Michigan United Conservation Clubs, Outdoorama Huge Success

     Last fall when your Board of Directors approved my request to pursue our participation in Michigan’s largest outdoor sporting show, MUCC’s, Outdoorama, I was a little apprehensive about the challenge.  We knew Darkhouse angling was popular with our members and other sporting groups, but we needed to find out what kind of support there was from the sporting public as a whole.

     Several weeks prior to Outdoorama, the Michigan Out of Doors television program, seen weekly across Michigan, had programs featuring Darkhouse spearing for northern pike and two weeks later one on perch spearing on Lake St. Clair. The following week was Outdoorama. What a great stroke of luck for Darkhouse angling and MDAA.

     Outdoorama was from Wednesday, February 25 thru 29.  Attendance for this 5 day outdoor show was over 40,000 visitors. Our MDAA booth was “swamped” every hour of the 5 day event.  We spoke with several thousand enthusiastic and supportive sportsmen about our Darkhouse angling heritage.  We got the word out, and it was overwhelmingly accepted.  Of the thousands who stopped by our booth, not a single, negative comment was heard.  The renewed interest in Darkhouse angling was generated by the MUCC programs. There were hundreds of requests for information on where they could purchase spears and fish decoys. There were anglers that had speared in the past that wanted to “get back into it”, along with hundreds more interested in trying the sport after viewing the MUCC television programs.

     The most inspiring aspect of all the interest was, the amount of parents that had their children with them, wanting information about our great angling method for their families.

     Some interesting comments came out of our many conversations with those stopping to share their support for spearing.  “Why can’t I spear pike or musky on such and such lake”?  “Why doesn’t the DNR allow us to spear muskies? What are there reasons for such and such lake being closed to spearing?”  “Why can’t we spear muskies in Lake St. Clair”.  “----- Lake is closed to spearing pike and the pike are all “hammerhandles”.  “I never knew you could spear perch on Lake St. Clair”.   “Can I spear perch on all lakes”?  “The muskies are eating all the pike on Lake St. Clair, why does the DNR have the lake closed to muskie spearing”?  “Why is the size limit so big for muskies”? 

     I could go on and on, but the main ideas that came out of our contacts with the Outdoorama folks is the management or lack there of, pike and musky.  The DNR Fisheries division is responsible for promoting ALL accepted angling methods. There lack of management ideas and promotion of our sport has been obvious, but it goes further than that. While other divisions within the DNR are looking for ways to promote outdoor activities, the fisheries division continues to make it more difficult and confusing for the angling public by micro-managing every body of water in the state. Their inland trout and salmon guide is a great example.  Catch and release, excessive size limits and lower creel limits seems to be there goal.

     The vast majority of the fishing public wants to eat fish, period. The misguided direction the DNR fisheries division apparently thinks is the right direction, is loosing Michigan 20,000+ anglers per year.

     MDAA’s direction is much clearer after seeing the interest and support from the thousands of anglers at Outdoorama.  We will continue to promote Darkhouse angling in the media, at public events and publicly challenge any attempts by the DNR fisheries division to discriminate against our angling method.  The DNR fisheries division in the past has closed bodies of waters to Darkhouse angling without any scientific reasons.  This summer we will be submitting proposals to the Natural Resource Commission to right some of the wrongs regarding Darkhouse angling in Michigan.

     A special thanks to Dave, Shawn and Zack Pawlak, Tom Richards and Ross Willis for assisting me in the MDAA booth.  An extra special “Thank You” to Kimberly Pawlak, your MDAA secretary, for preparing all the hundreds of hand-outs for the show.

                                                                 Michael Holmes, President