Fishing report for southeastern Utah

By Sun Advocate

The ice is relatively thin on most reservoirs. Before venturing out on the ice, take time to drill a test hole or two.
Keep ice safety gear on-hand and please don”t ice fish alone.
•Cleveland Reservoir. The water way is frozen with four to five inches of ice. No fishing pressure.
•Electric Lake. The lake is ice free, except for some shaded areas on the west side. Anglers may take a limit of eight fish using any legal bait. The reservoir remains ice-free.
•Gigliotti Pond. The pond is now ice-free.
•Huntington Creek. The creek is ice-free, except in areas where the flow slows down. Snow and ice cover the banks and exposed rocks.
Good fly fishing has been reported below the forks. A size 12 beadhead Montana is recommended.
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. A few anglers have been catching brown trout off the dam.
•Huntington Reservoir (near the top of Huntington Canyon). The reservoir has frozen. Ice thickness ranges from four to six inches.
Ice anglers have been fishing near the dam and at the upper end.
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 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 abundance of 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.
Gustaveson 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 river is open with ice and snow in the riverbed, where the flow slows down.
•Scofield Reservoir. The reservoir still has patches of open water in the middle and toward the north end. Ice anglers have been fishing in the dam cove and further south along the east shoreline.
Ice thickness ranges from two to three inches. Despite the risk, ice anglers have had good luck with jigs tipped with a mealworm, wax worm or earthworm.
PowerBait has also been effective. Please exercise extreme caution!