| Tom Ogden makes his own flies and likes to head each one with a clear bead. Underwater, a clear bead resembles a tiny air pocket, which suggests to the fish that the fly is alive and breathing. |
•Fairview Lakes. Access by snow machine. Take along Swedish pimples and worms.
•Gigliotti Pond. For Carbon County residents, a short drive will take you to some good fishing for pan-size trout. Use small jigs, tipped with worms, mealworms or salmon eggs.
•Huntington Creek. Success ranges from slow to fair in open water stretches. Bait casters should try worms. Fly fishermen might try Montana nymphs, San Juan worms or hares ears. Expect a light bite from browns, ranging between 10 and 14 inches.
•Huntington North Reservoir. Fishing pressure was light. The ice is 12 to 14 inches thick. Based on interviews with anglers, Randall Stilson recommends ice flies, tipped with a nightcrawler or mealworm Rainbows are generally pan-size and browns are up to 16 inches.
•Mammoth Reservoir. Todd Munford of King’s Outdoor World fished the reservoir last weekend. He reported good fishing for tiger trout, ranging from 14 to 19 inches. Todd recommends bringing a shovel, as the snow pack is deep. The ice is 18 to 24 inches. Best fishing is mid-reservoir in 10 feet of water. Todd recommends a 1/8-ounce chartreuse jighead, tipped with half a nightcrawler. Keep the bait moving, slightly off the bottom. Strikes are very light, so set the hook at the first hint of a bite. This reservoir is closed to the possession of cutthroat trout or trout with cutthroat markings.
•Joes Valley Reservoir. Fisheries biologists Justin Hart and Craig Walker fished the reservoir last weekend and caught 20 fish apiece. They fished in the Seely Creek cove in 15 to 27 feet of water and used small spoons or jigs, tipped with chub meat. They caught splake, tiger trout and cutthroat trout. All fish species ranged from 11 to 17 inches. One cutthroat measured a little over 19 inches. Most fish were caught a foot or two off the bottom.
Justin Hart urges anglers to leave commercial cheese baits including PowerBait at home. At Joe’s Valley, the best year-round bait is chub meat. All of Justin’s whopper splake (seven to 11 pounds) were caught with whole chubs, although a bait that size will stop all but the biggest fish from biting. Aquatics Manager Paul Birdsey recommends using a silver attractor spoon such as a Kastmaster. Below the attractor Paul recommends a gold or brass spoon tipped with chub meat. He has had good luck with a hammered brass lure. Paul suggests drilling a number of holes and moving around if your hole isn’t producing fish.
•Lasal Mountains. All mountain lakes are snowbound. Access is by snow machine only. Conservation Officer TJ Robertson reports that Ken’s Lake has eight to 12 inches of ice in most places. The edges are thawing and refreezing every night. TJ asks all anglers to be very careful. He reported angler success with yellow PowerBait, tipped with a salmon egg. TJ recommends fishing about a foot off the bottom. Aquatics Biologist Darek Elverud fished Ken’s Lake last Sunday. He landed 10 fish in two hours. Darek says that jigs, tipped with a nightcrawler, worked well. His rainbow trout ranged from eight to 16 inches. The bites were very light. Darek fished in eight to nine feet of water.
•Millsite Reservoir. A week ago, State Park Manager Dan Richards reported good fishing for 12- to 14-inch rainbows and pan-size splake. The hot spots were on the north side of the dam and just out from the boat ramp. Dan recommended small ice flies, tipped with a piece of nightcrawler. Last week, Conservation Officer Casey Mickelsen reported good results with green marshmallows and worms. Randall Stilson talked to one angler who caught fish with a marabou jig, tipped with a mealworm.
•San Juan County. Conservation Officer Paul Washburn reports that fishing is hot at iced- over Blanding number three and number four. Washburn says anglers have been catching their limits in less than an hour. PowerBait or worms have been effective. Recapture Reservoir is mostly iced over, but no anglers have been seen on the ice, suggesting unsafe conditions. Please exercise extreme caution at all San Juan County waters.
•Scofield Reservoir. Lieutenant Carl Gramlich and his son fished the last two weekends and describes fishing action as slow. In consideration of slowing success, Carl suggests that anglers be creative�try different spots, different times of day, and different baits and presentations. One rig that Carl recommends is a redside shiner on a hook. Try playing the minnow at various depths. Experiment with it in combination with a plastic grub and attractor. A week ago, Bruce Sherman, Sr. and his party caught 10 trout. One measured over 20 inches. They used Foxy jigs with mealworms. Bruce said fishing was slow to fair. Randall Stilson interviewed anglers in mid-January. The consensus seemed to be slow fishing across the reservoir.
•Straight Canyon. In open water stretches, try a prince nymph, hares ear or ugly in sizes 14-18. You will need to drift a fly through the hole several times to draw a strike.