#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.