- Hello everyone.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

We're so glad you joined us this week.

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

We're gonna tag along with a Fisheries research team on the St. Clair River studying our lake sturgeon here in Michigan.

You won't wanna miss that story.

And Jimmy's gonna head to the opposite end of the state for another story.

- Well, that's right.

We are going to the opposite corner of the state of Michigan to the Keweenaw Peninsula for our first story on this week's show.

We were up there recently doing a little crappie fishing and some surprisingly good walleye fishing.

You won't wanna miss that story.

Lots of great stuff on this week's program, you stay tuned.

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

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(gentle music) (upbeat music) (bright music) - [Jimmy] Just a week or so back, our team was headed above the bridge, actually way above the bridge to the Keweenaw Peninsula to do some fishing.

We wasted no time and joined Connor Baccus for an evening of inland fishing.

- We're gonna be fishing for crappie, walleye, and some smallmouth, so should be a fun day.

- [Jimmy] Nice.

And where's home for you?

- So I live in Lake Linden, but I kind of, you know, fish all the lakes in the Keweenaw, so kind of just chasing around the best bite really.

- [Jimmy] And what is kind of the main fish to catch up this way, or is it pretty varied?

- I mean really kind of whatever you want to do.

Like I said, like in the inland lakes, it's mainly smallmouth and walleye.

And then there's a couple lakes that have pretty good crappie populations, so yeah.

Yeah, so we're just using a two inch Berkeley fluke style bait on a quarter ounce jig head.

The crappie here, they're fairly easy to get to bite, so I just, I like this presentation.

It gets down to them quick and it triggers a bite.

- [Jimmy] What size weight was that again?

- Quarter ounce.

- Quarter ounce, okay.

Using his electronics, Connor found the fish, and we were looking forward to seeing what this crappie fishing was gonna look like.

Well, it was looking pretty good right off the bat.

- Right sweet spot if you can get up there.

This one's better.

(water splashing) There's a better one.

- Yeah, there's a nice one.

- That's a good one.

- Still not giant giant, but nice crappie.

We'll get some bigger ones.

- [Jimmy] Crappie fishing was just fish after fish, and as we started to land a few bigger ones, I asked Connor how he got into fishing and ultimately guiding.

- [Connor] So I really started fishing pretty young, but it was kind of on and off for me throughout my childhood.

And then I really started to get like super into it when I was like, you know, 15, 16, you know, when I could start driving, going to places, and ever since then, just fish basically every day.

And now it's kind of my job now, so.

So I was going to college for fisheries management, and then kind of realized at that point like I want to actually fish instead of studying fish.

So yeah, basically just decided to start guiding, and yeah, just did it.

- That beautiful UP crappie, we're in the middle of nowhere, on this beautiful lake with Connor, and these electronics are quite the game changer.

It's really cool to interact with the fish and see them interacting with the bait.

Unbelievable.

- Nice job.

- Super fun.

- [Jimmy] There are quite a few inland lakes up here in the Keweenaw, and so I ask Connor what he's looking for when hitting a new lake.

- [Connor] For me, you know, obviously now, I have a lot of banked experience on these lakes, but you know, finding fish on new lakes, I always recommend, you know, using your electronics first before you even wet a line.

Side imaging, live scope, anything you have, you know, scan the lake out, know the seasonal patterns of the fish, and that'll get you to, you know, a pretty good starting point there.

- [Jimmy] Well our starting point was producing some nice fish for sure.

Our plan was to target walleye and then maybe smallies, and so far the plan was working pretty well.

- [Connor] Nice.

- [Jimmy] Where you at?

- We got a double.

We got a double.

- Nice job, guys.

- Yeah, they're schooled up and fired up.

A lot of fun.

- Super fun, Connor.

Thanks for taking us out here.

This is great.

- Of course.

- [Connor] Now you're gonna chase some walleye you think?

- Yep, we're gonna go do some walleye and then after that, go fish for smallmouth.

So kind of just showing what we have to offer up here.

- [Jimmy] That's awesome.

- All right, so we're changing gear to walleyes now, and I use a very simple tactic, my favorite tactic for walleyes, just a jig and a crawler.

It's just something I have confidence in.

I know there's plenty of other ways to catch them, but that's kind of my all-around walleye bait.

It's super versatile.

You can swim it above their heads, jig it on bottom, swim it on bottom, you can just do a lot of stuff with it, and the walleyes really like it, so.

- What you got?

- Should be a big walleye.

I'd like to find out though.

- Need a net?

- It's fighting kind of weird, almost fighting like a smallmouth, it's a nice walleye.

(Jimmy laughing) Potentially.

This isn't even that big of one.

- [Jimmy] Oh, look at that fish.

Wow, look at how yellow he is.

- It is a nice one though.

- [Jimmy] Hold him up there.

- Beautiful walleye.

- [Jimmy] As we moved around the lake looking for walleye, I had Connor explain what he's actually looking for.

- So really just, we're on a big rock pile right now, kind of just scanning the whole area with our electronics and kind of just fishing for single fish that are either suspended or you know, schools, little wolf packs of fish.

That one was suspended by itself, so kind of just, I found that those ones that are suspended by themselves up high nine times out of 10, so that kind of was the deal on that one.

And the one that we lost earlier, that was the same deal there.

So might be a little bit of a pattern of that today.

So we'll find out.

I really hope this is a walleye.

- [Jenny] Going around?

- It's coming up this way.

Coming up, coming up, this way, this way, this way.

Oh my God.

What is this?

If this is a walleye, we have something serious here.

You're gonna have me freaking out on camera.

I just wanna see it.

- [Jimmy] I just wanna see it in your hand.

- [Jenny] We all just want see it.

Easy.

- [Connor] That thing is really bending that rod.

Holy moly.

- Big walleye.

- Yes!

- Oh my word.

- Let's go!

I told you guy, I told you.

- Oh my gosh.

- Oh my God.

- [Jenny] What?

What?

- That is a pig.

- Holy moly.

- [Jimmy] What do you think?

- I told you guys.

(laughs) - [Jenny] What in the world?

- [Jimmy] Oh, that's one of the bigger walleye I've seen.

- Yeah, I told you guys.

- [Jimmy] Well, to say we were a little excited at this monster, well that goes without saying.

It measured just shy of 30 inches and about nine pounds.

To see a fish that big in the UP, wow, this place is pretty special.

- I mean, you know, we have a super condensed season here.

You know, our ice comes out most years, end of April, early May.

And basically, you know, the spring is a shortened season, so you know, those fish will kind of be in their wintering holes, and then all of a sudden just jump up and start doing their spring spawning time thing.

And then the spawn is super condensed and then they'll kind of just be in their summer patterns, you know, till about early to mid-September, and then they'll kind of jump into their fall patterns.

So it's kind of a super condensed season.

The fish are always moving, always doing something.

So the fishing on these lakes changes every single day because these fish are always just changing, doing something.

So it definitely keeps you on your toes.

It definitely keeps things interesting.

Beautiful walleye.

- Nice job, young man.

- Thank you, thank you.

- Beautiful.

- Beautiful walleye.

Seems like a little bit of a, this is like a awesome walleye, but after catching that last one, we're spoiled now.

(bright music) - [Jimmy] Yes, spoiled for sure.

When you head up to the UP, it's always great to get away from the crowds, and of course you hope to find some fish, but to have a night like we were having, well it makes some memories for sure.

- [Connnor] Oh my gosh.

- Beauty.

- Oh my gosh.

- [Jenny] This is insane, Connor.

- Okay, we're just gonna do walleye.

(group laughing) - [Jenny] Wow.

How cool.

- Another beautiful walleye.

Like I said, some of these lakes you can go catch eaters, other lakes like we're on today, you catch, you know, the numbers are lower, but they're all big.

So kind of gotta pick and choose what you want to do.

But that's what we're doing today, and we're having a lot of fun.

- [Jimmy] Well, we were having a lot of fun indeed.

And even though Jenny didn't tie into one of these nice big walleyes, she was finding some fish on the back of the boat.

Jenny O in the back of the boat.

- [Jenny] Number five, right?

Nice little bass.

- [Jimmy] Nice.

Special thanks to Connor for taking us out.

He has been guiding now for just a few years, and I'm sure he'd love to take some new folks out as well.

So if you're looking for a new fishing adventure, head north, then head north some more.

The Keweenaw is waiting for you here at Michigan's out of doors.

- [Connor] Woo!

- Here in Michigan, we are so fortunate to have a population of lake sturgeon living in our waters, and it's always exciting to see those prehistoric creatures up close and personal.

That's exactly what we're gonna do next.

(upbeat music) A few weeks back, I headed to Harrison Township on the shores of Lake St. Clair to spend a day with the DNR fishery's research team.

We'd be heading up into the north channel of the St. Clair River to pull lines they had set the day before for lake sturgeon.

This project has been going on for many years now and provides important information on our sturgeon population here in Michigan.

- So today, we're going out to do our annual lake sturgeon survey on the north channel of the St. Clair River.

We do this every year.

We've been doing it since about 1996, so we've been doing it for roughly 30 years.

So hopefully today we'll go out.

We've got eight set lines out, so hopefully we'll catch some sturgeon today.

- [Jenny] Okay.

Got some guests on board, is that normal too?

- [Andrew] Yeah, so every lift day at least, we've taken guests out this year.

Usually it's about three to four people, so got four guests coming out again today.

- [Jenny] All right, and how has it been so far this season for you?

- It's been about average, so we're averaging a little more than one sturgeon per line, which is kind of typical for the survey.

The last couple days have been pretty good.

We got 11 sturgeon yesterday, 11 sturgeon the day before that, so hopefully get some more sturgeon today.

- [Jenny] Joining Andrew today were captains Brad Utrip and Jeremy Maranowski.

State worker Olivia Irvin and DNR Fisheries technicians Jason Pokin and Stacey Ireland.

Joining as guests today were Taylor Habadank-Fuller from Friends of the St. Clair River who host a sturgeon festival in Port Huron and Jordan Wilson and Samantha Averitt from Sea Life Michigan Aquarium who are involved in the Sturgeon in the Classroom program here in Michigan.

- [Andrew] So when we pull in a set line, first, we pull from the downstream, work our way up, so we'll pull the downstream buoy.

So we'll bring in the downstream buoy that's connected to an anchor.

So we'll bring the anchor up, and then once we get the anchor up, we'll continue pulling the line in with the power lifter and get to the minnow trap.

We'll pull the minnow trap in, which the minnow traps we use to primarily target Northern Madtom, which is another endangered species in Michigan.

So we'll pull in minnow trap in, then we start working in the hook.

So we got 25 hooks on each line.

So we'll pull each hook in, remove that from the line, and if we have a fish on it, the fish gets netted, brought into the boat, and put in a live well.

So we'll keep doing that until we get to the upstream minnow trap and the upstream anchor and buoy line.

- [Jenny] After pulling lines on the first two sets with no fish, the team had success on their third line with the first sturgeon of the day in the boat.

- [Andrew] We caught one juvenile fish, it was little under 40 inches, probably around 35 inches or so, probably an eight to 10-year-old sturgeon.

And it was a recapture, but not tagged by our agency, so it was tagged by US Fish and Wildlife Service.

So they do work also in the St. Clair Detroit River system.

So they probably caught that fish sometime in the St. Clair River and tagged it and released it, and we caught it today.

So hopefully we'll figure out more information on that fish.

We kinda share information with US Fish and Wildlife Service and any fish that we recapture of each other's and we'll share the new information we know on that fish.

We take a small fin clip, we took it from the dorsal fin, and we'll send those samples to Michigan State University.

They'll run genetics on the fish and they'll let us know what sex the fish is.

- [Jenny] Andrew reached out to the Fish and Wildlife Service and got a response right away.

- [Andrew] Yeah, I texted one of the biologists with US Fish and Wildlife Service, and actually one of the stocked fish they stocked in the Maumee River.

So it swam all the way from the Maumee River up here to the north channel of the St. Clair River, and they stocked it in 2018, so it's about a 7-year-old fish.

- Wow.

- Yep, so pretty cool.

- [Jenny] That's a long way to travel.

- [Andrew] Oh yeah, I think that's the second one we've caught from the Maumee River stocking.

So at least a few of them are making their way all the way up here.

- [Jenny] Each fish is handled quickly and carefully and allowed to recover in the onboard tank of river water before being released back into the St. Clair River.

Fisheries tech Stacey Ireland walked us through a typical day on this project.

- So for the first half of our day, we spend the morning picking up eight set lines, and we are currently approaching a buoy where we are picking up the downstream end.

We will pull in some slack of the buoy and then pull up the anchor with the crab hop puller here.

And then once we get to a double knot, then we start hand pulling, and that's where the set lines with the hooks actually are.

And as we pull in the line, we'll be removing the hooks as we go.

If we get a sturgeon on one of the hooks, we will net it as it comes in.

The first thing that comes up is a minnow trap.

With this, we are trying to sample for Northern Madtoms.

We've got one.

Can you put that in the bin behind you, please?

This is a Northern Madtom.

We captured him in our minnow trap that we set on the front and on the back of our set line.

We take total length on our Madtoms, and we also determine the sex of them before they are released back into the river.

We got a fish coming.

- [Jenny] With the second fish of the day on its way in, Andrew talked about the importance of this research project here in the southeast part of the state.

- [Andrew] Lake sturgeon are considered a threatened species in Michigan, so they're about 1% of their historic levels.

So the work we do helps monitor the status of the population in the St. Clair Detroit River system.

So we're lucky that we have a large stable population here.

But the information we get here with our surveys, it helps us manage our population, but also provides information to other systems that maybe have lower population levels and aren't able to handle as many fish as we are.

So all of the tag information that feeds into our population estimates, so whether a fish is a new fish or recaptured fish, it helps us statistically estimate the number of fish in our system.

So right now in the lower St. Clair River, we estimate there's about 7,000 adult lake sturgeon here and another couple thousand juvenile lake sturgeon.

So that's kind of what all this information builds into is helping us refine our population estimates.

- [Jenny] Lots of important information is gathered from each sturgeon as quickly and efficiently as possible to get them back to the river without imposing too much stress on them.

- We're gonna start our process of working up our fish that we captured off of the set line.

The first thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna take a weight measurement.

This is in kilograms.

5.9.

Now we're gonna take a total length measurement.

- 740 for the length.

- So we just scan this using a pit tag reader, which means that it already has one of these pit tags injected into it so we can record what fish is what, it has a specific number.

Because it is a recapture, we have to do a less of a workup than what we would for a freshly new to science fish.

So we are going to take a girth measurement in millimeters.

This is 393.

We are going to take a genetics, or is he good?

- [Fisher] Let's take one just in case.

- [Stacey] We're gonna take a genetics fin clip on this guy and this will help us determine what the sex of the fish is.

And do we need a new tag on him, external?

- Yep, external tag.

- Now we're gonna do an external tag.

This tag goes on his dorsal fin.

11495.

Any fish over 1,000 millimeters gets an external tag.

Now we're gonna check him over for any lamprey marks or any wounds that we see.

We can go ahead and roll him.

Looks good here.

I see no wounds.

Keep rolling.

And he looks beautiful otherwise, there are no split fins, no lamprey wounds.

And now we're gonna put him back in the tank to give him a rest and for recovery.

So right now, we're going to Olivia's reloading our things, our external tags.

All right, now we're gonna work out the larger fish that we captured on this set line.

We're going to go ahead and get a weight on him in kilograms.

This one is 10.3.

Now we're gonna go ahead and do a total length on him, and we're going to scan him for a pit tag.

- [Andrew] So this is a new fish.

- This fish is new to science.

So because he doesn't have a pit tag, we're gonna go ahead and we're going to inject one.

This goes in, gets injected.

Now we're gonna take a girth measurement around in millimeters to see how large around he is.

Total length was 1,207.

We are at 468.

Thank you.

Now we're gonna do an external tag because he is over 1,000 millimeters.

This is gonna go through his dorsal fin.

Tag number is 11496.

We're going to take a genetics clip, and this will tell us definitively what the sex of the fish is.

And now we're gonna go through and we're gonna check him for any lamprey wounds or any other deformities that he may have.

Looks good, give him a roll.

That pepper just has a bump on his right pec fin, and otherwise, he looks great and he can be tanked.

- [Jenny] Many anglers catch sturgeon throughout the year whether they're targeting them or not.

Andrew has some advice on how to handle them for a safe release.

- [Andrew] So as far as handling, so handle a fish as little as possible.

If you do bring it in the boat, don't lift it up.

Like a lot of people might try to lift it up by the gills like they do with other fish species.

Don't do that with sturgeon.

Try to support the weight of the fish with two hands.

But just try to either keep the fish in the water as much as you can or handle it as little as you can and get it in the water as fast as you can.

If it is a tagged fish, try to take a picture of the tag, and you can send the picture back to us.

There's a, on our website, Michigan DNR's website, you can report a fish through there.

- [Jenny] For the last set of the day, the crew let me pull the line while Andrew ran the camera.

We ended up bringing in the biggest fish of the day.

This one had a different style of fin tag, which indicated the Fish and Wildlife Service previously tagged it.

- [Andrew] We recaptured another fish that was tagged by US Fish and Wildlife Service.

That fish was originally caught in a commercial trap net up in Southern Lake Huron in Ontario waters.

So that was back in 2016, and then we recaptured it for the first time today, so about nine years later.

- [Jenny] If my metric conversions are correct, this sturgeon measured 58 inches long with an impressive 26 inch girth and tipped the scales at 60 pounds.

After a quick workup and a group photo with today's visitors, this granddaddy was released back into the river and headed straight back to the bottom.

Now it was time to reset all of the lines.

- [Andrew] So usually first thing, we'll lift all eight lines, and on the way back downstream, we'll reset.

So on the back deck, we have our whole set line laid out.

We got the hooks placed on the line and baited with dead round gobies.

So we use dead gobies as bait.

So we'll collect fish or gobies during our survey work throughout the year and save them, put them in our freezer.

And then other agencies or other DNR offices, they save gobies for us as well.

So putting invasive species to good use.

So when we set, we'll deploy the upstream anchor and buoy, and then the boat captain will just drive downstream and the blind will just neatly come off the back of the boat and then we'll drop in the downstream anchor.

Some fish, they reside in the St. Clair River year round.

But the most common thing is for sturgeon to migrate in in the spring, a lot of them spawn, and then they'll go back, they'll fall back into Lake St. Clair.

So that's the primary movement pattern we see here.

But a lot of the fish that you catch in the fall while people are sturgeon fishing, those are fish that remain in the river year round.

- Special thanks to Andrew and the team for putting in the work and sharing the information on their study to protect and preserve one of our most amazing natural resources here in our great state.

(upbeat music) Thanks so much for joining us this week for "Michigan Out of Doors."

Make sure you come back in upcoming weeks.

Lots of great summertime action headed your way, including some more footage from the Upper Peninsula.

If you'd like to see where we are and what we're up to, you can always check us out online, which is a great place to check out our new apparel as well.

- Well that's right, that new apparel is pretty sweet, as is our new website.

You might want to check that out.

Lots of brand new stuff there that you can look at.

Old episodes and old recipes as well.

And make sure you are joining us on Facebook and Instagram.

Those are probably the best ways to see what we're up to on a day-to-day basis.

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

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.

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(bright music) Closed captioning brought to you by DD 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 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 ♪ 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 Keeweenaw down to Saint George ♪ ♪ Kalamazoo east to Monroe ♪ To Saint Marie and back again ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man (gentle music)