Utah Fishing Guide

This coming Saturday, June 5 is free fishing day here in Utah. You can fish without a license on that day. However, all limits and regulations are in effect.

The stocking report has been fixed and is up-to-date. Thanks for your patience on this.

The yellow perch limit at Mill Meadow Reservoir has been increased to 50. The DWR is encouraging anglers to target perch to keep the population in balance with available food.

A 30-pound striped bass was caught at Lake Powell by Mike Wall of Tempe, AZ. He was trolling a Lucky Craft Aurora Black Pointer using a downrigger set at 22 feet. The whopper was caught in the back of Last Chance Canyon.

Starting in 2010, you can catch and keep a daily limit of two fish at Utah’s 41 community fishing waters.

For several years the limit was four fish, but Division biologists recommended the lower limit in 2009 after noting the ponds’ increased popularity.

Chris Penne, the Division’s community fisheries biologist, observed, “Anglers of all ages visit these local ponds to relax, spend time outdoors and catch some fish—and that’s a good thing. It also puts these fisheries under tremendous pressure. We stock these waters weekly, but they see a lot of visitors, and the fish vanish quickly.”

The Utah Wildlife Board agreed with the biologists’ recommendation and approved the reduced limit. This Division hopes this change will give more anglers the opportunity to catch and keep fish at their local fisheries.

A way you can help your favorite community fishery is by releasing all largemouth bass you catch.

Penne explains, “Bass help keep bluegill populations under control and ensure that some bluegill grow to a decent size. Without the bass, the bluegill population would boom, producing thousands of tiny fish too small for an angler to keep.”

This change isn’t mandatory, but the Division encourages you to release all bass at community waters.

You can now follow Utah Fish Finder on Tweeter. Find out when the site has been updated as well as other news by following us at username UtahFishFinder.

Feb. 12. Today at 4:35 am, there was a 2.8 magnitude earthquake 8 miles from Wallsburg near Deer Creek Reservoir. Don't know if this had anything to do with the great fishing Johnny W. of Orem reported. He and his partner caught their limit of rainbows in less than an hour.

Vernal — Anglers are raising their eyebrows at Steinaker Reservoir. "What is this fish I just caught?" many of them are asking. "It looks like a ghost. Is it radioactive?!"

The Division recently stocked about 15,000 of these white rainbows into Steinaker Reservoir. Note: The greenish glow comes from the camera's flash (much like the red-eye effect in photographs of people).

Photo courtesy of the Kamas State Fish Hatchery, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources

No, the fish isn't radioactive. And it's not a ghost, either. It's just a strain of white rainbow trout the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources has developed and raised to give anglers an unusual and unique fishing experience.

"We've stocked white rainbow trout for years in the Uinta Mountain lakes along the Mirror Lake Highway," says Roger Schneidervin, DWR regional aquatics manager. "Anglers and wildlife watchers really like the fish. The fish are easy to see. And they're quite unusual."

After Schneidervin learned that one of the DWR's hatcheries had some extra white rainbows, he asked the hatchery workers if they would put them into Steinaker and the Kids Canal in northeastern Utah this fall.

"They stocked a few into the canal and roughly 15,000 into Steinaker a couple of weeks ago," Schneidervin says. "It's been fun talking with the anglers who have caught them. Some are familiar with the fish. Others have asked if the fish are radioactive!"

If you catch a fish that's white at either water, don't panic. It's not a ghost, and it's not radioactive. It's just an unusual genetic variation that's sometimes found in rainbow trout. DWR hatchery managers have managed to isolate some of the fish. Now the fish are being bred and raised in Utah's fish hatcheries.

For more information, call the DWR's Northeastern Region office at (435) 781-9453.

An emergency change has increased the bag and possession limit to eight trout. This change will be in effect until January 1, 2010, and will allow anglers to harvest fish that would likely be lost this winter. The pool to the east of the dike is draining quickly.

In order to launch boats at Lake Powell, federal inspectors will now check boats for zebra and quagga mussels. The "self-certification" program put in place in 2007 has proved inadequate. Some boaters were launching without going through the process. Fourteen staff members have been assigned to do the screening and decontaminate boats as necessary at each of the four marinas.

The mussel were originally introduced into the Great Lakes when ocean-going vessels brought them in their bilges from the Ukraine. Their rapid growth make them an eco-disaster. When they were discovered in nearby Lake Mead, warnings were issued for Lake Powell and other Utah waters. Now inspections are mandatory for Lake Powell.

Night fishing with a light has the fish in this video literally jumping into the boat. Here, a fishing pole would only get in the way.

If your club or organization would like to place an announcement here about Utah fishing, please email us at News at UtahFishFinder.com.

Utah fishing reports, news and fishing techniques updated weekly.