Johnson Creek/Drain Northville

[Dr.J]

Has anybody fished this creek, towards
Ann Arbor? Where can you park and get access?
I tried last weekend form Northville to
Beck rd. no luck trying to get on the creek.
Thanks--Dr.J.

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[Steve]

Dr. J, I was wondering the same thing myself. Last year I scouted around the Beck road, 5-6 mile area and although it appeared you could get access where the creek crossed the road, the water there looked very slow and muddy. It just plain did not look like trout habitat. I just turned around and went home. This weekend I scouted the area around hatchery park. This area looks much more like trout water, however I saw no risers, no fishermen, and no real signs that it has been fished heavily (I guess that could be good), but I still have no confidence that the fish are in there.

[Steve]

Has anybody fished this creek or know someone who has?

Call John Bueter at Beuter's Outdoors in Northville (248-349-3677). This 'drain' runs right near his fly shop and he is leading a drive to bring attention to the fact that this is the first place in the nation to ever get brown trout at the turn of the century.
There are trout in there but all of the development, fertilizers and run-off are taking their toll. Right now, developers would like nothing better than to plow it over to make it easier and cheaper for them build more McMansions.

[Steve]

Yeah, I saw the mansions when I was scouting out the area complete with copper gutters and all. I did contact the Johnson's Drain Society about promoting their cause/web site on this site, but didn't get too much interest.