Monday, June 25, 2007

Out Out Dam Beaver

Here’s a troubling scenario that I encountered on my last trip out to the Stillwater and with any luck, you’ll offer some advice to make my next trip more successful.

I came to one of the best pools on the stretch of river I have been fishing lately and noticed, somewhat surprisingly, that its size had swelled, even though the general water level in the river has been steadily falling.

Initially, I thought “Yippy!” as this pool had already been a productive hotspot and now with the deeper water seemed to be all but guaranteed to hold some fat Trout.

Then I noticed him.

Staying mostly submerged with his beady eyed bucktoothed snout staring from the middle of the pool, occasionally flipping about above and below the surface.

I had stumbled across the Busy Beaver.

Investigating a bit I now recognized that I was standing right next to a new and well crafted dam that was clogging up the river flow and backing water up significantly.

My first I thought was that this might make for some really good fishing but then, he noticed me.

His mannerisms seemed to say “Bring it on Bitch!”

So, not wanting to end up in a tussle over fishing rights with a lower mammal who I knew for a fact could easily chew off one of my legs, I decided to hop ashore and hike around the rodent paradise.

Unfortunately, this detour sort of threw off my momentum requiring longer than I expected to find another entry point and leaving me in riffle when I was set to fish a flat pool.

It was getting dark and I had difficulty changing flies, all told, I likely lost over 20 minutes.

The question is… Did I do the right thing in avoiding the Beaver and if not, what have others done?

Is it safe to simply start fishing a pool where a large and possibly territorial Beaver is plainly in sight?

As always, thanks in advance for your response.

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