About 5 weeks into the refill, I am glad to say things are looking up. There was some concern that the lake had frozen all the way through while it was at it's lowest in spots and was stuck to the lake bed. We were afraid the ice was not floating on the new water and that the new water was flowing on top and freezing.

That is not the case. The camp ranger and I went out on the ice today with an auger to bore some holes to see where we were. The ice at the first 3 or 4 feet out from shore looks bad, but supported us and both of us are 200lbs+. His is muscle. Mine is something yet to be determined. Oreo Double Stuffs, I think. Walking out, the snow on the ice was a bit weird as I could push my stave in a couple of inches and then the crust at that point would give and I could push the stave in another 8-10" before hitting ice. About a foot of snow of the ice in most places that were sheltered from the wind and sun. Mostly drifted stuff. Over most of the lake, the snow was about 3-4" deep.

After cleaning the snow off down to ice, Ranger Mark fired up the auger and went to drilling. We really did not know what to expect. We got our gusher at about 20" indicating that the ice was indeed floating and that the fishies were getting more and more swimming room. Over most of the lake we could stick my 5' stave into the hole and not touch bottom. Near shore, we did find nice soft muck at the bottom.

We are going to do a scientific fish count later with some meal worms. If we catch lots of fishies, the lake does not need to be catch and release. If we get skunked, we try it a few more times and see. The thought is that if we catch fish pretty easily, the population is OK. If we don't, then there may have been more die off than we are thinking at this time.

The lake has about 3'4" to go to be full once more, measuring from teh top of the ice to the high water mark on the face of the dam. The dam repairs went way over budget so there is no money to re-stock the brookies, but Mark and I are thinking it will be OK. 4"-6" fingerlings were going to cost the Council $4 each as Colorado does not run a stocking program for brook trout and would have to make a special "run" of fish to accommodate the request. They do, however, raise cuts and cuts, like the brookies will not migrate out of the lake like rainbows would. Those will be much less expensive to stock and the conversation is leaning towards stocking cuts as it would allow the boys to complete either the fishing or fly fishing merit badges at camp. One of the requirements is to catch 2 species of fish and all the lake has in it is brook trout.

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