# Portage Creek



## desertvet762

Fished there Monday when the weather was nice, right in the park off of Kilgore Road. Motor Oil colored krystal bugger netted me several dozen chubs, two nice sized suckers and a beautiful 2.5 pound brown trout. The water was high and dirty. Not a lot of people fish the Portage, but the occaisonal nice brown trout keeps me going back. Word to the wise, this is strictly a catch and release fishery due to the large concentration of mercury in the fish and other toxins from the benzene spill of several years ago.


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## quest32a

I thought the spill was further downstream of Kilgore, near the old paper mill.

BTW, I work less than a quarter mile from that park and live a mile from it. We will have to meet up sometime, I plan on doing a fair amount of fishing in the evenings there this summer. There are a few other creeks in the area that are pretty good to.


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## EZDUZIT

the spill was farther downstream by the bryant paper plant . and since there is a waterfall in milham park , no fish contaminated from it can swim upstream past the waterfall.


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## hypox

Fished that creek many times. I pull up a monster every once and a while. Us Kzoo/Portage guys need to have a trout derby sometime!


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## 2manyfish

I live in the area also... Oakland and parkview.... Let me know if any of you want someone to go out with sometime. I don't know anyone in the area that likes to fish! Quest I think I met you at gander a couple years back. I worked there while I was in school.


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## EZDUZIT

They used to stock it w/browns every year, most at oakland dr. you can pull up dnr website to see if they still do, or call dnr 685-6851.


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## Oldgrandman

I am a Kazoo native, but took up refuge here in GR many years ago. Is this the same creek Allied Paper had to re-route to clean up? Great to hear browns let alone anything else swims those waters now if it is!


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## Spanky

not exactly a top notch trout stream, but I think a few survive. There is alot of run off that goes into this creek from kazoo all the way to vicksburg, and the amount of duck/goose poo poo at milham park has got to be just plain crazy. Good place for kids and stream fishers to get their kicks for a few hrs though. I remember as a kid growing up in milwood, going down to the park and swimming where the waterfall is. Back then , they had monkeys, bears, peacocks, and a few other animals in cages at the park.

The property that the park is on actually used to belong to my great, great grampa Milham, and he gave it to the city of kalamazoo to build the park on. It was farm land back then.


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## Oldgrandman

Milham park, Spanky that brings back memories of climbing the rocket and splashing in the creek at those same falls, and the little zoo!
I wasn't a stream fisherman back then. I take it that is Portage creek?
I once read in MUCC's Michigan Out of Doors that Allied paper had to re-route a creek and dig up the old stream bed that was polluted from their mill and put it back afterwards. I bet if it wasn't this creek it was a tributary.

Mark


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## Spanky

Yep, that is the same creek. It was deffinately very polluted, and i am not too sure it still isn't. But as far as streams around here with trout, there isn't alot of them, camel, portage, augusta, cambell, mentha drain....!

The paper mills of the 70's took their toll on our water here in kazoo. My great grampa james once told me stories about the brookies and browns in the kalamazoo river when he was younger, which would have been somewhere around 1890-1900. 

My how things change. I used to love to listen to him talk about fishing back then. He lived to be 102 yrs old. I think I was about 14-15 when he died.


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## yote pimp

Still some brookies in kalamazoo . one stream is in down town ....


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## Razzo

Dumb question: about how long is a 2.5 # brown?

I never weigh them, I just take a quick measurment and release them.

Thanks,
Russ


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## Spanky

well Russ, I would imagine a 2 1/2 lber of the river brown variety would be somewhere between 20-22 inches, and since the browns in Kalamazoo can't come from the big lake like the joe browns can, that may even be an underestimate.


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## Razzo

Spanky said:


> well Russ, I would imagine a 2 1/2 lber of the river brown variety would be somewhere between 20-22 inches, and since the browns in Kalamazoo can't come from the big lake like the joe browns can, that may even be an underestimate.


Thanks Spanky,

That's a nice brown. I got a 20-inch resident stream brown out of my favorite creek last year. I love the resident stream browns - they have some great colors.

Russ
_____________
 
Looking forward to the trout creek stalking season!


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## StumpJumper

I have a friend who keeps claiming he's catching brook trout in a local stream here. I have caught countless browns out of it but as far as I know there aren't brook trout this far south. I think he's confusing smaller browns with brookies.

Waddya think?


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## yote pimp

yes I can drive 10 miles and catch brookies allday long not browns I have one stream that dosnt have browns in it just brook trout


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## Razzo

StumpJumper said:


> I have a friend who keeps claiming he's catching brook trout in a local stream here. I have caught countless browns out of it but as far as I know there aren't brook trout this far south. I think he's confusing smaller browns with brookies.
> 
> Waddya think?


I'd ask him to take some pictures (if he is worried about the background giving away a favorite fishing spot, send the pic to me and I'll disqusie it for him).  

I know a stream where there used to be brook trout according to an older credible source who has lived by this particular stream for a long time. I have spent many hours on this stream and have not seen hide nor hair of brook trout. If they are still in there they are probably in the headwaters which are, for all pratcile purposes, unfishable. Also, they would have to be naturally reproducing (which is possible, as I have confirmed that there is some natural reproduction of steelhead).

Russ


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## Oldgrandman

Stumpjumper, my brother had a place on Whiskey Run rd somewhere South of the Wolf Lake fish hatchery. Was off of either Fish hatchery road or VanKal I believe. Was a lot of years ago (30+) so I ain't sure. Anyways he told me that the little fish darting around in the creek that ran thru his property were brook trout. I can't confirm it. That was then though. I wonder what that stream is like now.
This thread has me down memory lane big time!


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## barry county jim

So you can legally fish im Milham park? Where else can ou get on Portage?


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## Echolalia

I know this thread has been dead a while, but I only have a quick question not really worth making a new thread for: is Portage worth fishing this late in the season? I know it isn't really a stellar trout stream, but right now my options are very limited due to car problems, and Portage creek is the closest thing to me at the moment.


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