This weekend, I took my girlfriend and her best friend up to this mountain lake a few miles up from the town of Nile. The facilities are great--outhouses for most of the campsites, a relatively litter-proof environment, and a pleasant atmosphere. Everything was great--except the fishing.

The Forest service advertised this lake as a 10 acre lake. It has lost enough water that it is down to about 2 1/2 acres and is VERY shallow. By viewing the extended shoreline, it looks like the lake lost about 15' of water. There was one hole in the middle of the lake on the north side that probably goes down to about 8 feet. During my stay I witnessed a few splashy rises directly above this hole. Otherwise, that was it. I spoke to a local who continually spoke of how this lake has historically produced "limits" for every fisherman. Such must be the case as this thing was pretty much "fished out."

However, I did view some interesting phenomenon. It appears that the frog population in this lake goes pretty much unchecked as thousands of black tadpoles blanketed the the floor of the lake. Also, this lake has some of the largest snails that I've seen in good numbers. I think that the tadpoles produce some kind of protective toxin that trout dislike, but maybe a snail pattern will catch those remaining trout!

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