No shortage of good fishing available

The path to Scofield Reservoir is well used these days. This past weekend the eastern side of the ice-covered water was crowded with anglers and equipment.

All, of course, for good reason. Fishing has been good for fat rainbow and browns, some in the 16-inch range.

It is not, however, the only good fishing spot. Rockport and Deer Creek, even though neither has an ice cap yet, are giving up some nice fish to shore fishermen.

The Middle Provo between Jorandelle and Deer Creek has also been good, but the Lower Provo has been tough because of patches of moss breaking loose and floating downriver. The best way to fish that section right now is with dry flies.

Because of the colder water temperatures, the fish have been coming in closer to shore at Rockport and Deer Creek, which has put them well within range of popular baits, such as worms, salmon eggs and Power Bait. A fly and bubble have also worked well. A good fly has been the Red Crystal Killer.

Here's the latest report from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

BEAR LAKE — The surface water temperature is 38 degrees and the lake is completely open water. The warm weather the past week, coupled with the de-icers running in the state park marina has completely opened it up for launching boats. The majority of the snow around the lake has melted. The Bonneville whitefish run has reached its peak and the fishing is still red-hot. However, it will begin to taper off. Limits of 10 fish were caught this past weekend in 1.5 hours' time.

With the low water conditions the fishing from shore has been as good as fishing from boats since there is only a few feet of rocks that are in the water along Cisco Beach before the bottom drops off into very deep water. The best luck has come along the Bear Lake State Park marina and off Cisco Beach. A good choice of lures to use for whitefish are small jigs fished close to the bottom. Small vertical jigging spoons, such as Kastmasters and Swedish Pimples have also been very effective. Fishing for cutthroat and lake trout has been picking up and is rated as good. Most anglers are either trolling or jigging in 30-80 feet of water.

STRAWBERRY RESERVOIR — Some of the bays have iced over with up to 5 inches of ice, which is still questionable for safety, but most of the reservoir is still ice free. Ramps are no longer available for launching boats.