Browns Lake has fallen upon hard times. As Dean mentioned, the gate is locked but it is okay to wheel boats in there. The walk is less than a quarter of a mile, mostly downhill. Two of us wheeled our boats in there 2 weeks ago expecting some good fishing since the lake has been mostly closed for the past few years due to fires and then wind damage. Now a complete rebuild of the campground is underway and anyone that has fished that lake over the decades would be sickened to see the carnage that has occurred there. The campground trees have been mostly eliminated and enormous slash piles now dominate the landscape. There are huge plans to rebuild the campground into something far better than before but right now the area looks like it has been ravaged by the most ruthless of logging practices and it is hard to see beyond the devastation to a better future. Current plans call for the campground to be open next season. It would take a miracle.
The lake itself, once arguably the best cutthroat lake in the state, has declined alarmingly since the introduction of hatchery zombie rainbows several years ago. It has never recovered, we never catch the healthy deep bodied cutts that were so prevalent 20 years ago. On our recent trip in there we fished for several hours and one 16'' cutthroat was the sum of our efforts, a few 7'' shakers were also present. We were in there the year after the fire and did extremely well fishing the shallow end but this year we kicked all the way down there and never got a bite. Maybe we just had a bad day but I have been fishing the lake for over 20 years and never had a day with almost nothing after hours of fishing. Right now I wouldn't recommend it but hope it can return to some of it's former glory someday. As for Half Moon I'm not sure the drive up would be worth the effort. The Obscure Lakes Program fished it a couple of years ago and I'm not certain that we even caught a fish.
Krusty's assessment that it looks like a WWII tank battlefield is bang on, it's as if some of the logging was done with 88mm shells instead of chain saws. As previously mentioned, water temps have pretty much put an end to area fishing by now. Weed growth is unprecedented in one our favorite lakes and others have so many weeds that a float tube is impossible. We are currently in a holding pattern for lake fishing, now anticipating the first frost before decent fishing returns.
Try to get here in May or October, your chances will be much better
