The Green below Flaming Gorge is the aquarium of American tailwaters: emerald water through a red-rock canyon, up to 14,000 trout per mile, and a riverside trail that makes it the best walk-and-wade big river in the country.
Reports current for Friday, September 4
Live verdicts from this morning's reports.
Utah's emerald tailwater below Flaming Gorge: 8,000 trout per mile in water so clear you fish by sight all day.
The canyon labyrinth: 2,000 miles of Glen Canyon shoreline where stripers school in slot canyons.
Utah's home river: brown trout by the thousand in the middle and lower canyons.
Utah's cutthroat crown jewel: 17,000 high-altitude acres managed for giants.
The I-84 sleeper: brown trout pocket water between reservoir tailwaters.
Southern Utah's trout bowl at 8,400 feet: rainbows fattened on scuds, a cutthroat comeback, and ice fishing framed by red-rock country.
Provo Canyon's blue anchor: walleye and smallmouth over clean rock, rainbow trolling lanes and Timpanogos filling the windshield.
The Great Salt Lake's freshwater neighbor: a diked bay of wipers, walleye and gizzard shad chaos on Utah's improbable west side.
Ogden's tiger den: Utah's muskie water in a Wasatch valley, where 50-inch tigers cruise the weedbeds between wakeboard wakes.
Park City's deep neighbor: a Provo River reservoir of brown-trout ambush, smallmouth banks and perch schools under paddleboard traffic.
The Caribbean of the Rockies: turquoise two-state water hiding four endemic fish, giant cutthroat and January's cisco dip-net run.
The Strawberry below Soldier Creek: a pinyon-canyon tailwater of wild browns, scuds and solitude an hour from the famous reservoir.
The Beaver bargain: a high-desert trophy pond where Utah's quality rules grow 20-inch rainbows on a fraction of Strawberry's fame.
The canyon commuter: Ogden's home tailwater drops through its namesake canyon with browns rising minutes from downtown.
Utah's quiet blue-ribbon: Otter Creek's fertile shallows grow the state's fastest rainbows while the crowds drive past to Fish Lake.
The Uinta basin's surprise: Starvation's walleye school where Utah expects trout, with browns and smallmouth crashing the party.
Utah’s high cold pantry: Scofield stacks tiger trout and cutts at 7,600 feet, and its ice season out-fishes its summers.
Utah’s mountain lake: Fish Lake grows huge lake trout and splake at 8,800 feet.
Utah’s canyon trout stream: Huntington Creek runs wild browns and cutthroat below Electric Lake.
Cache Valley’s canyon stream: the Logan River runs wild browns and native cutthroat out of the Bear River Range.
Species activity across the state's covered waters. Peak of the year: March.
1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.
Seasonal surface curve for this state's dominant water type (estimated).
| Water | Type | County | Live gauge | Peak month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green River | River | Wayne | USGS | Apr |
| Lake Powell | Reservoir | San Juan | modeled | Mar |
| Provo River | River | Utah | USGS | Apr |
| Strawberry Reservoir | Reservoir | Wasatch | USGS | Apr |
| Weber River | River | Weber | USGS | Apr |
| Panguitch Lake | Reservoir | Garfield | modeled | Apr |
| Deer Creek Reservoir | Reservoir | Wasatch | modeled | Apr |
| Willard Bay | Reservoir | Box Elder | modeled | Apr |
| Pineview Reservoir | Reservoir | Weber | modeled | May |
| Jordanelle Reservoir | Reservoir | Wasatch | modeled | May |
| Bear Lake | Lake | Rich | modeled | Apr |
| Strawberry River | River | Duchesne | modeled | Apr |
| Minersville Reservoir | Reservoir | Beaver | modeled | Apr |
| Ogden River | River | Weber | modeled | Apr |
| Otter Creek Reservoir | Reservoir | Piute | modeled | Apr |
| Starvation Reservoir | Reservoir | Duchesne | modeled | Apr |
| Scofield Reservoir | Reservoir | Carbon | USGS | Apr |
| Fish Lake | Lake | Sevier | modeled | Apr |
| Huntington Creek | River | Emery | modeled | Apr |
| Logan River | River | Cache | USGS | Apr |
Utah's crown is the Green below Flaming Gorge: the aquarium-clear tailwater with the trail access every river wishes it had. But the state runs deeper: the Provo's browns within an hour of Salt Lake, high-Uinta brook trout lakes, Strawberry's cutthroat factory, and Lake Powell's houseboat-striper universe in the red-rock south. It is a two-speed state: technical trout north, warmwater adventure south.
Spring: baetis on the Green, pre-runoff Provo, stripers waking at Powell. May-June: the cicada window on the Green: dry-fly fishing's loudest event. Summer: Uinta backpacking lakes, Powell boils at dawn, evening caddis everywhere. Fall: brown trout aggression on every river, Strawberry's cutts fattening. Winter: midge fishing under red canyon walls, often alone.
It releases from deep in Flaming Gorge Reservoir, which settles out sediment: the river below runs filtered, cold and stable, powering both the visibility and the food base.