Sunday, February 08, 2015

Beaverton: Carp Island

 A neat place in my hometown that's just a stone's throw from my grandma's old house and the house where my brother and his family now live is Carp Island.  I'm pretty sure that's just our name for it, and I have heard that this used to have other names like Drug Island or Pot Island due to the things people supposedly do or did there, but whatever.  We went there during daylight hours and only saw a couple of other people fishing.  It's a little stony island below the Beaverton Dam, you cross some wobbly stones to get on the small island.  

 The Beaverton Dam
 
 Carp Island in the middle in the sunny little Tobacco River valley

 True to the island's name, my brother reeled in a creepy beast from the depths of the Tobacco River.
 I'd never seen a living carp up close before this!
It was a great looking fish, but I don't know anyone in Michigan who eats carp.  It's known as a dirty bottom feeder.  I did look it up online, and found out that they apparently don't taste good in the summer, anyway.  Maybe that's why I've never heard of anyone in Michigan eating them:  They only have a very limited time when they are tasty.  Either way, I'm pretty sure this beast was happy to get back in the water after being checked out and passed around by the kids!