Utah rivers offer up great fishing

Ice off.

Those are the words avid anglers love to hear this time of year. It's a signal that some of the year's best fishing is close at hand.

Fish, trapped under the ice all winter, tend to become more active and very hungry right after the ice melts. Better still, they like to go shopping for their meals in the shallows, close to shore and in easy reach of a short cast.

Some of the more popular rivers, such as the Provo, Ogden, Weber and Logan, are offering up some very good fishing. Currently, they are running low and clear. In a few weeks, when the runoffs start, they'll be high and muddy.

Popular choices for dry flies would be blue wing olive and midge patterns. Other good choices would be stone fly nymphs, glow bugs and zebra midges with a little weight to take them down to where the big fish are feeding, said Byron Gunderson of Fish Tech Outfitters.

There is still a lot of ice on Strawberry, but some of the mid-elevation lakes are losing ice fast, such as Rockport, Jordanelle and Deer Creek, where there is lots of open water near Charleston and Wallsburg.

In fact, consensus is the ice on those waters is not safe. In a few weeks it is expected to be backed away from shore enough to allow for tubers and pontoon boats. The fish being caught at Jordanelle are small perch and trout in the 12- to 16-inch range.

Don Archer, special projects coordinator with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, reported that fishing at Strawberry, where there is sluch on the surface, has been spotty. One angler called this week, Archer said, and reported catching 20 fish, while others around him were catching only two or three.

"It's a matter of being in the right place and fishing the right lure," he said.

Fish Lake has been slower than usual. Those who fished there over this past weekend said it was hard to catch even the very catchable perch.

Places like Scofield, Pineview and Otter Creek are still questionable. Low water and heavy fishing, especially at Scofield last year, may make for a slow spring catch rate. Anglers report the best success at Scofield using white or chartreuse tube jigs or paddle bugs tipped with a mealworm.

Archer said he expects fishing at Flaming Gorge for the juvenile lake trout, those in the 18- to 20-inch range, to be good again this year.