Late October southeastern Utah fishing report

By Sun Advocate

•Abajo Mountains. Anglers report improving fishing conditions at the Blanding area reservoirs. Trout are taking almost anything presented.
•Cleveland Reservoir. Anglers report fair fishing for rainbows up to 13 inches. Fly fishermen may want to try a size eight beadhead Canada blood leech on slow-sinking line.
•Fairview Lakes. There are no recent reports. The best fishing will be from a tube or toon. Baitcasters should try orange or rainbow PowerBait. Fly fishermen will have the best luck fishing a red crystal bugger or Canada brown leech on sinking line with fast strips. Rainbows get up to 14 inches.
•Huntington Creek. The brown trout are in spawning condition, and Anglers continue to report good fishing on the right fork. Fly fishing with a hares ear on floating line will produce the best action. More than 90 percent of the fish in Huntington Creek will be brown trout, with cutthroats making up the balance. Trout range from eight to14 inches. Huntington Creek has special regulations for the upper right and left forks. If you aren’t familiar with the fishing regulations, please take along a proclamation.
•Mammoth Reservoir. Tom Ogden fished from a tube on Oct. 9 and caught five tigers in four hours. These included a 10-inch tiger and four tigers ranging from 12-15 inches. Tom used sinking line and a black and tan Sheep Creek Special. This water has special regulations: All cutthroat trout or trout with cutthroat markings must be immediately released.
•Joes Valley Reservoir. Regional Aquatics Program Manager Paul Birdsey fished Joes Valley Reservoir last weekend with two other anglers, and the three anglers caught seven fish in two hours. The catch consisted of splake and cutthroat trout, ranging from 11-15 inches. The party fished from the shore and used a jig/chub combination and a crawdad-imitating crankbait. Paul rated fishing success as good. Traditionally, fishing improves with the onset of colder weather. In order to safeguard the biggest chub, eating splake during their pseudo-spawn, the reservoir will be closed to fishing from Nov. 1 until Dec. 13, the second Saturday in December. Paul Birdsey suggests fishing Lowry Water during the closure, which attracts a lot of running tigers up to 15-inches that can be caught with nightcrawlers. Joes Valley Reservoir has special regulations. Please refer to the 2008 Fishing Guidebook for more details.
•La Sal Mountains. Sergeant J. Shirley reports good trout fishing at Kens Lake with spinners and bait. Very few people are fishing La Sal Mountain lakes, even though the trout appear to be active and hungry.
•Lower Fish Creek. Try using floating line and a size 10-12 beadhead Montana or size 12 beadhead hares ear. 12-15 inch brown trout are predominant, but there are some cutts.
•Scofield Reservoir. Anglers report that fall fishing is much slower this year than in previous years. Richard Limone of Price reported that most of the trout he and his friends have taken this fall have had empty stomachs, which could suggest that the rapidly growing chub population may be out-competing trout for food and space. Tom Ogden fly fished from a tube on Oct. 8 with a slow-sinking line and a size eight beadhead Sheep Creek Special in green and black or black and tan. In four hours, Tom caught four trout ranging from 13-17 inches. Tom said that anglers trolling from boats had better success than those on shore.