PENTWATER — We had two problems with our game plan — high, discolored water and rock bass.

ELLSWORTH — Generations of residents are coming together for a second time to rebuild a community landmark, the Ellsworth Labyrinth Garden.

Summer’s pilgrimage to northern Michigan campgrounds is about to be unleashed as state park, state forest and national forest campgrounds get the green light for opening.

The Northern Angler presents its annual Cheese Cup, a fly fishing tournament, starting at 6 a.m. June 6. Teams of one or two compete to catch the largest fish — whether bluegill, bass, carp or pike. Participants can also win the Best Team Name, Best Team Uniforms, Smallest Fish Caught and Be…

TRAVERSE CITY — Northern Michigan women are answering the river’s call.

Gwizdz’s Gadgets and Gear

HARBOR BEACH — Brandon Stanton set up in about 70 feet of water with six rods (three apiece) and they were all running spoons in the top half of the water column. I found that curious as the hot bite had been lake trout, typically targeted on bottom, but Stanton had something else in mind.

GRAWN — Mary Ellen Newport plants trees in her free time.

‘It’s right there.”

Looking for a place to get away from the crowds for a hike or mountain bike ride?

A collection of columns from Record-Eagle Outdoors Columnist Mike Terrell:

After many days of extreme social distancing and winter-like conditions we finally have the weather we’ve been waiting for.

Early in the year, when the water’s still quite cold, less is more: Baits with less motion tend to outperform those with more action. It’s that way with walleye and bass and I saw it this year crappie fishing at ice out when my buddy pulled out some straight-tail plastic jig trailers. I imme…

CROTON — Brett Bouwens uttered three syllables over a span of several seconds and both his father, Denny, and I knew exactly what was happening.

LANSING — Nobody knows how many abandoned mine features such as tunnels, shafts, pits and waste piles remain on federal land in Michigan and elsewhere, but untold numbers of them pose safety and environmental threats, a new General Accountability Office (GAO) report says.

TRAVERSE CITY — Run, Andy, run.

Bright pink plastic worms — bubble gum worms — have been around a long time, rising and falling in popularity over the years. They are typically fished either weedless and weightless — like a Slug-Go or Fluke — or wacky style, hooked once through the middle. What makes them popular is they a…

LANSING — A “pig bomb” went off at the turn of the century, flinging wild hogs north from their southern stronghold.

WYANDOTTE — Plenty of tournament anglers will tell you the decisions you make on the water determine your success.

LANSING — A wave of uncertainty looms over Great Lakes research.

These are strange and scary times we are living through.

A normal turkey week at the Smith house, with two high schoolers who love the sport but also prefer avoiding tardy-related punishments is, in a word, chaotic.

There’s an old saw about how there are no perfect boots, but sometimes the simplest are the best. Rubber boots, which have long been favored by bowhunters and trappers because they’re scent-free, are perfect for most spring outings, when the ground is wet but the weather is warm enough. They…

From a small-town mystery to coaching a youth mountain bike team to eating mincemeat pies, this is a story about my friend, Paul, bicycles, and the Record-Eagle.

UPDATE: The Kettles Trail is currently closed until further notice because of COVID-19. 

MONROE — As soon as we exited the harbor at Sterling State Park, Gary Burch made a right turn and we started setting lines, just a five-iron shot from the jetty. By the time we got our sixth line set — five with planer boards and another down the chute behind the outboard — we had a fish on.

BEULAH — Spring has sprung and the region’s black bears are out of their dens and doing typical bear things.

LANSING — In a time of extreme polarization, a recent study has found something most of the American public can agree on:

BAY CITY – Just a little more than 12 hours before walleye season opened last Saturday, having already resigned myself to missing my first opening day in 20-odd years, I was considering my options for trout fishing instead, when the governor lifted the ban on motorized boats.

Normally, as Traverse City slipped through the final weeks of April, nearly every cyclist would be out in the woods trying to scout out the race course for the Mud, Sweat, and Beers.

In northern Michigan vernacular, Covid-19 should really mean, “Hold my beer.”

Submit your best photo of the week to tcrecordeagle@gmail.com and we’ll post it online and pick our favorites to run in our reader shot roundup in the GO: Great Outdoors section that runs on Thursdays. Please include some information about the photo and how to contact you with questions.

There are about as many different boat anchors as there are boats, but my buddy Dave Mull turned me on to Chene anchors, made by Epic Machine, Inc., in Fenton. Its fluke-style anchor attaches to the anchor rope via a ring that runs along the whole loop shaft, so that if you get it hung up (o…