Derby and Deadline

The silver bass are peaking a little early for the Wyandotte Fishing Derby, hopefully there will be some fish left for the excited anglers this Saturday June 2nd. All you need to do is register with the City of Wyandotte's Recreation Department and bring your rod and reel to Bishop Park. As has happened for the past few years local bait shops are providing worms and minnows. If you get a chance stop in on one of them to get the best way to catch silvers and any others fish that could be in the river. Check my bait shops link for the phone numbers and locations and remember to mention Downriver Outdoors.
Fishing contest begins at 10:00 am. Kids Expo begins at 12:00 noon.
Fishing contest is open to children ages 5 to 13. All contestants will receive a fishing contest participation award and gift bag. Prizes will be awarded to winners for the longest fish, most fish caught, smallest fish and most unusual item caught. Registration at the Wyandotte Recreation Department, Special Events Office. Contestants are limited to 200. Contestants must bring their own fishing pole, hooks, lines and sinker. Live bait is available at the fishing pier. Admission to the fishing derby is free, but children must be pre-register. Registration begins May 1st at the Yack, 3131 Third Street, Wyandotte
Kids Expo following in Bishop Park, games, bounce, prizes. For more information you may contact the Special Events Office at 734-324-4502


June 1st is fast aproaching so don't forget to apply for your elk or bear permit. Each entry costs only $4 so it could be like winning the lottery if you get selected. The more years in a row you apply the chances of you getting drawn go up so don't forget.

Get Outdoors Downriver.

Opening Day Date With A Hot Blonde

4:30 am came awfully quick. Even with my cousin’s 4 wheeler it takes quite a while to get to the hunting blinds and set up on the 200 acre farm in the Thumb. This year was pretty dry so we didn’t have the muddy ruts to contend with. The wind however was another story. 10 mph winds with 20 mph gusts put the birds off their vocal ways. I heard a handful of gobbles early and a flock crossed the field I was watching about 9 am over 100 yards away. That was it so we went to an early lunch. 20 mph winds and 30 mph gusts awaited us in the afternoon. The turkeys just weren’t moving or calling at all. The property isn’t set up for running and gunning so in the blinds we sat.
About 3 pm on a lark I tried calling to my cousin who was about 300 yards away. I got out my loudest mouth call and texted him to listen. I blew the call as loud as I could and still sound like a turkey. I texted him back if he heard me and replied back he thought I was going to shoot and hadn’t heard anything and the wind must have blown my calls south into the middle of an open field. Rats, this was very disheartening since 300 yards isn’t very far away. I’ve been calling all day, I thought, and no turkey has been able to hear me, not even my cousin.
Things happen very quickly at times. Unexpected things that give you the feeling of an out of body experience. It appeared to me that a huge turkey was transported by Scotty right in front of my blind. Never heard it, never saw it until it was past 3 decoys heading to my jake tending a willing hen. With these recent happenings I grabbed my gun but hesitated because I wanted to get some video of the jake - Tom interaction, so I grabbed my camera. Just as I started to shoot with the camera the strutting Tom was watching the jake and a 25 mph gust caused the jake to jerk quickly, even though I had it staked with sticks on both sides of the tail. The Tom undisplayed fast and was showing signs of leaving in a hurry. So I switched back to the gun and harvested my blonde.
I almost didn’t shoot the bird because the beard looked very skimpy. The 8 ¾ “ length was noticeable but the color was very light giving the impression of a very thin beard. I did fill my tag and everything adds up to an old cagey bird. He sported a nice scar on his right leg and a busted spur, to boot, on the other. The fact that he came in on stealth mode also points to the fact he was very experienced.
The next day dawned calmer but this wasn’t indicative of how the rest of the day would end up. My partner was in his blind with a receptive hen and a jake with 2 more hen decoys facing north. He over looked a river bed and the decoys were on the slope leading down to the stream. I was in a pop up blind just behind him facing south with 2 hens and a jake alongside a full strut tom. All my decoys were in a field and could be seen from a distance. The early morning soliloquy was quite entertaining with 6-8 toms gobbling in the trees near us.
After fly down only one tom stayed close and was gobbling regularly to my morning clucks. Then a hen popped out of a fence line to the east and stared down the decoys. I had staked the jake and hens anticipating more wind but the full strut decoy was en fuego. The wind was picking up now and the full strut tom was spinning like a top. The hen just kept staring and I thought I could hear another tom gobbling just on the other side of the fence row. Competing gobblers usually mean one or both should come into the calls and offer a shot. After about 5 or 6 gobbles from the bird by the fence row I saw the “hen” sticking out its neck every time I heard a gobble. The bird was 75 to 100 yards out and I never saw a beard on it but after watching mister full strut spin around in the wind I heard the first of many putts he would make. A putt being the danger signal between turkeys and the scourge of any turkey hunter. The other gobbler, in the stream bed, was still going to town responding to my clucks and purrs but the alarming jake made a bee line right to him and soon the woods went silent.
After a couple of hours of this silence I was starting to think about getting some breakfast. Just as I was to text my cousin a shot rang out from his blind. I quickly jumped out of the pop up and ran up to his blind just in time to see the last few birds disappearing into the thick stuff on the other side of the stream. Joe was despondent because he had made the same shot last year. Shooting downhill out of a blind can be tricky and you need to stand up to get the right gun angle to shoot. The big bruise on his bicep shows that something wasn’t right at the moment of truth. So off to lunch we went.
After our brief respite we were back at it again. This time I staked the full strut tom with sticks on each side of the fan. The wind wasn’t extreme but it was noticeable. After an hour wait a gobble was heard to the west and it was coming closer. This bird gobbled 40 – 50 times in an hours’ time but we never saw it. I tried clucking, purring, kee kee runs and cutting. I used a box call a mouth call a slate call and gobbling (we were on private property so gobbling wasn’t an issue, if you’re on state land it’s not advisable safety wise). The bird would get so close that I thought we should be able to see it but the stream bed has many thick areas and the bird stayed hidden. Finally it became disinterested and left. About an hour an hour later we got a gobbler trot by, two decent birds gobbling now and then, moving steadily but not running, heading west to east from one horizon to the other.
Now it’s getting late in the day and the shadows are growing long. The wind has subsided to nothing and two hens enter the field for a snack before roosting. I watched them move from one side of the field to the other picking up insects and left over soy beans. Soon they’re joined by another pair and they calmly go on their way. As the sun dips behind the trees we’re near the two new birds start heading our way and are staring at the decoys. I glass the pair and spot a beard on the biggest bird. I text Joe and he confirms that one bird has a beard but he’s not sure if he wants to shoot this one, but he does. Thus ending our two day two bird Thumb hunt.

Get Outdoors Downriver.

Mothers Day Celebration and Outdoor News

Things are really heating up here in the Downriver Outdoors. The trees are all leafed out, flowers are popping up and some gardens have even been started.All just in time for Mother's Day. For this Mother's Day weekend plan on doing something with Mom in the great Downriver Outdoors. Here's a great opportunity that the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge and the Lake Erie Metro Park will be putting on this weekend.
You can take Mom on a nature walk early and have a picnic breakfast on the way. Or let Mom sleep in for breakfast in bed and then hit the trails later in the morning. There are many unusual birds in the area that are migrating to their normal breeding areas. I don't think you'll see a tangier in a sombrero but a Baltimore oriole is almost a guarentee. The program is free but a vehicle permit is required.
At Oakwoods Metro Park the program on Saturday is about Mothers in nature. Take Mom to see how animal mothers and their children get along in the wild, there's a $3 for this program. Take Mom on Sunday for an enjoyable hike in the woods while searching for spring wildflowers. This program is free but a vehicle entry permit is required for all Metro Parks.
How about taking Mom fishing. It's a great outdoor persuit you both can enjoy. With the silver bass in the river there are many places from shore to catch these fish. Pack a picnic and buy some minnows and soon you'll both be catching so many fish it will be a Mother's Day that both of you will remember for a lifetime.
This is also a perfect time to put Mom in for a bear or an elk permit. The cost is only $4 but could result in a freezer full of meat. Go to MDNR permit applications:
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10363_42807---,00.html. If not for Mother's Day you'll need to do it before the end of the month.

Get Outdoors Downriver and Happy Mother's Day to all Moms.

You Can’t Always Get What You Want

It’s usually that way when you’re doing something you like. Around here in spring that usually means walleye fishing. What else is there? Fact is that the Detroit River and western Lake Erie has the best early spring walleye fishing in the world. Many people come from hundreds if not thousands of miles to fish here. This year may have been the best on record, if such records were kept, with the warm weather early in March and the moderate temperatures since. The fish started early and good fishing continued for almost two and a half months, let’s say 75 days, many walleye addicts have caught over 250 fish already.
But alas happy days are over, the silver death has taken over. In just 3 hours last night our boat caught over 75 silver bass. Just horrible, added into the outing was a stiff west wind making things miserable. To make matters worse the 3 of us only caught 7 walleye. Queue the screeching stylus across the record, oh I’m sorry most of you won’t understand that, let’s try “Wahhh Waahhh”. I guess this is the way of the world now, complain about everything. Just turn on the radio from sports talk to political blabber it’s all complaining. Nobody is happy and maybe with the slow economy some of this should be expected but let’s get some perspective here.

The wind was bad and we were relegated to fishing protected waters, but we were still fishing. That usually beats any alternative hands down. We caught about 90 fish, for 3 anglers in 3 hours, that works out to a fish every 6 minutes, if you tell people that they’d think you were at a fish farm. We talk to an angler that also complained about the silver death and then he showed us a mess of bluegills that were bigger than his hand. This all points to the fact that many of us are spoiled. We want perfect weather when we’re fishing and copious amounts of the certain fish we want to catch. Whether its walleye or perch or bluegill and yes silver bass we want only those fish to cooperate. Well sometimes you just have to settle with getting what you need, a fish at the end of your line. In the best waters around for many miles the river gives us just that.

Get Outdoors Downriver.

Be Vigilant

Cormorant watch has started again this year and the volunteers are loaded for bear. Well maybe not bear but definitely cormorant. Tim Wilson USDA Wildlife Services Biologist conducted the training and issued the USDAWS paperwork. I wasn't able to make it this year but with the DWF and the HRFA volunteers there should be enough coverage to keep the cormorants off of the new plantings (reference last April's blog:http://drdownriveroutdoors.blogspot.com/2011/04/cormorants.html).
Ed McCarter (DWF), Howard Borden (HRFA), Richard Mazei (DWF) and Tom Cunnigham (DWF)+ (HRFA) all qualified. They each signed and dated and have a copy of the USDAWS training.
The cormorants are in now so the trainees will be busy. Contact Tom (thms.cunningham@gmail.com) if you have any questions or wish to volunteer your time to watch.

Here's an update on the non-breeding cormorants of Wyandotte sitting on eggs in a tree near town.
The river is full of these birds again. Hopefully someone will start to take them seriously and do some counter measures like Ohio is doing in Lake Erie. Here's the video of the effort to take the still pic. The still pic lets me count at least 13 nests, the video gives you the affect of how many birds are there.


Get Outdoors Downriver.