Roundtrip will take about 1.5 hours of walking from the McBride cabin in the middle of homewood at a brisk pace. It gets steep at the top.

We've seen black bear, fox, mountain lions, snowshoe hare, eagles, and other interesting sights, especially early in the day. It’ very peaceful there, and quite beautiful, too. Insect repellent is a good idea.

Trails:
There are 3 routes to the base of the Quail trail by a white shed on a fire road.
From there it's about 1/2 mile to the lake.

Route - Distances from the McBride cabin between Homewood Mountain Resort and Obexers	Access trail Distance from Cabin	Access Tail to Quail Lake Trail	Total to Quail Lake
A trail at the intersection of Lagoon and Meadow Rd.	0.74 mi	0.35 mi	1.53
From a trail at the end of Ellis Rd.	0.89	0.32	1.65
The ski area maintenance roads behind the snow grooming equipment on Tahoe SKi Bowl Way You may have to go around a chain. They won't bother you. You may get dust from maintenance vehicles on the road.	0.38	0.65	1.47
You can also mountain bike all the way to Quail lake by continuing up the ski maintenance roads.	0.40	1.0 to Quail L

Zoom in | Larger Map

GPX files to download to your GPS or mapping software:
Lagoon Rd to Ski Bowl loop | Quail Lake to Ellis Rd

Trailheads: (click image to enlarge)

Lagoon and Meadow Rd	Tahoe Ski Bowl Way	Ellis Rd
	The Quail Lake trailhead starts on the north side of this shed. It is 1/2 mile to Quail Lake. The trail on the south is a bike trail that goes above Quail Lake and connects to Noonchester Mine Road Mountain Bike Trail .

Profile (Route from Lagoon Rd and back to Ski Bowl Way):
It does not include the bike trail and roads to the trail heads.

Other connecting hikes:
You can continue on from the south end of the lake up a trail, which may be hard to find, to the fire road which goes by the remains of the old Noonchester mine to Lake Louise at 7,740 feet. From their you can follow fire roads back down to the bottom of the ski hill.
If you're real adventurous you can bushwhack (mostly open rock with a few trees) to Ellis Peak at 8,700'
Larger Map

Last I heard in 2019 was Homewood Mountain Resort owned the lake. They said fishing follows the standard fish and wildlife guidlines.
You can get fishing licenses at:
Swigards True Value Hardware in Tahoe City
or online at California Fish and Wildlife Internet Sales Home

Article from the Tahoe City World
Quail Lake | Lake Tahoe á The Simple Proof