Fishing report for southeastern Utah

By Sun Advocate

At this time of year, reservoirs may freeze or thaw overnight, depending on temperature, wind action and storms. If visiting a waterway and the ice conditions are different than those reported here, please bear that in mind.
•Cleveland Reservoir. The reservoir has frozen. The area around tributaries is especially thin.
•Electric Lake. Anglers may take a limit of eight fish using any legal bait. The reservoir is ice-free.
•Gigliotti Pond. The pond is partially frozen with a thin film of ice. Please wait two to three weeks before attempting to ice fish.
•Huntington Creek. The creek remains ice-free. Snow and ice cover the banks and exposed rocks.
“Below the forks, fly fishing is superb,” stated Louis Berg, regional aquatics manager. “Angler Tom Ogden recently caught 41 fish in four hours with a size 12 beadhead Montana. Most of the fish are 10 to 13 inch brown trout, but a few range up to 17 inches.”
From Flood and Engineer’s Canyon upstream to the dam, only artificial flies may be used. The limit is two fish. On the left fork, only artificial flies and lures may be used. Anglers are encouraged to harvest brown trout there.
•Huntington North Reservoir. The reservoir remains open.
•Huntington Reservoir (near the top of Huntington Canyon). The entire reservoir is coated with glass-like ice amid ice chunks, except near the dam, where ice is thicker.
Anglers should wait a week or two for safe ice conditions. Early winter is the best time to ice-fish this lake, because the ice gets about five feet deep later in winter.
•Joes Valley Reservoir. The reservoir is closed to fishing as of Nov. 1 and will remain closed until Dec. 14. When the reservoir reopens to fishing, the trout limit will be two.
No more than one trout may be over 22 inches. All trout 15 to 22 inches must be immediately released.
This regulation change will protect the large spawning splake, which are very vulnerable in November and early December.
In addition, splake from 15 to 22 inches are needed to help reduce the chubs, which were illegally introduced as live bait.
•Lake Powell. The Lake Powell fishing report home page is: http://www.wayneswords.com.
DWR biologist and project Leader, Wayne Gustaveson, updates fishing conditions at this website weekly. He provides detailed information on locations, tackle and techniques for each species in the lake.
In 2002, an unlimited number of striped bass may be kept. The smallmouth bass limit is 20, and the largemouth bass limit is five.
•Millsite Reservoir. The reservoir is still open.
•Price River. The waterway is open with ice and snow in the river bed, where the flow slows down.
•Scofield Reservoir. Due to wind action and warmer weather, Scofield Reservoir has partially opened.
Depending on the day, it may or may not be difficult to find open shoreline to fish.
Boat launching is difficult and navigation through open water is almost impossible.
“Scofield Reservoir is the first large lake in Utah to freeze, offering early ice fishing opportunities,” remarks Berg. “However, anglers should wait at least two weeks for safe ice conditions.”