Utah Fishing Reports

Diamond Fork Cutthroat

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What's New

Strawberry Strategy
Strawberry is famously fickle at this time of year. Insect hatches provide plenty of food for the trout and so they become a bit lackadaisical. Action can be very good, if you are in the right place at the right time, using the right bait or lure.

Is there anything you can do to minimize the seemingly randomness? Of course there is. Talk to people to try to find out what is working the day you fish. Talk to the guys in the marina store. Talk to people at the launch ramps. When you get on the water, pay attention to your sonar. Also pay attention and try to determine depths when you get strikes. Find productive depths and work them.

I'll be fishing The 'Berry on Saturday afternoon. The best fishing will probably occur at first light in the morning, but I can't get up there until later. I'll persist until dark; action often picks up dramatically between sunset and dark, with fishing becoming good just as most people leave.

Every summer, fish nose and slurp the surface just before dark in the bay out from the Renegade boat ramp. I often see many rigs created by feeding fish, but I have trouble catching them there. It can be frustrating, seeing splashes and rings all around, even some within feet of my boat, and not being able to get consistent strikes.

This year I'm going to figure those fish out. I have some ideas...

Erie Rock Art and Weird Fossils
I hiked to a very unusual ancient Native American rock art site over the weekend. Most rock art sites have small figures that resemble animals and humanoid creatures. We found a site in the Grand Canyon backcountry that has large figures, some more than 6 feet tall. They are skinny and have some humanoid features. Some people think they may represent shamans or other spiritually powerful creatures. Some of the figures have an eerie appearance.

Along the trail we saw thousands of weird fossils. Many fossils leave an indention in a rock - with a pattern produced by a ancient shell or some hard structure. There were those kinds of fossils along the trail, but far more that were the reverse - nodules protruding from the flat surfaces of many rocks. Many of the nodules were cylindrical with obvious rings, and were dark in color. They looked like rusty bolts, with course threads, sticking halfway out of a flat clay surface. Others looked like sticks.

Very strange. Weird fossils and eerie rock art - it was a great trip. See my photos.

- Dave

All of our major trout streams should fish well during the next several weeks. That includes the Provo, Green, Weber, Logan, Ogden, Huntington and others.

I fished Diamond Fork on Wednesday, with only fair results. The water was clear and flows were down. Several kinds of bugs were out but I did not see any fish feeding on the surface. I went deep and quickly picked up four small cutthroat. Dries should start to work well any time now. See my report about that trip.

Trout in many reservoirs will be moving deeper now that we've had some hot weather. Fishing can be good working flies and lures near the surface early and late, and using baits deeper during the middle of the day.

Scofield and other high-elevation waters are often exceptions. At Scofield, trout can be found close to shore and in shallow areas even during the heat of summer.

Uinta Mountains offer good trout fishing in lakes along Hwy 150, and other lakes/reservoirs that are accessible by road. The high country is slowly opening up, but it will be mid or late July before the highest passes open up.

Boulder Mountain is mostly open. Snow drifts still restrict access in some areas on Boulder Top, but other areas are accessible and fishing reports are good.

Walleye fishing continues to be good at Lake Powell, Starvation, Deer Creek and some other waters. This is one of the best years on record for walleye in Utah.

Lake Powell fishing is very good for largemouth, smallmouth, walleye, catfish and panfish. Striper fishing is fair and getting better. Striper "boils" are expected to begin in early July, and continue strong during later July and all of August.