Fishing The High Country

I have enjoyed a couple of fun family fishing trips during the past two weeks, hitting Whitney Reservoir in the Uinta Mountains and Scofield Reservoir along Skyline Drive. Both are great family fisheries, offering very good action for nice cutthroat, tiger and rainbow trout.

This is the ideal time of year to get into Utah's high country. Heavy winter snow blocked many roads through spring and early summer, but the roads are open now and conditions are good. Trails across the highest passes in the Uintas may still have snow - may have snow all summer long this year. But most areas in the mountains are open.

Whitney Reservoir is located off of Hwy 150 in the Uintas. It is accessible via an improved road, washboardy but suitable for all vehicles.

There is no boat ramp at Whitney but small boats can be launched in a couple places around the reservoir. I had a small inflatable boat and so we trolled down the reservoir toward the inlets, catching fish every few minutes along the way.

I was surprised by the number of people at Whitney. I expected to have company, but the lake was almost crowded. Several groups were RV camping nearby. Numerous groups were fishing the shoreline.

Scofield is a popular Utah State Park. It has two developed boat ramps and very nice campgrounds. It is a popular fishery, but is large enough to accommodate a crowd.

The fishing was a little faster at Scofield, and the fish a little bigger, but we really enjoyed exploring both places.

- Dave Webb