With Honey Lake now being transformed into a dry lake bed, its hard to imagine the lake as a fishery. In April 1875, Thomas J. Mulroney noted that remarkable numbers of white fish and suckers were coming up Baxter Creek from Honey Lake. In 1908, the California Board of the Fish and Game Commission stocked Honey Lake with blue gill, crappie and yellow perch. In 1912, it was reported the fish were thriving. In 1909, there was even an attempt to transfer black bass from Eagle Lake to Honey Lake.
On other hand, when the lake first went dry in 1859 it was reported “Immense quantities of fish have been destroyed and are now decaying on the deserted bed. In 1887, a similar incident was reported when the lake dried up. A number of residents in the Buntingville area were taken ill from the “intolerable stench” of decaying fish. The Lassen Advocate reported on August 25, 1887; “Honey Lake is fast drying up and the stench from dead fish contaminates the air for miles around.”