Ice-Out on Alaskan Lakes

From my desk — already humid with early summer here in southwest Florida — it’s hard not to read about 5-millimeter-thick neoprenes without feeling a slight chill. But on Alaska’s Kepler-Bradley Recreation Area lakes, the rainbows are already bunched up and ready for spawning. “Dozens of trout finned out of sight 10 feet offshore, only to circle back so close they almost brushed the grass along the bank. Along the flanks of some fish were bright red slashes indicative of spawning adults. The fish appeared to be looking for a place to pound out spawning beds, but in this cold, clear, relatively deep lake, there is no good spawning habitat.” Craig Medred in the Alaska Daily News.