Utah

Fishing in Utah

Containing a range of water bodies from high-mountain streams to big reservoirs and community ponds, the state of Utah presents itself as another wonderful fishing destination in the USA. Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) stocks enormous amounts of fish every year in the water bodies of the state so that anglers can enjoy fishing thoroughly.

Willard Bay Reservoir

Fishing Hot Spots

Willard Bay Reservoir is one of the major hot spot for fishing in Utah, full of channel catfish, black crappie, largemouth and smallmouth bass, walleye, wiper, bluegill common carp, and yellow perch. Utah Lake is another hot spot where you will find bullhead catfish, and lake trout, along with all these species. Flaming Gorge is another major spot where a variety of species like rainbow and lake trout, kokanee salmon, smallmouth bass and burbot are caught. You can enjoy as much burbot fishing as you want in Flaming Gorge as there is no limit for their fishing. Green River below Flaming Gorge Dam gives good catch of brown and rainbow trout and mountain whitefish. Some other major fishing destinations include Bear Lake, for cutthroat trout and lake trout, Cutler Reservoir and Marsh for catfish, Blacksmith Fork River for brown, cutthroat and rainbow trout, and mountain whitefish, Moose Pond for rainbow trout, Browne Lake for brook and rainbow trout, Steinaker and Red Fleet Reservoir for largemouth bass, bluegill and rainbow trout,

Boulder Mountain is situated in Wayne and Garfield counties and includes Boulder Mountain, Griffin Top, the Aquarius Plateau and Escalante Mountain, and has nearly eighty fishable ponds or lakes. They give some of the best fishing during fall. Boulder Mountain is best known for its brook trout. Other species are rainbow, cutthroat, and tiger trout, splake and grayling.

Lower Kent lake

Tushar Mountain or Beaver Mountain, located in the Beaver County in southwestern Utah, has many lakes, like Little Reservoir, Kents, Upper Kents, and Lower Kents lakes, Anderson, Meadow, Labaron, and Three Creeks Reservoirs, and Mumford and Senseball Lakes and Puffer Lake, most of which are formed by the dams constructed on the River Beaver. These give a handsome catch of brown, brook, cutthroat, rainbow and tiger trout. The Little Reservoir is reputed to produce sometimes a trophy brown trout, some of which have exceeded 10 pounds.

Tackle

Bait-tipped jigs work best for the white bass, while stinkbaits and worms will give a good catch of catfish. For fishing of cutthroat trout, trolling from the scout camp north the state line using downriggers or leading core line give good results. Rapalas and spoons, and using dodgers or pop-gear in front of the lure too are worth trying. Rainbow trout can also be caught here with powerbait, worms and small spoons. For catfish, shrimp, liver or worms are useful as baits. For lake trout some get success by jigging, while some others like trolling, but all agree that if a school can be found, the hits are fast and light. A good line, fluorocarbon and braid, helps you sense the strike and get a better hook-set while jigging. For smallmouth bass, most anglers jig, while some also do well by casting surface plugs or fishing with minnow imitations or spoons and casting parallel to rocks and cliff faces. Flashy baits like spoons, tube jigs, curly-tailed jigs or minnow jigs are useful for burbot. For brown trout and mountain whitefish, you can do well with large terrestrial imitations like grasshoppers and black ants. Also try rapals, spinners, spoons, black, olive or brown jigs, and plastic jigs. If you fish with flies, you should try something like a large floating grasshopper over a smaller shrimp or scud imitation.

Smart Fishing

Though UDWR stocks millions of them over some past years, Kokanee salmon population is decreasing in the Flaming Gorge because of predation by lake trout and burbot. Anglers need to do smart fishing of lake trout and burbot, if they want good catches of kokanee salmon.

License

Licenses for fishing in Utah can be acquired online or local sales agents. Cost of resident license ranges from $8 to $26, while that of non-resident license range from $15 to $70.

Have you now finalized to go fishing in Utah this vacation? You will extremely enjoy, that’s for sure!