Bill Parker

5 days ago | outdoornews.com | Bill Parker

With robust walleye and smallmouth bass populations, a good northern pike fishery, and an on-and-off perch fishery, Walloon Lake has a good bit of diversity for anglers upon which to test their skills. What it doesn’t have is a fishable trout population, despite years of stocking efforts by the DNR to produce such a fishery. This content is restricted to subscribers of OutdoorNews.com. If you are already an OutdoorNews.com subscriber, you can log in here.

5 days ago | outdoornews.com | Bill Parker

It’s a fact of life that the cost of living will increase over time. Food prices go up. Fuel prices increase. The cost of electricity creeps higher every year, and my heating bills for natural gas this winter were astronomical. We can hope that these increases come at us slowly and incrementally, but that’s not always the case. Want proof? Look no further than the proposed hunting and fishing license fee increases in Michigan.

2 weeks ago | outdoornews.com | Bill Parker

A shout out goes to the family of the late Bob Knoop, Jr. Bob is the recipient of the 2025 Michigan Outdoor News Person of the Year award. A true conservationist with a huge heart, Bob passed away last November at the age of 67. He was a past president and founding member of the Passing Along the Heritage Foundation (PATH), which provides cost-free hunting and fishing trips to individuals with disabilities that would otherwise make it difficult for them to participate.

2 weeks ago | outdoornews.com | Bill Parker

Lincoln Lake in northeastern Kent County has the prestigious honor of producing the state record black crappie. The fish was caught way back in 1947 by Frank Lee. It weighed an impressive 4.12 pounds. No length is listed in the DNR records. Lincoln is still producing trophy crappies including six others that earned Master Angler honors. Two of them, both 14.2 inches, were caught in 2024 and 2023. This content is restricted to subscribers of OutdoorNews.com.

2 weeks ago | outdoornews.com | Bill Parker

Wrangling continues in the state legislature over hunting and fishing license fee increases in Michigan. Legislation was introduced in the House late in 2024 that would have increased the fees substantially, but the bill died in the raucous lame duck session. Since then, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer proposed license fee increases in her state budget, and earlier this month state Senators John Cherry (D-Flint) and Jon Bumstead, (R-North Muskegon),  introduced bipartisan legislation for fee increases.