- Well, hey everybody.

Welcome to "Michigan Out of Doors."

Thank you so much for joining us this week.

We are gonna kick things off on this week's show by doing a little hunting.

This past weekend was the youth deer season, and we were able to get out with a father and son team down in the Livingston County area for a great day in the woods.

You won't wanna miss that.

Then we're gonna spend the rest of the show really actually the whole day in the Port of Frankfort where we went out in the morning with a husband and wife team to do a little casting and jigging for coho.

And then we're gonna come back in, do some fish tacos, and head back on the water with good friend Bob Garner.

And I tell you what, we had a great time on the water.

You won't wanna miss that.

And I think we're gonna have time for a bragging board as well on this week's show.

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 ♪ - What a beautiful day in the woods.

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(pensive music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - [Jimmy] This past weekend found me in the garage of Tony and Zane Mezey, getting all our stuff set up for the first night of the youth season.

This is one hunting family with lots of good bucks in the area.

- Oh yeah, those are all my nice ones.

And they're all found around here because I drive a spreader truck on the farm and they're just laying out in the fields when I'm in the springtime.

- [Jimmy] Last year's buck, eh,?

Sheesh.

How far was the shot on this one?

- 200 yards.

- 200.

And what kind of gun were you using?

- 450.

- Nice.

Is that what we're using tonight?

- Yes.

- Good deal.

So you're looking for one close to that tonight, or what are you thinking?

- Hopefully bigger.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

Good deal.

Well, it's good to have big dreams.

We shot a few miles down the road and got set up on a bean field.

All right, boys, well tell me, what are we doing here tonight?

- [Kid] We're gonna go shoot a really big buck.

- [Jimmy] (laughs) Nice.

- Do a little youth hunt.

Loves it every year.

- [Jimmy] Yeah.

And tell me about the farm we're hunting on.

Are we gonna be in the field in the woods?

A little bit of both.

What's the story?

- We're gonna be on the edge of the woods in a little homemade popup blind.

And then the deer should be near the field.

So we'll be on the edge of the woods shooting towards the field at the deer.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

And how old are you, Zane?

- [Zane] 11.

- [Jimmy] So how many years have you been hunting now?

- [Zane] My first deer was three years ago, I think.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

And what do you think about this youth hunt, Dad?

Is it a pretty cool thing?

- [Tony] I love it 'cause it turns him on to deer hunting.

This kid's passionate about it and he looks forward to this hunt.

Then when rifle season comes around, he's up at 4:00 in the morning going hunting with me too.

- Nice.

- Loves it.

- [Jimmy] And tell me, how'd you get into hunting?

Was that something in your family or?

- [Tony] Runs in the family.

My dad, my grandpa taught my dad.

My dad taught me and my brothers, it's just passing on down and he's soaking up all the knowledge from all of us now.

- [Jimmy] Nice.

And so these deer are gonna be close by when they pop in the woods or you don't really know?

- [Tony] 70 to 100 yards out maybe.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

Right in the bean field?

- [Tony] Yep.

That's what we're hoping for.

- [Jimmy] All right.

They've been hitting it fairly good?

- [Tony] Yeah, pretty regularly.

There's a deer out here in the camera every day.

- [Jimmy] Good deal.

Well, once we got settled in, we were seeing deer fairly regularly.

Some in the beans or next to the beans and some were working right to the edge of the field that we were on, giving us a good look at 'em.

We had a small buck early and now had a decent seven point testing us quite a bit.

We waited to see if he would present a good shot or not.

(people whispering indistinctly) Well, as we watched the seven point, coming in from behind him was a very nice nine point.

He was definitely a shooter, but the beans were just high enough to make a shot where he currently stood a bit tricky.

So we waited.

He was on a line to present a good clean shot if he kept moving straight ahead.

The deer was about 130 yards away and Zane had his 450 all set for him.

Now we just hoped that he would give us the shot we were looking for.

- [Tony] Stay on him.

Right there.

(people whispering indistinctly) Soon as you get a clear shot.

Right there.

(gunshot bangs) Gotta feel okay.

Good?

- Yeah, I feel confident.

I think I could see where I hit him.

- [Jimmy] Yeah.

Looked like a good shot.

Walk me through what happened there.

- Well, we're all sitting here not doing much, and I just saw horns bobbing coming across the beans and they steadily getting bigger as they kept coming.

- [Jimmy] And that first one wasn't a bad buck either, but that one's definitely bigger.

We gave the buck a few minutes and we started down the field edge to look for blood.

Not finding any right away we entered the woods and we found the buck.

- See that one big tree right there?

Go right to the bottom.

You can see his belly.

- Oh yeah.

- [Jimmy] Nice job.

- Give him a kick.

- There's blood.

- [Tony] Oh yeah.

- [Jimmy] Look at the size of that.

- [Tony] Turn this way.

Come on, muscle him around here, boy.

Oh ho, that's a nice one.

- Oh man.

Nice job.

- You count there, Zane.

- One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.

- Nine.

- Nice big nine.

- [Zane] So I got a eight, nine, 10.

- [Tony] You can almost count that little one, but no, he's pretty small, but oh yeah.

Moving up one point at a time.

- [Jimmy] So there you have it.

Another successful youth hunt on a great buck.

In some circles, folks think that there shouldn't even be a youth season or they should only be able to shoot does.

In fact, that was the case for a short time here in Michigan.

But that decision was reversed, allowing kids to shoot a buck or a doe.

All I know is this.

Zane loves to hunt and over the past few years has taken some great bucks.

It has instilled in him a love for hunting.

Let's just hope that no matter the season, we can show and teach the next generation that great bucks are fun to shoot, but at the end of the day, time in the woods with family, well that's even better than the trophy on the wall.

Congrats to all the families that were successful this year here at "Michigan's Out of Doors."

(engine rumbling) (light music) Well, once again, congrats to all the families that were successful during the youth season.

We may have a few more hunts coming over the next couple of weeks.

What we're gonna do right now though is head to the port of Frankfort, one of my favorite places in the state, and we're gonna be fishing the entire day, going out in the morning for casting and jigging for some coho, and then trolling for some big kings in the evening with good friend Bob Garner.

It was a great day on the water.

(pensive music) - [Brian] Yep.

(Cheryl laughs) All you do is... - [Jimmy] With a full day of fishing here in Frankfort planned, our morning started with a run north to Platte Bay with Captain Brian and his wife Cheryl.

They were nice enough to let me and Missy tag along today and we had lots of other boats right here at first light.

You got some fish down there though?

- There were a couple that went through.

Still a couple hanging around.

- [Jimmy] You're looking for fish on the graph and then just dropping it on top of 'em?

- Yep.

That's why I love this panoptics.

Alright, there's one.

Alright, that's your jig.

There's her skein.

- [Jimmy] Brian fishes the area quite a bit.

And today the plan was to jig some spoons and some skein and maybe do some casting as well if we were seeing fish surface at all, which we did.

And after a few casts, we had one on the line.

- [Brian] Phew.

Missy reel, if you wanna reel up.

Yep.

We started in Platte Bay, the east part of it, and we scooched in closer to shore and we were casting so we could see 'em porpoising and jumping out there.

And we hooked into a few right there.

Today we tried jigging, we tried some skein, but they're not ready for the skein yet.

And then the casting was the best method in the shallower water.

They start out in the lower part of the state, you know, in the spring.

Then they slowly work their way up, you know, they go from, you know, South Haven, on up, Manistee.

Then they eventually end up here and then their goal is to run up the Platte River and our goal is to catch 'em while they're schooled up, prior to them running up the river.

Cheryl?

- Yeah.

I'm rolling up.

- Ready?

Head first.

Lets scoop 'em.

Scoop 'em.

Good job, Missy!

- Yay!

- Yay!

- Yeah.

- Nice job crew.

(Missy laughs) - Not bad.

- Alright.

- Alright.

- Mr.

Coho.

That's what I said.

When you see him porpoise, you throw your thing on it.

Alright, we'll drop him here.

- [Jimmy] Nice job there, net lady.

- Thanks.

- All right.

Platte Bay coho.

- [Jimmy] There we go.

Let's get a few more.

- All right.

- [Jimmy] I didn't count to see just how many boats were out here, but it was a lot.

And it's a fairly fast and furious bite as well.

Lots of boats moving around, trying to mark a pod of fish and then jig them or cast to them.

But for now, we were at least finding a few.

- Here baby, come up here.

Okay.

Just don't horse it, just gently.

Let me get behind you.

Gotta get behind you.

Step to the left.

Watermelon.

An atomic watermelon spoon.

Aye.

How's he going, baby?

(water splashing) - [Jimmy] Oh no.

We all felt terrible that Cheryl's fish did not quite make it to the boat, but we had another one on right away.

- [Brian] Jimmy move.

Missy, can you grab that?

Get it.

Right over here.

- Just grab that.

- I'm trying to get it.

- [Brian] Underneath him.

Yeah.

- [Missy] Yay.

I have another one.

- [Jimmy] All right!

- Set him right on the ground.

Nice fish.

Another Platte Bay coho.

- [Jimmy] Good deal.

(water splashing) - Oh, you got him.

Too high.

Oh my god.

I got the thing.

Open the bale.

Hold him there.

Yep, got it.

Don't ever reel out that.

- [Cheryl] I didn't, he wasn't fighting.

- [Missy] It's okay.

You didn't lose it.

- [Brian] I netted him just as the hook.

(people laugh) - Good deal.

- Good job, Missy.

- [Jimmy] Well, Brian, gimme a summary.

How are the things going here this morning?

- Well, we're three for four.

It's not hot and heavy.

They're not in here piles, but at least it's better than nothing.

I was here two days ago and there was more pods, but they were deeper.

It's good to see that they're more suspended.

When they're suspended they're more active.

So that's why we switch from the jigging bite to the cast in.

And that's what's produced so far.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

Well that was it for the fishing this morning in Platte Bay, just north of Frankfort.

But we still had a lot planned for the day.

We still had an evening trip to go with Bob Garner and Steve Martin on the MaiHai.

But Brian insisted that we make it back to his place for some fish tacos, which we were more than happy to take him up on.

You may remember a few years back I showed a little bit of Brian and Cheryl's coho caviar recipe and well, that's what we had on the menu back at their house.

Along with the caviar, Brian was pan frying some salmon pieces for his take on salmon tacos, which I have to say were quite good.

And if you want to try this at home, Cheryl said to rinse and re-rinse several times with salt water.

Then let them sit in the fridge for about a week and you're ready to go.

And Brian's fish tacos, well, once they were nice and done, you peel the skin off, break 'em up a little bit and add some toppings.

Skin on?

- Skin on.

Put that side first to make it nice and crispy.

And usually by the time I put all the pieces in, it's time to flip 'em.

- [Jimmy] We had a great time with Brian and Cheryl.

What a great midday treat.

Well, it was time to hit the water again.

So we met up with Jenny and Bob at the marina ready for the evening adventure.

Jenny, Bob, what do we got going on here tonight?

- This is our annual Garner fishing trip out of Frankfort.

Here we are.

It's a little later in the season, but the weather is finally good for us, right?

- Exactly.

And I don't know how the fishing's gonna be because a bunch of cold water just moved in.

So I don't know.

- It's Steve Martin.

He's got this.

- It's Steve Martin.

Yeah.

When you're with Steve Martin, you're fine anyway.

- He's a master at it.

- He is.

He is.

But it's a beautiful day.

- Yeah and normally we have Bob will surprise us with some secret special guest as a surprise that fishes with us.

We have two special guests tonight.

Unfortunately, Jordan can't make it for the first time ever, but Jimmy and I both have our spouses with us.

So it's gonna be a nice, a fun sunset cruise.

Romantic, if nothing else.

- Your main squeeze.

And Kyle, the first mate just walked by with some ice, so I think they're betting the futures market with this.

- [Jimmy] There we go.

- [Bob] All right.

See if we can find some fish.

- [Jimmy] What's the game plan here tonight?

- We're gonna fish pretty close.

The water got cold the last couple days, so we're gonna fish in probably 35 to 50 foot of water right in front of the piers, maybe a little bit south.

See if we can drum some up.

- [Jimmy] So they're staging pretty good.

- Yeah, they're starting to stage.

Last week some came and then we had big north wind for a couple days and now more have run the river.

So we're gonna be working the river mouth for sure.

- [Jimmy] Okay.

And what will the fishing look like over the next two, three weeks, months?

- [Steve] Well, in Frankfort, we have a mix.

We have some cohos come in and also, you know, they'll probably be another wave of kings.

So I think it'll be fine for at least another 10 days or so.

- [Jimmy] After several hours of not much happening, Jenny was up to bat.

Woo-hoo-hoo-hoo.

- Hey, you just ruined all the work I put into this.

The older we get, the more taxing this is.

He has stripped offline probably five or six times.

We see him now though.

(reel whirring) - [Jimmy] There we go.

- We have him on the boat.

- Woo hoo.

- Yeah.

- Whoa.

Nice fish.

- All right.

- [Bob] Nice fish, Jen.

- Kyle, what do you think (indistinct)?

Look at this.

Our annual tradition with Captain Steve and you never disappoint.

- Thank you.

- We haven't seen a net fly out here.

There's a ton of boats and this is the first fish we've seen and it's a dandy.

- It's a nice one.

- Beautiful.

- Right there, Kyle, right there.

- [Jimmy] Well, like Jenny said, we were happy to have our spouses on board tonight and my wife Missy was next up, and we were hoping for another big king.

(reel whirring) Still going.

- It's not happy.

- [Jimmy] You doing good, bub.

(water splashing) In the net?

- All right.

- Woohoo.

- Wooh!

Yeah!

- [Jimmy] Oh, nice job young lady.

- Thank you.

- [Jimmy] Well, Matt was up next and after several hours of no fish, they were really starting to go here, just outside of the pier heads.

And as we did battle the fish Bob talked a little bit about the TV show over the past several years.

- Well, this, this is one of the great shows because women are involved too, and having you and Missy here, that's always a lot of fun.

But I think the most important thing is it was 74 years ago that Morton F started this.

And since then the show has always been about the people of the great old state of Michigan.

You know, the hunting and fishing, the wildlife, the fish, they're great, but it's always a show about people.

And I still think that's what made this the most successful outdoor show in the history of outdoor television.

- [Jimmy] Bob, much like all those that came before him, did all they could to keep the show going over the many years and stay current with all the changing technologies.

But at the end of the day, he is so right.

It's about the people you're with and telling their stories.

- [Missy] What's going on, bub?

- Well, the shadows are getting long and the fish are starting to hit.

So this is number?

What do we got?

Three in the box.

So hopefully, if I don't screw this up, and this fish's coming at me, we'll get another one in here.

These are big nice kings.

Okay.

(water splashing) Nope, nope.

Need the roger.

Okay,.

- [Missy] There we go.

- Woo.

- Woohoo.

- Nice fish.

- I like that.

Ta-daa - He really showed some.

- Oh my God.

- I think you've got bigger.

- Wow.

Angry.

- Nice, big king.

Nice job, captain.

One of the many things I have appreciated about Bob is all he has done for myself and Jenny and our crew over the years.

He could have very easily made it tough for those that came after him, but just the opposite.

He consistently goes out of his way to help us in any way that he can.

Good scoop.

(group cheering) - [Bob] Broke that streak.

- [Kyle] See, that wasn't so bad.

There we go.

Very nice.

- Thank you.

Thank you everybody for letting me catch one.

All right.

- Thank you, Bobby.

- This is great.

- [Jimmy] With the sun setting.

We were about to pull lines, but of course this is the best time of the night, and so we had a few more fish to reel in.

- Well, trying to catch up.

- [Steve] Easy when you catch up to 'em.

All people would like to yank and then they just break.

- [Jenny] Oh, I was trying to go fast just to get the slack out.

- [Steve] Are you ready?

(water splashing) - [Kyle] Oh yeah.

Just extra mad.

- [Jenny] Holy moly.

He is crazy.

Cooler for a fish.

Woohoo.

- Gotta give myself a break.

- [Jimmy] May be your last fish of the night.

(reel whirring) (water splashing) - Woohoo.

- Got him.

- Holy cow.

- Good scoop.

- [Kyle] Good job.

- [Missy] Look at that king!

- Another boy.

- Another guy.

- [Jenny] He's strong.

- Well, the night was perfect.

On the fishing side we stayed in shallow all night and caught stuff on everything we had down from spoons and flies to Downriggers and Dipseys.

The last few hours were pretty fast and furious and Kyle, the first mate made short work of the fish and we had plenty to go around.

Thanks to Bob for not only making this trip happen, but for being such a supporter of the TV show and all those that came after him as we try to keep the show alive and well, right here in "Michigan's Out of Doors."

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

If you missed part of this week's show or if you wanna see something again, you can always check us out online, Michiganoutofdoorstv.com is where you can find us there.

And lots of good stuff on that website as well as some new merch that we've got out there you might wanna check out.

Make sure you are checking us out over the next several weeks though we have been out in the woods doing some bear hunting, some small game hunting.

The deer seasons are right around the corner.

And I tell you what, there's just so much happening right now in the state of Michigan.

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

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- [Announcer] Closed captioning brought to you by Double D Ranch Foundation, a nonprofit 501C3 foundation, working to make hunting and fishing accessible for those with disabilities.

(upbeat music) ♪ When I wander far away ♪ A dream stays with me night 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 tailed deer in the tall pine trees ♪ ♪ I am a Michigan man ♪ I am, I am a Michigan man ♪ It's where I'm from and I'll show you my hand ♪ (gentle music)