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Michigan’s Liberty Hunt this weekend

Outdoors Report

IRON MOUNTAIN — Attention is shifting to hunting with today the start of Michigan’s two-day Liberty Hunt, a firearm deer season open to youth ages 16 and younger as well as hunters with disabilities.

It will be breezy today, with a high near 62, and calmer Sunday but slightly cooler.

At Whispering Pines Outpost on M-95, John Grier has registered just nine bear through the first two weeks of the hunt. “I think that hot weather is what’s slowing them up,” he said. “They’re moving later at night I think.”

This past weekend’s heatwave pushed water temperatures in the Menominee River to near 70 degrees, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. “Sightings of salmon beginning to stage near the mouth of the Little River have been reported,” said Tammie Paoli, DNR fisheries technician at Peshtigo.

Grier, meanwhile, reported Michigan anglers landing northern pike, including a 32-incher.

Archery deer hunters in Wisconsin have mostly waited for cooler weather, with some reporting mosquitoes still out. “Please remember that Marinette County now has a positive chronic wasting disease sample and is under a baiting and feeding ban county-wide,” advised Aaron McCullough, DNR wildlife technician at Wausaukee.

A freezer has been set up at the North Country Inn in Dunbar for hunters to drop off a sample for CWD testing. More information on the voluntary drop-offs is available on the DNR web page.

Grouse hunters are finding a few birds, but cover remains thick. Wisconsin’s firearm youth deer hunt is Oct. 6-7 and Michigan’s archery deer opener is Oct. 1.

The Michigan DNR reported the following Upper Peninsula fishing conditions:

Lac Vieux Desert: Muskie anglers caught a few fish right along with a decent number of pike. Walleye fishing remained slow however a few were found off the docks in the late evening. Bass anglers did well with top water lures in the morning or late evening. The panfish bite was hit-or-miss as the fish seem to be moving out to deeper water.

Little Bay De Noc: Walleye catches were down over the last week. Night anglers reported the best catches between the Center Reef and the Second Reef or south around the “Black Bottom”. Anglers were trolling stick baits at night in 14 to 20 feet or stick baits and crawler harnesses in 18 to 30 feet during the day. Several good catches of jumbo perch were reported in Kipling in 22 feet and off Gladstone Beach in 20 feet when using minnows. Smallmouth bass were spotty as the fish are starting to move south. A few were taken on plastics or drop-shot in 18 to 20 feet. A couple Chinook have shown up in the Escanaba Yacht Harbor. The numbers are far less than last year and a little harder to catch.

Big Bay De Noc: Smallmouth bass were scattered but the large fish can be found in the southern waters. Ogontz reported good catches of undersize fish using plastics or drop-shot in 12 to 18 feet. Some bigger fish were found around the Garden Bluff area but catch rates were spotty. Cooler temperatures moving in this week should bring the bass in and around Snake Island.

Munising: Fishing pressure was low. Water temperatures have started to drop and were just under 60 degrees near shore. The salmon action was still slow and splake fishing was spotty with only a few caught.

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