Outdoor Magazine Radio (3:2:24)

We’re kicking off the new month with some great guests and conversation this week on Outdoor Magazine radio.
First, Brandon Korthals of Buck Wild Charters talks about trolling the Saginaw River for big, pre spawn pike.
Then, Bob Hinds from Central Coast Angling has details on burbot fishing in northern Michigan.
The hour wraps up with Ben Nielsen of Showspan talking about their big Grand Rapids show to wrap up the season.
Hour two features Pat Patsalis from Hook One Charters. Pete talks about springtime fishing on the St. Clair River and the process of buying a new fishing boat.
Rich Chrzan of Killer Food Plots wraps up the hour with great advice on putting in plots.
Jimmy Gretzinger from Michigan Out of Doors TV kicks off the third hour this week. Jimmy discusses the world of outdoor television today and talks about some hot issues in Michigan.
The show wraps up with Chef Dixie Dave Minar. This week, it’s a very nice fish recipe.

Time now for Michigan’s number one outdoor radio show Mike Avery’s outdoor magazine Mike Avery has covered the outdoors in Michigan for more than four decades and that tradition continues today outdoor magazine is brought to you by J Sporting Goods the Ider Insurance Group angler Quest pontoons the forward Corporation Primal outdoors security

Credit union offshore tackle Garber Chevrolet Rapid River knif Works and by Michigan bran meets now here’s Mike Avery well thank you Ken Hunter for that introduction and welcome to another edition of the outdoor magazine radio show right here on the outdoor magazine radio network on more more than 30 radio stations across the great state of Michigan and so glad to have you along

With us how are you did you enjoy that nice weather when it was here boy it was nice there for a while wasn’t it mother nature just doesn’t know what she wants to do this year she’s been all over the place as you are hearing this show now

It is the month of March does March come in like a lion we’re like a lamb this year and what does that mean for the rest of the late winter early spring it just hasn’t felt much like winter it’s felt more like spring hasn’t it the Redwing blackbirds are back at

The Avery house on the pond behind the house I’ve been waiting to hear him waiting to hear him didn’t hear him didn’t hear him looked out the back window the other day and there’s a Redwing Blackbird sting in sitting in the tree in the backyard next to the

Pond couldn’t get a picture of it but I did next time I I walked outside I heard him back there and I thought ah here we go skunks have been active Redwing blackbirds are back it’s March but in those last few days of February I was able to get out on the

Open Water of sagona Bay and the sagona river I told you I was jonesing I said I got to get out there and go fishing my angler Quest is shrink shrink wrapped at lywood Beach Marina what am I going to do I don’t have a river boat I don’t have a smaller

Boat but I got friends and I know people so I called Captain Mark panac of real fishing I said Mark can I book you for a half day Charter can we do a combo trip can we do a a skinny Water trip trolling and a jigging the Sagen river

Trip can we do that are you available that day he says yeah yeah yeah I’m available let’s go fishing and then I say booked him but later on I tried to pay him and he didn’t want to let me pay him but I did anyway I I think you know when these

Captains like like for like for charity auctions too like for our Trinity event keep in mind that even if you are getting a donated trip there’s still time involved in this there’s fuel there’s wear and tear on the boat and equipment and there’s the captain’s time

So make sure you take care of these people I mean they love to fish but it’s also their job right so take care of them anyway we went out of the launch at the mouth of the sagona river and turned left out into the bay and didn’t go far

And we fished the same skinny water that I fished in the summertime but it was February and it wasn’t that bad it was chilly but it wasn’t bitter and we hit a window of opportunity where the wind wasn’t bad the conditions were beautiful so we put out Bandits behind offshore boards 10 feet

Behind the boards this is the style of fishing that I love but I usually don’t get to do it until the summertime why do I love this type of fishing because number one I like trolling I like trolling skinny water I like running it’s close to the

Boards and I found out I like trolling this time of year because there are no weeds out there there’s no junk there’s no anything else it’s just clean water and fish and we had a great time now we did only get one nice fish in that skinny

Water we got one other bite didn’t hook up but this was about a well Mark says it’s a 4 pound fish great big belly on it big pre-spawn fish Captain Mark says it’s a 4pb fish I said said you know by the time I tell this story on the air

It’s probably going to be an 8lb fish well there’s a picture of it online so I can’t call it an8 pound fish but it was a good solid fish so we trolled out there for a while and said you know I said Mark I really want to get up the

River and do some jigging he said let’s go so we go up the river along with a couple of hundred other boats because again it was a beautiful day it was warm there was a little bit of wind the wind started to pick up and that was fighting

Our drift but still it was great um I love to jig I love my trolling but I like jigging there’s something about having that rod in your hand when a fish hits but what I was reminded while fishing that day with Mark is that I don’t jig

Fish enough anymore to be really any good at it I used to have a pretty good pretty good feel you know I I really had it down I felt like I had pretty pretty good technique I could feel every bite I didn’t miss many fish but I just don’t

Do it enough anymore these days to be really very good at it so marks up in the front of the boat catching fish left and right and I’m in the back of the boat catching a few fish got a lot of small fish a couple more Keepers in the river

And Mark took a jumbo perch up in there as well but it was just a wonderful wonderful experience to be out there on the water trolling fishing the River open water in February man so thank you Mark I appreciate that also thank you Mark for Captain Mark

Panac for uh donating a trip for our Trinity monitor Wild game dinner and auction a fundraiser for our uh Church in school now depending on when you hear this radio show the event may be getting ready to kick off or it may have already happened so I’m at a little bit of a

Disadvantage there but I just I feel that it’s going going to be that it was another successful event I think God has blessed this event since the beginning we’ve been very fortunate we’ve had a lot of good people involved we’ve had a lot of people who have helped donate to the

Cause to make this happen and I I want to mention just just a few of them here and if I miss somebody I’m so sorry because I can’t I can’t thank everybody but just people that I directly deal with and people that I directly reached out to Lynwood Beach Marina thank you

Appreciate that Lynwood taxor me Scott thank you very much Mike H of Mike’s Tire Sales in coand I told you Mike bought a trip with Captain panac and then he donated it to the Trinity event and I had actually forgotten about this until Mark reminded me on the water

So Mike Mike Mike Hampton thank you Mike’s tier sales Michigan brand meets Michigan brand products for a year how cool is that Johnny bowler the bear whisperer donated hunting and fishing trips Matt shock a predator hunting trip thank you Craig Plowman Craig is all over this and he dominated so much we

Appreciate Craig Captain Doug Ward uh a walleye fishing trip on Sagen Bay up by uh a gry up in that beautiful deep clear crystal water uh Mark panac I’ve mentioned Paul Schley of Riverside charters of Manistee a salmon fishing trip Gary Morgan of wild game Dynasty a thre day guided

Michigan turkey hunt Schwab Farms a a youth hunt Scott hand a youth hunted his place it it’s just been um Wonder ful seeing how people have come together to work for a good cause and I am um I am and was blessed to be a part

Of it so thank you everybody who helped out on that now we do have a couple of more events coming up we’re going to do another Wednesday Night Live at the Lumberjack restaurant in westbranch that is going to be Wednesday night March 20th at The Lumberjack I love The

Lumberjack it’s a forward Corporation Lumberjack restaurant and it is the perfect perfect venue well especially now that Dixie Dave is retired and he’s not in the Old Dixie in restaurant you know his restaurant anymore Oscar and Joey as it was called uh The Lumberjack is the perfect place to have such an

Event Wednesday March 20th call for reservations 989 343 0892 9893 430892 uh oh one more thing I want to talk about March 5th I think that’s Tuesday that is would be Fred bear’s birthday now they’re having a a Fred Bear Day celebration over the weekend in

Gring but when I saw this it reminded me that you know what what a what an icon he was in Michigan and how fortunate I was to get a chance to meet the guy so I was going through some old video the other day and I came across

Once again the I call it it’s on YouTube The Lost quote fredbear interview some people read that as the last interview and they said Avery it wasn’t the last interview we ever did I said I didn’t say it was the last I said it was

The lost the interview that I lost so I actually found the raw video from that and there there is more b-roll we call it there is no more of the interview with Fred that is all online I posted every word he said online but I found some more

B-roll uh that I had not posted online including watching the guys from bare archery shoot a prototype crossbow at the range there at at grous Haven so I don’t know may maybe there’s some way I can work that into uh some kind of a video and post that online as

Well so uh coming up on this week’s outdoor mag okay one thing I didn’t mention about our fishing trip as we were coming up to the ramp I saw a boat doing something that caught my attention catching fish that caught my attention the captain on that boat is

Captain Brandon Coral we’re going to talk with him after the break about an interesting way to fish the sagona river for a species you might not think of then Bob Hines on bouret fishing in Northern Lake Michigan plus Ben neelon of show span talks about the Grand Rapid

Show coming up in our second hour Captain Pete P Salis on fishing the St Clair River this time of year plus the process of selling your old boat and buying a new one then Rich croan of killer food plots and in our third hour Jimmy gretzinger the host of Michigan

Outdoors TV joins us and of course Wild game Chef extraordinaire Dixie Dave Miner that’s coming up this week on outdoor magazine my name is Mike Avery the website Mike Avery outdoors.com the email address Mike at Mike ay outdoors.com don’t hesitate to reach out I’d love to hear from you so glad you’re

Along this week right here on outdoor Magazine You can hear the outdoor magazine Show in Alpena on wzk 105.7 FM you can hear us in St Joe on wsjm 94.9 FM and you can here Us North of the bridge in Iron Mountain wmq 1450 a.m this segment of outdoor magazine is brought to you by Premier Maritime training if you’ve ever wanted

To get your captain’s license I think this is your best option uh Captain John Littlefield taught my Captain’s class and he can help you become a licensed Charter Captain as well check out the website PMT captain.com for more info that’s PMT caps.com John has classes across the state and I’m sure you can

Find one that’ll fit your schedule that’s PMT captain.com I was talking about a uh a walleye fishing trip on the SAG Saga Bay and Saga River uh early last week during when we had the real real nice weather and as we were coming Upstream actually

Downstream uh I saw this boat off to the side a really cool looking boat I mean the the boat got my attention because the the graphics on it are very cool and they were trolling that also got my attention now uh early on in this Resurgence of the Sagal Bay Walley

Fishery I used to troll that River a lot and even these days in the summertime on a blow day I will still troll the river but the boat I saw was trolling and they were getting some fish and it really really got my attention I found

Out one of the guys on that boat is Captain Brandon Coral of Buck Wild charters now I know Buck Wild Charter because as I go in the channel to the marina where I keep my angler Quest he’s right there but he’s in a big I think

It’s a gry white so I didn’t recognize it anyway I I reached out to Brandon after I got off the water and said what were you guys doing can we talk about it on the radio show and he said sure and here he is now on the outdoor magazine

Phone line Brandon welcome to the show how are you good how are you Mike well I I’m doing good as we are recording this today I’m sitting in the studio and I bet you’re not on the water today are you no it’s a little brutal out there

Today so listen tell me about your operation I’m not used to seeing the boat that I saw you in yesterday at your slip yeah I have the Grady White I run in the summertime and then during the cold weather months my dad has a nice

Hug craft that we use on the Great Lakes you know we Fish Lake Erie Saga Bay um we’ll take it to Lake Michigan it’s a nice boat for what we do oh those things are tanks aren’t they oh yeah so so listen what what were you fishing for

The other day when I saw you I was fishing for walleye but we ran into a school of Pike which typically you find quite a few of them laying up there as you’re trying to catch the big pre-spawn wal I coming up in the river and we we landed probably 15 plus

Beautiful 35 to 40 inch Pike up there trolling for Walley well you got my attention because you know as we’re motoring by you to head to the launch uh I see one of your boards one of your offshore boards go zipping back and said hey they got a fish on and

Then boom Another one went zipping back you go to the back of the boat you got a fire drill going on there and then I see I see when you get the net out and this is before I knew what you were fishing for these monster fish I’m thinking I

Don’t think that’s a a Walley if it is it’s huge I mean it looked like so much fun oh yeah you know we started the day we were going to head up jigging but it was a little slow with the north wind slowed the current down so I said you

Know we’ll try the try the flats up on the edge of the river and see what we can do I figured there’d be a few allly in there but we were surprised with a a big school of Northern Pikes sitting up in there which you know typically I

Don’t Target them but during that day once I figured out that they were Pike in there you know we just had some fun with them you know they’re def definitely a fun fish to fight yeah once you discover fish like that it’d be hard

To uh it’ be hard to go away from him wouldn’t it oh yeah do you routinely troll that River Brandon I do this time of year you know when you got your big pre-spawn Walley coming in and the Sagen all Bas starts to slow down a little bit in between

Schools coming in I’ll typically troll the edges you know not the channel the channel seems to be a lot slower there are guys that catch fish in the channel I try to troll the edges five to 10 foot of water up there and using your electronics is key you know all the new

The new fancy lauran and hummingbirds got the Sid scan option and you can dial your Sid scan in so you can really see those schools of fish laying up there in the edge of that shallow River and uh you know anywhere from December to March

I will look in scan in the sides of the river looking for schools of fish to catch up in there and this year I haven’t typically got into them as good as we did last year one of my buddies last year this was probably the first time I started trolling the river was

Last year one of my buddies was doing really good Captain Ethan rder RightWay Charters he was the one who turned me on to it he was doing really good trolling up that that same flat we were on the other day catching the Pike and uh you

Know last year we were having some 15 to 20 fish days up there does it matter if you troll upstream or down I mean if there’s no current no it doesn’t seem to matter but if there is a little bit of a current it seems going up streams a little bit more productive

You can catch fish both going up and down but I prefer to go Upstream with the current real slow what baits are you running Brandon you know I try to run Bandits and stuff up there with the big deep divers and they they’re just too deep

They like to stick in the mud I’ve been running P10s and hit sticks with the real shallow bill on them so they’re only diving down under the water two or three foot yeah because you said you’re up into what 5 10 ft of water yep so we’re trying to keep the

Boat in anywhere from 9 to 10 foot of water so your one side of your baits are up there in that probably almost a three to four foot of water you know where them fish are that actually I mean I was thinking while we were out there the other day

You know fishing the channel primarily drifting and jigging and I looked at all the other boats around there I’m thinking these fish are getting pounded they’re getting bombarded even if they don’t bite they’re still getting bothered by jigs bouncing all around them it only makes sense that they would

Scoot off to the sides and get away from everything definitely do you which I I believe I believe a lot of them go up there and Chase the schools of bait that go up in there some of the older gentlemen that have told me they like to go after they

Swim all that time in the bay and get up into the river they like to go up on the flats and kind of take a break out of the current while they’re waiting to shoot up the river but I primarily believe they’re up there chasing bait so do you troll primarily that lower

Stretch of the river would you go all the way up by the Z Bridge or anything like that and still troll I’ve never trolled that far up but I’ve trolled all I’ve trolled all the way up to you know South End of Bay City and caught fish

All the way down on the edges of the river I’ve caught them you know anywhere from 5 to 10 foot but it seems I try to get out in the channel and try to troll for him I don’t have as much luck as I do getting up there in that shallow

Water do you do you think you know that you you said they’re they’re chasing bait and that makes complete sense as we were catching all these real tiny walleye the other day I was wondering do you think the big walleye actually feed on the smaller walleye too

I don’t think the Walley do but definitely the pike that we had the other day the the biggest one we had was 40 and a half inches and when we cut him open he had six baby Walley in his belly oh no kidding so the big the big

Northern pike are definitely eating the baby Walley and the Walley were mostly filled with uh Shad were the pike were they male or female all females all females yep oh man it it uh it just looked like it looked like so much fun what you guys were into I’m like that

That is pretty cool yeah you know usually when we troll it we’ll get two or three Pike but we must have hit the school just right that day Mike and it was pretty crazy I don’t know in the couple hours we fished we landed 14 or 15 great big ones and it

Was definitely a definitely a riot so again I want to make sure how you I understand how you do this you’re you’re searching the the shallow side of the boat with your side scan or you looking out to both sides I’m looking off to both sides I mean you’ll see schools on

Both sides but you’ll see up in that shallow Edge you’ll see those great big marks laying up in there and you know on the on the channel side you’ll see smaller marks laying in there which are your little Walley that you see the guys are jigging for you know I’m looking

Just for schools up there where I can Troll and get my baits to and you know we were only running our baits back past the board you know 10 to 15 foot just like you and Mark were doing in the bay yeah um that s scan is something else isn’t

It all it is it’s the technology is nowadays is crazy have you tried the new stuff the the forward the pan Optics or whatever you’ve tried that yep I have the live scope for ice fishing I use it on my riverbat for jigging it’s uh it’s

Pretty crazy you know a lot of people like to call it cheating I like to call it video game fishing it’s not cheating you still got to catch the fish oh yeah you do do you do uh ice fishing trips I used to I don’t anymore me and

My dad do the the the recoveries out here he owns TK and Sun ice recovery and I’m the main guy who’s down there hooking up the machines on the bottom ah Hey listen well I hate to Ambush you with this and I don’t mean to do this

But but I heard a rumor that Coast Guard Station sag river is going out of the recovery business and I mean you would know they’re not going they’re they’re moving their air boats up towards taas I believe if this is what I heard and uh they’re GNA station out of taas now and

Sagen river is not going to do the Ice rescues it’s going to be try I believe it’s going to be more helicopter based instead of the airbats well that’s going to open up some uh some uh business for you guys yeah definitely which which the Coast Guard never did did recoveries you

Know I mean they just go out and get the people they don’t get their gear yeah yeah true yeah so that was always up to you guys to get the gear yeah yep yeah we you know typically don’t go out and get the people we just get their gear

After uh the Coast Guard goes out and grabs them well Brandon I tell you it was a lot of fun watching you guys that day and it kind of opened my eyes to different ways to uh fish that River and different fish to Target and uh I’ll

Look forward to seeing you get that big Grady White in there and I’ll say hi when I go by on the angler quest for sure thanks for having me Mike Brandon it’s a pleasure Brandon Coral of Buck Wild charters by the way his website is Buck wild.com that’s Buck

Wild.com and I was hoping that day I saw him out there to to uh to get some pictures of him with those fish but I thought well I don’t want to interrupt their fishing here but I sure wanted to sneak Mark’s boat up in there in there

Spread and get some pictures of the fish because man it looked like an awful lot of fun all right we’ll take a break here in the outdoor magazine show we will switch gears head to Northern Michigan and uh Target a fish that most people have never even caught it’s kind of an

Ugly fish but I hear it’s a really good tasting fish and it’s called a bouret bob hin of Central Coast angling is on them right now we’ll talk to him about that and we’ll wrap up the hour with Ben neelon of showspan with details on their big Grand Rapid show coming up already

Next week You can hear the outdoor magazine show and Port here on wphm 1380 a.m. you can hear us in mosan W kbz 1090 a.m. and north of the bridge in Newberry wnby 1450 a M speaking of north of the bridge this segment of outdoor magazine brought to you by

This that’s the sound of my Rapid River knife opening up you know that I carry a rapid River knife all the time I I I think a knife is one of the most valuable tools and outdoor enthusiasts can carry anybody can carry uh I like Rapid River they’re Handmade by

Craftsman in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula if you get a chance stop by their Showroom on us 2 just east of Rapid River you’ll see what I mean if you can’t make it up there go to the website Rapid River knifeworks.com show here before we’ve talked to him oh he fishes for just

About everything you might know him as the guy who catches jumbo perch well now he’s into something else Bob welcome back to the show how are you great good morning Mike what are you fishing for now Bob the couch no I don’t mean right at this particular

Minute well it we had a little bit of a change of weather the last uh yeah 12 hours or man I guess as we are recording this show Mother Nature just went crazy she’s being mean I was wearing sunglasses I got a sunburn yesterday I

Was out uh fishing burbet on uh one of the Inland Lakes here in northern Michigan so bouret that’s an interesting fish what what I I saw and this what made me call you I I saw a picture of somebody holding a beautiful B but really nice fish they caught with you

And I don’t know they they they just they look weird they just but but they’re fun to catch and they’re good eating right prehistoric that’s a great word yes thank you yeah they’re a fish that’s very sought after uh mostly because of the table fair but they’re also a

Very I don’t want to say the word elusive because they’re not hard to catch by any means if you know how to do it um but they’re sought after to catch a lot of people it’s on their bucket list to catch them um most people they get out on the ice

To catch them well the last two years we haven’t really had much ice so we’re putting the boat in the water and pretty much going out and hooking them up every trip it’s been a little bit of a grind to get going here but yesterday we actually did get

Our first fish of the day was just absolutely I haven’t posted the picture yet I’ll try to get it up on the Facebook page for everybody see but it had been a good solid n n and a half pound fish is one of the bigger B that

I’ve had and the guy had never seen one and he was just like whoa I got one I’m like yep very neat so how do you catch him do you jig for him or troll or what you jig if you I you know this is great for the Detroit River guys the sea

River guys if you can jig walleye it’s pretty much the same Cadence as jigging a walleye it’s just maybe a touch more aggressive on the upstroke you never feel them going down because they they do lay really close to bottom I mean basically on bottom they levitate every

Once in a while they’ll come up like a foot or two and you’ll see them on the sonar but they’re right on the bottom actually yesterday we got we I just put a post on my Instagram on my story about one we smacked it right on the bottom of

The chin so a lot of times you do get them out of the bottom of chin sometimes it’s right in the uh right down the gullet um what I mean I’m not asking for your honey hole but these are all Inland Lakes or you you’re not out on the big

Water doing this are you I’m getting my on the bay too yeah the grand Trevor’s Bay is a great hisy for them uh they’re yep yep they’re a little bit tricky to find on the bay there are some uh spots that we’ve caught them over the years

And we kind of stay quiet about that and it’s it’s a complete timing thing with these fish it doesn’t matter if you’re at Inland lake or grand Trevor’s Bay the best time to catch these fish is pre-spawn and actually if you can get on a spawning school they all Bunch up kind

Of like carp they get on top of each other and they’re act they’re actually feeding they’re biting while they’re spawning so you like for instance I had the gillos with me last year we had a spawning school and I think in 90 minutes we hooked up like 70 80 some

Fish the gillow of course the gillo family of Michigan brand meets good friend of the outdoor magazine show you know I was thinking Bob you said you were trying to keep this kind of quiet if you’re trying to keep this quiet you don’t go on the Mike Avery radio show

You know oh I don’t mind I don’t mind it’s good for business and I want to help you know more than anything I’ve always said I’m an instructor I want to help people uh I want to help people catch fish so a lot of times I get guys

Like I’m booked every day right now I’m squeezing these bouret trips in and guys will ask me I’ll just be like hey you know like go check this area right here maybe take this bait and maybe launch here and go have fun so a lot of these

Spots like you know mullet um some of the Lakes we have them are uh Torch Lake mullet Crystal Lake and Grand Trevor Bay these are pretty classic spots to catch burbet so it if you just do a little bit of Recon if you’re a good fisherman

You’re going to be able to go out and have success on your own and as far as baits go you know we can talk baits real quick um trout and pout is yep trout and pout um a 5 inch tube like a bass tube white is great uh Swedish pimples work

You can put down a minnow and Dead stick it on a spare Rod if that thing takes off I’ve caught them on salmon ske before fishing for white fish so much eat are you you still fishing jumbo perch too yeah I got a I got a trip uh I think

The next three days so actually I’m towing my boat everywhere right now across Northern Michigan I’ll let you go Bob I appreciate that Bob HS of Central Coast angling Central Coast angl.com you want to fish perch you want to fish bouret just about anything else in northern Michigan Bob is your guy we’ll

Take a break when we come back Ben neelon of showspan right here an outdoor magazine You can hear the outdoor magazine show in tows on wios that’s 1480 a.m. 106.9 FM you can hear us in Travers City on wtcm 580 a.m. and north of the bridge in Marquette on W dmj 1320 a.m. this segment of outdoor magazine brought to you by killer food plots Michigan based family-owned killer

Food plots it’s a little early to start putting them in but it’s not too early to start thinking about in fact coming up in our next hour Rich croisan of killer food plots will join me to help uh get you going that direction and putting a plan together their website

Killer foodplot dcom that’s killer foodplot dcom well it is show season here in Michigan the big Rama show in Novi was a big success and now all of a sudden before we even realize it the Grand Rapid show is coming up this is the show

The show span show that I love this is a show that I used to go to literally 50 years ago more than that with my dad he used to take me down to that show when I was a kid it looks a lot different now

Than it did then in part to guys like Ben neelen Ben is with show span with us now on the outdoor magazine phone line Ben welcome back yes thank you for having me you didn’t even get a break you didn’t get a chance to catch your breath the outdoor Rama show is barely

In the rear viw mirror and you got Grand Rapids coming up now well you are right about that there’s no doubt there there’s not a lot of time in between them this year um you know but we’re ready to go you know this is what we do

And we’ve been planning it all year and so uh everything’s looking really really good for Grand Rapids this year is this really the I mean all the shows are great but I feel like this is the crown jewel of show span you know kind of is

Or the granddaddy of them all you know we use the Rose Bowl reference right with football and everything but uh you know we’re in our 79th year um which is which is incredible and you know the sport show in Grand Rapids obviously has a long tradition uh and it is you know

Definitely one of my favorites too because just like I heard you say my dad brought me to the trout pond when I was a little kid so I have all these great memories of of going to the trout pond and you know seeing all the different

Things at the sports show how is this one different is it just a big scale well it is larger there’s no doubt about that I mean we filled the Voss place up and you know we’re going to have you know a lot of those same features uh you know obviously a lot of

Our great seminars are going to be back again this year with you know kind of our key seminar leaders we do have Mark Zona there this year he’s not there every year which is kind of a great addition to the show uh and you know we’ve got the Lumberjack Show back again

This year which is a great hit for the whole family uh so a lot of those same features are going to be back and uh a lot of the things that everybody wants to see do you consider this a fishing show Ben or a combo show or what how do

You see it you know I will tell you I mean it’s a sports show so we talk hunting and fishing there’s more fishing in here than there is hunting um and that’s really just kind of based on time of the year sure uh you know when we we

Look at March and although we obviously have some great turkey hunting coming up and we’re still doing you know probably a little bit of Predator stuff um the main thing right now is fishing you know even everybody that loves to hunt is thinking about you know going out

Walleye fishing going out bass fishing you know Big Lake fishing all that stuff is kind of right around the corner and so it just naturally has a little bit more of an emphasis on fishing because of that so does this wrap up the year for you guys or you do now doing boat

Shows and Golf shows and home shows and that type of thing we do still have a couple more shows for the company uh but by the end of March everything is wrapped up I can’t imagine the work that goes into these there’s a lot there you know I

Mean obviously you know all of the different planning throughout the year all the great exhibitors that we work with and you know then the operation side of moving the show in and moving it out and uh but you know um we do it every year we’ve got a lot of planning

Involved and a lot of great people here on the team that uh that make it all happen so give us the details of this big Grand Rapid show absolutely we open up uh you know March 7th um and go through the tth um you know admission is

$12 uh children six to 14 are five five and under are free uh and if you’re anything like me you probably would have forgot everything I just said there so you can go to ultimat sport show.com for all those ultimat sports show.com that’s a great name for this the Ultimate Sports show

Because it is indeed the Ultimate Sports show and uh actually parking down town There’s not bad there’s a big ramp right across the street too yeah there’s a ramp across the street there’s a ramp right underneath the facility as well uh and we do have uh you know a dash

Service there as well um you know for when things get filled up uh you know and it really is a pretty easy place to navigate in downtown Grand Rapids ultimat Sports show.com Ben keep up the uh great work and you and I will talk again all right so sounds great thanks

Mike all right thank you Ben neelon of showspan shows span.com and the website for the ultimat sports show is ultimat Sport show.com and as I say there’s a reason it’s called The Ultimate Sports show right this is kind of the it it wraps up the season and and as I told

Ben I I I have memories of when it was the old I think it was was at the pantan hotel it was in years and years ago uh going down there as a kid and it was just it was you know being a little farm boy

From northern Kent County to go down to the city and then to see an event like this that is all outdoor related outdoor oriented and there were fishing rods and there were baits and there’s were lures and there were people talking and there were just a lot of excitement and my dad

Used to go down there and he he’d stock up on some supplies for the year because there are good deals at a show like this the prices are good you know if you want to get something uh uh at a at a good price this is the place to do at ultimat

Sport show.com we will take a break for the top of the hour when we come back in our second hour we’re going to head over to the east side of the state Lake St Clair River specifically that general area and talk with Captain Pete Pat Salis of hook one Charters I want to

Talk with Pete about the fishing over there this time of year but also as I was checking in with him yesterday he told me he’s in an interesting situation himself he’s selling his boat he had a boat that he really really liked but he’s ready to move on to a a bigger boat

Now so he was saying he’s in the process of selling this thing I said why did we get you on the air to talk not about fishing but also about how do you sell a boat and how do you buy a new one cuz man there’s a lot of choices out there

And these things are expensive these days and then Rich craan of killer food plots will join me to wrap up the hour and looking ahead to hour number three Jimmie gretzinger of Michigan outdoors TV and of course Wild game Chef extraordinaire Dixie Dave Miner coming up an hour or two of outdoor magazine

Time now for Michigan’s number one outdoor radio show Mike Avery’s outdoor magazine Mike Avery has covered the outdoors in Michigan for more than four decades and that tradition continues today outdoor magazine is brought to you by J Sporting Goods the Ider Insurance Group angler Quest pontoons the forward Corporation Primal outdoors security

Credit union off Shore tackle Garber Chevrolet Rapid River Knife Works and by Michigan bran meets now here’s Mike Avery indeed this is the big guy Mike Avery thank you Ken Hunter for that introduction it’s interesting I was going through some old video archives the other day from outdoor Magazine TV

Shows and Ken Hunter was the voice of those to uh do the introduction to the show and I’m talking years and years and years and years ago so it’s good that Ken and I are still in touch and it’s good that we’re still here Welcome to our number two of this week’s outdoor

Magazine radio show here on the outdoor magazine radio network on more than 30 radio stations across the great state of Michigan and I do believe the best way to listen to the show if you can is on your local am or FM station uh if you can’t you know if your

Local affiliate doesn’t carry all three hours of the show most of ours do but a couple of them that don’t doesn’t carry all three hours of the show or if you live in some part of the state not covered by the broadcast signal the broadcast radio show it’s nice to know

That there’s a podcast version of the show available podcasting is everything right if you see or hear most people not you okay if the general public sees or hears any kind of content these days they just assume it’s a podcast even though in the case of this show it

Originated as a radio show it is recorded produced syndicated distributed yada yada yada as a radio show but if you can’t listen to the radio version Isn’t it nice to know that there’s a podcast version available it’s the same content it’s just available somewhere other than your local radio station

Where do you hear it you can hear it on my website Mikey re outdoors.com it’s on my Facebook page Amazon music audible Twitter X whatever through the whole gamut if you can hear a podcast any podcast at a given destination you can probably hear the outdoor magazine podcast I even put it on

YouTube uh just doing an audio version it’s not a video version but it’s on YouTube as well I do like podcasting though uh each month I do podcasts for offshore tackle um angler Quest Boats when Mr angler Quest Brad gets up and running and gets his uh gets the new models and

Such we’ll start doing monthly angler Quest podcasts again and I also do podcasts for Primal Outdoors you know Primal tree stands Primal ground blinds in fact when we’re done recording this week’s radio show we’ll do this month’s Primal podcast This Time with Bill Han of J Sporting Goods Jay’s is a big

Retailer of Primal so I’m looking forward to that conversation regardless of how you are hearing me when you are hearing me thank you so very much I’ve been doing this a long time I hope to do it for a long time yet but I wouldn’t be

Ble to without um being blessed by God and being supported by you if you weren’t listening there would be no reason I wouldn’t be able to do the show so thank you so very very much you heard me talking in the first hour about my um experience on the sagona river Saga Bay

Here last week uh caught a window of opportunity when the weather was absolutely perfect trolling the skinny water of the bay went up the river and jig did some jigging and it was so nice to be out there in February I realize as you’re hearing the show now it’s March

But be out there in February it was wonderful there is some great Springtime fishing all across our state when I turn our attention now to the east side of the state the St Clair River specifically and more to talk with Captain Pete Pat Salis uh of hook one Charters hook1 charters.com uh Pete

Welcome back to the show how are you what’s going on Mike it’s a pleasure to be back man always a pleasure to talk with VI listen talking speaking of podcasting you do a podcast as well and it looks like it’s getting great uh great response it’s it’s starting to catch on

Man yeah we started we started the hook one po actually me and Louie started doing it just on a laptop behind the counter because we were so slow at the shop when we first opened um and now we’ve got it on YouTube and stuff and we

Talk a lot of fishing on the east side try and have some deaths on and and help Anglers cut their learning curve when they get over here to this River I I think you’re such an interesting guy Pete you’re you know from my perspective you’re a younger guy but you’re you’re a

Charter Captain you also started a tackle shop right there on the river the only one in the area I I think you were a genius to do that how’s it going it’s going really well uh I was really nervous to start I never had any experience in the retail side of things

Luckily we’ve got some like everything man we’ve got some really good guys on our side and we’ve got a good team behind us um that helped us kind of navigate the retail world but the big thing is we don’t really have a lot of stuff over here you know we’ve got um

Two bait shops up in Port hon we’ve got a small bait and tackle shop and elack but a lot of that stuff is homemade hand tied stuff there and he does a good job um but that’s about it and we’ve got 42 miles of river um to cover people with

So we got lucky we got a great spot on the water where guys can pull their boat up too but it’s also a great spot we’ve got our cleaning station here we run our Charters out of here um so it’s it’s been going well and it seems like it’s

Starting to catch on so we’re ready for a busy spring well and as you look out on the river right now what are you seeing are there boats out there there what’s it look like no there’s nobody out there um yet it’s it’s blown about 25 miles hour 25

Miles an hour out of the West so the Canadian Shoreline getting beat up pretty bad um but I’ll tell you what the water looks good it’s clean it’s not muddied up uh it’s cold it’s 35 degrees um but we should be a couple weeks here from seeing some salmon start trickling

In the system and then those resident Walley should start snapping as well that’s the cool thing about your Rivers I I I feel like you don’t know what you’re going to catch out there I remember you even got into Atlantics one time yeah you know this this year we’ve

Actually had more luck on Atlantics um than anything else and it’s a really weird fish because I talked to I talked to a lot of guys that fish Atlantics from you know St Mary’s down and we have all come to the same kind of concl cusion you just can’t pattern them it’s

It’s very hard that we’ve caught them in 35 um degree water and we’ve caught him in 65 degree water in this River um we’ve caught them on big crankbaits we’ve caught them on tiny spoons it’s just a they’re they’re a weird fish but they are so fun um they fight super hard

And they’re great table Fair how do you fish that River Pete I mean it’s a big river it’s you got a you got a deep Channel you got a lot of current I think that can be intimidating for somebody who’s not used to it yeah it’s definitely different we get a

Lot of guys that come you know they’ll fish the Sagar River a lot which I mean right now is on fire um they fish the Detroit River a lot and then they come over here um and and you notice the water color is going to be a lot

Different you know sometimes you can see 15 20 feet down um especially early in the spring we’re fishing really deep which I will say in Detroit a lot of guys are starting to fish really deep those those drifts in between the bridges of deep water and whatnot um but

Typically out here you’re fishing deep too so heavier jigs um but it it we fish it the same way man we vertical jig a lot we pull a lot of bottom bouncers um when we’re salmon fishing we’re trolling Downstream a lot um it there there’s a lot of opportunity it’s it’s hard to

Touch it all you know I was talking to uh Captain Brandon Coral uh about he he was trolling the sagona river for walleye he happened to get into a bunch of big Pike but I ask him the question does it matter if you troll upstream or

Down you know there’s days on the River where there’s almost no current you never run into that so which direction do you like to troll on the St Clair River always um when we’re trolling like boards and baits always down when you’re talking about like handline trolling and

Doing stuff like that there’s there’s some spots in flat current where you can use some three-way Rigs and pull boards against the current but those spots are very few and far between um 99% of the time you’re trolling we’re trolling down current um we’re trying to go a little

Bit faster than the current which means sometimes it’s not it’s not off often to be getting close to three and a half miles an hour by the time you start scooting down that’s moving it is yeah you’re you’re flying and a lot of the times

We’re fishing we like to fish we like to try and get close to structure so you know you’ve got a planer board going off the edge of the docks at four miles an hour it keeps it interesting why is hand you mentioned handlining why is that so

Effective it’s it’s the best way it’s it’s really the best way to present a bait to a fish in a river system whether it be the River where you downsize your weight or you go to Detroit or here you’re going you’re going against the current so slow that the you can leave

The bait in that fish’s face for so long so if you know that there’s a good school of fish there um whether you’re looking for numbers or big fish especially in dirty water that bait’s moving it’s rattling where you know when we’re jigging or casting or doing whatever our baits are are they’re

Moving pretty quickly past the fish um you know relatively to what the fish is thinking where when you’re handlining and trolling it’s a totally different presentation you can use totally different bait than you would if you were pulling bottom bouncers or if you were jigging um and a lot of the times

Those baits have a lot of movement they’ve got a lot of action and you can really just serve it right in front of their face like a snack because you’re moving so slow and the guys that have been doing that for years are just Masters at it aren’t

They it’s unbelievable man it’s it’s literally it’s an art um and to be honest with you I I would say when we first opened in 2021 so obviously not very long ago when we first opened I would I would have told you it was a

Dying art and I and I was sad about that worried about it because it is such an effective way to catch fish because the thing is is you’ve got you know anywhere from one to two pounds of weight on that line and you’re running three baits at

At three different you know you got 40 foot 20 foot five or 10 foot some guys will run baits off the very bottom there um but I would say it’s it’s not dying there’s a lot of people getting back into it they’re spending good money to get back into it handline reels are

Expensive because of what they are and how they’re built I mean they’re a very technical machine um and so it’s cool to see it coming back we’ve got guys coming back buying you know a ton of floating repala spoons pencil plugs like the old wood pencil plugs if you’re familiar with

Those it’s cool to see it coming back oh that is cool we’re talking with Captain Pete Pat Salis of hook1 Charters hook1 charters.com hook1 charters.com if you go to the website you can learn about Pete’s Charter Business you can learn about the store you can learn about the

Podcast as well we got to take a break here in the outdoor magazine show when we come back I want to talk to Pete about an interesting process he’s going through right now that a lot of others of us have gone through as well selling your old boat and buying a new one

There’s a lot of money wrapped up in that what’s the best way to go about it we’ll find out more after the break right here on outdoor Magazine You can hear the outdoor magazine show in Battle Creek on wbck that’s 95.3 FM you can hear us in Carol on two stations w k yo 1360 a.m. and WL 92.1 FM and you can hear us north of the bridge in the Sue on wkn w1400 this segment outdoor magazine

Brought to you by Matt Smith Outdoors Matt a good friend of mine uh and he’s also an expert at finding recreational properties and vacation homes and he can help you turn your family’s dream into a reality like if if you wanted this place up north have you wanted lakefront

Property are you looking for um you know hunting land whatever it is Matt can help you out you can find him online at Matt Smith Outdoors on Facebook and Instagram that’s Matt Smith Outdoors on Facebook and Instagram and by the way if you’re looking for a new home as your

Primary residence Matt can help you out there as well again that’s Matt Smith Outdoors on Facebook and Instagram while you are online please check out my website Mike ay outdoors.com from there you can get to my oh my social media Outlets my YouTube channel the different podcasts we’re doing also head on over

To hooks.com hooks.com the website of Captain Pete Pat Salis uh and Pete you find yourself now in an interesting situation you and I have talked before on the uh polar craft podcast when we were doing that and you had a polar craft that you really like but now I

Understand you find yourself in a situation where you’re looking for something a little bit different walk me through this process Pete how did you get to to this point here yeah man so I was running the Outlander 2010 the Center Council so it it was a really good boat 21 one foot

Boat we did a lot of river fishing um and as far as like a fun boat a utility boat a boat for a group of guys that are willing to fish it was honestly bulletproof like we were really fortunate um we were able to fish a lot

Of waters do a lot of things but at the end of the day an aluminum boat’s an aluminum boat um when you have a Center Council boat it’s tough when your clients are the ones without the windshield so we had to kind of take a step back we started running a lot

Longer runs out to Lake St Clair um that boat that we had only had a 23 gallon gas tank so we needed to have more range we needed to have more speed um so we finally decided you know we’re g to go into it and you know Mike the other

Thing is this is something now we’ve been doing it two years um full full bore um and going you know every day when you’re out there every day you’ve got to be comfortable so we decided to go into a glass boat we’re getting into a sker 2060 um

The layout of the boat fits us really well we’ll talk about it in a minute obviously but the layout of the boat fits us really well for what we want to do it gives us a lot more range I’m I’ve had great luck with my Yamaha Motors um

So it was a big reason I wanted to stick with Yamaha and run Yamaha motor um and we cannot wait we take delivery of it next week then the rigging process begins um because obviously when it comes from the dealer usually it has a graph or in a trolling motor but why

Only have one graph so got to get some more graphs on it got to get all our tackle in the boat got to get it for a charter Captain we’ve got to get it inspected um which we’re on the list and ready to go for that then we’ll be ready

To go man but it’s it’s a doozy of a process how exciting is that time when you’re waiting for a new boat though I’ll tell you what it’s extremely exciting but when you’re sitting on another one it’s very nerve-wracking until that one so so so how listen uh

What what is the what’s the Market out there these days for a good used boat are they are people looking for them yeah it’s it’s it’s pretty crazy man in my opinion it’s fairly flooded just from what I see on Facebook and and I I keep track on Marketplace and stuff

It looks like it looks like a lot of boats used boats are going into the market a lot of boats that are a year or two old um which has me kind of thinking either guys are running their boats for a year or two and flipping them um and

Getting into new boats or maybe guys got into it over covid and they didn’t think they were G to like it as much or now that we’re kind of back to normal life and how that stuff goes maybe they don’t have the time um there’s a lot of new

Boats out there I’ve also spent a lot of time at the boat shows and there’s a lot of new boats for unbelievable prices out there if you can find you know a a year a non-current basically like a year before right if you can find the 23

Somewhere um a lot of these companies have killer rebate you still get your warranty on them and stuff so there’s a lot there’s a lot to look at there’s obviously a lot that goes into the process um a big thing that was for me was sitting down what

Are we going to do a lot with it and like what are we going to use it for because really I I I’ve had the I’ve been in just about every boat it’s a big it’s a big investment right like no matter what no matter whether you’re

Buying a new boat or a Ed boat right now they’re expensive um so one is you should really look at every boat you can and look get the layout of it and look how the storage is laid out how the motors are laid out how the cockpits

Laid out how you’re going to drive the helm you know all that stuff when you’re making an investment like that um and then really figuring out what you’re going to utilize it for trolling jigging you know are you gonna be fishing out of the back of the boat front of the boat

Stuff like that because really every boat has there’s there’s so many of them and they all do a good job so you got to figure out what fits you the best okay this so then getting rid of the Polar craft uh do you sell that with

Everything on it that you had or do you strip it down or how does that work I did man I did I I I really I was motivated to sell um so my boat ended up going with I put a brand new 36 volt 112

Terova on it um a 72inch shaft so that stayed on it I a Garmin 12inch screen with a Liv scope unit stayed on it um two of my hummingbirds stayed on it my my 48 inch Birds track stayed on on it um and there’s a couple reasons for that

One obviously it increases the value of the boat a little bit if you can get someone a boat that hey all you need to do is turn the key and go fishing um that’s that’s important and the other thing is Mike you and this is for anyone

Out there that’s that’s looking to sell a boat you can’t option A Boat enough to make it expensive so it didn’t matter that I put the Newman Cota on there it didn’t matter that I have you know the Garment on there you’re not going to be

Able to get you know 40 ,000 $50,000 for a used know in my case for a four-year-old used guide boat doesn’t matter the electronics I have on it um so that’s another way that if you’re going to sell a boat maybe take the electronics off and it’ll lower the

Price of your boat you can either use your electronics on the next boat or sell them you know on Facebook and get more money for them but it’s it’s they’re the fine line to walk there you know yeah well then if if somebody’s going to spend good money on a on a used

Boat too I suspect at least if it was me I’m going to want to take that thing for a ride too I’m going to want to get on the water with it yeah so last week when we sold ours it was 32 degrees when we went on our

Test ride um and today we’re actually heading on a test ride when we hang up and it’s there’s it went from about 50 to 30 and it’s windy out there but you know what the guy has to see the boat sure sure he’s got to see the boat he’s

Got to see that it works and here’s the deal the other part of it is I know I know the equipment that we got I know what we’re using I know the equipment we got I know it can handle the elements so if this guy comes out to look at the

Boat and sees that it’ll drive and everything works good and it’s not going to get busted up in these conditions you’re going to be just fine in April when it’s sunny you know what I mean and water’s c yeah you talk about rigging a new boat too man that that

Is today with the electronics and the gear and the accessories that is a big deal it’s a huge deal man um and and to be honest with you a lot of guys I I say a lot of guys waste their money and the only reason I say they waste their money

Is because we have a ton of money into Electronics you know how much it costs to get into electronics and so if you’re G to spend that money on electronics you should really take two days out of your season to learn those electronics and then you wouldn’t be wasting your money

Because they can do so much and they can help you out so much but I have so many guys come in the bait store because you know there’s so many guys on YouTube and Instagram you know you need pan Optics this you need HDs live this you know you

Need this and they ask me like what do you think and I asked what are you doing what are you fishing are you just vertical Jiggy most of the time they say yes no you don’t need it you know I think it’s trying to figure out what you

Need and what what you’re going to use and then maximize it that way because it is expensive like no matter what way you want to cut it even if you want to buy a chip to put you know mapping in your system it’s expensive for that for that

Chip so you’ve got so much money into Electronics you want to make sure that you know how to use them and that you’re going to use them and they’re going to be practical because for some people you might need Liv scope for some people you know you might just need mega 360 if

You’re fishing a lot of shallow structure something like that maybe you just need mega 360 and for some guys like a lot of the locals out here really all you need to know is depth and water temperature and they’re going to catch them when you say when you say take a

Couple days out of your fishing to learn your electronics do you mean spending time on the water at the Helm in front of that screen and not fish just learn how to run it learn how to use it day one day one you don’t even put a route

In the boat don’t oh that’s tough that is so hard you can’t you can’t but here’s the problem here’s the problem if you if you don’t do it and you bring that Rod you’re automatically gonna be like oh I want to see what a lure looks like and you don’t know what you’re

Looking at yeah I know so if you don’t bring that rod and you’re like if you’re trying to figure out Liv scope go set up somewhere like on a seaw wall or where there’s dock pilings and and for 45 minutes to an hour mess with the settings mess with

The Liv scope and you don’t even need to put a lure in the water you’re gonna I promise you you’re going to see The Lure um same thing with like Side Imaging and stuff like that like I don’t practice Side Imaging when we’re trolling I practice Side Imaging when I’m at a

Decent speed out in the lake you know I have a good buddy of mine that’s Smallmouth fishes and he’ll spend he’ll spend three days without a rod and he’ll just grass trying to find spots when it comes up to tournament days and stuff like that um but the better you learn

Your graph the more it’s going to help you all right before I let you go here I want to follow anywhere well I want to follow up on a couple of things with with electronics the way they change these days they’re always coming out they’re new they’re improving and the

Companies would have us believe that we have to upgrade every year to get the newest and the greatest man I I don’t think that’s the case how many years do you think you can get out of a piece of electronics before you have to

Upgrade um I think it has a lot to do with kind of like what you’re utilizing it for and what you’re using it for but I know guys that have you know 2016 lances in their boat and they have no problem marking fish on Lake Erie and

All they do is troll so then why upgrade you know what I mean you’re almost at 10 years with that thing why upgrade I know the electronic companies want to say that and a lot of guys say it well they’re getting paid by the electronic

Compan yeah yeah I mean even like on my old boat we ran the old Liv scope the lvs32 and we had no problem you know marking fish and paring salmon over the walleye schools so it you you can definitely make it work Pete always a pleasure good luck with a new boat have

Fun good luck with the shop and this Spring’s Charter trips and uh I’ll check in with you again soon thank you very much Mike it’s a pleasure to be here man have a good one always a pleasure Captain Pete patsalis of hook1 Charters hook1 charters.com is the website hook1 charters.com if you go

To that website you can learn more about Pete’s tackle shop right there right there on the water I mean how cool is that um and also his uh podcast which is pretty cool as well we’ll take a break here in the outdoor magazine show when we come back we’re going to switch gears

Again this time we’re going to talk to Rich kisan of killer food plots I know you’re not putting in food plots yet but it’s not too far off and it’s certainly not too early to start thinking about it and it our number two Michigan outdoors TV show host Jimmy gretzinger plus Chef

Dixie Dave Miner you can hear the outdoor magazine show in Shaban on Big Country Gold WCB 12:40 a.m. 100.7 FM you can hear us in Flint on wtrx 13:30 a.m. and you can hear us in Escanaba the Riviera of the north and W CHT 600 a. 93.5 FM this segment of outdoor magazine

Is brought to you by the Lynwood Beach Marina and Campground Lynwood Beach can be your year round sagona Bay fishing destination beautiful Campground great boat launch ship store full Marine shop great selection of boats great people great location what more can you ask as you get ready to get your boat in

The water this spring or get a new boat think of the folks at Lynwood Beach or if you’re just looking for a place to launch and be your your base of operation for Walley fishing on the bay again Lynwood Beach Marina the website lywood Beach marina.com that’s lywood Beach

Marina.com if you’re looking at the process process the process of food plots I’m going to rec recommend Michigan based family-owned killer food plots their website killer foodplot outcom killer food plot.com Rich croan The Man Behind killer food plots these days with us now on the outdoor magazine

Phone line Rich welcome back how have you been I’ve been real good Mike and you I’ve been real good I can’t complain at all and this that that spell of warm weather we had there that looked like and felt like springtime got me thinking about food

Plots uh I mean we’re not turning dirt yet but man it’s it’s not that far off is it no no it’s uh well I’d like to say no but you know the Mother Nature’s going to do right yeah yeah 70 degrees yesterday beautiful sun and I’m sitting

Here looking at it snowing today so um just crazy weather we’re having I mean I seen you are out on the boat the other day right it wasn’t it sure felt good yeah wow it’s just you know yeah take advantage of it I guess we’re not

Going to get the the cold weather and freeze but um yeah I mean there’s Frost feeding right I kind of I did some Frost eating just the other day um I had a couple people question wow it seems really early um and it does right I mean

I usually anywhere from the middle of February to the end of March is perfect for frost eating um I myself I like to do a little I like to push the envelope right it’s it’s my product I like to see how it does um I’ve been real successful

Frosting in the last week of February so I pushed it a week early this year uh to see how it reacts see how my SE does so I can pass that on right right um and plus I really don’t know if we’re going to get the ground cycle like we had this

This past weekend when it was really cold um you know you need that ground to freeze at night and and have it heave and create all them voids I did a small video and put it on Facebook the other day because the the ground was perfect

For that it was froze it had heed it had tons of voids for the seeds to fall into um so yeah I I took advantage of that I did some Frost eating and uh we’ll see how it turns out um I’m looking at the weather right now Mike I mean we’re

Looking at what 65 68 degrees Sunday Monday yeah yeah yeah it’s crazy not even getting low freezing that night so yeah I mean did I jump the gun maybe not I might have been like the last last opportunity to have that good freeze off um rotation so yeah it’s uh it’s

Exciting it it’s this is my busy time right A lot of people are calling doing a lot of property plans um getting ready to get out there and start turning dirt and and when things grow start killing it off so so so we’re not jumping the gun by

This conversation this is a good time to talk to you yeah oh yeah absolutely right I mean get out there and get them frosted and get your the product you know go on our our website kls.com and look at our seed Clover is a great great one to overseed

Uh I just freshened up all my Clover plot um my Carnage Brasa plots got pummeled got turned to Dirt by the deer which is awesome um so that’s like a blank a blank slate for me so I can go out there and I I seeed that real hard

This time of year and I’ll see how it turns out being as early as it was um can you overseed right can you overseed right now yeah yeah yep so the the deer devastated my my resurrection Clover and my chory plot um because there’s been no

Snow to hide it from them right so they’re like hey yeah this is all season long this is like a a buffet for us so they’ really hit it hard uh there’s a lot of bare spots so I went over and I overseed um when it was really cold that

Morning you know if you’re going to frost seed you want to do it in the morning when the ground is still froze so them them crevices the craters are still open in the ground let them seeds fall in there and then when it like I said earlier when it thaws it relaxes

And it covers them seed up for you you know keeps the birds off them it’s Mother’s Mother Nature’s Way of planting it for you and when she’s not trying to dry out in the summertime yeah can be your friend this time of year so so is

There is there a way though can can you just overseed if you’re not Frost seeding if we miss the frost seed window can you still go out and just throw some seed out yeah you can um you know I mean it’s like kind of like your no till at that

Point that you would do in the spring um and and again we’re going to get some Frost Cycles I’m I’m sure of it just because next week looks like it’s spring and you could actually start moing your y your lawn that’s what the weather makes it look like it’s still going to

Get cold still Michigan I think we’re still going to get them couple of nights where you get that hard freeze and then that warmup cycle so just keep an eye on the weather and uh and take advantage of that but yes you can broadcast over your your existing plots right now um you

Know the rain will help uh an area like mine right the deer density is so high the deer Stomp the seed into the ground for you so it’s like a natural I want to hunt your place hang hang tight Rich we got to take a break we’ll talk more about it

After the break we’re talking to Rich croisan of killer food plots he says the deer decimated by food plot by eating it now they’re stomping seed into the ground I want to hunt at Rich kisan’s Place killer foodplot dcom is the website killer foodplot do.com we’ll

Take a break when we come back to this week’s ask Avery segment and we’re asking Rich questions in this week’s ask Avery segment here on outdoor Magazine You can hear the outdoor magazine show in hotton Lake on two stations the Twister 92.1 wtws and 98.5 wups you can hear us in Holland Holland Michigan that is on whtc 1450 a.m. 99.7 FM and you can hear us in lington on news 9798 98.7 wldm The ask

Avery segment is brought to you each week by the good Folks at Security Credit Union Security Credit Union loves to work with Outdoors men and women and they can help you with your next Outdoor Adventure check them out online at securitycu.org that’s securitycu.org the way this segment works is you can send

Me a question that you would like me to answer directly or something that you would like me to pass along to somebody else the best way to get those questions to me is to send me an email to Mike atmik outdoors.com that’s mik atmik a outdoors.com I’m going to be a little

Preemptive on this week’s ask Avery segment though because each year about this time I start getting questions from people about food plots and I’m no expert believe me I am not at all but I know people who are specifically right now we’re talking with Rich croisan of Michigan based killer foodplot killer

Food plot.com so rich some of the questions that people normally ask me that I would forward to you anyway we’re just going to we’re going to take a shortcut and just do it that way if you don’t mind no problem okay so let’s start this thing out what is the number one thing

To do if you plan on footing in putting in food plots where do you start oh Mike we know that one we’re going with soil samples ding ding ding ding ding yeah I knew the answer to that one yeah I mean I’m surprised that’s the

First time I said it on the talk we we went seven minutes and never said soil sample that’s a record it is it is so a stupid question blueprint right how how all right if if I is it one sample per plot or how do I do

That so I mean what I like to do is I like to do a sample in like a one acre area so if you have a plot that’s a full three acres um maybe split that into acre increments and and just do a sample for each acre um definitely it doesn’t

Have to be an acre so a lot of people do kill plots in the woods it’s a real small area you know if your plots are separated absolutely do every individual plot because the soil can change from 100 yard one another or even sooner you

Know so um the soil will be different in all different areas so yes I would soil sample every plot you plan on working for sure okay second question is what size should a food plot be is there a maximum or a minimum there’s not um it really depends

On your property I got a lot of people that are doing food plots that are 8,000 square foot and they’re very successful in in their deer hunts in those little plots because they’re giving deer what they don’t have around them um give them a a variety you know Carnage brascas are

A great blend for that fall that late season deer love it it’s not something that grows naturally so once they get acquired to it sometimes they don’t need to but once they do man they just pound it so no you can have anywhere from I’ve done them from 40 acre food plots to

Like I say 8,000 square foot really depends on what you have um your area any food plot can be beneficial and be productive um you know as long as you know what your soil is right go back to question number one soil sample that make sure you’re getting the biggest

Bang for your buck um $22 for a soil sample online that’s the best $20 you’re going to spend on that food plot I guarantee it so question number three does the shape of the food plot matter yes to me it does um I love a I love a kidney-shaped food plot um you

Know so you don’t really want a food plot that the deer can walk out and see the entire thing uh if it’s a large food plot you want to break that food plot up either make it L-shaped a kidney shape or if it is just a big square field

Break it up with border patrol screening um so that way the deer can’t walk into one corner and see the entire food plot cuz that mature Buck will will just drift through look across the boot lot and if there’s nothing there he’ll never he’ll never come out into the into the

Opening during the day right he’ll stay in the woods and he knows that food’s there at night so he’ll just come out at night when it’s safe so yeah you’ll see him on your trail cameras but not with your eyes exactly isn’t that the way it usually goes right question number four

Oh I know trail cam they’re great but they drive you crazy it’s like I know he’s there question number four how do we know what seed to put in what what what uh what blend or what seed to plant um you know what really determines that is the amount of sunlight uh you

Know some seeds will grow down to two hours of sunlight to full sun some need to six hours uh to full day so really you got to determine how much sunlight your food plot’s going to get your soil samples will you can go through and pick individual seeds I usually on ours just

Pick all 11 seed Blends U maybe your soil needs a ton of amendment for one seed and it doesn’t need that much Amendment for another seed so for cost factors maybe you go with the Lesser um Amendment you know save your money on fertilizer build that soil up and then

Eventually you can move on to your brascos and clovers or whatever else you want to do so um yeah really just there’s factors you know the sunlight the soil um the size and it comes down to cost when at the end of the day for a lot of people Rich it’s always a

Pleasure I appreciate you helping me out on this uh segment this ask Avery segment and I I figure that you and I will be talking again a lot here over the next several weeks as we get closer to putting seed in the ground if you don’t

Mind oh absolutely Mike um yeah give me a heads up because I think it’s last year I was driving around a property five minutes before trying to find signal right I like oh no this isn’t gonna work so I will give you a heads up ahead of

Time all right Rich appreciate it rich croan of killer food plots Michigan based familyowned two things that I love Michigan based companies because we’re all in this together family-owned uh like dealing with the people who make the decisions I don’t like dealing with the marketing agencies but the people who make the decisions

Killer food plot.com killer food plot.com thank you security creditunion securitycu.org Time now for Michigan’s number one outdoor radio show Mike Avery’s outdoor magazine Mike Avery has covered the outdoors in Michigan for more than four decades and that tradition continues today outdoor magazine is brought to you by J Sporting Goods the Ider Insurance Group angler Quest pontoons the forward Corporation Primal outdoors security

Credit union offshore tackle Garber Chevrolet Rapid River Knife Works and by Michigan brand meets now here’s Mike Avery indeed the big guy Mike Avery here behind the microphone here in the outdoor magazine radio studio to record the third hour of this week’s outdoor magazine radio show to be heard on the

Outdoor magazine radio network on more than 30 radio stations there did I get that all in I know I know it drives you crazy when I say that because you don’t care do you you don’t care at all you don’t care if you’re listening to the broadcast version of the show or the

Podcast I get that I get that you know there are a lot of ways to get your outdoor content these days in fact I’ve never seen anything like the way it is today whether you are a Content producer or just somebody who is a consumer you

Like to hear about the outdoors you like to see the outdoors a lot of different options these days and here in our great state of Michigan uh a lot of options specifically for our state but there is one granddaddy of them all and I don’t care if we’re talking radio podcasting broadcasting TV

Social media whatever it is the the Grand Puba when it comes to outdoor coverage here in Michigan is Michigan outdoors TV it is a tradition going back to Mort F these days the guy at the helm is Jimmy gretzinger and Jimmy has actually been doing the show longer than anybody else

Ever had Mort NE or or or any of the other guys Jimmy’s been doing it longer he does a great job and he’s with us now on the outdoor magazine phone line Jimmy gretzinger welcome back to the outdoor magazine radio show how are you buddy I

Am doing well how are you young fella Young fella I love it when you call me that I love that it’s winter again all of a sudden oh man as we’re recording this show I’ve been talking about this the entire show Michigan and mother nature this spring

Has been just absolutely crazy how has that affected your production schedule your shooting schedule Jimmy oh gosh it’s all over the place we’re trying to find ice we’re trying to find something that’s going on we’re trying to it’s definitely impacted it quite a bit you

Know we we finally sent one of our crew up to the up to get some ice fishing and you know it’s it’s a long trip to catch a couple Pike or a couple bluegill but you got to go and you we had a little bit of ice you know here spotty ice over

The last month and a half but then you know the rabbit hunting is you know there’s no snow so that impacts that and you can still hunt rabbits but you can’t you know trying to get them on camera is hard enough when there’s snow but you

Put a brown rabbit on brown ground it’s uh as you know it’s pretty hard to capture that on camera yeah I saw a post of yours here last week where you were talking about just that that you know it was you had a crew in the up and it was

Almost 70 down state it’s um and and and I know this firsthand to to try to cover a state like Michigan that is so geographically diverse and so um climate wise you can have a different world in Copper Harbor than you can down in the southern Tia

Counties and you got to you got to worry about that too yeah it’d be nice I we are spread out a little bit but we’re spread out in the southern you know so I’m over on the west side of the state Jordan is kind of in the center part of the state near

Ionia and Jenny’s over on the east side uh kind of North part of Lake St Clair but you know to get one of it’d be nice if we had people stationed in Northern low and a couple in the up and we’re not quite to that uh it’d be nice if we had

More reporters you know stretched out and camera gear and everything else but we’re not quite to that quite to that spot but you know you never know that might be something down the road and you know as as as you have people that are you know with cameras and laptops and

Everything else that might be something that could be in the works down the road but uh you never know well and I just mean from a Content perspective too you’ve got so much to try to to try to keep on top up yeah you really do and it whenever

The seasons change too it’s because we’re trying to be as current excuse me as current as we can be it makes it a little tricky because once the season start to change here and you know once you know we’re getting closer to turkeys and all that kind of stuff and the

Spring kind of comes all of a sudden you know nobody really wants to see ice fishing even if there was ice fishing you know two three weeks ago and so it just as the seasons change it it gets a little tricky every every seasonal change but uh you know it’s it’s now

It’s just crazy because you know winter was here and then it left and now it’s sort of back and it’s still winter in the up but just barely you know we we were hoping to cover the up200 and that got cancelled and then um it’s just yeah

You know ice is here one day and gone the next and it’s been tricky so we we did you know we’re kind of adapting you know we did a we did a sit down interview with the DNR and talk deer for two weeks and that went over really well

I mean every time you talk deer you get a lot of interest and so that went over quite well and we we sat down with some of the Wolf People we’re going to be doing a whole show dedicated to the wolf population and that’ll draw a lot of

Interest and a lot of controversy and you know so there’s different things you can kind of do and so we’re learning and adap as we go I’m glad you brought up the conversation with Chad Stewart because that’s one of the things on my list here yeah you’re right man if you

Want to if you want to start an argument in Michigan you talk politics religion or deer management and you had deer management as topic number one so I know that had to get a lot of interest it really did and you know I personally have you know deer hunters

Have kind of ruined deer hunting for me personally but it is something that thank you I am so glad to hear somebody else say that too thank you Jimmy gretzinger oh gosh it’s just you know I I have a hard time I mean I I love to

Shoot deer I love to eat deer I still love deer camp you know but it’s like you know you drop on a deer and you got to figure out okay who’s going to complain about what in the situation and I it’s just has gotten ridiculous but uh

But I know it’s something we need to cover and and people love their deer hunting here in Michigan but um so I know when we do a a sit down with the DNR and and then everybody says oh you’re just in bed with the DNR and it’s

Like oh my go you know it’s like no we’re not you I don’t agree with like 90% of what they’re doing I don’t even agree with but you know we want to have a conversation with them because they’re the ones managing our her so what does

It do for me to you know get in an argument with them because then they never want to come at least want to have the viewers hear like why they’re doing what they’re doing you might not agree with it but I think it’s important to hear why they’re doing what they’re

Doing and and and even Chad you know if he wanted to change all the regulations tomorrow he can’t do that and so it’s like you know you try to explain to people you know the how things work and they don’t want to hear that and it’s like but you know you

Got to talk dear because that’s deerest King here in Michigan yeah well and you mentioned wolf too I see you guys were up there working on that did you find anything out did you learn anything while your guys were up there Jimmy well we’re still in the process of

Putting that together I was hoping to make that trip with Jordan and I was not able to go so he interviewed uh several of the DNR folks that are up there that are literally driving you know hundreds of miles per day tracking wolves they know right where a lot of the wolves wolves

Are across the the up and and you know as you know it really comes down to we can’t really do any management until they’re delisted and then it’s like well you know how how does that process work and what do we what can our politicians

Do to kind of you know move that process along and you know so we’re just really handicapped there’s just not a lot we can do so it’ll be learning more about that process and then uh you know a lot of the locals up there think that

There’s twice as many wolves as the DNR says and and who cares you know whether there’s 600 or 6,000 it doesn’t really matter how many are up there it’s it’s impacting the deer herd for sure but until we can do something it’s you know everybody’s kind of sitting on their

Hands and they’re kind of handicapped on what they can do so it’s like well you know they would love to be able to put a a hunting season in there but they can’t but you know a lot of people just don’t understand that and so you know then

There’s the social carrying capacity of people just get sick and tired of seeing wolves and there’re you know and people are just shooting wolves and you know that’s that’s that’s happening up there and and you hate to you know you that’s happening but you know they get a lot of

Trouble for that but it’s you know when they’re they just reach a certain point and they’re just going to start doing that you know so were you guys able to get any wolves on camera I don’t believe so they had a lot of Fresh Tracks but they have I mean

What we were able to find out is they have literally thousands of trail cameras up so they have tons of video and still images of wolves and um but I don’t believe Jordan got any actual wolves on on camera but there are some local groups up there that are

That are uh taking video from trail cams and or video that people have themselves and and uh so there is some there are some ways to get some some footage of wolves that people are can upload and so we’re getting some of that kind of stuff okay it should be a pretty interesting

We’re going to devote a whole show to it if not even more than that but um you know it’s it’s an interesting topic it’s a Hot Topic and and similar to Deer it’s it’s uh quite controversial on what we should do but there’s just not a lot of

Management that can be done but there is you know one of the things that I wanted to ask is since we can’t do any management up there why are we spending all this money looking for them and chasing them and trying to figure out what’s going on

If we can’t do anything about it you know so that was one of the questions that we asked and um so it’ll be interesting I’m really interested to see what people have to say about it listen I don’t want to take away from your upcoming piece but what was the answer

To that you know why are we spending this money well they have money earmarked for big game or uh I don’t know if they fall under big game management or if it’s uh there is money earmarked for um management I don’t know if it’s management I can’t remember the term

That they have but they have money earmarked to monitor slash something for for wolves and so they have money in the in the budget to monitor them but they can’t do any management of them so um it was it was it’s pretty interesting and I

And I was not up there so I don’t I’m gonna be watching it along with with h a lot of our viewers so gotcha gotcha hang tight Jimmy we’re talking with Jimmy gretzinger the host of Michigan outdoors TV the website michiganoutofdoors tv.com Michigan outdoors tv.com got to take a break here in the

Outdoor magazine show but when we come back I don’t know there are so many things I could ask Jimmy about we’ll just see where the conversation goes he’s an easy guy to talk with he’s a knowledgeable guy and you know what Jimmy gretzinger is one of the good guys

And I appreciate that more coming up after the break right here on outdoor Magazine you can hear the outdoor magazine show in manast on W mlq 97.7 FM you can hear us in sanduski on wmic 660 a.m. 95.3 FM and you can hear us in the yup in manque n w tiq 1490 a.m. 95.3 FM this segment of outdoor magazine

Brought to you by Versa skins Michigan based familyowned there I go again you know I love that combination versus skins why buy a bunch of different sets of hunting clothes when you can buy one good quality set that is wind resistant water resistant warm and comfortable and

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Skins.com that’s versus skins.com and they’re not just for hunting I had my versus skins on when I was on on sagona Bay earlier in the week and it was cold and it blocked the wind and kept me comfortable as well that’s versus skins.com right now uh talking with an

Icon in the Outdoor World here in Michigan his name is Jimmy gretzinger he’s the host of michiganoutofdoors TV the website michiganoutofdoors tv.com Michigan outdoors tv.com Jimmy is invol D in just about everything when it comes to outdoor communication the only thing I don’t see him doing is a radio show

And I’m darn glad he’s not doing one because I wouldn’t want to be in competition with him although although Jimmy I thought about this when it comes time for the old guy to retire wouldn’t it be cool if there was a Michigan outdoors radio show maybe I mean you’re you blazed the

Trail you were doing TV and settled in the radio pretty nice that must be the good gig yeah well you know maybe maybe if I ever do decide decid to retire maybe we should talk maybe we should nothing like bringing it up right on the air here huh I gotta figure out

How to do less TV shows this whole doing one per week is crazy talk well I tell you what when when I left TV and concentrated on radio it’s like the heavens opened up and the angels sang because it was amazing how much easier it is oh

Boy yes I mean we so we have to do I don’t remember I know how many years did you do TV I don’t know 2 four five I don’t know I don’t quite a few yeah a bunch and then were you doing were you doing it every week or were you

Doing 13 episodes I was doing it every week I was doing it every week yeah and it was it was it was terrible it was a grind it was just it it wore me down it took the fun out of what I was doing and

To be honest with you Jimmy the the way I was doing it not on PBS but you know paying paying these stupid outdoor networks to be on them the the the the money just wasn’t there anymore it didn’t make any sense financially gotcha yeah it is a lot of

Work it is uh trying to get a new show every week is you know we do 52 and out of those pretty much on all 52 there’s something new but there’s probably 40 of them are completely new and then we tried to you know every year we’re like

Well let’s just take August off or whatever it is you know but then you if you sit around for like a week week and a half you get all itchy because you’re like I gotta get on the road and because the fun part is getting out there and

Traveling and meeting people and doing stuff and so but it does you know sometimes it gets a little it’s it’s hard to fill content sometimes there’s plenty of stuff to do but it’s also hard to find stuff and you know that work life balance is always

Tricky and you know you could be on the road a lot but then you got to try you know Jordan has a young family and Jenny’s getting close to retirement and I probably got a little bit left in me yet but uh you know it’s interesting

Thing and the show is very fluid you know we usually have an idea what we’re going to do probably on the next week show and that’s about it you know we have stuff scheduled out a week to two weeks sometimes three weeks out but uh

It’s uh it’s a very fluid thing we get a lot of viewers that contact us with stuff and then we’re contacting people all the time and uh but it’s uh yeah you get on that that deadline that Weekly deadline it’s hard to jump off that that

Uh that wheel yeah and you know I I I often look back on my years as television I think maybe I’m overly critical sometimes because maybe I do remember more of the negative stuff but you’re right the the joy of traveling our state documenting what our opportunities are here and meeting cool

People and great people and I think Outdoors men and women are the best people in the face of the Earth that was a very special way to make a living and I was certainly blessed to be able to do that for sure and and and it it gives us

A platform that uh we have to go share stuff that’s even more important than the outdoors that’s which I know your faith is important to you and so that you know I know for me big picture you know the show gives me a platform to go talk about things that are uh really

Important and the outdoors is very important as well but uh it does give me a platform to go share you know what’s really important in life and and so that’s always a big part of it as well so you you know you mention you’re only working basically a few weeks ahead how

Do you know Jimmy because this is what people ask me all the time how do you know what to put on the show well um you know that’s it is a very fluid process so like right now we’re trying to figure out the next couple of weeks so we have um right now

I was talking with a guy that’s got a gun a new gun cleaning uh product and we’re trying to figure out if we want to put that on the show I’m also talking with a guy about some uh who’s making maple syrup we’re trying to figure out

If he’s going to be able to tap tree so that’s a potential story that I might be working on right now um got a guy that’s running rabbits that I’m kind of working with him a little bit if if we can figure out a date that’s going to work

There’s a guy and his daughter that are catching sturgeon over on Lake St Clair and he and I are working trying to figure out a date that we could maybe get over there um so we got that wolf story that we’re GNA probably put on not

Next week’s show but the show after that we have our big buck kns that we just tap one of those in Novi and we got another one coming up in Grand Rapid so between all those things that’ll kind of round out uh February and into March and

Then uh well February’s already gone I’m sorry that’ll round out March and then that’ll get us into April and then that’ll be we start talking turkeys a little bit so um you know it just kind of flows it’s they’re just always the next thing you know and it just uh so

You know we don’t know what we’re going to do for turkeys yet but as we get closer to that season we’ll start calling around some of our turkey guys that we know and be like okay which season are you going to get get what are

We going to do for that opening day are one of us going to hunt or we going to go with somebody else and um it’s it’s it’s very fluid it’s uh there’s not an exact science to it but you’re constantly dealing with people and trying to figure out you then travel

Schedules um you know where you’re going to be can you can you piggyback two stories together when you’re in you know like we have a wild game dinner coming up on Thursday night at at the wood shop social where we tape some of our recipes and it’s like okay we’re going to spend

The night over there is there something we shoot in that area while we’re there um so you know it’s constantly trying to trying to figure it out put the pieces together there’s the the content and production side of what you’re doing and then there’s the business side I mean it

It comes down to you still you got to pay the bills you got to you got to pay your people and folks can’t forget that I mean I’ve seen a lot of people come and go in the outdoor media who thought it was one thing and forgot it was really a business

And didn’t do the business side of it and two or three years later they’re gone they’re gone yeah that’s that’s the part that you you can’t ignore that and that is a constant well later today I’m going to drive down to Lancing and meet with the folks at mucc and they uh were

A part of the show for a long time and they’re wondering you know what can we do to start working together a little bit more whether that’s uh sponsorship stuff whether that’s not you we’re going to have that conversation on my way back I’m meeting a guy that is uh has

Expressed some interest in doing maybe a small sponsorship for the television show to meet him in Grand Rapids um just finalizing a deal with the Michigan Charter Board Association about doing some advertising with that they’re going to do some advertising with us it is a constant constant thing where we’re

Trying to keep the sponsors we have and always looking for new sponsors and um with the Advent with not the Advent because it’s been around for a while but with social media a lot of people want to spend their dollars there because it’s a little cheaper and it’s a little

Bit more measurable than than TV numbers so it it is a constant struggle and uh it’s uh it’s tough there’s no if hands buts about it so we’re always trying to find like-minded sponsors that you know want to support the television show and also get their get their product out in

Front of people or and like what we’re doing and want to support the outdoors well Jimmy you’re doing it right I mean you’ve been doing this a long time I said at the uh beginning of the conversation here you’ve actually been at the Helm of the show longer than

Anybody else has that’s pretty cool it is pretty cool it’s really hard to Fathom that you know when I started I was 26 or 27 and now I’m 52 and when I first started I was one of the younger people at all the different shoots and now I’m old and everything hurts a

Little bit more and and uh but fortunately the cameras have gotten smaller and the batteries last longer and you know like my eyes don’t work as good so I got the readers and fortunately the autofocus works a lot better than it used to on some of the

Camp and uh but it’s still a lot of fun and uh you know meeting people around the state and getting to spend time with them is still a lot of fun you get to meet a lot of good people and it’s still there still it’s really fun for me to

Try to tell a good story and and some weeks you you you feel like you really did it and other weeks uh it’s a little bit more of a struggle but um it’s still new content and you know you get to meet a lot of people that talk about you know

When they were kids growing up with their dad or their mom or their uncle or whatever watching the show which was what I did MH you know watching Michigan outdoors with my dad over the years and it’s just part it’s fun to be a part of that Legacy and you know we’re just

Hoping we can keep it going yeah that is pretty cool to watch to watch those shows when you’re a kid and I’ll be the the head guy out there that’s uh that’s pretty cool pretty cool hey is there anything before I let you go anything that you haven’t gone to yet

Here in Michigan or covered yet here that you really would like to to do yet that’s a good question I’d love to uh have someone take me shooting a big elk that’d be great you and me both [Laughter] brother yeah no that’s uh I think we’ve

Done we’ve done a lot of stuff and people are always asking me hey have you ever done and I’m like yeah we probably have but I’m sure there’s something we haven’t done but I haven’t figured that out yet well Jimmy I wish you a continued uh success as I said I think I

Think you’re one of the good guys you do a great job and I think what you’ve done and continue to do for this history and tradition of the outdoors here in Michigan um you got a real good Legacy going and I wish you continued success well right back at you Mike you

You have been a staple in the outdoors here in the state of Michigan and uh nothing but nothing but love for you and what you do in your crew and uh always appreciate you having me on and and wish you nothing but the best all right Jimmy

Look forward to talking to you again Jimmy gretzinger of michiganoutofdoors the website michiganoutofdoors tv.com michiganoutofdoors tv.com um I think back to the early days when Morton NE was doing Michigan outdoors in fact as I told you I was going through some old video the other day I found two

Things of video of mort f one of them is Mort and I were on the snow train up in the aawa OR agawa Canyon up in Ontario I did a piece with that and then about a year later we went down to Lake Eerie and we were throwing Eerie de tipped

With Crawlers for walleye on Lake Erie I keep talking about taking some of these old things and putting them out there on YouTube I just I got to do it I got to do it I think they’d be interesting anyway thank you Jimmy appreciate your time Michigan outdoors tv.com Michigan

Outoors tv.com we’ll take a break when we come back I don’t know we’ll find something to talk about right here on outdoor Magazine Welcome back to outdoor magazine talking to Jimmy about the business side of the business that’s why I’m late getting to the microphone I was taking care of some of the business side of the business you can hear the outdoor magazine radio show uh let see who else

We’ve got to talk about uh I think we’re down to wsgw in Sagen which is fine because I’m in the studios of wsgw right now I’m here with Charlie Roode Charlie the weather is so rotten out there right now there is not a soul waiting for you

And I don’t blame him you know as revered and loved as you are there’s no reason for anybody to sit on this weather but when it turns they will be here Charlie Charlie and they should because Charlie Roode is I mean he’s he’s a very talented man and

Charlie I appreciate your help on this week’s show as always uh this segment of outdoor magazine brought to you by reader Landscaping you know talking about the weather and how it’s screwing up our outdoor uh passions think about the guys over at reader they don’t know what’s

Going on right now are they still going to be plowing some snow are they working on Springtime projects I I don’t know but one thing you can count on is that whatever uh Mother Nature throws at us the folks that reader will take care of it because it’s your nature

And our nurture uh these guys and gals are very very good at working with Mother Nature and working with the property that you have to get the most out of it you know whether it’s uh Springtime project fall whatever but of course right now we’re thinking about

Springtime and I would encourage you if you have a landscape project that you’re looking to get done don’t wait too long get in touch with the folks at reader right now uh uh talk to their experts and designing your project their maintenance people whatever it is get on

Their schedule and get ready to rock for this upcoming Springtime because it won’t be long and their schedule will get filled because they do great job and a lot of people want to work with them and I enjoy working with them as well the website reader landscaping.com that’s reader landscaping.com I really

Enjoyed that conversation with Jimmy gretzinger honestly he is truly um one of the good guys uh and he wouldn’t have been doing this as long as he has If he if he if he wasn’t as I look at the um the list of people who have been in the public eye

In the outdoors here in Michigan it’s a very special and revered group of people let’s go back to okay fredbear fredbear of course the father of modern day archery uh made Bear Archery his home for many years right there in great tring here in Michigan his birthday by the way coming

Up uh Tuesday March 5th um I found some old video of Fred that I had I I I have posted my lost fredbear interview online I posted every piece of the audio everything that he told me in that conversation I included in uh that segment on YouTube it was

Also on air when I had the TV show but I found some more b-roll and that is just backup video that we shot that day at grous Haven and it does include in in my mind it included this but I just saw the video to reiterate the folks from Bear Archery

Shooting prototype crossbows at grous Haven with Fred Bear looking over their shoulder so when you hear these purists say that Fred Bear never would have endorsed this baloney what are you basing that on I saw him I saw him with my own eyes I think that he was interested in

Anything that would further the sport of archery the business of archery and bow hunting in general what what other big names Mort F who was again if you’re younger you don’t even know Mort who Mort is but you know us older folks know Thursday night time for Michigan outdoors and back then

It was called Michigan outdoors uh with Mort F I was also privileged and and blessed to get to meet and know and spend some time with Mort nef I was looking at my old archives again the other day I found an old promo of me and Mort NE sitting

On a picnic table I don’t even remember where it was but it’s me and Mort and he says something like for 25 years I spent my time showing The Great Outdoors to the people of the state of Michigan or he says I’m Morton F yada Y and I’m

Sitting next to him a young darkhaired kid with a full head of hair I said I’m Mike Avery and that’s also my goal with news5 outdoors and Mort looks at me and says good luck Mike how cool is that and then I found video of of him and I on the snow

Train we just sat there for hours and had a conversation I’ve got that documented then we went down to Lake Yuri fish and walleye on Lake Yuri you know to have these experiences throughout my career throughout my life to have the memories which some days are

Not as clear as I’d like them to be but then that then to find these old Snippets of video These Old archives it’s just it’s it’s it’s wonderful it’s wonderful uh we’ll take a break here in the outdoor magazine show when we come back wrap it all up with a guy who I

Another guy who I have much respect for you know I guess I think about it if I if I wouldn’t have somebody on the show here if I didn’t respect them right as I look at the rundown today every person who’s on this been on the show I have

Much respect for they are experts they are Educators they are uh people who want to share a story they want to share their knowledge they want to share the information and that what that’s what makes a good radio guest well Wild game Chef extraordinaire Dixie Dave Miner is

One of them as well he’s an absolute Master when it comes to Wild game and he’s just an all-around good guy so we’ll take that break when we come back we’ll wrap it all up one more reminder my name is Mike Avery this show is called outdoor magazine my website

Mike ay outdoors.com Mike ay outdoors.com my email address is at Mike ay outdoors.com I’d love to hear from you let me know what’s on your mind let me know what you’re thinking about uh more coming up after the break right here on outdoor Magazine page 39 that’s what I’m being told page 39 I’m going to write this down page 39 what I’m talking about is Page 39 in the uh Wild game Chef extraordinaire Dixie Dave minor cookbook a few weeks ago we started again I don’t know why I didn’t do this earlier you know Dave

Joins me at the end of each week’s show and he’s always got a wonderful recipe and a vast majority of those have been covered in Dave’s Wild game cookbook which this week is Page 39 David what is Page 39 w i keilo w iargo excellent man that was a hit at

The restaurant when we had the restaurant that was one of the big sellers too Walley kargo okay so I will post that recipe on my Facebook page this week and David you know what else I no you know we’re talking about this cookbook and you say you can’t get it

Anymore one of the silent auction items in our Trinity monitor Wild game dinner and auction was a Dixie Dave Miner cookbook oh wow how’d you get that I don’t even know I got a check on that I was wondering that myself you know there’s aftermarket

Books out there at you know like at some of these aftermarket places that you could pick them up but they were going for Big Money sometimes 40 50 bucks what did you charge when you were selling that not 20 you should have charged more all right before I eat up all your

Time let’s let’s get this walleye recipe because walleye are kind of hot across the state right now as you know oh yeah everybody I’m talking to has been getting them so it’s like I said it’s the Walley kilargo and you need about six to eight ounces of boneless skinless

Filet per person one or two beaten up eggs flow to dredge the fish in and you can get kargo snaps you can actually buy it in airline bottles too at some of the grocery stores they uh or party stores they sell it or you can buy a half a pint to of

It you need a jar of chicken gravy a couple ounces of sliced almonds couple ounces of shredded coconut un untoasted yet because you’re going to toast this at the end and you’re going to need one to one and A2 cups of fruit either canned fresh frozen it could be peaches and pineapple and

Pears and whatever you feel like you like to eat by all means use it you could use raspberri strawberries blueberries you need a half onion dice that fine 4 ounces of heavy cream a tablespoon of butter or margarine and olive oil to sauté with so you’re going

To dredge the fish and flour then in the beaten up eggs and put a small amount of oil into a large heated frying pan place the fish with the skin side up so when you turn it you only want to turn it once the uh rib side will be facing the

Diner Brown it on one side turn it over and then sauté for just a minute or two and that’s going to almost fully cooked this because most of the filets once you take them off the heat they’re going to continue to cook a little bit place them in a casserole wipe the pan

Out with a paper towel and then sauté the onon in a little bit of that butter for one or two minutes until tender add the kargo schnaps and then simmer it for another minute or so you just want to burn that alcohol off add the gravy bring it to a boil the

Heavy cream add the fruit bring that to a boil and after you put the fish in a casserole you’re going to spoon this over the top of it and you’re going to cook it only for about three or four more minutes because fish is almost done already remove the fish to individual

Plates and then spoon the mixture over the top and because the hot sauce is still you know hot and it’s going to stay nice and warm for a while sprinkle with coconut and almonds and put it under a boil and be very careful because it’s going to Brown off real real quick and

Might even burn on you so you got to really watch what you’re doing Brown it until it’s nicely well toasted you could serve this with rice or your favorite pasta and it goes just great with either oh I remember this I can visualize this

In my mind and it was so good and again I want to go back to when you’re cooking fish um remember that it will continue to cook right right when you take it out of the pan it’s going to continue to cook for another little minute because

Top and bottom is hot and it’s going to you know migrate down to the middle of it and it’s going to finish cooking it pretty quick Salmon’s another one that cooks fast like that so I mean you don’t want to undercooked fish you don’t want to overcook but I

Mean what what if you overcook it gets tough if you undercook it’s mushy I mean what how do we look at thaty is one of them fish that if you overcook it a little bit it’s going to be okay it’s not going to ruin the dish or anything

Like that it’s just going to kind of dry it up a little bit the more you cook it the more dry it’s going to become all right David this is one of my favorites walleye kargo on page 39 of the cookbook I will post that on my Facebook page

And listen next week when we get together we can talk about our Trinity monitor event and how it went oh okay that sounds great yeah looking forward to that that’ll be a great event look forward to seeing you there wild game Chef extraordinaire Dix C Dave Miner a

Big part of the outdoor magazine show and again thank you Dave for joining us this week it uh it’s been an interesting show right it’s been a lot of fun every one of these shows is fun some more fun than others and this one has actually

Been a riot for me I hope you have enjoyed it as well my website Mike Avery outdoors.com Mike Avery outdoors.com my email address is Mike at Mike ay outdoors.com and I’m serious I’d love to hear from you want to get your input let me know what’s on your mind what you

Think if you want to share your Outdoor Adventures your outdoor experiences your video your pictures please send it to me Mike at Mike ay outdoors.com and I will do my best to share it on my Facebook page uh let’s see what Mother Nature does for us this week hopefully she’ll

Give us a break you can get out and enjoy it and then we’ll talk next time right here on outdoor magazine