#62 Betsie River, Michigan

#61 Swan Creek, Michigan

Swan Creek was to be my swan song. A chance to go out in a blaze of glory, or at least with a picture of me smiling with a fish in hand.  Any fish. Any size.  To be truthful this is a lie.  What I would really like is a trophy, but would settle for a "nice" fish.  It seems to me that, although my quest was to fish 60 rivers with no accounting for the catching, or lack thereof, I should at least require that my last river produce a fish, if only a bait fish.   And so I tied on a likely looking streamer and walked back into the Allegan State Forest along a nicely tended trail following Swan Creek.  This is a small clear stream with adequate flow leading to hope that I could site a few migrating fish.   But after a good half mile and a few hopeless casts it became all too obvious that my efforts were in vain.  It was time to pack up and head home.  My quest was over.  My desire was not.  I have another 13 days to put a fish on the end of my last cast.

Note: Several readers have asked if Steelhead are able to migrate up Swan Creek.  I went back to Jim Bedford's book and he did not refer to a migratory fishery, although the stream is open all year.  Looking at the map I do not see an obstruction up to the dam at 118th Ave, but there could very well be a blockage somewhere downstream.  A week earlier I had a report of Steelhead being caught in a small tributary of the Kalamazoo River below Allegan in the State Game Area.  I assumed it was Swan Creek, because neither Sand Creek nor Bear Creek are open.   Also, its blue designation in the regulations leads me to believe that steelhead and salmon run the creek or some portion of it. 

#60 Kalamazoo River, Michigan

As I drove down Dam Road toward river number sixty it occurred to me how unprepared I was for the occasion.  No one to celebrate with.  No bottle of champagne.  Not even a beer and a bag of nuts.  The river itself seemed an odd choice, if for no other reason than its name.  A warm water fishery save for the planting of migrating fish by the DNR.  

I pulled in alongside another car and surveyed the site.  One lone fisher on the break wall looked to be walleye fishing, and one boat load of fishers anchored in the center of the river busy casting plugs.  Body language said it all.  Fishing was not good.  I walked over to the walleye fisherman who had one small marble eyes in his bucket.  It had been a slow day, and no, the boaters had not landed any fish.  After boasting of taking a six pound walleye a few days earlier he shrugged and said the steelhead fishing was even slower, then turned his attention back to a lifeless line.  I walked back to the car and suited up.  I imagine this is a busy spot in springtime when the big lake rainbows are running strong.  But not in December.  At least I wouldn't be standing elbow to elbow on my last river.   I had hoped that my last cast on the last river would produce a keeper I could take home for dinner, and that I would fish until that happened.  My only catch was bottom.  With a few hours left I decided to make it a fisher's sixty, and try my luck at Swan Creek. 

Access: Dam Road off M40 near Allegan

Weather: Sunny, mid 30s

#59 Rabbit River, Michigan

After an unseasonably cold and snowy few weeks the weather finally moderated with a sunny day in the mid 30s.  I had planned to fish the Rifle from a guided drift boat, but water levels were low and the river iced over in the lower reaches.  So I rescheduled for April and turned my attention to fishing the Betsie and possibly the Platte rivers.  But a call to Mark Andres was more bad news, with reports of low flow and no fish. So I decided to head south to the Kalamazoo River.  My first stop was Rabbit River, a tributary of the Kalamazoo, which crosses M40 just east of Hamilton, a small town midway between Holland and Allegan.  A small park on the north side of the highway provides easy access below the low head dam.  There was one fisherman at the river when I arrived, but as I made ready he headed toward his car mumbling profanities about his cell phone.  I assumed that he was either at work and the river had gotten in the way or the call was from his wife.  Either way he was most distressed at being called off the river.  I managed to get a few pointers at negotiating the current and avoiding the holes before he drove off.  He had not seen any fish jumping the fish ladder in the short time he was there, which was not a good sign.  He claimed it is not uncommon to count over a hundred steelies climbing the rock ladder in just a few minutes time, but not today.  I gave it a good college try without success, deciding to move on to the Kalamazoo River below the dam west of Allegan, stopping first at the Eagle Nest cafe for lunch.