you up here.

- Go ahead.

- Well, we're tangled with this other diver.

- [Mark] I gotta go over you Jeff.

- [Jimmy] You're good.

- Oh, over.

And then don't move it here for a second.

- Okay, that one's free.

We're good.

- All right, we're good there.

- [Jimmy] We clear?

- [Lenny] Bring it right down the chute.

Another small fish.

We have everything is cleared, so we're gonna have to start over here again.

Walk backwards Jace.

All right, good job.

Nice fish.

- [Missy] It's a beauty.

It's the biggest one yet.

- [Lenny] Jace is big fish Jace.

- [Jimmy] Also on board today was Jeff Bonin, Lenny's son Jace and my wife Missy.

We had solid nonstop fishing action so far this morning.

- Go ahead, drop your pole down, and then walk backwards.

- Yeah, that's easier said than done.

- [Jimmy] Sit down if you have to.

- Drop the pole down to me.

Yep, there we go.

All right, awesome.

Here we go.

(Jimmy laughs) - [Missy] Man, it should have been bigger than that for that fight it gave me.

- [Jimmy] Good eater.

- [Lenny] It's coming.

- [Jimmy] You still fighting that same fish?

- Sure, no, this is the second one.

- [Jimmy] Oh.

Today we were using a new fly that Jeff from Rapture Flies created called the Sweet Pea, named after Mark.

All our setups were the same fly today, all with a rotator, and they were hitting at every single depth.

- [Jeff] Another nice one.

Beautiful.

Go right in the middle there, Leonard.

- [Missy] Holy cow.

- [Lenny] Geez!

- [Jimmy] Good fish.

- [Lenny] Yes.

- [Jimmy] Come out in the nut too.

- Look at that.

That's a nice spring king there.

- [Jimmy] That's dandy.

Is that a 4-year-old?

- Yeah, that's a 4-year-old.

- [Jimmy] We all hope this kind of fishing stays like this all year long.

We were basically straight out from Manistee, and off of the Port of Manistee and Ludington, this kind of king fishing is usually much later in the year.

It's all bait fish related.

And who knows if this will continue or the fish will move.

But since you can't control it, the best thing to do is just enjoy it.

And that's what we were doing so far today.

- [Lenny] That's a nice fish.

- [Jimmy] Geez.

- [Lenny] Big fish.

- [Missy] There we go.

- [Lenny] That's more like it.

- [Missy] Yeah.

- [Jimmy] (laughs) That's a big fish.

- Yeah, it is.

Put up quite a fight.

- [Jimmy] So with Missy onboard, I was able to hand off the camera and reel in my first king of the year.

- [Missy] How you doing there, Jimmy?

- Good.

He just came to the surface here on the back.

Well he's, I don't know, 75 yards out.

But I can see him now.

A lot of fish this morning.

I don't even know how many we've had on or how many we've got in the box.

- [Missy] It's a box full.

- Yes, it is.

Oh, there he goes.

As we brought in fish after fish, I had Lenny explain a little bit about this new fly and how it came to be.

- Last year on the show actually, Jeff was talking about a new fly he was gonna probably think about.

He was kinda like a scientist thinking about what he's gonna do.

Well he came up with it.

And his good friend Mark has been with him for a lot of years.

And so Mark has never had a fly named after him, so Jeff named it after him.

So it's the Pier Pressure Sweet Pea.

I mean, can you imagine that?

- There's a big story behind it.

I'll tell you the big story.

- It's also part, it's also part of our series.

We have Popeye's, Spinach, Brutus, Olive Oil.

Now we have Sweet Pea, named after for this guy.

- All right, so back in the day, there was a gentleman named Kurt Mosher, and Kurt would always go to Jeff, "You need to make a fly that's blue and green and you need to make it outta this material."

Well the material is really junk, and you'd catch two or three fish on it and would deteriorate.

Jeff was like, "I'm not making it outta junk material."

- [Lenny] You do have a fish on over there.

Okay, there we go.

Okay, we're back.

- I'm letting her get hers closer.

So I'm not making it outta junk material.

So that fly never came to be and all of a sudden...

Okay, there you are.

- [Jimmy] Well, sometimes fish get in the way of a good story, but I think you get the gist.

Mark and his rather famous Pier Pressure boat was the catalyst for this new Sweet Pea fly.

And at least for today, well, it was performing like a champ.

- [Lenny] That's a good fly.

- [Jimmy] And what's the rotator that you guys like to use?

- I'm using salmon candy eight inch.

He's got eight inch and 11 inch.

I'm using the eight inch right now.

So everything you see are the eight inch today.

- [Jimmy] And we're running rotators on everything?

- [Lenny] Yep, yep, everything.

We got six rods, six rotators.

So we're basically same flasher, same fly.

We're just kind of keeping it simple today.

The fish are here, and they like it, so we're gonna give it to them.

- [Jimmy] What'll the fishing be like over the next month or so?

- Well hopefully, it's just like this, but realistically, I mean, what is it today, the 8th of May, 9th of May, something like that.

We're really early.

The fish don't even usually show up until mid May to the last week of May.

So hopefully these fish stay around and don't go over to Wisconsin.

It's all about the bait.

If the bait stays here, hopefully the fish will stay here.

- [Jimmy] We were having quite a morning.

I don't recall really any time when we didn't have a fish on.

We were only gonna fish for a few hours because really how many fish do you need?

Of course, one of the conversations moved to salmon recipes, and Mark had one that kind of scares me.

- I wanna tell everybody something really my wife started doing.

Three-minutes salmon in the microwave.

Oh my goodness.

- [Jimmy] What?

- Yeah, I remember a couple years, well, more than a couple years, some of the guys on the dock in South Haven.

She put it in there for three minutes, brought it out, and she had dill wheat on it, salt and pepper.

And they asked the guys on the dock if you wanna try some salmon.

They said, "I don't eat salmon."

Okay, just try this.

They tried it and, oh, how'd you do that?

So yeah, on high for three minutes in the microwave.

- [Jimmy] I will have to try the microwave salmon recipe just out of curiosity.

It seems a bit odd, but if Mark Chmura says it's good, well I'll have to trust him.

We were about ready to call it a day, and I had Lenny give us a summary of our morning.

- [Lenny] We set lines at around six o'clock this morning.

We had two to threes, four-foot waves coming in the west.

And we set up where I left the fish yesterday, and luckily they were there today.

We ended up having six fish on at one time, five fish that were physically on.

And it was just one of those mornings where everything worked out good and we caught a lot of fish in a short time.

Jace, he got into the action today.

You did.

Mark even did, believe it or not.

Everybody did, so it was great.

- [Jimmy] It was a great morning for sure, and probably the best part is that Mark was able to join us today.

Mark is back to fishing now after a few year battle with cancer.

And to see him doing what he loves, well, it sure felt good.

And it reminds us all how precious our time with friends and family really is.

So get out and enjoy our great fishery.

I know of at least one port that is holding some fish here in "Michigan's Out of Doors."

Well, as you can tell, we had a lot of fun on that fishing trip.

I think we only fished for a couple of hours, the action was so hot and heavy.

And I do have to try Mark's recipe at some point in time.

I can't quite get over salmon in the microwave, but I'm gonna give that a shot.

What we're gonna do right now is show you one of my favorite recipes and one of the ways that I really like to prepare salmon.

It's on a pellet smoker and it is something really good and easy, and tell you what, you're gonna love it.

What we're gonna do today is smoke some salmon.

Now for me, when I like to smoke salmon, I really like the edges.

So I have cut this into smaller strips.

And I almost like mine a little overdone, not really fish jerky, but somewhere between fish jerky and smoked fish.

And we'll show you that as we get going.

But basically to prepare this, I did a brine last night and so I let it sit overnight.

Probably wanna at least let it sit about six hours, kind of up to you.

And I used one cup of salt, about a gallon of water, and then about a half to three-quarter cup of brown sugar.

That helps infuse the flavor.

It really has helped with smoking fish a lot.

So if you can, brine them overnight.

And what we're gonna do right now, we're gonna get them right on the smoker at about 225.

This is gonna take a couple hours, but this is just a simple, really good way to get rid of some of the fish that you may have.

And I've done this with Steelhead, lake trout and salmon, and it works great for all of them.

And so I just basically have a very simple rub on here, just kind of an all-purpose rub.

It had, oh, sugar, salt, garlic, oregano, basil, paprika.

Just a general thing here.

We're gonna get these on the smoker right away, and then we're gonna bast about every half hour to an hour with a mixture of both whiskey and honey.

Both good by themselves, really good when they're together.

(oil sizzling) Okay, well we are about ready to pull the fish off of the smoker.

Fish is done at about 145.

We far surpassed that here, which I wanted to do.

'Cause again, like I said, I like my smoked fish to be a little crusty on the outside.

These are pretty small pieces, and so they cook a little faster.

We're about an hour and a half or so into the cook and we're past, they're for sure done.

Just trying to crisp up a little bit.

So we're gonna pull them off and give them a taste test.

I think we're just gonna do our fingers here.

Oh yeah, look at that.

Comes apart really nice.

Got that glaze on there from the honey.

Mmm.

Really good.

Little salty, little sweet.

Perfect.

Just a different way to smoke your fish.

There's a lot of good recipes out there.

If you have one you think we should try, send us that either on Facebook, Instagram, or email us one of your recipes, and maybe we'll try them on the smoker.

This turned out great.

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

If you missed part of this week's show or maybe last week's show, you can always check us out online.

You can do that through our website, our different social media platforms, as well as YouTube.

Lots of places you can be checking us out.

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

Lots of stuff happening around the great state of Michigan.

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.

- [Announcer] Michigan out of doors is presented by... - [Narrator] Do you dream of somewhere bigger than your backyard?

You can get there with GreenStone.

Whether you wanna hunt, fish, hike, or just watch the sunset, we're ready to help you own your place in the great outdoors.

To learn more, visit greenstonefcs.com - [Announcer] By Alta Equipment Company, providing sales, rental, service and parts because uptime matters.

From earth moving to landscaping and light construction, Alta offers over 50 brands across seven Michigan locations to serve you.

More information online or 844-GO-the number two-ALTA.

(stream trickling) 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.

♪ 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 ♪ In the tall pine trees ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ I am, I am a Michigan man ♪ There's 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 ♪ To St. Marie and back again ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ I am, I am a Michigan man ♪ That's where I'm from ♪ And I'll show you my hands ♪ Lord above, I love this land ♪ I am a Michigan man (singing in foreign language)