Back when I lived on the Olympic peninsula, I fished a lot of beaver ponds and trout/steelhead streams.
My handgun was a Charter Armrs Pathfinder 22lr, 3 inch.
Fed it CCI mini mags, which it liked. Shot a lot of critters with it.
Still have it, but it has been replaced by a Ruger SR 22
You could do a lot worse than a 22
