North Delaney Butte Lake

North Delaney Butte Lake is the best known of the three Delaney Buttes lakes on a State Wildlife Area west of Walden, at about 8,100 feet in North Park. It is small, about 160 acres, but it grows brown trout of real size, along with rainbows and cutbows, and the rules keep the big fish in the water: flies and lures only, 2 trout, and browns from 14 to 20 inches and rainbows and cutbows from 18 to 22 inches released.

It is open, treeless country, and the wind is the main obstacle: mornings and evenings are when a float tube works. Chironomids and scuds under an indicator after ice-off, damsels in early summer, and leeches and streamers for the browns in fall are the standard. The inlet above the standing water line is closed, and the dam is closed from mid-September to mid-November while the browns spawn. Ice fishing is popular in winter.