Spring Conditions Bring Good Fishing To Utah Waters

Some of the best trout fishing in Utah takes place as ice pulls back and open water starts to appear around our reservoir shorelines. The trout are hungry after a long winter under the ice. They often feed aggressively during ice-off.

The ice will come off many of our popular trout waters during the next few weeks. Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources has written this new article giving tips for fishing at this time of year.

The DWR is updating a Twitter feed giving ice-off conditions. You can see it here.

We’ve had warmer-than-normal weather and so spring conditions are coming early this year. Already there is little snow around most reservoirs and streams.

Snowpack is lower than normal all around the state. Runoff is already starting on streams at lower elevations but it expected to be light and end early. This article talks about early spring fishing during runoff.

Strawberry Reservoir is perhaps our most popular fishing water and it usually fishes very well during ice-off. That usually happens in late April or early May. If we continue to have unusually warm weather the reservoir may open up in mid-April this year.

The Green River is our most popular fly fishing water and it usually offers extremely good fishing during April. The “A” section of the river flows below Flaming Gorge Dam. The reservoir usually contains runoff and so the river below is normally clear, even when the water level is high. This article provides good information about spring fishing on the Green River.

Farther down side streams bring muddy water into the river during runoff and so the “B” and “C” sections may have difficult fishing during May and June.

At Lake Powell, fishing picks up during March and become very good during April and May. Striped bass, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, walleye and other fish bite very well as spring progresses. Utah DWR Lake Powell leader Wayne Gustaveson maintains this website that provides very good information about fishing Powell.