Belly boating for brookies: Get to those hard-to-access hotspots

Brook trout, Michigan’s state fish, often are associated with tiny, jump-across creeks. Angling means belly-crawling to their edges so you don’t spook them before dropping an earthworm or grasshopper into the often gin-clear water to be rewarded with a brilliantly colored 8-inch fish. But brook trout live in larger rivers as well, and often the biggest challenge to catching them is reaching that big water. The streams often are bordered by large tangles of tag alders and crisscrossed with deadfalls. I recently encountered that situation in the Upper Peninsula. But fortunately, I went with three guys who were veterans of dealing with the issue. Their answer? Belly boats.