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The lake was hand sounded in the ninth month of the calendar year 1961. Not a big deal.  So somebody or some bodies rowed around the lake dropping a pre measured rope with a weight to the lake bottom establishing a subsurface contour. In good faith they sounded the depths to find the deepest hole or perhaps showing the lack of.

What’s interesting at times is the back door or hidden gate if you will, to what could be considered an in accessible lake. A very big deal. Some of the newer field reports will tell you “no public access”. But by pulling up the relic maps you can navigate the ancient old trails with current hand held gps’s.  On occasion I find tree blazes or surveyors tie in notes. One is on a tree, and some are written in the margins.

If you hunt trout, like I hunt trout, some of the best remote trout lakes are winter access only. I wait until the boggy terrain around the water body freezes and I snowshoe in. Less wood ticks, less mosquitoes. Less human predators.

With the new portable electronics I can probe the historic lake depths and even see active modern fish.  By reading the map. Words and pictures. It’s a treasure map at times. Ive hit some clunkers, but that’s part of fishing. Satellites, mapping software and the new hi-tech computer  era have really enhanced remote fishing; just don’t forget that some of the history recorded is  map to a  better fishing report.

Trout Whisperer