Utah Fishing Reports

The photo above shows a Uinta Mountain grayling.

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What's New

Whiskey Island Grayling
The record grayling, according to the DWR website, was caught in Big Dog Lake on the south slope of the Uintas in 1998. It measured 17.25 inches. One guidebook I have says a record sized grayling was caught in a small lake called Whiskey Island, in the Bear River drainage. Whiskey is a beautiful little lake and so I decided to give it a try.

There is no trail. I used DWR's Lakes of the High Uintas booklets to find the general location and then I got exact lat and long coordinates using Google Earth. Then I plugged the coordinates into my GPS and hiked right to the lake. Easy.

And the big fish. Not so easy. There are grayling in the lake but they are tiny. So tiny they had a hard time getting their mouths over our flies. Lots of bumps but few hookups. The fish we saw and caught were 5-6 inches long - nothing close to a record. On a previous trip I caught some up to 8 inches.

It is a beautiful are and a fun bushwhack hike.

I also fished the Bear River new camp (Stillwater Campground) and caught small brook trout on dry flies. Lots of fun.

Strawberry
I've been camping every week for the past 3 weeks, so I'm taking a break this weekend and kicking back at Strawberry. People have been catching kokanee up there lately. Maybe I'll bring home a couple of those tasty critters.

Lake Powell Boils
Now's the time to fish for boiling striped bass at Lake Powell. It is great fun, get down there if you can. I'll be fishing the Hite area Aug 13-15.

- Dave

Lake Powell striped bass surface action will peak during the next few weeks. Wayne Gustaveson reports: "Size of shad found in striper stomachs has doubled in a week's time. These larger shad are harder for stripers to corner and catch. That makes stripers much more aggressive in pursuing shad and much more likely to hit lures. All of this equates to good times for anglers who love to use surface lures... Best location for boils is Good Hope Bay but this transition period will make fishing exciting and productive over the length of Lake Powell. Expect to find boils close to the main channel in all canyons. Stripers will not go toward the back of the canyons and coves until later in the month or until September if open water shad numbers hold out that long." Read Wayne's full report.

Uinta Mountain lakes and streams are fishing well, as are high elevation waters on Boulder Mountain, on Beaver Mountain and along Skyline Drive. These are great places to get out of the heat. But be prepared for rain.

Fly fishing remains good, usually good, on our streams. Summer hatches usually taper off by now but they are still going strong. PMDs, stoneflies, caddis, ants and beetles are providing good action on top. Hoppers are coming on and may be good on some stream sections.

Strawberry has been good recently, lots of reports from people having success trolling and jigging. Action can be very good near inlets during the early morning and late evening. You can also catch fish trolling deep or fishing baits during the middle of the day.

Most other trout reservoirs are fair to good right now. Read DWR's weekly fishing report for ideas about where to fish.

Big channel catfish are being caught at Utah Lake, Cutler Marsh, Bear River and other waters.

Kokanee salmon start to school up during the last half of August, as mature fish prepare to spawn. Late August and early September is a great time of fish for them at Flaming Gorge, Strawberry and in a few other waters. DWR has this good booklet about kokanee. Remember, at Flaming Gorge all kokanee caught from Sept 10 through Nov 30 must be immediately released.

Causey and Porcupine reservoirs also have kokanee. Remember, they are closed to the possession of kokanee salmon with any red color from Aug. 15 through 6 am on the last Saturday of September.