Mouillee Open Opportunity

The spring open house at Pointe Mouillee is coming up next month. This semi-annual event gives a unique experience of the area without having to walk in the 3-4 miles. This time of year there are many migrating birds, some that will bring squeals from the Audubon types. For most it's just a sensory overload trying to see everything at once but your neck and eyes aren't fast enough.

 

I'm hoping Joe Robison will be there this year. Joe is an outdoor show in the making, hence the moniker "Hollywood". Last year he made an entrance out of a helicopter this year who knows maybe one of those recue boats that go on land or water, either way Joe will make the tour entertaining.

So be there April 11 – 9 a.m. at Pointe Mouillee State Game Area, 37025 Mouillee Road, Rockwood; 734-379-9692

These birding tours are part of the Michigan Waterfowl Legacy (MWL), a 10-year, cooperative partnership to restore, conserve and celebrate Michigan's waterfowl, wetland and waterfowl hunting community. The initiative is a "call to action" to honor yesterday, engage today and build for tomorrow.

To learn more about Michigan's Wetland Wonders, visit www.michigan.gov/wetlandwonders.

Get Outdoors Downriver

Nice Fall Detroit River Walleye Thanks to Mark Romanack

  A while back I shared a contest page on Facebook from Mark Romanack, Surprisingly to me I won a box full of fishing gear with a Mustang inflatable pfd and an Okuna low profile level wind reel. Thanks Mark.

 Professional fisherman to the extreme Mark strives to help anyone become a better fisher person. He hosts the Fishing 411 television show and has written many books about many aspects of fishing. Probably the most important would be the Precision Trolling book Mark wrote about the depth your lure will be trolling at a certain speed with a known line strength and the amount of line out. This is very important info when targeting a precise depth. Mark has spent many hours painstakingly in scuba gear documenting such info. Check out the Fishing 411 blog, facebook page and the tv shows on youtube.

Get Outdoors downriver.

A Tale of Two Enablers

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

  2014 was the best year I’ve ever had hunting and fishing, and I just turned 60, but the worst on a personal level. In September I lost my Brother in a car accident. He was heading back to his beloved Maine after a summer visit to the old stomping grounds. He was my birding tutor and I still enjoy bird watching to this day. Then in November I lost my Father in Law of 40 years. Not an unexpected event but one that shakes you to the core anyway. He was my hunting enabler.

My family never hunted or even owned sporting firearms. I never thought about hunting growing up instead fishing was my family’s outdoor endeavor. My FIL was big into pheasant hunting and during the 1950s our surrounding area was pheasant heaven. His favorite story was the 5 for 5 on pheasants. Deer hunting is also very big on both sides of my wife’s family. The first time I was invited I had no gun and the only coat I had was a black pea-coat with matching black and white striped scarf. Not the best color scheme for deer hunting being white was a deer color and black was bear, you could hunt bear during deer season at the time. They let me go out anyway with a bead sight shotgun and 2 slugs. I found a spot next to a two track and sat down only to be startled a couple of hours later by a deer that I promptly missed. So started my love affair with hunting.

  Jack not only lent me guns but helped be buy guns for myself once I had the finances to do so. He also made sure whom ever wanted to hunt had a place to stay and somewhere to hunt. Making many memories in the process. Like my second time in deer camp he let me use a newly acquired 8mm rifle. This was quite a step up from the shotgun, in both aesthetics and kick, and I got a deer with it. I now had an attachment to the gun being my first deer and all but he ended up horse trading it away that night with the neighbor so back to square one I went. On the way home I asked for his daughters hand in marriage but due to a problem with communication a lot of swearing and gnashing of teeth ensued. Remembering all the stashed handguns Jack had I quickly straightened out the problem and was given his blessing. The enabler and memory maker will be missed dearly.

Now to the best of 2014. Not to mince words here’s some pics.

10.5 pound walleye

Strutting tom with 9+ inch beard and 1 inch spurs. (With video)

Opening day pheasant

Muzzleloader deer

First buck in 20 years.

Get Outdoors Downriver.