We did manage to get a little fishing in once my brother came up to help bait. Michigan regulations call for a minimum of 7″ on stream brook trout, and 10 inches on rainbow. We found us a new beaver pond and took our limit in about two hours of fishing. The three of us had a blast, and Tony got bragging rights for the biggest brookie caught that day. In all the years we’ve been doing this I have the all time record of a 13 inch beaver pond brookie! Now that sure doesn’t sound like much, but these little stream fish don’t get much of an opportunity to reach “big lake” proportions. These colorful cold stream fish are some of the tastiest I have ever eaten. In fact my wife “ordered” me to bring her home a “brookie” dinner, and I obliged her!
This particular pond we were fishing in, had a beaver dam of over 150 yards long. Those little engineers never cease to amaze me in their ability to construct new habitat for themselves, and their woodland friends! Why they even dropped a tree right across our camp road, which I had to haul off to one side. Mr. beaver then came back and chewed off all the branches, before he cut the main branch into manageable pieces.
We also fished some of the pools in the creek, but Derek was the only one who seemed to really get the hang of it. I told you in an earlier blog that he caught a huge brookie, but it was actually a nice brown trout. Hey it looked like a brookie to me, but Greg Baldwin (Federal Fish and Wildlife employee) said it was a brown, and that’s what I’m going to believe. I’ll post a picture of that fish in upcoming blogs.
I’m going to fix my wife a brook trout dinner this coming Saturday with all the trimmings. We’re both looking forward to it!
Mike
Looks like a great catch right there. I’m jealous.
Beavers are amazing. I can’t believe the structures they can build.
Very cool!