Getting There

To reach Crooked Lake in Nevada County (Tahoe National Forest), drive to the Carr Lake trailhead by taking Highway 20 from Highway 80 at Yuba Pass. Take Highway 20 west until you can turn right on Bowman Lake Road. From Bowman Lake Road, follow the signs to the turnoff for Carr Lake Road. Carr Lake Road is an unimproved dirt road that is very rough but still manageable in a 2-wheel drive vehicle with modest clearance. The parking can be sparse on weekends and holidays due to the trailhead being very popular.

The Hike

The hike to Crooked Lake is short and there are no steep hills to climb. From the parking areas at either Carr Lake or down the road at the overflow, the hike could not be more than 60 minutes with no appreciable ascents. For this reason, many hikers choose to take their children along this trail, as I did this trip, due to it's easy climbs and abundant lakes. The hike to Island Lake is about 1 mile and it's only another 1.5 miles or so to reach Crooked Lake. We hiked past a small pond next to the trail and made a right turn, cross-country off trail, to arrive at the southwest side of Crooked Lake. There are several Crooked Lakes but most are shallow ponds and do not hold fish. The cross-country trek will take you down a hill of shale, crossing a small creek and back up around to the lake.

The Fishing

REPORT - June 20, 2018

Caleb and I hit Crooked Lake a few weeks after my son and I fished there. This time we arrived on the weekend and stayed over Saturday night. While my son and I were there during mid-week, we saw no other visitors. The weekend, in contrast, was a zoo. It was buzzing with activity including teenagers tossing out huge rocks and logs into the water from the eastern cliffs. So, as you might imagine, the fish were spooked and the bite was slow.

We gave it our all, tossing flies from our campsite beach, and finally landed one Cutthroat and one small Rainbow. The bite was off. It was a little disappointing. The evening hatch came and there were plenty of fish rising once the human activity ceased. I didn't see any other campers catch anything so we were not alone in our misfortune. On Sunday, we packed out in the morning. We came across some anglers at Feely Lake who had just landed a nice Brook Trout. My son and I got skunked at Feely a few weeks before. My advice is to hit these lakes mid-week, on non-peak times - no holidays.

REPORT - June 6, 2018

My son and I fished Crooked Lake shortly after arriving to our campsite at Big Island Lake. We set up camp, landed one fish at Island Lake and prepared for a day hike over to Crooked Lake. As soon as we got there I set up a pole for my 5 year old son with a nightcrawler while I attempted to fly fish atop a big rock.

It wasn't long before he had a bite and the fishing did not slow down until we packed up and took off. He was averaging a bite every five minutes or so with 4 fish landed on bait. These were all Cutthroats and they were fun to catch . After a while I got some action with the fly rod. I was hooking small Rainbow trout that looked to be about 2 years old or less. It was apparent that the Cutthraots were planted first, the Rainbows after. I used Humpy's and Flashback Pheasants Tails and had pretty steady action with that selection. All in all the fishing was really good and we both got to scratch our fishing itch at Crooked Lake.'

Two fun facts about Crooked Lake:

• Crooked Lake is ideal for hauling in a floatation device (raft, float tube) as the trailhead is close to the lake.

• It looks like finglerings (Rainbow) were air dropped in 2017 so expect better fishing for Rainbows in 2 years.