Utah Fishing Report

Strawberry cutthroat
This is one of the bigger fish we caught at Strawberry Saturday.

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Strawberry Trends
I enjoyed fishing Strawberry from shore last weekend. We caught several fish but nothing big. See my report and photos. The weather was perfect, sunny and warm. It was nice to be fishing on one of the final warm days of fall.

There are actually fewer big fish at Strawberry this year, according to Alan Ward and Justin Robinson. Alan is DWR's Strawberry project leader and Justin is a biologist working Strawberry. They recently completed gill netting at the reservoir and reported on trends at a Strawberry Anglers Association meeting Tuesday. You can listen to podcasts of the meeting.

They said overall conditions look good. The smaller number of big fish is probably due to very poor survival of fish stocked in 2207. That year-class would normally provide many of the big fish in the reservoir right now.

Learning from the 2007 experience, DWR began stocking larger fish and survival has been excellent every year since. The overall number of fish is good and we will see more big fish beginning next year.

Chub numbers are up a bit, probably because there are fewer big cutthroat eating them. Alan said he is confident cutthroat are growing fast enough to keep the chubs in check.

Alan said he thinks we will see great fishing continuing through the foreseeable future.

Fishing Tip
Move around. If fishing is slow, move to a new spot. Some people stick it out for hours, even though they are not catching fish. If you don't see any action within 30 minutes or so, move to a new spot. That's good advice for any water, and for Strawberry in particular. It is also true for ice fishing.

Our experience at Strawberry on Saturday reinforced the rule. We started at Mud Creek, where fishing was fair. Our group caught 2 fish in about an hour. From there we moved to the south shoreline of the bay out from the mouth of the Strawberry River, where fishing was slow (we caught 1 in about an hour). Then we moved over near the dam and caught several fish quickly.

Early Ice
People are starting to talk about ice fishing, but that is still a few weeks out. Fall weather was so warm for so long, ice may be slow forming (unless we get a really cold spell).

Small waters along Skyline Drive are usually some of the first to become fishable. Huntington and Cleveland reservoirs often develop fishable ice around Thanksgiving. Scofield is usually our first major water to freeze. It is often fishable around the end of November or during the first week of December. Currant Creek Reservoir may be fishable by Thanksgiving.

Strawberry develops safe ice in mid or late December.

- Dave

Fishing is good, despite the weather. There is now snow on the ground in many places and that makes access more difficult, but most waters will be ice-free for some time still and the fish are hungry. Dress for the cold and you can enjoy great action.

The weatherman say we may get a little rain and/or snow through Sunday, and then temperatures will warm slightly. At Strawberry, Scofield and similar waters there may be snow and ice on boat ramps.

Success continues to be good at both Strawberry and Scofield. Another big fish report came in this week, about an 8-pound rainbow caught at The 'Berry. Details.

Fly fishing continues to be good on both streams and flatwater. Take care when wading because shorelines will be slick. BWOs continue to hatch and provide surface action. Streamers and nymphs are also effective.

Lake Powell action is finally slowing. People are catching stripers by trolling out from the ramp at Hite, but that will fade now since temperatures are dropping. Bass fishing has already slowed.

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