Strawberry Reservoir contains three game fish — Bear Lake cutthroat trout, sterile rainbow trout and kokanee salmon. The reservoir also has a large population of crayfish.

The Division of Wildlife Resources plans to stock more than 500,000 larger-than-usual rainbow trout into the reservoir this year. This is an attempt to stop larger trout from eating the smaller trout.

The DWR will also continue stocking as many additional sterile rainbow trout as possible.

Those anglers having the most success for trophy splake have been those using pieces of Utah chub meat. The chub is a bait fish that can be caught easily at the reservoir.

Splake are sterile trout that are a cross between a brook trout and a lake trout.

Sterile trout, such as splake, cannot reproduce. This makes it easier for fishery managers to keep the number of trout at a level that provides them with plenty of food. And because there's plenty of food, the trout grow rapidly. Splake also grow bigger faster because they're not using their energy to reproduce.

Joes Valley Reservoir sits between the towns of Ephraim and Orangeville in the Manti-LaSal National Forest in central Utah.

The best access to the reservoir is along state road 29 from the town of Orangeville.

Large splake become active following ice-off and move close to shore in search of their primary prey — the Utah chub. The best places to find the big predators are at the mouths of the reservoir's tributaries, such as Seely Creek on the reservoir's west side.

The best fishing is in the early morning, before the sun has started to warm the waters.

Consensus, too, is that the bigger the bait, the bigger the fish that will bite. This is great for catching larger fish, but for those looking for quantity, the recommended bait is smaller chunks of meat.

To catch chubs for bait, simply use a minnow trap or fish with a small hook and a piece of worm on a fishing rod and reel. Once a chub is caught, it must be killed before it can be used as bait.

Fishing with live bait, including live chubs, is illegal.

Use a sinker of your choice to put your bait on the bottom of the reservoir or just off the bottom. Big splake can be taken in as little as two feet of water or hooked farther out from shore as they cruise the shallows looking for food.

Splake as large as 15 pounds have been documented at the reservoir, although a fish this large is extremely rare. Anglers can and do take splake up to 10 pounds and fish in the 4- to 6-pound class frequently.

Along with splake, the reservoir also holds a number of cutthroat trout in the 20-inch range and/or a tiger trout up to 15 inches.

Special regulations apply to all of the trout caught at Joes Valley. The limit is two fish, but only one can be greater than 22 inches in length. All fish between 15 and 22 inches must be released immediately. These regulations are designed to build and maintain the quality of the fishing at Joes Valley and to control the reservoir's greatest nemesis — the Utah chub.