Variety of Fish at Utah Ice Fishing Waters

You have warm clothes and waterproof boots. Your ice fishing equipment is ready to go. And you have a basic idea of how to locate fish and catch them through the ice.

So what’s standing between you and a great ice fishing experience this winter?

Maybe only one thing: knowing which waters in Utah to fish.

Fortunately, dozens of waters across Utah provide good ice fishing year after year. “In my opinion, Utah has some of the best ice fishing in the country,” says Drew Cushing, warm water sport fisheries coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources. Cushing has fished through the ice in states across the country.

“Utah provides a wider variety of fish to catch than any place I know of,” he says. “And many of these opportunities are probably close to your home.”

Cushing gave Utah County as an example. If you live in the county, you can fish for white bass at Utah Lake in the morning, and then turn around and head to Strawberry Reservoir to catch trophy-sized cutthroat trout in the afternoon; all in the same day!

Fishing reports
Visiting the DWR’s fishing report is one way to learn which type of fish are in which waters and where fishing is the best.

DWR biologists, officers and outreach personnel update the report every one to two weeks. You can read the report at www.wildlife.utah.gov/hotspots .

Other Internet sources—such as utahwildlife.net and bigfishtackle.com—are also good places to visit. And don’t forget your local fishing tackle shop or sporting goods store—people who work at these stores are often the first ones to know about good fishing in their areas.

Cushing says the following waters are producing great fishing for the following fish:

Larger Yellow Perch
Fish Lake, and Rockport Reservoir


Smaller, but more abundant Yellow Perch
Pineview, Echo, and Starvation reservoirs --“Catching perch at Pineview can be fairly easy,” Cushing says. “Just locate the spot on the bottom where the perch are, and then put your bait in front of the fish.”


Larger Bluegill
Pelican Lake


Smaller, but more abundant Bluegill
Mantua Reservoir


Largemouth Bass
Pelican Lake, and Mantua Reservoir


Rainbow, Cutthroat, Brown or Tiger Trout
Deer Creek Reservoir

Strawberry Reservoir--“Strawberry provides fantastic fishing for big trout, and lots of them,” Cushing says.

Birch Creek Reservoir--“This water provides good fishing for big tiger trout,” Cushing says.

Lake Trout
Flaming Gorge Reservoir and Fish Lake--“You have a good chance to catch some big fish at these waters,” he says.


Burbot
Flaming Gorge Reservoir

Crappie
Pineview Reservoir--Cushing says crappie can be tricky to catch. “They suspend at various depths,” he says, “so they can be tough to find. “But if you catch a crappie at a certain depth, keep fishing that depth,” he says, “and you should do well. Pineview has a good population of crappie.”


Kokanee Salmon
Causey Reservoir, and Porcupine Reservoir--Cushing says the best ice fishing for kokanee salmon happens at the two waters at the start of the ice fishing season. “When ice first forms on these waters,” he says, “salmon fishing can be fantastic for about two to three weeks.”


White Bass
Utah Lake--This is another water where the best fishing happens early in the ice fishing season. “Fishing for white bass is usually best from the time the ice forms until about mid January,” Cushing says. “The harbors at the lake are the best places to catch them through the ice.”

Some of the best fishing of the year
Cushing says the arrival of winter doesn’t mean fishing is over until the spring. “Winter can be the most fun, the most productive and the least expensive time of the year to fish,” he says. “New lakes, new opportunities and new species of fish are out there for you to enjoy. Get out there, and take advantage of it.”

Melting Ice, Hot Fishing at Scofield Reservoir

Scofield -- Fishing that will keep your kids excited—and you pulling fish out of the water from the comfort of your lawn chair—is about to begin at Scofield Reservoir.

Scofield is one of Utah’s best trout fishing waters. And it’s less than two hours from the Wasatch Front.

The easiest way to reach the reservoir is to travel on U.S. 6 out of Spanish Fork. At Colton, turn west off of U.S. 6 and travel about 10 miles on state Route 96 to the reservoir.

Fast fishing
Fishing at Scofield is usually best just after the ice has melted. That's when hungry trout, trapped under a sheet of ice all winter long, finally gain access to the water's surface and to food.

A fishes' metabolism surges in the spring. That surging metabolism stimulates a feeding frenzy of sorts in the fish. But the insects trout eat aren't active until early summer. So the nightcrawlers, salmon eggs and other commercial baits you toss to the trout are even more enticing to them.

From late April until June, the water temperature is comfortable near the shore, so the trout move in close to shore to school. It's a great time for lawn chair anglers to compete successfully with anglers who are fishing from boats, float tubes and pontoon boats.

Fishing from the shore is especially good for energetic youngsters who get bored easily and need to run around a bit. It's easier to entertain your kids if they're not confined to a boat!

Fishing tips for Scofield Reservoir, including the best baits to use, the best times to fish and how to create the “Scofield Special”—a bait that lures in big cutthroat trout—are available at www.j.mp/ctM5sG.

The tips are also available in a Division of Wildlife Resources news release at www.wildlife.utah.gov/dwr/news.html .

Simple equipment
In early spring, you can catch trout easily using just about any kind of tackle. A "Barbie" rod and reel tipped with a worm is as sophisticated as you need to get!

Although nightcrawlers are the best all-around fish catchers, you may want some additional insurance. Take along some PowerBait and cheese hooks. A jar of salmon eggs is a good bait to take with you.

A dead minnow is another good bait to try in the spring. You can catch redside shiners and Utah chubs at Scofield using a minnow trap. You can also catch Utah chubs on a rod and reel using small hooks and nightcrawlers.

After you’ve caught some minnows, please remember that the minnows must be dead before you can place them on a hook and use them as bait.

If you like to use artificial lures, Jake's Spin-A-Lures, Kastmasters and Triple Teasers are the best to use at Scofield. Spinners and crankbaits are also effective for the tiger trout and Bear Lake cutthroat trout in the reservoir.

The best spring fly pattern for Scofield is a brown or green sparkle leech in a size six to 10.

Fish in the morning or evening
As a general rule, you'll find more success if you fish during the early morning or late evening hours. Trout suffer from a midday slump. When the sun is high, the trout rest. Like many wild animals, trout feed most actively at dawn and dusk.

The time of day you fish is important if you want to "hook" your kids on fishing. You need to fish only when the bite is fast and frequent. Kids can develop patience elsewhere. Fishing should be non-stop fun!

The "Scofield Special"
Sergeant Stacey Jones, a Division of Wildlife Resources conservation officer who works at Scofield, says many anglers catch a lot of big fish at Scofield using a bait called the "Scofield Special."

Jones says the "Scofield Special" is an egg sack created from the eggs of a pregnant female trout. Once you’ve harvested a pregnant fish and counted it as part of your daily bag limit, you can remove the eggs and use them as bait.

To create a "Scofield Special," wrap the eggs in a small piece of netting. Then attach the netting to your fishing line with the hook buried inside the sack. (This is much like placing a chunk of PowerBait on your hook.)

Jones says it's critical that you make your egg sack the size of a marble. Anything larger is a waste and a turnoff to the fish.

Jones says the natural predatory nature of trout bring them right to this bait. It’s especially deadly for larger cutthroat trout.

If you're going to use fish eggs as bait, please remember that you must keep the fish you harvest the eggs from. It is illegal to "squeeze" a fish for eggs, and then release her. The trout will die.

The only lawful way you may use fish eggs is to keep and count the fish the eggs are removed from as part of your bag limit.

Use single hooks
An unfortunate aspect of spring fishing at Scofield is the high amount of "hooking mortality" that takes place.

Hooking mortality happens when anglers catch fish using treble hooks and then release the fish. As long as the fish is legal to keep, it’s very important that you keep and include any fish you catch on a treble or a barbed hook as part of your bag limit. Using barbed hooks greatly increases the chance that any fish you catch and release will swim off and die.

"Anglers need to understand that when they throw a fish they caught on a barbed hook back into the water, it’s the same as wasting wildlife,” Jones says. “It’s very important that anglers either change hook types when fishing with bait or egg sacks, or keep the first four legal fish they catch."

If a fish has been deeply hooked, Jones says it’s better to clip the fishing line and leave the hook inside the fish. “Hooks that are left inside a fish will quickly rust and disappear,” she says. “Clipping the line greatly increases the chance the fish you catch and release will live to be caught again another day.”

Three kinds of trout
Rainbow, cutthroat and tiger trout are the three trout in Scofield Reservoir.  DWR biologists introduced tiger trout to the reservoir in 2005. Some of these fish are five pounds or larger now. The DWR stocks 80,000 seven- to nine-inch rainbow and Bear Lake cutthroat trout, and 120,000 four- to five-inch tiger trout, every year.

Please remember the trout limit at Scofield:
- You can have four trout in any combination. But not more than two of those fish can be cutthroat or tiger trout less than 15 inches long. And not more than one can be a cutthroat or tiger trout over 22 inches.

- All cutthroat and tiger trout from 15 to 22 inches must be immediately released.

- You can keep rainbow trout of any size.

- You may not fillet fish, or remove their heads or tails, until you get home.

- The tributaries flowing into Scofield Reservoir are closed until the second Saturday in July to protect cutthroat trout that spawn in them.

Take your family fishing
When was the last time you took your family on a fishing trip? For most of us, it's been too long.

“A family retreat to a lake, pond or stream is a great way to strengthen family ties and ease tension,” Jones says. “We live in a hustle-and-bustle society. Often times, we get so busy that we put off having fun.

“There are so many obligations that seem to take a higher priority,” she says. “But time slips away. Kids grow up and leave home.

“Give your kids some of childhood's sweetest memories. Take them fishing!”

Nine Mile Reservoir Produces Nine-pound Tiger Trout

Photo by Pablo Corona

Manti -- Many anglers drive by Nine Mile Reservoir without giving the water a second thought.

Not Perry Bunderson, though. The Moore resident has fished Nine Mile for years. And on March 25, fishing the reservoir paid off big time. Bunderson caught a beautiful nine-pound tiger trout at the reservoir on a day he says was cold and windy. “I was fly fishing from my float tube, bobbing like a cork,” he says.

He caught a couple of nice rainbow trout earlier in the day, and he was hoping for another rainbow before he stopped fishing that afternoon. “Then the big one hit,” Bunderson says. “He broke the surface and looked huge; a giant tiger trout!”

Bunderson thought the fish would get away. “I’ve lost several big ones at Nine Mile through the years,” he says. “I was determined to get this one in.”

Barbless hooks are the only hooks Bunderson uses when he fishes. And he was also using five-pound tippet line. “So I let him have his way, keeping just enough tension on the line to keep the hook set,” he says. “Half an hour later-which seemed like two hours-he gave up and 'came to pappa'!”

After Bunderson caught the fish, he took it to the Sterling Post Office/Denton Store in Sterling to have it weighed. “Nine pounds even. Twenty-eight-and-half inches long!,” he says. “I later learned the catch-and-release record was 25 inches, but oh well,” he says. “Maybe next time.”

Nine Mile Reservoir
Nine Mile Reservoir is a medium-sized reservoir just off U.S. Highway 89 between Manti and Gunnison. Even though the reservoir is privately owned, the public has unlimited access to it through the Walk-In Access program administered by the Division of Wildlife Resources.

The Division of Wildlife Resources stocks the reservoir with rainbow trout and tiger trout.