Leelanau County was a busy little place 67 years ago, reported the Leelanau Enterprise and Tribune, with a vote of the board of supervisors to keep the county seat in Leland earning the biggest headline in the April 24, 1958, edition. Completion of a Coast Guard base on South Manitou was No. 2. Also placed above the fold, the third-biggest story followed a boldface headline: “Fishing season opens Saturday.”
Not just any fishing. It was the granddaddy of all openers. Trout season opened on the fourth Saturday in April.
“Streams throughout the county are low and clear,” the Enterprise reported, and Solon Creek had even been planted with 100 legal-size rainbow trout. But it was brook trout that drew the attention of most stream anglers, who cut through swamps, crawled over deadfalls, and snuck on hands and knees to their favorite holes. It was a rite of passage.
