Focus on Fishing

BY DALE DOEPKER

For questions about the Fishing Club or about fishing in Canadian Lakes, contact Dale Doepker at dtroutman97@aol.com or 231-972-8663

Seventeen people registered for the Bullhead Tournament and thirteen people brought fish to the weigh-in. The winner of most weight was John Eberhardt with 17.37 pounds and 25 bullheads. Coming second in weight was 6.64 pounds with seven bullheads and ranked third was 5.48 pounds with seven bullheads. The largest bullhead was 1.26 pounds, caught by Chris LaFave, pictured below. The second largest was 1.185 pounds and the third was 1.180 pounds. A total of only 62 bullheads were brought to the weigh-in, totaling 49.13 pounds. Bottled water and snack bags were provided and enjoyed. Next year, the Bullhead Tournament will be August 12-13, and bullheads cleaned at the weigh-in will be given to the volunteers as bullhead cooks are no longer available. Again, we will have bottled water and snack bags available for participants and onlookers. Thanks to Sue Glazier for hosting the tournaments.

Chris LaFave with the largest bullhead from the Bullhead Tournament.

Get your entries in by the deadline of October 10, 2021. We encourage all youth, ages 14 and under, to enter this contest for a trophy. Both the Youth Fish and Largest Fish of the Year Contest run all year, from October 1, 2020, to September 30, 2021. There is one entry form for both contests. If you are entering for the Youth Fish Contest, 14 years and under when caught, the information for the angler must be filled in as to age, etc., on the entry form.

Every youth who enters, regardless of fish size, will receive a trophy, so long as it is for a species trophy they do not already have. All entries will be eligible for the largest fish contest trophy if the minimum length is met. Entry forms are available on the CLA website and at the CLPOC office kiosk. Keep track of your catches and take photos if possible so you can enter them by the deadline of October 10, 2021.

Everyone interested in fishing is invited to attend our last meeting of the year at the Alpine Haus. At this meeting we will have a recap of all our events in the past year and consideration of next year’s events. Results of the September 11 Pike Tournament and winning lures will also be discussed. Election of officers for 2022 will be held. As always, members will share their recent fishing trips, good or bad. Remember to release all largemouth bass, muskies, and any pike that are 24” and over.

This summer we scheduled Fishing Fun Nights for the fourth Wednesday of every month: 5/26, 6/23, 7/28, and 8/25. Unfortunately, the turnouts for respective nights were only 4, 2, 11 and 4 people. This will cause us to reconsider if we have them at all next summer, or make some significant changes.

Henry Singer hooked this 31-inch tiger muskie. Photo provided by Henry Singer

On the morning of Labor Day, new member and angler Henry Singer hooked this 31-inch tiger muskie from (main) Canadian Lake. Henry and his wife, Jordan, just became members, however their grandparents, Stanley and Iris Singer, have been members since 1985, making Henry, pictured above, no stranger to fishing here. Congratulations, Henry!

FINAL LOON OBSERVATIONS

We had one loon baby from the East Lake nest and Far West Lake nest produced two baby loons. The Lake of the Clouds nest was not successful this year. By the time you receive this article, the adult loons will have already left for the season, and the juveniles may have already left as well. Apparently, the adults give their babies directions on where to migrate before they leave.

By Lindsay Halcomb

With the gentle nudge of junior golf mentor and good friend, Judy Smarch, I enrolled my son in this years’ junior golf league and junior golf camp. We could not have been happier with how the season went. My son, Owen, had an absolute blast this summer with both events. He learned much about golf, made friends of all ages, and learned a couple things about how to be a gentleman as well.

If you haven’t heard much about these golf programs for our children than you might be missing out on one of the most bang-for-yourbuck summer treats Canadian Lakes has to offer. There is a fee of $50 each for both the junior golf league and the junior golf camp, plus the cost of golf for the junior golf league if you are not a property owner.

This year, junior golf league at The Pines started on June 18. Our junior golf league is for players ages seven to seventeen. Every Friday, they played The Pines golf course with tee times assigned starting at 10 a.m. Each group was provided a mentor to help with rules and etiquette. Carolyn Allingham, LPGA Professional, goes on the course to provide advice and encouragement to the kids. Carolyn is a major player to these kids— she talks, and they listen. Between Carolyn and all the mentors, I was able to watch from the sidelines, and your children couldn’t be in better hands.

Junior golf league’s mentors provide each group of children answers to questions regarding rules and etiquette. Mentors also help find golf balls that don’t land in the fairway. Being a mentor requires about a two-hour commitment on Friday mornings and more if you are a volunteer, like Sue Malzahn. Sue is a well-oiled machine when it comes to organizing the junior golf league. Sue manages all the communication for junior golf, she provides tee times and any changes that might occur due to weather, group changes, etc. She has been involved with the league for many years and has great fun watching the kids progress as golfers and grow as individuals. It takes a great group of Canadian Lakes volunteers to host Junior Golf League and we are so thankful for all of you. It was a great time had by all. Enjoy the photos of a great summer of golf for those that were able to participate!

2021 Junior Golf Picnic Fun 2021 Junior Golf Carolyn Allingham presenting a trophy to Nicole Dagley

by: Jessica Slendak

Century 21 White House Realty’s Nights of Lights is a go for the 2021 season, although there are some changes that need to be shared. 2021 will be our fourth season holding this event which has proved to be very successful and beneficial to Canadian Lakes. By the time you read this article, Christmas Décor’ by Devries will already have the lights on our Castle. Each year thousands of visitors come to Canadian Lakes to see the castle by obtaining a vehicle pass. The CLPOC marketing department continues to build a list of those visitors and we connect with them after the event. Hundreds of members have their friends and family visit specifically to see the Castle. The 2021 season will certainly be as popular as past years.

There are some changes to our traditional planning. Allow me to explain the traditional “Members Night of Lights” first. Before the pandemic last year, the entire event would always kick off with a member-only evening held the Friday before the event opened to all. Members Night of Lights was held inside the Castle where event goers enjoyed food, drinks, and socializing. The night included small welcome and thank you speeches and then members would gather outside as the Castle would be lit for their viewing pleasure. Due to staff and volunteer shortages, the members-only event will not look like past years before COVID-19. We certainly hope to bring the traditional inside event with food, drinks, and fun back next year, but an event chairperson and additional volunteers are needed to make this happen.

Allow me to explain what the 2021 event will look like. Members Night of Lights this year, will take place on Friday and Saturday, November 19 and 20. Members and their guests are invited to enjoy the Castle, lit with music from 5:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. This is an outdoor event this year, for you to enjoy as you are. There will not be an inside event with speeches and drinks, however Bubba-Q Food Cart will return, so get ready to enjoy more of their famous walking tacos! Socializing will still take place, but simply outside between members and their guests. Remember, if your guests are driving their own vehicle, please obtain a guest pass for their vehicle. After the members-only event, the Castle will be open for all to enjoy each Friday and Saturday night, beginning November 26 through January 1. Tell everyone you see to come visit the Castle during that timeframe. Visitor passes will be available at nightsoflights. org for them before opening night on November 26. Bubba-Q Food Cart will also be there all season – thankfully! In the 2019 season, we were able to add a hot cocoa bar, but like the traditional inside members’ event, the lack of staff and volunteers has made the hot cocoa bar impossible for this year. We hope to bring this element back next year as well. If you, like us, are hoping these events come back full-force and then some, consider joining the planning committee. Canadian Lakes has the VERY best army of volunteers seen today. This committee needs your help, so contact me by email at jslendak@ clpoc.org to get involved.

In closing, all event info can be found at nightsoflight. org or on Facebook by searching NightsOfLightsMI. The page name is Nights of Lights, Canadian Lakes MI. Although we are not able to deliver the full effect, the Castle will still be lit and enjoyed! I plead again for you to consider being on the planning committee. We truly hope you once again enjoy the Castle this year! It’s certainly an amazing landmark we all are proud of! Post your pictures on your social media as well as the Nights of Lights, Canadian Lakes MI Facebook page. Use #NightsofLightsMI and #CanadianLakes as tags!

BY CHRIS ZIMMERMAN

Leslie Zimmerman from Canadian Lakes and her Brittany, “Miss Kitty” teamed up to bag this Iowa rooster. IMAGINE, IF YOU WILL, late October 1953. Dwight D. Eisenhower was President of the United States. A postage stamp cost three cents and a gallon of gasoline, twenty-nine cents. A dozen eggs would set you back seventy cents while the average cost of a new home was sixteen thousand dollars.

Now imagine an informal family reunion in a rural community. Folks from the city reconnected with relatives who lived in the country. Back then, pheasant season didn’t officially start until 10 a.m., so there was plenty of time for great conversation and a hearty breakfast round the kitchen table.

Stories persisted of excellent wing-shooting from that time, and rightfully so. That year, 500,000 small game hunters killed a record 1.1 million pheasants in Michigan. Compare that to 2017—the last year the Department of Natural Resources kept a tally of birds killed—when only 13,000 wild roosters were bagged.

Almost 70 years after the epic harvest of ’53, the mystery still remains: What happened to all our pheasants? “Habitat loss,” says Adam Bump, the DNR’s furbearer and upland game bird specialist. “Fencerows are gone. Wetlands and cattails have disappeared. Haying practices have changed. It all adds up to smaller and smaller pheasant numbers in the bag.”

Bump says that the southern third of the state is traditionally the best pheasant hunting area, although Mecosta County does have pockets of birds. “It’s rare to find large areas of pheasant cover anywhere in the state,” Bump said. “Where you find cover, you’ll find birds.”

Since their introduction into Michigan in 1893, pheasants have always scratched out a living by taking advantage of farming’s inefficiencies. There isn’t much inefficiency any longer. Farm fields have been drained; their water dumped into creeks that have been dug out, straightened, and had all their cover destroyed. Fencerows have been ripped up and cattail sloughs plowed under. You can’t blame the farmer for wanting to get the most production out of their property. They make their living by feeding the world.

I’m old enough to remember pheasant hunting with my dad at the tail end of the pheasant hunting heyday in Michigan. The long walks, the chilly, late October air, and our hustling, inquisitive pointer of ours, made it fun. I’m sure dad never realized those adventures when I was a kid would sow the seeds of a lifetime of chasing pheasants as an adult.

Even though there may not be many wild birds to chase in our area, there is still one place nearby that offers sportsmen the opportunity to tangle with the wily pheasant in a natural setting. The Haymarsh Hunt Club is located just a few miles south of Canadian Lakes at 11959 Jefferson Road in Morley. They have 760 acres total that are split into eleven 40-acre fields. Members have access to the property and can reserve the fields for hunting privileges.

The husband-and-wife team of Ashley and Ben Covey own the club and release pen-raised pheasants into fields reserved by the members. Just because their pheasants are penraised, doesn’t mean they’re not a worthy adversary. They run like wild pheasants, hide like wild pheasants, fly like wild pheasants, and for those sportsmen who love to cook what they kill, taste like wild pheasants.

I joined Haymarsh when my twoyear-old Brittany, “Miss Kitty” was just a pup. The experience she gained by interacting with pheasants as a puppy has proven to be invaluable for her as an adult. Even at the tender age of two, she’s a superstar pheasant hunter when we travel to North Dakota or Iowa. Because it’s a hunting preserve, hunters who are on Haymarsh’s property don’t have to abide by all the rules set forth by the DNR for wild birds. For example, in much of the state, wild pheasant season runs from October 20th to November 14th. At Haymarsh, the season has already started and lasts until April 30th.

An article or two of orange clothing is still required at Haymarsh, but a small game license is not. When hunting wild pheasants, only roosters may be killed. At Haymarsh, both hens and roosters are fair game.

Haymarsh Hunt Club offers individuals and families the opportunity to chase pheasants without having to travel long distances.

After taking in a hunt, the clubhouse is perfect for relaxing. They have a full kitchen and several nice sofas on which to cool your heels. “We have about 100-150 members,” Ashley said. “Some of them are businesses who like to entertain clients at our club. We hope to shoot about 12,000 pheasants this season.”

Those birds that escape the weekend fusillade can be hunted by members on Mondays and Tuesdays in what is known as a “scratch hunt.” That term refers to hunters’ “scratching up” the stragglers, which presents an uncertainty that most resembles a natural hunting experience. After all, when hunting wild birds, you never know how many are in the field.

There is one difference between wild birds and the liberated ones at Haymarsh. Most wild roosters crow in the springtime, and occasionally in the fall. The roosters at Haymarsh aren’t the least bit shy about using their vocal cords. That raspy, doubletap pheasant crow is music to most pheasant hunter’s ears. If your dog is attuned to that sound, they’ll perk their ears and cock their head as if it triggered some sort of primal instinct.

Michigan will surely never have the good old-fashioned pheasant hunting that it did in yesteryear, but that doesn’t mean hunters can’t experience a smidgeon of what the good ol’ days were all about. Instead of traveling hundreds of miles to outof-state destinations, and spending big dollars in non-resident license fees, give Haymarsh a try. Their rates are reasonable, and the setting is comparable to a real pheasant hunt. A half-day hunt with your favorite bird dog and maybe a youngster in the family is fun and enjoyable, especially in the beautiful fall weather. I highly recommend it.

To reach the Haymarsh Hunt Club call (989) 352-7050.

Chris Zimmerman is a resident of Canadian Lakes and the author of six Michigan based novels. Look for his “Outdoor Mysteries” installments in the Canadian Laker magazine.

Frosty mornings, a favorite gun, and a pleasant stroll through the heartland is part of the allure in hunting pheasants.