Grizld Outdoors

Growing up, large portions of my summer were spent working in our garden. When I say garden, let me lay this out so you understand a little better. This wasn't your standard vegetable garden that you see in somebody's back yard with a little fence around it and a cute little scarecrow propped up in the center. Our garden was big. It varied a bit over the years, but on average it was about 30 yards wide and 50 yards long. We grew pretty much everything that would survive in Michigan, from asparagus to zucchini. We had your standards like green beans, potatoes, and tomatoes, but we also grew okra, tomatillos, and kholrabi. There were melons, squash, and root vegetables.We made our own pickles, spaghetti sauce, and relish. We canned beets. We froze strawberries, rasberries, and corn. Our garden provided a very large percentage of our food throughout the year.  Besides the garden, we also foraged. We'd hunt for morels in the spring. We would pick black raspberries and blackberr...

Over the years I have written a fair number of stories and articles . Some were completed, most were not. I even wrote a full 50,000 word novel in 30 days as part of National Novel Writing Month. This is not me taking an opportunity to brag. I'm not nearly good enough as a writer for that. I am using this information to illustrate that I enjoy writing and have spent a fair amount of time pursuing that particular hobby. My boss recently asked to read the novel I wrote and the commentary she offered got me thinking about what lead me to the world of writing and how I developed my personal style as well as how that ties into my love of the outdoors. First and foremost, my influences have always been quite varied. I enjoy authors from a variety of genres. Sci-fi, fantasy, westerns, thrillers, political intrigue, and humor all have a place on my bookshelf. But my two largest influences were Louis L'Amour and Pat McManus.  These two men wrote the stories that helped shape my love of...

For a good part of the country, March is a frustratingly long transition period where it's generally just cold and wet enough to make most outdoor pursuits less than enjoyable. There's mud everywhere and odds are you're going to end up in it at some point if you're out long enough. But every now and then we're blessed with a day here or a couple there where the rain/snow abates, the wind dies down, and we can fully enjoy our time outdoors.  It's during these rare days that you can often find me hitting one of the creeks or rivers that are so numerous in west Michigan. Most folks are probably thinking I'm excited to get out and target steelhead, as many of my fellow Michiganders are doing. But that's not my style. You see, deep down, I'm just a rough and ragged country boy, and early spring fishing for me means sucker.  Yes, you read that correctly. Sucker. The ugly, big lipped, bony fleshed, bottom feeding, trash fish. At least that's how they ar...

     I recently listened to the MeatEater podcast episode that highlighted the debate and disagreement between Matt and his brother Steve. I know I'm a fair bit late to the discussion on this, but the debate sparked by Matt Rinnela concerning social media's place in the hunting community should be talked about as much as possible. I'm also well aware that I'm no subject matter expert. I'm just a guy that has been hunting for nearly 30 years, has a deep appreciation for the outdoors lifestyle, and is trying to bring common sense to this debate.       With Steve having such a visible presence, and large following, in the hunting community, this was a massive stage for Matt to present his arguments. For those of you that are not familiar with Matt's position, I will attempt to summarize it here.      Matt is concerned with the overcrowding in regards to public land hunting. He feels that social media has drawn higher numbers of people into ...

Memorial Day weekend is the traditional opener of bass season in Michigan. This covers both largemouth and smallmouth bass. Growing up, the outdoor magazines I read would always be loaded with articles on fishing for largemouth bass while smallmouth always seemed to get a much smaller billing. As a result of this, and my extremely limited exposure to waters that held smallmouth, it wasn't until I met my wife that I learned the bronzeback is at least equal in every measure to it's bucketmouthed kin, and even superior in some aspects.  Before I met Annie, I had only ever caught two smallmouth bass. Both were well under Michigan's 14 inch legal minimum, and from a dock on a dam backwater. My father-in-law introduced me to fishing skinny water in some of Lake Michigan's smaller bays in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Wearing waders and working the edges of reeds in as little as two feet of water, the aggressive fish respond equally well to a white twisty tail grub or a nigh...

 I think the reason I enjoy pike fishing so much is that the fish leaves no doubt about what is happening when it hits your lure. You're realing in and WHAM, you've got a fight on your hands. Granted, the excessive aggresiveness can result in some misses, but by and large, the fish does the work and hooks itself. You just have to get it to the boat and in a net before its heavy headshakes manage to dislodge the hook. This is less of an issue with treble hooks but it does happen.  I first came to love pike on a trip to Lake Nipigon, Ontario. Located 40 miles north of the upper tip of Lake Superior, the bays and rivers of the lake are loaded with walley and pike, while the main lake is a fantastic Lake Trout fishery. We were staying in a cabin on Orient Bay and one could stand on the dock, casting the classid red and white Daredevl lures (or the cheap imitation from Wal-Mart), and catch pike all day. The old man that managed the campground we stayed at took the time to teach us ...