Columnist Paula Del Giudice: Current drought hits fisheries across Utah

Thursday, June 20, 2002 | 9:40 a.m.

Paula Del Giudice's outdoors column appears Thursday. She can be reached at desertdenizens@aol.com.

The drought that is impacting much of the West is affecting popular southern Utah fisheries very noticeably.

While the fish are concentrated and the fishing has been pretty good, access has been spotty particularly if you have a boat to launch. Low water conditions are leaving boat launches high and dry.

Here's what you can expect at some of the fisheries that are the favorites of visiting Nevada anglers:

Some caddis and mayfly hatches are now underway. Try elk hair caddis or Wulff patterns if fly fishing; nightcrawlers or small spinners if spin fishing.

Releases from Minersville Reservoir have begun. This lower section of river has been stocked with catchable-sized rainbow trout. The section of river upstream from the reservoir to the Greenville Bridge is closed until July 13. Please prevent the spread of Whirling disease by cleaning mud from waders and equipment. Do not transport any parts of fish caught here to other waters.

The higher limits are in effect until Oct. 1 when they revert back to the original limits.

If you want to avoid the wind, get there before 10 in the morning. Recent sampling has shown a good number of fish in the 16-18 inch class, with a few larger. Special regulations include trout limit one fish, which must be over 20 inches; artificial flies and lures only. Scented jigs are not allowed. Anglers using float tubes are reminded that they need to be off the water by one hour after sunset if they don't have a light and need to have a PFD with them.

The Beaver River above the reservoir up to the Greenville Bridge is closed to fishing until July 13.

A small spinner, Rapala or streamer may be the ticket for a big trout. If you're fishing for smallmouth, try a small (1-2 inch) plastic grub or gitzit with an 1/16-1/8 oz lead head jig and fish it as slow and close to the bottom as possible. Another technique that works is fishing an unweighted plastic bait 18 inches behind your weight

In addition to the change in the statewide trout limit to four trout, only one trout can be over 20 inches at Panguitch.

Also, the area at the mouth of Blue Springs Creek, from the mouth out into the lake for 300 yards will be restricted to the use of artificial flies and lures only. This area has been marked with buoys.

These new restrictions are intended to help reduce the number of chubs in the lake. There has been a substantial increase in the number of chubs in the lake in recent years.

The larger trout, which are protected by the new regulations, feed on chubs. There have been numerous reports of large trout, especially Bear Lake cutthroat trout, which are the most piscivorous (fish-eating) species in the lake, being harvested in the Blue Springs area the past two years.

Fly fishing workshop

The third section of 'Introduction to Fly Fishing for Adults'-a 3-part class covering the basics of fly fishing from equipment choices to casting techniques will be held on June 19 at Floyd Lamb State Park. The Nevada Division of Wildlife is sponsoring this workshop. For more information, call Ivy Santee at 486-5127, ext. 3503 to pre-register.

Hunters await results

Hunters will have the results of the long-awaited trophy big game drawing by Friday. Check out the results on NDOW's web site at 8 a.m. on Friday. The web site address is: http://www.nevadadivisionofwildlife.org.