My first hunting trip to Canada 40 years ago might surprise most folks. It wasn’t for moose or bear, but rather for that ground-dwelling rodent called a woodchuck. The area was rolling farm country interspersed with hardwoods and stone fences, and it gave you the impression that you were in New England, and not Ontario farm country on the Bruce Peninsula. My three hunting companions were avid woodchuck hunters, who lived and breathed the pastime. When most hunters look upon spring/summer as an off-season period, it is the time when woodchuck hunters shine. The Ontario … Read More
The First Annual Free Cass River Rough Fish Derby was a great day for all
The Dead Waters of the Cass River has a lot of local history associated with it. Its name has nothing to do with being stagnant but is in reference to the fact that it lacks very little current caused by a pair of river-wide limestone shelves located over a mile apart creating a natural basin possessing a unique limestone-associated river bottom topography. In essence, it is a long and narrow lake. In 1900, a wooden bridge spanned where M-53 is now located, and where Pinney Lodge catered to visiting anglers, and even … Read More
Ticks – an unseen and often unnoticed menace ready and waiting in Michigan’s great outdoors.
While growing up on a Thumb area farm and enjoying local outdoor pastimes such as fishing, hunting and camping whenever possible, I don’t remember ever seeing a tick. However, that has all changed in recent years, and last year was one of the worst in my memory. This is in relation to my kennel of hunting dogs which entails two mountain curs, a redbone coonhound and a German shorthair pointer. I consider all my dogs to be versatile hunting dogs and use them for just about everything which primarily include hunting for squirrels, rabbits and … Read More
Anticipating when the wonderful birds of spring finally arrive in Michigan
The robin seems to get all the glory of being the key harbinger of spring in Michigan, and in some ways that is true. However, not all robins migrate south in the fall, with some of them wintering through, where habitat will allow, such as river bottoms. I often hear folks believing we are going to have an early spring when they have sighted robins in January and February, but I am sure they have had an occasional sighting of winter holdouts. I put more faith in seeing male redwing blackbirds, which normally show up … Read More
Foraging is a great and popular outdoor pastime
Humans from the beginning of time have been foragers seeking edible plants in order to survive, and foraging in the wild remains to be a highly popular outdoor pastime today. When spring finally makes its appearance after a lengthy winter, foraging becomes a primary focus for a whole lot of folks, me included. There are great books available today to enlighten potential foragers on how to go about searching for edible plants, and most important, how to properly identify them. May is well known for being “morel month”, especially in Michigan. Springtime weather and temperatures … Read More
Doubling Up On Dandy Gobblers
Nothing is quite like an early morning in a spring “turkey woods”. It starts out pretty quiet, except for the occasional chorus of frogs trilling away. Then, as the woods begin to take shape as darkness begins easing into the gray light of dawn, songbirds begin chirping away, just a few at first, then all the rest soon join in to create a unique woodland symphony, something I have always enjoyed. This is exactly what we were experiencing from our newly erected ground blind. It wasn’t long when a great-horned owl hooted, quickly followed by … Read More
Great hunting memories in introducing a lady to a trophy swamp gobbler
The spring temperature, though cool, wasn’t uncomfortable and the ink black sky filled with bright stars and a partial moon gave just enough light to find my way through the dense cover with a lady following close behind. Pastel yellow and violet hues hinting in the eastern sky let me know we would be setting up at just the right time and we were in for some good weather. Our destination was a hunting blind on the high ground in a heavily wooded swamp, the perfect setting for a mid-May turkey hunt in the Thumb. … Read More
A Springtime Family Affair
The multiple sucker fish species in Michigan get a bit of a bum rap from some folks who consider them to be trash fish on the order of carp, which is very incorrect. Suckers get their name from their fleshy lipped mouths located on the underside of their heads and are for a fact, bottom feeders. However, they are what I consider clean bottom feeders in that they feed only on aquatic insects, crustaceans, snails, worms and algae. Suckers have also been accused of eating the spawn of other game fish species and competing with … Read More
Remembering when a lamb suddenly turns into a lion
There is an old saying – “In like a lamb and out like a lion” and vice versa, relating to how a winter will most likely be. Some of those old sayings often bear fruit, because they have been created by years of keen observance. Around my parts, this winter came in like a lamb, somewhat anyway, which makes me wonder what spring will be like. Some of the worst snowstorms I’ve ever witnessed in my Thumb area have occurred in the spring. It doesn’t seem like 50 years have passed by so quickly, but … Read More
1968 – The year my annual spring turkey hunting adventures began
A very popular TV show when I was growing up was Michigan Outdoors, which was hosted by the late Mort Neff and aired every Thursday night. I looked forward to watching it each week because Mort Neff was always covering and promoting Michigan’s fantastic outdoor opportunities. A topic he kept tabs on was the reintroduction of wild turkeys (from Pennsylvania) to the Northern Lower Peninsula during the mid-1950’s. Limited Spring turkey hunts began in 1965 and getting a “gobbler tag” was done by applying through the mail to a special drawing. This was very similar … Read More