- Hello, everyone.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

I'm Jenny Ciolek, and we've got a great show headed your way this week.

Jimmy's gonna take us down to Lake Erie, fishing for walleyes with some veterans in one of our nation's biggest events of its kind.

You won't wanna miss that story.

And we've got some other interesting information headed your way on this week's show.

- Well, that's right, Jenny.

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

We're gonna sit down with a Lansing insider and get some information about some proposed legislation that could affect you as sportsmen and women.

We'll have that for you.

And we're gonna have time for a walleye recipe as well.

Lots of good stuff, you stay tuned.

I'm Jimmy Gretzinger.

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.

♪ Someday our children all will see ♪ ♪ This is their finest legacy ♪ The 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.

♪ - [Narrator 1] "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.

Holiday gift boxes can be assembled in store or online.

Details at countrysmokehouse.com.

By Great Lakes Firearms and Ammunition, a family-owned and operated firearm manufacturer in Sparta, Michigan.

Offering a wide variety of calibers and colors backed by a lifetime warranty.

More information available at glfallc.com.

By True North Services, offering full service land management for residential and commercial property.

From overgrown acreage to wooded lots to shooting lanes, True North services include cleaning and leveling for the next step.

Information and quotes available at truenorthsurfaceslm.com.

(sparks crackling) (gun fires) (dramatic music) - [Jimmy] Just a few weeks back, the largest veteran fishing event here in our country happened in Southeast Michigan.

Vets with Nets is quite a thing with some great folks putting it all together.

- So today we got a meet and greet party for the 8th annual Vets with Nets.

We got 340 veterans and around 160 some boats going fishing in the morning.

Today is when they all coordinate where they're meeting, where they're gonna go fishing in the morning, their plan for going out and having a good time.

We also had a pig roast.

We smoked up about I think 170 pork butts for pulled pork today.

Probably serving about 1,000 plates of food.

So 1,000 plates of food, meet and great party, and a big old fishing event tomorrow.

- [Jimmy] A big old fishing event indeed.

We were on Moody Talb's boat today.

We met up early in the morning and headed over to the official sendoff of the 179 boats that were loaded with veterans from around the Midwest.

(national anthem playing) ♪ And the home of the brave - The fishing leading up to the event had been solid with lots of fish, but today the conditions were spotty at best.

Quite a few boats turned around as the waves were building throughout the morning, but we were determined to get some lines in the water.

- [Moody Talb] Well, we're running.

We got jets out with Michigan Stinger Spoons.

- First fish.

- And we got the first fish just hooked up.

Joe's got one over there on the starboard side we got one coming in.

We're running them down about 15 feet.

So we'll see what we got here.

- [Jimmy] What's these conditions for you?

- These are absolutely horrible conditions.

What we got?

We got a walleye.

Hold on.

Back up a little bit.

- Take two steps back.

- And he's in the net.

First fish of the day.

Nice job, Adam.

- All right, Adam.

- First fish of the day.

And as you can see with these fish, guys, look where the spoon's at.

It's laying in the bottom of the net.

Any slack you let in these lines, when we hook up a fish, the fish will come unbuttoned every time.

So Adam did a great job there keeping that line nice and tight because the treble hook fell right out of their mouth.

- [Jimmy] Oh, that's a good one.

- But there's our first keeper walleye in the box.

- All right.

- 15 inch minimum here.

- [Angler] I'll have a walleye sandwich.

- Somebody's gonna have a sandwich tonight.

- [Jimmy] We had three vets with us today and we were hoping to get them some fish.

This event has been going for eight years now and has become, as best we can tell, the largest veteran fishing event in the country, if not the world.

With about 400 vets taking part, it is a pretty special way to say thank you for their service.

And despite the conditions, we were finding a few fish.

- [Moody Talb] Keep coming, keep them coming.

- Yeah, two fish.

- Heck yeah.

Look at that, boys.

That's what we're looking for.

- [Joe] Well, it's not the best conditions for Lake Erie, but for five foot rollers, makes it uncomfortable fishing, but we're running Jet Divers 40 jets with Silver Streak spoons anywhere from 35 to 45 back.

And it's been a slow pick for us.

Only three fish so far.

- You guys did well yesterday.

- Yeah, yester- Should have been here yesterday.

We got our 40 fish yesterday.

- Nice.

- It's the way it goes.

- [Jimmy] How long you been doing this Vets for Nets thing?

- How many years, it's been eight years, so I haven't done it all eight years, but been helping out the last few years.

It's a great tremendous event.

The largest get together for Vets for Nets in the nation.

So it's an awesome awesome event.

Can't thank these guys enough for everything they've sacrificed and our freedom is thanked to all these veterans, having 400, about 400 people out here today, I think they said.

- Awesome.

- Condition's been tough today.

Three, four foot with the occasional five-foot wave has made it pretty hard.

We just came back down and got reset, got all our lures back out.

Moved in a little bit.

We're in about 22, 23 feet of water.

Getting good marks about 15 feet.

So we've got our lures set just above their heads, because as everyone knows, walleye feed up.

We're gonna give it one slide here.

It's what, nine, 9:30?

9:20 in the morning.

So we wanna be back around 11:00 for these veterans that can enjoy the afternoon events and we get ready for our flyby this afternoon, which is gonna be pretty cool.

- [Jimmy] Some of the veterans on our boat had been here before and they were happy to take part again.

- Found out through Facebook.

- Oh, really?

- Yes, sir.

I'm on a lot of different veteran organization pages through Facebook and stuff like that.

- Okay, and what service were you in?

- I was in the Army.

I served with Third Brigade, 187th Infantry Regiment, Rakkasans.

- [Jimmy] Nice.

And how many years were you in?

- I did six years.

- Wow.

- And then three paid vacations.

Two trips to Iraq, another one to Afghanistan.

- [Jimmy] Wow.

Thank you for your service.

- Thank you for your support, sir.

- I've been involved with this for the past seven years.

And then a couple years before that we had Perching with Patriots, the disabled American veterans out of Monroe.

We had a program and then about seven years ago they kinda joined with Vets with Nets.

And so I've been here almost every year, except for one tour overseas in 2021.

I missed that year, but- - [Jimmy] And what branch of the service are you in?

- [Will] Army.

- [Jimmy] And how long were you in?

- 31 years total.

- 31 years.

- [Will] Yeah, four combat tours and retired.

I was a Chief Warrant Officer 4 as an engineer.

- [Jimmy] Wow.

Well, thanks for being here and thanks for your service.

- [Will] Absolutely, absolutely.

Thank you.

- [Jimmy] Saying thank you to our veterans with a day of fishing is a great thing for sure.

And it was pretty special today that we had Adam on board along with his grandfather, John Lilly, a Marine who served for four years as well.

The outdoors is a great way to bring folks together and this event is really top-notch.

As the day rolled on, the activity back at the marina was picking up as well.

A giant fish fry was in the works.

And how many fish do you need to serve 400 vets and have it open to the public?

Well, let's just say a lot.

- Today was pretty sporty out there.

We had some wind going on.

We had a lot of guys that came in with limits of fish though.

I think we got plenty of fish there caught for the whole event.

Today's been going really well so far.

We're on schedule and things are moving smooth.

- [Jimmy] How many people are cutting fish over there?

- [Todd] We got volunteers that'll rotate on shifts all the way through cutting fish.

I think we're probably, by the end of the day, we'll end up playing probably close to 3,000 walleye today.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

So there's guys that are going on two hour shifts just over and over and over.

Yeah, we put a lot of time and effort into the prep work of this event.

Now that it's up and running, I'm getting to enjoy all the work from all the prep work that we put into it.

It's turning out to be a great day.

- [Jimmy] Well, thanks for all you do.

- [Todd] Thank you, I appreciate you guys.

- What a day.

The festivities ran most of the afternoon and lots of filets hit the grease thanks to all who made it happen.

Just another example of sportsmen and women giving back here in Michigan's Out of Doors.

(engine rumbling) All right, we're here today with Bill Jackson.

Bill works with conservation groups, really for the last, what, 10 or 15 years?

- Yeah, going on 15 years now.

- Explain a little bit about who you work with, who you work for, and what you represent when you're in Lansing.

- Yeah, absolutely.

Thanks for asking.

I appreciate you being here today.

So I'm with the firm of McAlvey Merchant & Associates.

We're what's known as a multi-client lobby firm.

And I've had the benefit ever since I joined the firm of working in the conservation with hunting and anglers groups starting with the MUCC 15 years ago.

- Okay.

- I work with Michigan Hunting Dog Federation, Michigan Bear Hunters, UP Bear Houndsmen, and the newly formed Michigan Anglers Consortium.

- Okay.

And there's quite a few different things that are going through the legislature, or going to be going through.

We just thought we'd talk to you, kind of an expert in the field.

Talk with us about what's going on.

I know it's not just the Detroit River, but there's some possibility of commercial licenses being sold in and around bodies of water that don't have any, just kind of where we're at with some of that, what should be- - Yeah.

So when you look at commercial fishing in the Great Lakes back into the 60s, right, 1960s, not 2060s, but the 1960s, we had a fish population that was really decimated, you know, by a lot of different factors.

And at that time, the state of Michigan chose to shift the management of the fishery towards sport fish and the recreational anglers.

We restocked, and rebuilt, and restored the walleye population, the lake trout population, and introduced obviously salmon to the Great Lakes.

- Mm-hmm.

- That effort was primarily done through hunter and angler dollars that comes through excise tax on fishing and bait and tackle.

It comes a little bit of the money that we pay for fishing licenses, all goes into restoring the Great Lakes and those fish populations for the recreational angler.

Since the '60s, our commercial anglers or commercial fisherman operation have not had the opportunity to harvest walleye, perch or lake trout really because the population's couldn't and still can't withstand that type of pressure.

- Okay.

- [Bill] House bills 5801 and 5802 along with updating regulations in commercial fishing, which haven't been updated since really, the middle of the last century.

- Wow.

- It needs to be updated.

Would, for the first time since the middle of last century, offer to commercial anglers and netters the opportunity to harvest those same game species that the recreational angler has paid to restore.

So it would give them the opportunity to harvest walleye, lake trout and perch.

- [Jimmy] Stuff that we have been paying over the years to stock and put, okay.

- Absolutely, absolutely.

- And where are those?

Are they close to being done?

Are they still in committee?

Kind of where, where is that at?

- Yeah, so they've been introduced in the house committee.

- Okay.

- They're in the House Natural Resources committee.

If we all remember our schoolhouse rock, right?

So it goes to committee first.

- Okay.

- That's where the bills are at right now.

There was a hearing.

- Do you know the song?

Can you sing the song?

- I could probably sing the song, but no one wants to hear me carry that tune today.

(Jimmy laughs) So they are in the house committee.

There was one set of it was a, kind of a real initial hearing that was held where we heard definitely from a commercial fisherman, we heard from the DNR, we heard a little bit from the sport angler community so.

- Okay.

- As of right now, we don't know that they're scheduled for a vote, but we're being very vigilant to make sure they're not.

- And so that would go through the house first and then it would have to go to the Senate after that?

- Yep, yep.

So it would have to be voted out to committee, go to the floor of the house where we'd have to then get 56 votes or more- - Okay.

- To move out of the House and into the Senate and then we'd go through the whole process again.

- Okay.

- So the good news is one of the things we've seen, and it's a bit of a new phenomenon, is because of the efforts of the recreation sport angling community.

- Yeah.

- We've actually seen members who had put their name on the bill ask to have it removed.

- Oh, really, okay.

- So we've had almost 10 members of the House, after they kind of got to know both sides said, "Hey, you know what?

I can't support these bills, take my name off."

So that's kind of a new thing.

- Okay.

- And again, that's because of that angler community that's out there said, "Hey, wait a minute.

We're not sure this makes sense."

- Okay.

And speaking of the angling community, there's a new group that is formed or forming here in the state of Michigan.

And really they're hoping to see some changes made in the way we fund the fisheries.

Can you tell me a little bit about that and maybe the partner side of that, would be the hunting thing, but primarily the fishing?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So that's the Michigan Anglers Consortium.

- Okay.

- It's a new organization that is forming, absolutely.

And we're proud to work with them.

And they're really looking to bring the angling community, the recreational angling community together under a single umbrella, and really make that voice loud and known in Lansing, where maybe the angling community hasn't had that voice in the past.

And they've worked very closely with representatives in the Michigan House, including State Representative Curt VanderWall, who is the lead sponsor on those bills.

And it looks at funding fisheries different.

And I think it's one of those areas that not only does it put some additional dollars into the fisheries, it actually dedicates fishing licenses to fisheries.

- Okay.

- So right now, if you go buy a fishing license today, there's nothing that says X number of dollars has to stay in fisheries management.

- Okay.

- So for the first time ever, we would set a floor, if you will, that says, you know, "Hey, X number of dollars has to stay in the fisheries, has to stay in the hatcheries.

It has to be managing our world-class fishery here in Michigan."

And that's really the first time we've seen that.

- And most people probably think, me included, that just seems like a no-brainer that your money from your license would go right to working with the fisheries.

- Well, and that is the heart of our user pay model, right?

I mean, the whole idea behind buying a fishing license and then going into, you know, fishing, that absolutely should be the case, but it's not.

It goes into what's known as the Game and Fish Fund.

So the same fund that your deer license goes into and any other hunting license that you might buy goes into that Game and Fish Fund.

And then the money is sort of divvied up, if you will, between the wildlife management and habitat and fisheries management.

- So they're taking the fishing side of it first, I guess, but there's a hunting component to that as well, but are there separate bills?

- There are.

So in the House right now, we're looking at just fishing, but there is a set of bills known as Senate Bills 276 and 277 that deals with both hunting and fishing licenses.

That was passed out of the Senate on a bipartisan basis late last year.

- Okay.

- And has been waiting for a committee hearing in the House.

And the House, this time is sort of taking up 5093 in committee.

We've had our hearing waiting for a vote.

That would deal with the fishing side of things first.

- Okay.

- We anticipate because legislatures, when they take on big issues like this, they wanna kinda deal with it on a big issue.

And so I think you'll see them at some point in time come together between the House and the Senate and use the best parts of 5093, and the best parts of 276 and 277 and give us one big panacea solution that fixes our hunting and fishing license fees.

- Well obviously that's something we've been talking about for years and will continue, but one of the things, it's kind of interesting to me with this new fishing group that's kinda started, it kinda, I think in some ways mimics, not mimics, but I guess kinda the idea of what MUCC was all about.

- Yes.

- Trying to be that umbrella organization.

I worked for MUCC for a while, you've worked with them for a while.

Them now dissolving here in the state of Michigan, are we seeing some other groups that may step up to cover some of those bases or kinda where are we at with that?

- It's funny you ask that question.

There's not a day that goes by that I don't have a conversation with someone about what's the next MUCC or what's that next umbrella group?

- Okay.

- I think there are several efforts that are going on out there.

I think obviously, losing an organization with MUCC's heritage going back 90 years and a group that was formed, you know, really the fill a void, right?

- Yeah.

- It's a shame to see it go, but you know, things happen.

- Yeah.

- I personally think there's a need.

I think a lot of groups that are out there think there's a need.

And I think there's a lot of conversations about getting it right.

- Well, special thanks to Bill for sitting down with us and giving us some good information.

We will keep you posted as those bills move along that process so that you can be as informed as you can be.

And since we caught some walleye in this week's episode, we thought we'd bring you a very good walleye recipe.

(gentle music) Well, here we are once again, Mt.

Pleasant, Michigan Wood Shop Social, Jim Wood, chef extraordinaire.

It's that time of year where a lot of us, we're getting down the Detroit River to catch walleye.

We got a walleye filet here.

What are we doing with it, Jim?

- So we're gonna do, I'm gonna call it a Greek style dish.

- Which that means what?

- Well, we just include a lot of Greek ingredients, oregano, sun-dried tomatoes, kalamata olives.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

- We're using actually some asparagus because we're getting into asparagus season so.

- Nice.

- Its sauce is also kind of a side.

- Okay.

So we're gonna cook the walleye and then we're gonna do a sauce after?

- Yeah, we'll clean the pan out and then we'll make the sauce.

- Okay, so how do we get started?

Is that a Panko thing over there or is that?

- That's potato flour.

- Potato flour.

- Now, you can use regular flour.

The only reason I'm using it, is we happen to have it.

- Okay.

- And it's a lot crispier than your normal flour.

- Okay.

- So we're gonna add a little bit of oil to the pan.

That oil has a higher smoke point so we can get away with a little butter as well.

(pan sizzling) And then we're gonna salt the fish.

Add a little bit of oregano to the fish.

We're gonna flour just the one side.

- Just the one side.

- Just the presentation side and then we're gonna hit it with a little more salt.

And then we're gonna go right into the pan.

(pan sizzling) - Pretty simple.

- Yeah.

Don't wanna complicate things too much.

I mean, at the end of the day, the star of the dish is the walleye.

- Okay.

- So we don't wanna- - Now why'd you just do the bread at the one side?

- That's the presentation side.

We're gonna try to go for crispiness.

The bottom will just get, that flour's just gonna absorb all the sauce and it's pointless.

Since we're serving the sauce on the bottom, none of it goes on the top, doesn't make it soggy, and the bottom will just become soggy with the flour on it.

- Okay, huh.

- [Jim] There's sometimes a method to my madness.

- Yeah, well.

- Doesn't always work out.

- I can see that.

Okay, what are we gonna do for our sauce here, Jim?

- So we're gonna sweat some onion down first.

(pan sizzling) And like I said, this is a sauce, but it's also a side.

We're gonna layer the flavor, so we're gonna salt that onion first.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

- [Jim] Now, we've got some fresh garlic.

Just kinda cook that until you can smell it.

- Hm.

- We got some asparagus.

Got some sun-dried tomatoes that we diced up.

(pan sizzling) Now we're gonna de-glaze a little bit of white wine.

(pan sizzling) - [Jimmy] Man, does that smell good.

- All right, as you can see, we've reduced a good chunk of the white wine.

- Okay.

- And we'll add a little bit of stock.

Fish stock is the best.

I'm just using a really light chicken stock right here for now.

And then we'll ad a little bit of cream.

So we've reduced this down.

We add a little bit of kalamata olive.

And that's gonna add a nice little briny element to the dish.

- Hm.

- We've got some whole basil leaves here.

With something like this, it's kind of almost like a Florentine style dish.

You might, you can use spinach, but I really like the flavor that the basil brings.

- Hm.

- So we're just gonna break those down a little bit.

Then we've got some fresh dill, which obviously goes really well with fish.

And then we're gonna mound some fresh butter in there.

- [Jimmy] And what are we calling this dish?

- Greek walleye.

- Greek walleye.

Oh, wow.

There's a lot going on there.

- Yeah, there is.

It's not too acidic.

The butter and the cream help balance out all that from the- - Super good.

- White wine, the sun-dried tomatoes.

Get the salt.

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

Make sure you stick around in upcoming weeks because we've got a lot of great things headed your way.

We'll take you fishing for musky on Lake St.

Clair.

We'll head up to Tawas, chasing after some walleyes up there.

Lake Michigan, of course, for some of those silverfish and everything in between.

If you'd like to see us on a more daily basis and maybe some behind the scenes information about the show, you can always do that online.

- Well, that's right, Jenny.

Online is a good way to see what we're doing.

Instagram and Facebook are probably the best two ways to do that.

Make sure you are getting out and enjoying 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.

- [Narrator 1] Michigan Out of Doors is presented by.

- [Narrator 2] Get away from it all to your own place.

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.

GreenStone.

- [Narrator] By Morgan Composting, a family business located in Michigan.

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.

By Saab, providing defense and civil security products and services for over 85 years and now part of the Grayling community with our new advanced munitions facility.

Career opportunities are available.

More information at saabinc.com.

By GreenMark Equipment.

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

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

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

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) ♪ When I wander far away ♪ The 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 ♪ ♪ White tail deer in the tall pantries ♪ ♪ 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 St.

Marie and back again, 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 ♪ ♪ Mitch-i-ga-mee (bright music)