Southeastern Utah fishing report

By Sun Advocate

•Abajo Mountains. Foy Reservoir continues to provide good fishing with bait and lures. Fishing remains fair at Monticello Reservoir, which was stocked with 1,600 fish two weeks ago. Bait fishing continues to be good at Blanding number three, which will be regularly stocked during the summer. Blanding number four is almost drained. At Recapture Reservoir, rainbow trout fishing has been fair for boat anglers trolling with spinners. Northern pike fishing has been good for anglers trolling with crankbaits.
•Benches Pond. The pond will be repeatedly stocked throughout the summer. Good fishing can be expected.
•Blue Lake (above Joes Valley). Reports have come in about eight to 11 inch brook trout, being caught with flies and salmon eggs.
•Boulger Pond. Good fishing is expected for nine to 10 inch planted rainbow trout.
•Cleveland Reservoir. This reservoir has been stocked with its total annual allotment of 4,000 rainbow trout. Anglers are encouraged to harvest the fish before the reservoir drains, which is expected by mid-August.
•Duck Fork Reservoir. DWR southeastern region aquatics manager Louis Berg reports excellent fly-fishing from a float tube for tiger trout and cutthroat trout. All tributaries are closed to fishing until July 13. The trout limit is two. Fish may be caught only with artificial flies and lures.
•Electric Lake. Fly fishermen have been doing well from float tubes and kick boats in the early morning and late evening. The water level is so low that boats cannot be launched. Tributaries are closed until July 13. A tributary is any moving water that empties into a reservoir, even if that water is running within the lakebed.
•Ferron Reservoir. Louis Berg, aquatics manager reports excellent fly-fishing from a float tube for brook, rainbow and cutthroat trout. Anglers are encouraged to harvest the illegally introduced brook trout, which may eventually overpopulate the lake, resulting in small fish in poor condition.
•Gigliotti Pond. Angler pressure continues to be high. The pond was stocked for a second time on June 4.
•Gooseberry Reservoir. No report. The reservoir was scheduled for stocking last week.
•Grassy Lake. Fishing has ranged from fair to excellent for 11 to 14 inch rainbow trout using night crawlers and lures.
•Huntington Creek. Fishing has ranged from good to excellent in the fly-only zone. Anglers fishing below the forks have had fair success for small rainbows using night crawlers and worms. Harvest of brown trout on the left fork is encouraged, where the limit is four fish. On the left fork, fish must be taken with artificial flies or lures. On the right fork, from Flood and Engineer’s Canyon upstream to Electric Lake dam, only two trout may be taken and artificial flies must be used. No bait or lures are allowed in this section.
•Huntington Game Farm Pond. Bass and bluegill may still be caught. The bluegill limit is 10. The bass limit is four, but only one bass larger than 15 inches. Limits are the same for all licensed anglers and unlicensed anglers under 14 years of age.
•Huntington North Reservoir (near the city of Huntington). Fishing continues to be generally slow for trout. Jigs have been working well for largemouth bass, where the limit is two. All bass over 12 inches must be immediately released.
•Huntington Reservoir (near the top of Huntington Canyon). Over-winter survival of tiger trout has been good. Fishing success continues to be sporadic for 12 to 14 inch tiger trout with night crawlers. Release of tiger trout is encouraged so that fish can grow larger. Any brown trout caught should be harvested. The reservoir is closed to the possession of cutthroat trout and trout with cutthroat markings.
•Joes Valley Reservoir. No recent report. A week ago, fishing was excellent for 10 to 23 inch splake in shallow water using tube jigs. Anglers using spinners, PowerBait and night crawlers also reported good results. Fishing remains poor to fair for rainbow trout. Anglers are encouraged to release all larger splake for control of the abundant Utah chub population. The splake limit is two fish. All splake between 15 to 20 inches must be immediately released.
•Lasal Mountains. Conservation officer Edward Meyers reports fair to good fishing for rainbow trout at Kens Lake. Mornings and evenings have been best. Meyers indicates that quite a few bass and small sunfish are also being caught. Some huge catfish have been hooked as well, which weighed in at 11, 14 and 25-pounds. Meyers says that Hidden Lake continues to provide very good fishing with traditional baits and small dry flies, such as the renegade. Dons Lake has been fair to good with baits and small, black wooly worms or light-colored dry flies. Dark Canyon has been fair for planted rainbow trout for anglers using PowerBait or Jake’s Spin-a-Lures. The Geyser Pass Road is now open. Until recently, snowdrifts and fallen trees had blocked the road between Geyser Pass and Dark Canyon. Mill Creek has been good to very good for rainbow and brown trout. Fly fishermen have been using nymphs and dry flies like caddis and stimulators. Taylor Creek is low and slow, but provides excellent fishing for small brook trout. A fly fisherman recently caught and released 33 brookies in one hour with a dry fly.
•Lower Fish Creek. The road to the DWR property is open and dry. Dry flies are recommended.
•Marys Lake. Stocking was scheduled to occur last week. No report on fishing success.
•Miller Flat Reservoir. Last week the reservoir was stocked with its total annual allotment of 3,000 rainbow trout. Anglers are encouraged to harvest the trout before the reservoir drains.
•Millsite Reservoir. Fishing continues to be fair with a variety of baits and lures.
•Petes Hole. Petes Hole has been stocked with 1,800 rainbow trout. Excellent fishing is expected.
•Potters Ponds. Good to excellent fishing has been reported for small rainbows using flies, night crawlers, and PowerBait.
•Price River. The river is running moderately high and is somewhat turbid, because of water releases from Scofield. Reservoir.