Hunting with Mike

One thing that the beavers do an excellent job of, is make some wonderful trout habitat.  The water behind the dams are usually teaming with fish, as they swim downstream and are “trapped” by the dam created “beaver ponds!”  The water is most always the deepest next to the dams, and I have seen some that are 7-8 feet deep.  This creates a good source of food for the fish as everything comes downstream toward the dam.  It also is a food storage bin for the beaver, as they can snack on fish right out the beaver lodge door.  The creek that was dammed up near the bear camp is only 4-8 feet wide, but the dam has created a pond over 300 feet wide.  We fished just one area of this engineering marvel, so we left plenty of fish for the beavers.  The “brookies” don’t get enormous in these remote ponds, but we were catching 10-14 inchers.  Those are very nice size, and tons of fun to catch, even when you have to release them.

One of the beaver houses I found was right next to the edge of the pond.  His entrance was under water, but most of the living quarters was on dry ground.  These things are so well built I could stand on top of it and not do any damage whatsoever.  The local coyote, wolf, and bear population would have a hard time doing a “breaking and entering” on this homeowner!   I’m sure a hungry bear could make it through the mud and sticks, but the beaver would be long gone before the bear broke into the den.  Beavers are a marvelous creature, and an asset to the eco-system most of the time.  They do cut down many trees, but they are mostly “soft-woods.”  Of course sometimes an older hardier tree “takes a hit,” and that’s when the land owner stats thinking about beaver pelts.

Beaver lodge by the edge of the pond.

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