| Brady Gagon, 6, of Price, holds his first bluegill, caught at Gigliotti Pond in Helper on May 15. |
Streams and creeks continue to flow high and fast. Please keep track of your children to prevent accidental drowning.
•Benches Pond. The pond was still covered with a light layer of ice before Memorial Day weekend. Once thawed, the DWR hatchery truck will stock the pond.
•Boulger Reservoir.The pond is still covered with ice and the access road remains snowed in. Stocking by the hatchery truck is unlikely by the up-coming weekend.
•Electric Lake. The access road on the north side remains snowed in and the upper reservoir is still ice-covered. Sergeant Stacey Jones reports some open water near the dam, which is fishable. She recommends dead minnows. Tributaries are running at flood stage.
•Gigliotti Pond. Mike Johnson and family fished on May 16. Mike described the bite as spotty. He used both spinners and artificial flies, and caught most fish on a black wooly bugger with either a gold rib or red & blue tinsel. The most effective spinners were those with gold blades.
•Huntington Creek. The creek is open from top to bottom. The water is running very high and muddy below the forks. Recreationalists and anglers should be cautious to avoid drowning. A number 10 beadhead Montana is recommended for fly fishermen, who should fish as close to the dam as possible to avoid high flows and colored water. Nightcrawlers and PowerBait are recommended for baitcasters below the fly-only zone. Most trout are 11- to 14-inch browns. Campgrounds are beginning to open.
•Mammoth Reservoir. The reservoir remains iced-over with its shoreline heaped with snow. Parking is limited. Ice off could occur by the Memorial Day weekend.
•Huntington State Park. Very little fishing activity. Other water sports have taken over. The reservoir is almost full.
•Joe’s Valley Reservoir. The reservoir is ice-free. Fishing was fair to good for 10- to 14-inch trout. A few range up to 22 inches. The DWR has received unconfirmed reports of one 12-lb. and one 14-lb. splake being caught recently. Whole chubs or chub meat is the best year-round bait. Joes Valley Reservoir has special regulations. Please refer to the 2008 Fishing Guidebook.
•Lower Fish Creek. No recent report. At last report, the best artificial fly was a size 14 hare’s ear nymph. The water below its confluence with the White River is unfishable, due to heavy run-off and muddy water.
•Millsite State Park. Fishing success has slowed down. The water is muddy, due to heavy run-off and muddy inflow.
•Scofield Reservoir. Sergeant Stacey Jones reports the reservoir to be turbid, due to the high volume of muddy water coming in from its tributaries. Stacey summarized fishing success as variable last weekend. Success appeared better for anglers using dead minnows. For bank anglers, PowerBait seemed to be effective. Fly fishermen had good success during morning hours on the east side. The bite dropped off, once the wind picked up in the afternoon. Volunteer Coordinator Randall Stilson conducted a creel survey on Saturday and reported heavy angler pressure with a generally good catch-rate. Most shoreline anglers did very well with an assortment of PowerBait colors. During the survey, Randall recorded some large two to three pound rainbows that had been caught with egg sacs. Angler Mike Enfield emailed a picture of a 3-lb. rainbow he had caught over the weekend. He fished with a worm just below the dam. Bob Olson, DWR fisheries technician reported that on May 19 fishing was fair to good from shore, and poor from a boat. Fishing success appears to vary from day to day. Due to dam spillway reconstruction, traffic delays of several minutes can be expected around the dam cove. Anglers are reminded that Scofield tributaries are closed to fishing until the second Saturday in July.