Living Outdoors: In-Fisherman TV visits the PM River

Steve Martinez on the PM with a customer

By STEVE MARTINEZ

mcp.com columnist

In-Fisherman Magazine is North Americas leading authority on fishing and has traveled everywhere in the country, fishing specific areas for fish ranging from giant sturgeon in Oregon to huge large mouth bass in Florida. This week fellow guide and friend Kevin Morlock and I had the pleasure to shoot a segment for In-Fisherman Television with Doug Stange and Dave Penning on the Pere Marquette River for winter steelhead.

In-Fisherman is no stranger to Michigan. We have had them on Beaver Island shooting video for carp, but it has been a couple years since they have been here fishing the Pere Marquette River in Mason County.

Doug is no stranger to winter fishing. He has shot numerous segments from Canadian lake trout fishing through the ice, to ice fishing for walleye in his home state of Minnesota. But casting for winter steelhead is a whole different monster, frozen rod guides, iced up reels and cold fingers from the constant casting can really take its toll, especially when the temps are a balmy 12 degrees.

I have had Dave in my boat plenty, he is one of the best cameramen who I have had the pleasure to fish with, always setting up amazing shots and never missing any of the action ,which at times can be slow in between shots, but on this day fishing was good and we managed to put this segment in the can well before dark, with four gorgeous steelhead, one giant coho salmon and numerous river browns in the 18 inch range.

This segment of in-fisherman television will air sometime next fall/winter on the sportsman channel.

Steve Martinez grew up fishing on the Pere Marquette River. He owns STM Outfitters. Check out more information at www.peremarquetteguide.com.