Hardy folk will enjoy McDowell

McDowell Lake, on the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge in Stevens County, isn’t for everybody.

You have to carry or hand-wheel a boat to the lake. Motors are prohibited. Rules allow only fly fishing and all trout caught must be released.

If that’s your style, this 33-acre lake in the mountains could be your little piece of heaven.

The lake was rehabilitated in 2006 and restocked in the spring of 2007 with large rainbows, catchable rainbows and redband rainbow fingerlings.

A few brook trout also are in the lake.

Fishing is best in spring and fall. Anglers who know how to fish chironomids can have a ball here.