Utah Fishing Reports

♣ Read our fishing articles
♣ Listen to FishBytes on KSL Outdoors
♣ Take a SkyCall satellite phone on your next adventure
♣ Follow me on Twitter

Rec Property

Soldier Summit Cabin:
- 12.86 acre lot
- 3,054 Square Feet
- 2 Bedrooms, 3 Bathrooms
- Family Room & Den
- Hardwood Floors
- Huge Kitchen and Large Dining Room
- 1160 sq ft basement framed for family room, 2 bdrms, 1 bath

What's New

Kevin Fox sent in the photo above - a nice Strawberry cutthroat. Kevin did well at Strawberry and also at Electric Lake, where he caught several nice tiger trout.

I wanted to get up to Strawberry last weekend but family obligations interfered. Instead I drove up to Rexburg, Idaho. Since I was passing close to Lava Hot Springs, I stopped in and soaked my tired bones. The naturally hot mineral water there is very nice. Many hot springs have a sulfur smell, but not Lava. I find it very relaxing - therapeutic - particularly when it comes during the middle of a long drive.

Next week's weather looks like it will be super nice and so I'm planning a trip. I think I'll take my boat down to Sand Hallow, near St George, and try to catch some of the big largemouth bass that are quickly making that reservoir famous. It will be nice to get in one more mild weather boat trip.

While down there, I plan to drive out to Toroweap (a remote vista on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon). Some of the most dramatic photos of the canyon are taken there, and I hope to get a decent shot or two for my national parks photo collection. (As of today, I have some 2400 photos in the gallery on my website. A few of them are actually pretty good.)

Best Lakes/Reservoirs
- Bear Lake for cutts, lake trout
- Rockport for trout
- Jordanelle for trout
- Strawberry for cutts and rainbows
- Flaming Gorge for lake trout and rainbows
- Red Fleet for trout
- Steinaker for trout
- Scofield for rainbows, cutts and tiger trout
- Fish Lake for rainbows, splake and lake trout
- Sand Hollow for largemouth

Events

Heber City's Cowboy Poetry Gathering & Buckaroo Fair, Nov 3-8. Enjoy a weeks worth of continuous cowboy talent where Cowboys and Cowgirls gather to pass on their western traditions and genuine devotion to the cowboy way of life with poetry, music, and live horsemanship. The Cowboy Poetry experience also includes, poetry in motion at the Horse Show Extravaganza; top performing acts in western entertainment; real East Texas BBQ; western vendors & craftsman; horse clinics; and the favorite Cowboy Express train ride.

Annual Navajo Rug Show & Sale, Nov 6-8, Deer Valley. This year's show will celebrate 20 years of bringing Navajo Elders to Park City to share their culture and sell their rugs. The Elders and their families travel from different parts of the Navajo Reservation and while at the rug show demonstrate skills such as carding wool, spinning yarn, weaving rugs and singing traditional songs for school children and the public.

See our complete events calendar

- Good Fishing, Dave Webb

Scofield is usually our first major water to freeze, and that usually happens in late November or early December. There is usually ice on some parts of the reservoir by Thanksgiving, but open water on other parts. There is almost always ice fishing on parts of Scofield by the first week of December. Strawberry usually doesn't freeze until mid or late December.

Our advice: Don't rush the season. Ice fishing is often very good for a couple weeks after a lake or reservoir freezes. It's worth watching conditions and getting out as soon as there is 3 or more inches of solid ice. But don't risk your life by rushing the season.

This week's storm dumped heavy snow in some places around Utah. There may be snow and ice on some boat ramps this weekend. But temperatures are expected to warm nicely next week and much of that will melt. There will yet be nice days where you can launch and fish on our major trout waters.

Strawberry and Scofield have been fishing extremely well recently and that will continue for the next few weeks. Strawberry has yielded large numbers of big cutts. Scofield has very fast fishing for smaller trout. Many other waters are also fishing well, from boat and shore.

Stream fishing is also good. Cold weather has finally ended many dry fly hatches but there will still be BWOs and midges during the warm part of the day. Meanwhile streamer fishing is very good, particularly on streams with good populations of brown trout. Remember not to tromp through brown trout redds (nests).

Lake Powell is shifting toward a winter pattern. A few years ago almost nobody fished Powell during winter, but recently people have figured out how to catch stripers through the cold months and more and more people are giving it a shot. Powell never freezes and many mid-winter days are pleasant.

Powell guru Wayne Gustaveson has posted his final weekly fishing report of the season. He will continue to post occasionally, as conditions change, and resume weekly reports as we move toward spring. In his latest report he said: "A fantastic fishing season is drawing to a close. It has been a banner year for all species. Habitat, food/forage and fish numbers have peaked at near optimum conditions. Great fishing will continue into the winter months, but this will be my last report for a while."