•Benches Reservoir. Fishing has been slow. The ice is 20 inches thick. Fishing pressure has been light. The best fishing occurs 30 yards south of the dam in 8-10 feet of water. Use a drop sinker with rainbow PowerBait suspended eight inches above the sinker for best results.
•Boulger Reservoir. Fishing has been slow. Access is by snow machine or snowshoe only. The ice is 20 inches thick with a deep snow cap. For best results, fish off the dam near the spillway. Try a Kastmaster or Swedish Pimple, tipped with a wax worm.
•Cleveland Reservoir. The Huntington-Cleveland Irrigation Company continues to draw water from the reservoir. This will continue until ice-off. Ice conditions are unstable and hazardous. The DWR urges winter recreationalists to stay off the reservoir until the spring melt!
•Electric Lake. Todd Munford indicates that some nice cutts have been caught in open water on the north end of the lake. Try a nightcrawler tipped with a pink garlic egg. Access by sled or snowshoe only. Cutthroats are in the 12-16 inch size range. Ice fishing on any part of the lake is not recommended. Tributaries are closed to fishing until July.
•Fairview Lakes. The lake is suspected to have winter-killed. Try somewhere else.
•Huntington Creek. Fly fishing has been good below the forks with pheasant tails or Lil Brassies. A strike indicator is recommended as the bite is very light. Bait fishermen should try a nightcrawler drifted into tailout pools from riffles, for best results. The upper end of the creek is blanketed by deep snow and ice.
•Huntington State Park. Ice fishing is over for the year. Patches of open water occur.
•Joes Valley Reservoir. Ice conditions may be unsafe. Use extreme caution. The ice pack continues to soften, due to spring-like temperatures. Trout are generally below or within the 15-22 inch protected slot. Spoons and jigs, tipped with chub meat or meal worms are recommended. Special regulations apply. The limit is two trout, only one over 22 inches. All trout between 15-22 inches must be immediately released.
•Lasal Mountains. All LaSal Mountain lakes remain inaccessible. Ken’s Lake is open. “Fishing has been slow with some anglers finding success using pink and green PowerBait,” says Conservation Officer Joe Nicholson. “Anglers should also find success by fishing wooly buggers and similar patterns behind a weighted bubble.” Trout average 8-12 inches.
•Millsite Reservoir. The reservoir is opening up. The ice fishing season is over.
•Scofield Reservoir. Conservation officers Carl Gramlich and Mike Milburn checked about 40 anglers last Sunday. Fishing was slow to fair, depending on the skill of the angler. Best baits were nightcrawlers or meal worms on small ice flies or jigs. The ice is over two feet thick, making manual drilling a real chore. Fishing was best in 9-13 feet of water. Officer Milburn, an experienced angler, recommends that anglers use a quarter ounce attractor spoon over 10 inches of leader, tipped with a sixteenth of an ounce clear sparkle tube jig and a one inch piece of nightcrawler. Milburn says it’s important to keep the rod in hand and give motion to the jig. He notes that winter fish prefer smaller presentations and natural baits over commercial cheese baits. He further suggests that anglers fish about a foot off the bottom in about 12 feet of water. Aquatics Biologist Justin Hart provided recent creel survey data, which indicated that the catch rate was 1.25 fish per hour. Most fish averaged 14 inches, although some went up to 18 inches. Rainbows are the most frequently-caught trout. Todd Munford suggests that location is the key to better fishing success. He suggests going to areas away from the crowd in 6-12 feet of water. He recommends a white Gitzit, tipped with a shrimp or garlic egg; or an egg sac, attached to a chartreuse jig head.
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