Boyle Lake, Hancock Tree Farm

Boyle Lake

The middle of a chain of three, tea-colored and slightly boggy lakes is Boyle Lake. I've never seen another soul at Boyle. Talk about private fishing. Last year I hiked all my gear in -- about an hour of lonely walking each way. This year I have the pass so I was able to drive in late in the day and then leave right at dusk.

Lots of smaller fish rising and jumping. Saw several trout around 8" leaping out of the water. Maybe they were jumping to evade giant predators! That's what I tell myself anyway. Actually, its more likely they were jumping to try to shake off their fish lice, which was a problem in this lake last year (see 2008 post).

Boyle Lake Launch Site

The fish were not interested in any of my subsurface presentations so again I was forced to switch to my ratty mayfly imitations. I missed many strikes, mostly because the fish were so small. I chased a pod of smaller fish across the lake only to discover that this pod was bass, not trout after all. I did land one of those smaller trout, though; and he had no lice (yet)!

Upshot: there should be bigger fish in there, I just didn't see them today. Worth a try again soon.