Making the most of Michigan’s steelhead limit
Jim Romine holds a steelhead he caught on a recent outing on the St. Joseph River. He and the author have been fishing the spring steelhead run around the state together for many years.
Should there be a slot limit for Saginaw River walleyes in Michigan?
Michigan’s newest fishing opportunity – keeping walleye season open year-round at the lower end of the Saginaw River – is a hit. Anglers have been flocking to the river during what used to be a six-week closed period and they’re catching plenty of fish.
I checked it out one day recently with veteran charter skipper Brandon Stanton and though it started slowly – the weather was brutal when we started, less than 20 degrees and the wind howling like James Brown – by the time we quit, mid-afternoon, three of us had put our limits (eight apiece) in the boat.
Michigan will increase its rooster release in 2023
The Department of Natural Resources plans to triple the budget for the pheasant release program this fall compared to 2022.
The birds will be supplied and distributed by Michigan Association of Game Bird Breeders and Hunting Preserves, as they have in the past. The plan is to release birds twice a week at most game areas in the program during the early part of the season (Oct. 20 to Nov. 14) and once a week during the December season. Releases will be random, not on a set schedule.
Some of Michigan’s biggest bucks from 2022 on display at Big Buck Night East
Big Buck Night, put on by Michigan Out-Of-Doors television, is always one of the hits of the annual Outdoorama sports show. It typically follows a predictable format: The hosts bring a dozen or so folks up to the stage, starting with the smallest of the big bucks, leading up to the best rack at the show.
Michigan DNR Fisheries chief Jim Dexter stepping down
After more than 35 years with the Department of Natural Resources, Fisheries Division Chief Jim Dexter is pulling the plug. He plans to retire in April – “the day before the trout opener,” he said – a date that he says was “strategically chosen.”
A 1983 graduate of Michigan State University, Dexter held a series of temporary fisheries jobs at state and federal agencies and universities before joining the Indiana DNR in 1985 as a fisheries technician.
Trip to Mullet Lake salvages what has been a tough hard-water season in Michigan
Mullet Lake saved my season. With no safe ice anywhere around where I live, I suspect that river fishing – steelhead and walleye – are on the docket for the next little bit.
Michigan conservation groups oppose expansion to National Guard base
A proposed expansion to Camp Grayling National Guard Base in the northern Lower Peninsula, which would more than double the size of the military training reservation, is under fire from conservation groups concerned about potential effects on natural resources as well as public access to the state land. The proposal would add 162,000 acres to military reservation.
Michigan gains detailed data from mandatory online deer reporting
Last year hunters killed about 400,000 deer. If the 2022 season was similar, that means roughly 75% of the deer killed were registered.
Steelheading warms a wintery day on Michigan’s Pere Marquette River
I fish out of Pere Marquette River Lodge as often as I can, so when proprietor Frank Willets called recently and said he had a day off (he and his top-notch crew of guides are often booked for months straight) and invited me to join him and his buddy Rob Spurgis for a mid-January float, well, how could I refuse?.
