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Michigan Travel News

Pure Michigan Travel - Outdoors Highlights
Go Ahead, Sleep In Tomorrow for Turkeys

Written by Dan Donarski, a noted professional outdoor and travel journalist.

The weather report on WYKX out of Escanaba called for a cool morning, somewhere in the low 30s, followed by a day of increasing sun and light winds. Even though the temperature was only supposed to get into the low 40s, it seemed promising.

At least better than the last few days when the temperatures were considerably warmer but heavy rains and high winds slashed through the tall timber of the Escanaba River State Forest. Three days and no real hunting. Three fun-filled mornings of extreme suffering was all, nothing you could call a hunt, and it was back to the cabin for coffee and the mindless stare out the window towards the bird feeder. Maybe read a Reader’s Digest from 1967 for the umpteenth time. The July issue was a good one that year.

Heck, during the last three days I didn’t even see more than a single chickadee taking seeds from the feeder. Turkeys were only a cruel dream, laughing at me while I slept. There weren’t even enough tracks in the wet sand along the sandy road I was hunting near to make weak soup. Tomorrow would be different.

Woodcock were dancing in the dwindling night sky as I set up on the edge of a small field between an oak ridge and a swamp. Both the ridge and the swamp had turkeys roosting in them. The field was a good strutting ground. There were even three dusting bowls in the field, now more like swimming pools with the rains from the last three days.

The field had turkey written all over it.

Then again, turkeys can’t read.

Gobbles rang out when the sun finally kissed the sky. First from the ridge, then the swamp. Lots of gobbles. Close gobbles. Turkey heaven.

As fast as they started they just as quickly quit. Silence. Not a hint of a fly-down. Not a yelp, purr, cutt. Nothing. Not for the entire three hours I sat there.

Only one day left in my season. Prospects were dim. Make that dark.

Fast forward to 4 a.m. the next morning. See the mighty hunter shut off the alarm and lean back into the warm bed for a few minutes. See mighty hunter fall back asleep and be thoroughly ticked off with himself when he looked at the alarm clock and it said 9 a.m.

Yup, overslept. Big time.

What to do? Make a hearty breakfast, watch the feeder, and continue to kick yourself for the utter stupidity in allowing yourself to think that a few more minutes in bed was a good idea.

Then again... why not go turkey hunting?

Why not indeed!

You may not realize it but except for the first season that a very good percentage of the long beards taken comes after 10 a.m. That’s right, after most hunters have folded their hands and headed back to the cabin. Don’t be one of these fellows.

Hunting the midday periods will not be as vocal as the crack of dawn but you’d be surprised by the raucous gobbling that often erupts from the woodland edges for a couple hours surrounding the noon hour.

Where you plan to hunt the midday is important for success.

For my money you should definitely get yourself within a quarter mile from known roosting areas. Gobblers, once they fly down from the roost in the morning are on the lookout for hens. Hens, being more numerous than gobblers in most areas, will be yelping seductively to attract the Tom to them. Not every hen will get a visit. But gobblers certainly remember.

They remember where they heard that other hen who sounded sweet but, at daylight, wasn’t quite his cup of tea. Now, after a couple of hours of courting a different hen Mr. Gobbler is going to come looking for those others.

Start by calling softly. A few soft yelps is generally all that is needed to determine if a gobbler is in the area. Don’t be surprised to be answered by a thunderous gobble. And, don’t get all flustered.

Assuming that a hen isn’t close by, keep calling, yelping softly every few minutes. You’ll know if a gobbler is coming. During the noon hours the gobblers go for broke and really let it roar. They also come in with little fear, or at least with a considerably lessor amount of caution than they do at first light.

In other words, when you oversleep, which you most certainly will at one time or another, don’t give up the ghost. Instead, enjoy a good breakfast, have an extra cup of coffee, and head out into the turkey woods without fears of tripping over fallen logs.

And, while this was written about last years hunt, in years past I’ve ventured below the bridge. The Au Sable State Forest near Mt. Pleasant is one place where mid-day gobblers squawk readily. Yet another area is the Mackinaw State Forest in the Petoskey area.

It just makes no sense to give up before noon. From what I’ve seen, it has been the best time of the day.

Hot Spots

As turkey hunters in Michigan know, our hunts are regulated as to specific areas and specific seasons. Hunt No. 234 offers the widest range in areas and the longest hunt dates possible. Hunt 234 opens up the northern two thirds of the Lower Peninsula and all open areas of the Upper Peninsula to turkey hunters. For information on specific areas and the population of turkeys in the area we suggest calling the local DNR field offices in the area you wish to hunt, or log on to michigan.gov/dnr.

Pure Michigan Travel - Outdoors Highlights
Dr. Teeth

Here, in Michigan, like most states, pike just don’t get the respect they deserve. Maybe it is the belief that pike are eating the “more desirable� perch and walleyes. Maybe it the heavy layer of slime that will coat your net and hands in short order after handling one of these fish. Or the number of smaller pike, often called “hammer handles,� that seem to proliferate in certain locations. Then again, it could be their habit of biting through monofilament like a hot knife through butter when a fish grabs high. Too bad for those folks.

Northern pike, and particularly big northern pike, are truly worthy adversaries in the fishing world. Violent head shakes, swift thrusts of power that will bring your drag into the extreme level and will break a rod easily if that drag isn’t perfect, a fair chance at some tail-walking. And then those teeth to mind when you bring that fish on board.

If you look hard enough, and often enough, you will find another group of anglers, albeit a much smaller group. It is also a group that tends to be rather solitary in the pursuit of this fish. You won’t find them grouped up over one certain piece of water. More often than not they will be fishing alone, or maybe with just one other angler on board. And, like the most silent lipped trout angler, they will certainly not be giving up any particular location for you to try.

I have to admit, hammer handle pike are a nuisance– kind of like a room full of five-year-old children on a sugar buzz. Then again, those little pike could just grow up to be big pike if given a chance. Chastising these is no different than getting all upset over trout that are small or undersized bass.

As for getting cut off, just learn to deal with it. Use heavier mono leaders, say in the 50-pound range or steel leaders and your cutoffs go way down in frequency. Their slime? Get over it. It is their protection from a number of pests.

With the amount of good to superior pike waters available in this neck of the woods, if you are not a piker, maybe you ought to try becoming one. Dr. Teeth is a most worthy opponent.

As June starts winding down into full-blown summer northern pike retreat out of the shallows and head for deeper water. These fish can’t stand warm water and look for depths for some relief. In the dog days look for pike to be anywhere from 10 to 20 feet of water.

Specifically look for fish in these depths where there is a good deal of weed growth. While pike do favor some weeds more than others, they will seek out any that provide then both shade and camouflage. Besides staying a bit cooler, they are hiding in these weeds to ambush their prey.

If you look at a pike you’ll see that a pike’s eyes cannot look down, they are engineered to look straight out ahead and up. Knowing that, you’ll be wise to get baits that work the top 50 percent of the water column. Why? Because a good number of fish won’t even see your bait if you work it any deeper. And, a pike will launch himself like a cruise missile straight up to get after a likely looking piece of food.

The weed beds are important as it gives pike a place to wait in for food to come swimming by. Like a tiger in the jungles they ambush their prey. While not known for sustained long and speedy runs, pike have a sprinters metabolism– they get the afterburners lit in an instant to catch their dinner inside that tooth-filled mouth.

Those teeth are uniquely fit for a predator. Thin and needle sharp, they are also angled back towards the throat. That way, when a pike latches on to a fish and the soon to be eaten fish tries to get away it simply impales itself deeper into the pike’s teeth. The teeth are also finely serrated, making quick work of your line, or your fingers if they get too close.

Big spinnerbaits in either all white or hot orange, and Magnum Shad Raps in fire-tiger or perch finish are good baits to start with. Pike seem to like hot colors, or at least get aggravated by them to the point of striking out in anger. Big, as in magnum-sized stickbaits are another good option with suspending baits generally working better than the floating or sinking variety.

The best place to work these are right on the edges of the weedbeds and into the small cuts and openings when the weedbeds are expansive.

Fly rodders should begin with an 8-wt fly rod and matching reel. A short leader is all that is needed, and like in casting lures, you’ll want a beefy mono tippet or a steel leader at the terminal end. Big gaudy streamers seem to be the summer ticket to success.

Now, it takes truly special waters for pike to grow consistently large. Yes, some smaller bodies of water will have a few of the bruiser variety, but day in and day out, big pike need big water.

Hot Spots
Southern Lower Peninsula
Lake Muskegon; www.visitmuskegon.org
Lake Macatawa; www.holland.org
Lake St. Clair; www.visitdetroit.com

Northern Lower Peninsula
Manistee Lake; www.mansitee-cvb.com
Houghton Lake; www.visithoughtonlake.com
Thunder Bay; www.alpenacvb.com

Upper Peninsula
Portage/Torch Lake; www.keweenaw.info
Les Cheneaux Islands; www.lescheneaux.net
Green Bay; www.cityofmenominee.org

Written by Dan Donarski, a noted professional outdoor and travel journalist.

Wisconsin Travel News

Spencer
Skyway Drive-In Theater