Fishing Sporley Lake

Sporley Lake is a managed 77-acre trout fishery with a maximum depth of 42 feet and excellent water clarity to 22 feet. The thermocline sits at 22 feet in summer, with dissolved oxygen dropping sharply below 24 feet to just 0.2 mg/l at 27 feet, so focus trout fishing in the upper water column. Splake are the primary target, with 88% of fish legal size and recent catches showing fish up to 23 inches after stocking was reduced from 5,000 to 1,300 annually. A single 27-inch, 9-year-old brown trout was caught in 2009 despite no stocking since 2001, proving their longevity and suggesting renewed brown trout stocking could help control rough fish. The lake has a serious rough fish problem with white suckers comprising 60% of survey biomass, though manual removals have improved the balance since the 1990s. Yellow perch are abundant by number (45% of catch) but grow 0.3 inches below state average, with most fish 5-9 inches and only 29% legal size. Smallmouth bass have exploded since 2004 but show extremely slow growth at 1.3 inches below average, with only 3% reaching legal size. The lake bottom features one large 10-15 foot shoal along the north shore, with the littoral zone comprising 25% of surface area. Water chemistry shows concerning trends with alkalinity dropping from 30 mg/l in 1979 to just 8 mg/l in 2009, potentially limiting invertebrate production and explaining why reducing stocking numbers actually improved fish condition. The unimproved access has parking for 5 vehicles with trailers and a courtesy pier, located east of the former K.I. Sawyer airbase.