Up North Journal Podcast

The guys are talking Michigan elk and predator hunting with the first female hunting guide in the state of Michigan Jennifer Drake of Drakes Guide Service.

Michigan elk hunting

1. How she got started in guiding
2. Her conservation side
3. Proposed new guide rules for Michigan
4. How watching one of her hunters take an elk makes her feel
5. How the December elk hunt went down for her hunter
6. Talking about what to shoot
7. Western elk hunting vs Michigan elk hunting
8. Trusting your guide and doing research on your guide
9. Guides helping other guides
10. Working with farmers
11. Hunting elk in Michigan in the fall vs winter
12. Staying in shape for grueling hunts
13. Letting your guide know your physical limitations

Predator hunting in Michigan

1. Guide for bears with dogs or bait
2. Day or night hunts for bobcat
3. Bigger bobcats are in the upper peninsula
4. Becoming more popular in recent years
5. Provide more of a challenge than most any other animal
6. How many hunters per group
7. More of a mobile hunt
8. How to obtain special tags for bobcat
9. Same opportunity to kill a coyote while bobcat hunting

Viewer question about bow hunting elk in Michigan

Kids and hunting

Foraging for snacks in the woods

Danny road tripped to the west side of the state for the Hunting Time Expo

1. Show was well attended, people getting ready for hunting season already
2. JPO Game Calls has a new deer call
3. Stopped and talked with Packer Maxx's Lincoln Rohn
4. Comparing to the Outdoorama show
5. Dave Wilkins of Droptine Outfitters
6. The EZ Kut booth with Scott Bast!
7. The straight and curved blade hand saws

Mike gets a little philosophical with a couple questions about this past season.

What was the biggest thing you learned last year and how are you going to apply it next year.

1. Danny, Hard work pays off....
2. All the preseason work he did for food plots paid off by the deer he saw on it instead of baiting
3. Hopes to use more hard work to expand on his food plots and trails this upcoming season
4. Mike, Surround yourself with good, ethical and like minded people

What was the biggest takeaway moment of the year that didn't involve you taking game and why?

1. For Danny it was......Talking a new hunter through whether or not to shoot a deer and helping them talk through that decision
2. Getting another person out to just enjoy the outdoors.
3. For Mike it was mentoring a young new hunter and helping him get into the outdoor industry. Also enjoying hunting camp camaraderie.

Tonight the guys start the show off by talking about collectible outdoor items.

1. Northern Michigan Glasses
2. Michigan Successful Hunter Patches
3. Started in 1972 in Michigan
4. DNR gave them out at check stations for a successful deer taken

Being Checked by the DNR

EZ Kut gives away 2 Lil' G Loppers on the show today!

Local Ice Conditions

1. 1 vehicle and 3 snowmobiles through the ice at Houghton Lake
2. Local lakes have thin ice

ATA odds and ends

1. 8500 people attended, attendance is down
2. Media not allowed on the first day
3. Tree Saddle
4. How to get kids and people back into the outdoors
5. Reasons for working in the industry
6. Archery shops closing

Getting Kids in the outdoors

1. Reasons for getting in the outdoors other than the kill
2. Sense of Adventure
3. Getting our kids out by preseason scouting or food plotting

Indoor Winter Archery Leagues

1. Last year compared to this year
2. Bad nights of shooting
3. Shooting with glasses
4. Exercises for shooting

The guys wrap up their experience at this year's Archery Trade Association show in Indianapolis Indiana.

Ken's big take away from the show

Danny's Big take away from the show

Mike's take away from the show

The interviews

Badlands Film Festival

The guys get permission to show a couple new products from Buck Baits before they are released at the ATA show.

1. New hunting cover scent in Cedar
2. New Match Maker Series mineral feed for whitetail deer
3. 12 pack of Tracker Stakes
4. All three of these products will be debuted at this week's ATA show in Indianapolis, IN

The boys will be broadcasting from the ATA show this next week

1. Will be in the PSE Archery booth most of the time
2. What the boys are looking forward to seeing at the show this year
3. New Browning Trail Cameras
4. Sig Sauer BDX scope and rangefinder system
5. New PSE bows
6. Badlands Film Festival

Our final tribute to Tred Barta with video we shot when we met him at the camper factory in Indiana this past year before he left for his Get Off The Couch tour to Alaska.

Mike and Dan discuss a few numbers out about the impact of wolves on the landscape

1. Wolf introduction to Yellowstone in 1995
2. Elk and Moose populations of 1995
3. Wolf population in 2000
4. Impact on elk and moose by 2000
5. Using the wolf as a political tool

The History of Michigan Elk

1. Last native elk killed in Michigan in late 1800's
2. Henry Crabtree letter
3. 1918 elk reintroduced to Michigan
4. Original 7
5. Growth of the herd
6. First hunt in 1964/65
7. First elk management plan
8. Today's management plan
9. Elk surveys

Ken Scicluna's late season doe management hunt

1. Muzzleloader season doe
2. Rough season turned around to success at the end
3. Big buck he hit still not seen yet
4. Playing on the cell phone
5. Doe management

Guys give their thoughts on how their hunting philosophy has progressed the last decade.

Obscure game law in New Hampshire

The guys go over the elk hunt Mike went on in Michigan last week.

Friday's mandatory elk hunt orientation

1. Friday's meeting
2. Hunter package
3. 30 bull tags for the December hunt 70 cow tags
4. Clif Bars
5. Cabin at Toasty's (231) 525-8101 Wolverine, MI Exit 301 off I-75

Day 1 Hunt

1. Private land cameras weren't showing elk
2. Hunted on public land the whole week
3. Pigeon River Area
4. Two track traveling in deep into hunting area
5. Pop up blind hunt first two days
6. Setting on transition areas between swamps and fields
7. Spot and stalk on fresh tracks

Day 2 Hnt

1. Got suckered by another guide
2. Had to set up on the edge of a swamp
3. No elk seen

Day 3 Hunt

1. Got to a different area in the morning and heard antlers slamming
2. Watched two bulls fighting
3. Saw a third gigantic bull
4. Evening sat up on a snow mound with the snow coming down and froze

Day 4 Hunt

1. Piggy backed with another guide and hunter
2. Forgot my hunting license
3. Got to watch him take a 6x6 bull at 409 yards
4. Evening hunted back in the area we hunted the first three days
5. Talking with my guide

Day 5 Hunt

1. No Hunting
2. -9 windchill and snow storm
3. Walked 32 miles on the whole hunt
4. Lost 10 pounds
5. Workout paid off big time!
6. Dressing correctly
7. When to layer up

Day 6 Hunt

1. 2.6 mile walk in to hunt
2. 6 to 9 inches of snow to walk in
3. Working out is a must
4. Had to set up short of our destination
5. After morning hunt drove to backside of where we set up to see if we could find tracks
6. Evening we set up back in the area where I shot my first buck

Day 7 Hunt

1. Set up for the morning hunt back in same area as previous day
2. Hunt Stand App
3. Missed our set up mark by 200 yards
4. Elk skirted us in a low spot we couldn't see

Mike's take aways from the hunt

Preparing for Mike's Michigan elk hunt.

1. Looking for ammo
2. Hitting the range one last time
3. Getting the back up gun ready as well
4. Orientation is on Friday
5. Post hunt procedure
6. Weather forecast for hunt
7. Scent-Lok is prepared
8. Expectations

Danny jumps on his soapbox about wolf attacks in Michigan's Upper Peninsula

1. Bear dog is killed by wolf while treeing a bear
2. 2014 spike in dog-wolf encounters
3. Wolf shot in self defense after it attacked a dog and charged the dog's owner
4. Skeptical over exact numbers on wolf population

Christmas ideas for the outdoors person in your family!

1. The Purr Plate from Limb Walker Game Calls
2. Rebel Six Rubs
3. Hunter's Blend Coffee
4. Buck Baits
5. PSE Archery
6. EZ Kut
7. Scent-Lok and Scent Blocker
8. Packer MAXX

Mike and Dan discuss how Scent-Lok and Scent Blocker changed the way you hunt.

1. Learning to layer
2. Minimizing sweat
3. Confidence
4. Paying closer attention to detail of scent control
5. Continuing to hunt when the wind shifts

One piece of gear that has made an impact in the way you hunt.

1. Stans SX3 archery release aide
2. Both Mike and Dan agree on same item

The guys each talk about their ups and downs of the Michigan firearm deer season this year.

Danny hunted Michigan's upper peninsula

1. Good season overall
2. Seen a good amount of bucks
3. Can't shoot does
4. Some snow to start firearm season
5. Saw a lot of turkeys
6. Saw one shooter buck
7. Does messing with the bucks
8. Too many does
9. One buck killed at Dan's camp

Mike hunted Michigan's Northern lower peninsula

1. 6 inches of snow on the ground
2. Used the E Bike to get back and forth
3. Saw a nice shooter right at day break
4. Saw two more bucks and 35 does
5. Very little shooting
6. Issue with heater on second morning
7. Had to move to another blind
8. Saw 19 on second day
9. Only one was a buck which was a spike
10. One buck killed at our camp

Ken Scicluna hunted Michigan's southern lower peninsula

1. Bow season shot a giant and couldn't recover him
2. Saw another giant while in the saddle
3. Missed another good buck the 5th day of firearm season
4. Not a lot of shooting
5. Brother in law shot his first deer
6. Crops are gathered nearby
7. Snow and cold for opener
8. Would you rather hunt the U.P.?
9. Miss being at camp
10. Deer camp life
11. Coyote activity
12. The Ghost Blind
13. Tracking Dogs

Interview tonight with law enforcement officer Rory Williams from the state of Washington about a DYI Wyoming antelope hunt.

1. Started planning hunt about 6 - 9 months out
2. Doe tags are $42 for out of state hunters
3. Went on the cheap
4. Public and private land is checkerboarded
5. Hard to find access to public land
6. Did a lot of research on Antelope areas and the area's success rate
7. Went out there blind
8. Couldn't access the land they wanted to hunt due to the landowner owned the road
9. Have to work a deal out with the land owner
10. Had to deal with the weather and the tent wasn't much help
11. Firearms used
12. Field processing the game
13. Hunt was in early October
14. Prickly Pear Cactus
15. Taking care of the landowner to get access the following years
16. Spotting and stalking
17. 2nd year of hunting Wyoming
18. Difference between bucks and does
19. Ivory tips on the pronghorn
20. 3rd year of hunting
21. Weather doesn't affect their movement
22. Calibers and distance of shots
23. Rifle preparations
24. Where you can get most of the DYI information
25. Looking for something different next year
26. Want's to take his kids to hunt Antelope
27. Advice for newbies

Getting his family involved in the outdoors

1. His dad had him out as a baby
2. Started his kids early
3. Camping out under the stars
4. Spending time out on the water
5. Teaching them to shoot firearms at a young age
6. Taking game

The sibling rivalry between Rory and his sister Ellary

Rory's group Off Duty Outdoors for first responders

1. Provides outdoor equipment to first responders from giveaways
2. A way to give back to first responders
3. Palouse Prairie Co. , Stone Glacier , Vortex Optics
4. Methow Adventurer on Instagram
5. Off Duty Outdoors on Facebook