Beaver Bump

I was looking through my old photos and realized it had been 10 years since I'd been fishing with Sarah, one of my daughters who had been a frequent companion in her younger years. So I invited her to join me for an evening on the local stream I had visited two weeks ago.

The water was quite a bit lower and the fish fewer and smaller (I think it likely this stretch was fished earlier in the day), but we still found enough to keep us entertained, with a few up to 12 inches.

Sarah soon recovered her fishing skills and was matching me fish for fish. 

A wonderful section of stream to fish, wide open, easy wading, no grass or trees like The Creek. Nothing to impede fishing except....a beaver? 

Sarah and I were fishing up a fast, shin deep riffle, side by side with her a little behind me when she said something about a rock or log I dislodged rolling downstream and hitting her leg. Then the log made a sound and started moving upstream. I looked to my left and a large, flat, brown shape came into my field of view, somewhat blurred by the waves on the surface of the water. My first thought was "Can a bullhead get that big?" followed by "Are there carp in this stream now?" but it was bigger than either of those could be. The identity of the "log" became clear as it slowly moved past me, not more than a foot from my leg, and its broad, flat tail came into view. Sarah had been bumped by a beaver, drifting downstream with the current. It moved up past me, slowly turned, and continued drifting downstream, never coming to the surface in our sight. 

After that excitement, we caught a few more and headed back to our starting point. The sun was not quite set, and being near the solstice, of course I had to fish until dark. I walked downstream to check out a couple new holes that had developed with the changes to the river over the winter while Sarah, content with her fishing experience for the day, waited in the car. It was a good choice for me. A couple nice new holes and water that clearly had not been fished earlier. I found two to three dozen in the short time before dark with quite a few in the 12 inch range. A great finish to a solstice celebration with a great fishing companion.