Have any of you SoCals fished Utah anywhere from St. George to the Fish Lake areas?

[TroutMad]

Starting a week and a half trip possibly June 1. I may eventually find my way to Lake Powell. Any recommendations or places to stay, which is the most scenic routes around there? What are some recommended methods (not a fly fisherman).

Thanks in advance.

[Troutcz swimbait]

I hit up Panguitch lake a couple times this week and did pretty good.Nothing over 3lbs but WFO.

[DEVOREFLYER]

Brian Head is a must see area. Navajo lake, Panguitch lake, Aspen Mirror lake, Yankee Meadow and Duck creek are all great places to fish and within an hour from Cedar City. Never fished in June, always in late July and August and grasshoppers "Killed Um". Get a butterfly net and catch them if they are out this early otherwise your standard trout bait/setup will also work. Grasshoppers and crickets are the locals secret bait. Go catch um!!!

[Natural Lefty]

TroutMad, I saw your request for info. before but I fogot to reply. I hope this isn't too late.

My wife and I have fished some places in that region too. In fact, I wrote some posts in the out of state trips section last July about some of that fishing.

You can check the old posts there to find them.

To summarize, we fished Fish Lake in 2008. Fishing was great for smallish Yellow Perch from shore if you are into those as we are. Rainbow and Splake Trout were apparently biting some, but mainly from boats beyond the reach of shore anglers, although we were catching and releasing a bunch of subcatchable Rainbows that had just been stocked.

Navajo Lake was good in 2008. I caught my first Splake Trout there and lost a big one, in about an hour of fishing. I went back last year, and all I could catch were a couple of Chubs, though. Holdover Splake and wild Brook Trout seem to be the most numerous trout at Navajo, but they also stock Rainbows there.

I also fished Duck Creek Pond both years. I caught a Brookie there, but mostly stocker Rainbows. I also caught stocker Rainbows in Duck Creek. The huge spring on the south side of the lake is impressive.

I hiked to Aspen Mirror Lake, which is a short easy hike down a road with a locked gate, and it looked good for fishing, but I didn't fish there.

My wife fished Panguitch Lake last year after my fishing permit expired, and after about an hour figuring out how to catch the fish, she caught her 4 fish limit of Rainbows in the next hour or so. Three of the fish were around 15-17 inches, with one smaller one around 11 inches. I would definitely recommend this lake. It also has Cutthroat, but Rainbows are the main catch from shore there.

I heard that Yankee Meadow reservoir is good and plan to go there next time. I think it has a good population of wild Brookies. Yum!

I fished a lake called Paragonah Lake in that area last year, where I caught a couple of 12 inch wild Rainbows. There are no stocked fish there even though a dirt road goes there.

We fished other parts of Utah, too. I would rate the best overall fishing we had in Utah to be at Starvation Reservoir in the northeast part of the state.

I hope this info. helps. Good luck!