Cormorants

April Foolish

With all definitions of crazy aside, this story borders on craziness and April foolishness. As you can tell by my slide show, with the first picture being a cormorant devouring a nice sized pike, I think the black death from the sky is a very clear and present danger. This is why I have a link on the blog page for anyone that sees a cormorant to report it. This is why I volunteered to be a cormorant guard.

Saturday 4/2 I was at the Southgate library to volunteer for cormorant control. What type of shot to use was my first question. No these birds are federally protected. Only agents of the USFW service are authorized to do and rarely at that. . Tim Wilson, from the US Department of Agriculture Wildlife Division, gave a very detailed presentation on the state of the cormorant in Michigan and what the different agencies are doing to try and control them. So I volunteered to be a cormorant guard. Guard them as in protecting? No, not hardly. Guarding them from a highly prized valuable.

Tim Wilson

You see the USFWS doesn’t think there are any cormorants south of northern Lake Huron, that’s why we need to get those reports in. I sent in a report last October after a quick outing on the river and counting 80+ cormorants. Yesterday I observed 220 flying north, there were many others swimming or flying east and west in the river so I couldn't get an accurate count, the ones I reported were flying off into the north. For years now the black death from the sky has been taking advantage of a fish near and dear to many. Who knows when it started, but for 8 years it’s been known that when fish are stocked at certain locations cormorants show up in droves for a free meal. These fish are steelhead smolts that stick around the area they’re planted for a week or 2 to get their bearings and imprint on the water source they’re in. Somehow cormorants have adapted to this, like someone ringing a dinner bell.

Somewhere Downriver
These fish are fairly large, raised in the hatchery to help their survival. The cost for each fish is in the neighborhood of $2 each by the time they’re released. Bob Eggleston released 35,564 fish today somewhere Downriver. Due to red tape the truck drivers can’t release the fish at night, which may not help anyway. How the cormorants know the stocked fish are there is a mystery, but keeping the fish safe is now the job of the cormorant guards. Bring it black death, I’ll be waiting.

Of course the ball game is in favor of the protected bird not the fish the state pays to raise. The only tools and tactics we can use are pyrotechnics, in certain areas, and using boats to herd the cormorants away. So for 2 weeks the sites will be manned with volunteers trying to save the young steelheads. If you have questions or wish to volunteer contact any of these organizations for details.

http://huronriverfishing.com/About%20HRFA.html

http://huronval.michigansteelheaders.org/

http://www.dwfonline.com/

15.9 pound Walleye, Biggest in 15 years

Yesterday 4/13 at 9:30 am John Kinkead caught a hog walleye out of the lower Detroit River. John caught the fish of a lifetime on a jig tipped with a 4" Gulp in shad color. John took it to Bottomline Bait and Tackle to get some pictures taken. Bill at Bottomline says it's the biggest walleye from the river in the last 15 years. Congrats John.
John's big fish has all of the FLW pro anglers in town for this weekend's tournament itching for a chance at the same type of fish. Final weigh-in will be Sunday 4/17 at 3 pm at Elizabeth Park in Trenton. More pics and info to come.

From Downriver Outdoors

John caught the fish of a lifetime on a Northland jig in orange and black with a shad colored Gulp minnow body. The fish was 31 1/8 in length. For fishing updates from Bottomline shoot them an email at bottomlinebait734@yahoo.com

From Downriver Outdoors

Nathan Lewis Eagle Scout Aspirant

  Nathan Lewis, of Trenton, is completing a long journey in scouting to becomes an Eagle Scout. It's the last step in rank a scout can make, the last of 6. After many merit badges, outings, camping trips and projects the light at the end of the tunnel is coming into view.
  Nathan, a junior at Gabriel Richard High School in Riverview, has been in scouting for 11 years. An endeavor he enjoyed because it introduced him to camping and he loves camping. After many camping outings with his troop, #802 out of Woodhaven, Nathan has been involved in some intense camping. These trips are on a par with the survivor reality shows. One was a week on an island just off of Florida, a week surrounded by saltwater. Are you thirsty yet? Last year was 10 days in New Mexico, so think desert. Foraging for food and water for 10 days in the desert, maybe love doesn't quite describe Nathan's zest for camping.
  Now the Life Scout has just one more step to make Eagle Scout. Thanks in part to the leaders of troop 802 who made sure Nathan stayed on track. They have a good recipe there because Nathan isn't the only Eagle Scout to come out of the 802. Nathan isn't just a scout either, he's also a football player and track participant at school. So the project comes at a good time for him, a little lull so to speak. Also a good time for the vegetation to take root. Under the guidance of Allison Krueger, the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge Alliance landscape designer, Nathan and his troop installed 300 feet of fa-chine on the banks of the overflow from the retention pond on the north end of Humbug Marsh. The pond collects surface rain water from the surrounding area. This water used to go right into the river and now gets a natural treatment from the pond and Humbug Marsh. This is a big plus for the fish and animals in the refuge. I saw a pair of geese there already so the herons and egrets aren't far behind.
  Congrats to Nathan for achieving the highest rank in scouting and a big thanks to all that helped with the project. Allison Krueger, Nathan's parents and the members of troop 802 that volunteered all deserve a big attaboy. If you'd like to help out on another of the DRIWRA's projects go to their website http://www.fws.gov/midwest/detroitriver/ and check it out. Volunteers are always appreciated in a wildlife refuge.



Get Outdoors Downriver

Antique Outboard Motor Show

  Lockeman's Hardware and Boat hosted it's annual outboard motor show last Saturday, 3/26/11. There were 15 outboards on display for judging by members of the Great Lakes Chapter of The Antique Outboard Motor Club, Inc. It's amazing how these members can get a 75 year old outboard motor to look. A lot of elbow grease and some fabricating are needed. Fabricating because parts are no longer available, that is unless Lockeman's doesn't have it in stock.
Along with the show is a swap meet in the alley. Quite a few vendors had the odd motor parts and things like motor covers which can be lost quickly in the Detroit River. It was a great turnout as I found out because by the time I got there the free doughnuts and hot dogs were gone. All in all everyone had a good time and enjoyed the show. Make sure to check my "To Do Downriver" next year to find out when it will be.



Get Outdoors Downriver

It’s Walleye Time Again

  Mark Martin was at the Downriver Walleye Federation meeting last night and if Mark’s in town the walleyes can’t be far behind. Mark was giving tips on fishing the Detroit River and the 500+ in attendance were all ears. You can judge the interest in a speaker by the lack of side conversations in the room and when Mark stopped talking, which wasn’t very often, you cold hear a pin drop. Considering this was 2-3 times the normal attendance Mark’s reputation is well known. An interesting moment of the evening was the Pledge of Allegiance by the crowd of mostly 40 and over men. A pure slice of Americana.
  Mark pointed out quite a few hot spots on the river to try. He also pointed out that if the spot is crowded with boats and the fish aren’t biting, to try moving just up or down river to find active fish that are spooked by the armada. One thing he did stress more than once is that if the water is dirty jigging takes a backseat to crankbaits. The fish can hear the crankbait better than they can see it and are more prone to hit. This knowledge helped him develop special techniques to present the lures where the fish are. All the info is found in his book of which he only covered maybe 30%. If interested in the book or just finding out more about Mark go to http://www.markmartins.net/.



On a sad note it was announced that Dorothy from Lockeman’s Hardware and Boats is very ill and in need of some support. There is a fund raiser for her this Saturday, March 26th at Westland VFW Hall, 055 South Wayne Road. Check out the web site:



http://www.giveforward.com/fight4dorothy



or stop by the shop to leave a donation.

From odds

Get Outdoors Downriver

CANCELLED!

2011 Gander Mountain Ice Fishing Tournament

Next Saturday February 19th the annual ice fishing tournament will be held on Airport Bay. The Grosse Ile Airport and the USFWS will allow anglers to park and trek across the property to fish on the bay. Prizes will be awarded for perch, pike, pan fish (bluegill?), crappie and the heaviest limit of perch for adults. Kids (under 16) will fish for 3 prizes of biggest, smallest and weirdest. Cost is $20 per adult, $10 per child if you register early, $30 and $15 to register the day of. Hook and line only, mo spearing, and no sharing of your catch. Check in starts at 8:30 am and ends at 9:00 am when fishing starts. Fishing ends at 3:00 pm. Prizes donated by Bottom Line Bait and Tackle, Gander Mountain and Grapentine Specialties.

If you don't like fishing give Dawg a call at 734-578-8319 for a guided rabbit hunt. $90 per person with a minimum of 2. All hunts are within an hour of the area and are on public and private lands. It's the only hunting game going on right now.

Get ready for the local bass fishing tournaments. Starting June 2nd, 2011 every Thursday night for 15 weeks on Lake Bellville. You must fish 9 of the 15 weeks to be eligible for the Classic fish off on September 10th, 2011. Call Tony at 734-365-9995 for tournament entry details.

Happy Super Bowl Sunday

  Here's to my favorite national holiday. I hope you have some decent squares. Here's to my brother recovering from Quad bypass surgery back in Maine. After 2 days in the ITC he's sitting up and asking for

margaritas. It sounds like he's well on his way to a full recovery.

  Today more than New Years Day is a time to reflect on the past year. Walleye fishing was so so on the US side but Canadian waters held more fish this year permitting some to catch their personal bests. My cousin Joe did it in May- see Joe's big walleye. I also had a personal best fishing for walleye but a different species:

From Downriver Outdoors

  Muskies are really coming back in the river along with many other species; it's got to be a good thing. Turkey hunting was tough this year but as always because of the time of year it was very rewarding. Salmon fishing was the same this year, just outstanding. Captain Dan put us on fish and what a great time catching we had. His web site is http://stormychinook.com/ but he may be booked up for this year. Then deer hunting and pheasant hunting, 0 deer and 1 pheasant. Not highly productive but great times all around.



  Getting ready for the game, many of the memories are coming back. Like some food you enjoy them better the second time around. The venison bacon and turkey sausage are cooked and ready to go. Thanks Ray's Prime Foods for putting them together. Although they aren't dietary they are reduced fat and great tasting.

From Downriver Outdoors

  Open up a Moose Drool and get ready for kickoff. Let's hope for a high scoring game, at least that's what my squares are predicting. Happy Birthday to Jason may the squares be with you.

Goin’ up Turkey Creek to see my bird?

I heard about Turkey Creek, Mississippi on the Daily Show the other night. It reminded me of the old folk song “Goin’ up Cripple Creek to see my girl”. Turkey Creek is far from having a song written about it. According to a USA Today article “When freed slaves founded the community of Turkey Creek in 1866, there was nothing here but swamps, oak trees and a muddy creek.”: The area later became a "dumping ground" for the kinds of hazardous or undesirable development no one wants to live next to: a sewage treatment facility, a chemical plant (which caught fire, leaked waste and closed), the city airport, and so on.


By 2005, many of the area's wetlands had been paved over, leaving Turkey Creek especially vulnerable to flooding when Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hit the Gulf Coast. Turkey Creek is now a suburb of sprawling Gulfport and a large apartment project paved over an old cemetery that had wood markers on some graves. Derrick Evans, a community activist, says repeated appeals to local officials to halt harmful projects went unanswered. He says "things finally started going our way" when he realized that Turkey Creek was a haven for tropical birds, and he reached out to conservation groups such as the Audubon Society that he says had the legal resources to help. "It's as if people cared more about birds than African Americans," Evans says. "It shouldn't have to be so hard."

Those birders have so much clout and in this case the outcome was a win – win. Not so in Michigan if you’re a hunter or snowmobiler. A lawyer from Novi has sued the US Forest Service to close 66,000 acres of Huron-Manistee National Forest land to hunting or snowmobiling. The reason, discharging of firearms and snowmobiling noise reduces the enjoyment of hikers and birders. A frivolous case? That’s up to you and the judges. If you don’t agree with banning of hunting and snowmobiling contact Lee Evison at Manistee National Forests, 1755 S. Mitchell Street, Cadillac, MI, 49601 or send an email mail to:comments-eastern-huron-manistee@fs.fed.us, Comments sent via e-mail should contain the subject line: “Forest Plan SEIS”. Public meetings will be held to answer questions and the only one in this area is February 1, 2011 – Hilton Garden Inn, 26000 American Drive, Southfield, MI, from 4-8pm.

This Michigan suit is just another anti hunting, anti public land use ploy by groups that have a lot of money and pick their spots to promote their agenda. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), PETA and many others like the Audubon Society are non-profits that use their clout to sue federal and state land use and wildlife agencies regularly because they know these agencies don’t have the money to fight back. I read a few years back, that the HSUS and PETA, essentially the same organization, receive more donations than all of the churches in America. I guess it’s those heart wrenching commercials with the sad eyed dogs begging for money to help take care of them. Too bad neither organization is involved in helping with abandoned or unwanted pets.

They’re experts now at keeping animals on the endangered species list. Even the mention of a lawsuit stops state agencies for attempting to delist those animals. The one that’s front and center now is the wolf. At least 6 states want to delist the wolf but when they get the ok from the federal government the lawsuit ensues and the states drop out. Email Lee free to put in your 2 cents on the Michigan suit.

Those Who Remain Will Be Championship.

    The national holiday of Championship Sunday entails watching the 2 games to determine who'll be in the Super Bowl, another national holiday. About 3 decades ago when our ambition was larger that our waistlines I and 2 buddies set out to do some perch fishing. We planned to go out to Stoney Point just south of Fermi power plant. Power plant as in electricity, cooling towers, radioactive rods and warm water discharge. We got there early so we could fish 4 or 5 hours and get back to Ho's house to clean fish and watch the games.

  We got out on the ice by 7am and headed due east to find the deepest water with safe ice. This was the typical strategy we used then, deep water meaning bigger fish and most fish caught. The strategy only worked once but that was how we rolled back then. So about 100 yards from shore we encountered a crack in the ice, thorough inspection gave 12 inches of ice thickness on both sides. At the time the recommendations for travel on ice were much different than today, I'm sure due to liability issues. A car or truck was usually driven on just 8 inches, so we had plenty of safe ice.

   The Navy Vet says "no guts no glory" in his best Admiral Farragut impression. So unlike the 400 odd people fishing on the landward side of the crack we ventured out to find the big ones. Big for our quarry the perch is 8 or 9 inches. Catch 25 and you get a pound of boneless fillets, an average catch is about 10 to 15 with a limit being 50. After catching and cleaning the going rate of 10 to $12 a pound is really a good buy. We were lucky that an empty fishing hut was available to us where the ice thickness/water depth formula had just become to our liking. The hut held all 3 of us and had holes drilled before with only 3 to 4 inches of ice on them. Ho used his brand new Xmas present to drill thru the ice with gas powered ease. We set up quickly and were soon fishing. Shortly another jumper came by and asked how we were doing and in the tradition of fisherman all over the world we told him our luck was pretty good, not having any fish just the great borrowed hut. The sun was out and the hut warming with it which called for refreshments to keep our body temps down, life was good.

   We weren't catching any fish and had just a couple of almost bites, maybe from fish swimming by. That's what made it seem odd that all 3 of our bobbers went way down under the surface of the water indicating a nice bite from a bigger fish. We all pulled up lines to check for a small fish on or lost bait, nothing. All bait was untouched and no fish or fish scales present. As I was getting my line back in the water I could see the jumper that came by earlier jogging into shore, I thought it was strange just like my bobber heading back down under the ice like a gang of fish were fighting for it and yes my buddies were dealing with the same. When I peered outside to where the jumper was about 200 yards away I saw open water. Not water on the ice, water with no ice on it. I exited the hut, leaving my bobber flailing in the hole, as I looked to shore there were about 50 to 75 jumpers standing on the lake edge of the crack not able to jump back the 10 yard distance. I brought in my line and packed up my gear to the dismay of the others. I told them they weren't still fishing anymore, they were trolling because the ice we were on was moving. After many expletives and charges of making up a story, which I hear from them often, they finally came out to take a look and then believed me.

   They packed up and we headed to the crack to find out what was going on and the crack was now 25 yards wide and getting bigger. One poor soul was rapidly pacing back and forth on a 100 yard path of ice repeating to himself that the ice must meet back up somewhere and after about 15 minutes of this he bolted north, never to be seen again. About that time a Coast Guard helicopter showed up to get a party that was stranded way out without any safe ice to come back on. As they're picking them off the ice Roc says to Ho, "You know they won't take your fishing equipment off the ice with you when they rescue you". Ho made us promise to go home and get a canoe to come back and get him and the coveted gas powered ice auger. We wouldn't agree, being Championship Sunday and all. He became very agitated and started pacing back and forth, we were still talking him down when the Coast Guard showed up with 3 or 4 boats and started ferrying the rest of us jumpers back to safety.

   The rescuers just kept saying to themselves, " Why on Championship Sunday would this have to happen..." We sheepishly told them we were sorry and thanked them profusely for coming to get us. They weren't sure about Ho since he had the ice auger bungie corded to his body. I guess it was just his way of saying he wasn't leaving it behind but they didn't care they took everything and did it making sure everyone was safe. So here's a big thanks again to the Coast Guard, I'm sure today there'd be some monetary responsibilities exchanged for that service. We remained past the crack too long and became Championship Sunday Evacuees.

Hurry to save your bacon at Ray's Prime Meats

  I was dining on some elk roast and imbibing a moose drool the other day when my mind began to wander. How lucky was I to be enjoying the elk from the UP courtesy of a Ford VP in a recipe from Hoe that was easy to put together, I knew it would be if he could do it. Then all of a sudden I heard such a clatter that I had to put down my drool to see what was the matter. "You've got all that venison hamburger down there and you pick a roast to fix for dinner", Precious said. That got me to wondering about forgotten venison that's stored in freezers throughout the area.


  The scenario is a hunter that bags a deer and brags about it, then gets it processed and goes into the freezer out of sight out of mind. As time goes by some is made for dinner, some is given away and some turns into methane in the landfill. The dinners are the ones that turn into wrestling matches at times. Dishes like spaghetti or hamburger helper, anything to mask or er enhance the flavor but someone complains and the atmosphere turns sour. My cuz JoJo shoots 4-6 deer a year so I get a lot of venny hamburger from him plus I'll help him make breakfast sausage and get some of that too. So I usually have a good supply and at times a purge is needed.

  So at my lovely wife's urging I called around to see what could be done. Ray at Ray's Prime Meat says they'll process the hamburger into kielbasa, summer sausage, hunters sausage and on and on. Check out their web page http://www.raysprimefoods.com/. You'll have to get prices on the venny hamburger processing depending on what product you pick. One product we've been hooked on from Ray's is the double smoked hams. They do the spiral sliced ham but the double smoked is superb.

From odds

  Anyway as I'm asking about the sausage angle Ray says I have till the end of the month to get in on the venny bacon. I've heard of this before but not until just recently when JoJo had a deer processed up in the thumb. He got 10 lbs of it but nary a strip headed my way. I've been thinking about it since then but never gave it too much attention, until now. It's the type of thing that isn't cheep and isn't overly costly but is definitely a different presentation for your deer. Especially when no one you'll be watching the Super Bowl with has got a deer within the last decade. Bragging rights have just gone up...