First Dam to Third Dam
Three small impoundments sit in the lower canyon just above the city of Logan, numbered upstream from the canyon mouth: First Dam, Second Dam and Third Dam. The ponds are stocked with rainbows and fish well for families, and the river between them holds plenty of browns and rainbows. Bait is legal here, statewide limits apply and the US-89 pullouts are minutes from town, so expect company. The USGS gauge this page reads, 10109000 above State Dam, is in this lower canyon reach.
Third Dam to Card Canyon Bridge
Above the upper dam the river turns into a proper canyon freestone: fast pocket water, quick riffles and eddy seams under limestone walls. This 3.5 mile stretch up to Card Canyon Bridge is the most heavily fished wild-trout water on the river because access from the highway is so easy. Brown trout and whitefish are the main catch, with an occasional cutthroat. General statewide rules apply here.
Card Canyon Bridge to Red Banks
From Card Canyon Bridge upstream to the highway bridge at Red Banks Campground, including the tributaries between them but not Tony Grove Lake, the Logan is artificial flies and lures only with a limit of 2 trout and whitefish combined. This is the mountain-stream heart of the canyon, past Wood Camp, Guinavah-Malibu and the Tony Grove turnoff, with campgrounds that make a base for a long weekend. Cutthroat become more common as you climb, and the water is hard to fish during runoff but comes into its own once it clears.
Red Banks to the Idaho line
Above Red Banks the Logan is a small river with brush guarding the banks and few open casting lanes. Brook trout and cutthroat dominate. The limit is again 2 trout and whitefish combined, and this section is closed from January 1 through 6 a.m. on the second Saturday of July to protect spawning cutthroat, so it is a midsummer and fall fishery.
Brown trout, rainbows and Bonneville cutthroat
Browns are the dominant wild trout from Third Dam up through the canyon, most concentrated in the deeper pools and runs, and they are the fish that come up for the salmonfly and evening caddis in early summer. Rainbows are stocked in the three dams and hold in the lower river; they thin out quickly above Third Dam.
The Bonneville cutthroat is Utah's state fish and the only trout native to the Logan, and the drainage still holds one of the better remaining populations. The Right Hand Fork, a tributary in the canyon, was cleared of brown trout by Utah DWR, the Forest Service, Utah State University and the Cache Anglers chapter of Trout Unlimited between 2009 and 2013, then restocked with cutthroat raised from Temple Fork eggs; it is now a go-to water for the Bear River strain in the Utah Cutthroat Slam. Whirling disease is present in the Logan drainage, so clean gear between waters.
Season and regulations
The Logan fishes year-round below Red Banks, with spring blue-winged olives, green drakes in May and June, salmonflies and caddis in early summer, and grey drakes again in late August and September. Runoff peaks in May and June and the canyon usually clears by late June. Wading flows at the Logan gauge run best between about 70 and 220 cfs: below 70 the fish get spooky and stack in the deep pools, above 220 the current makes wading difficult. That 70 to 220 cfs window is what this page compares the live gauge against. The river is not floatable.
Utah's statewide trout limit is 4 (trout, kokanee and grayling combined). From Card Canyon Bridge up to the Idaho line the limit drops to 2 trout and whitefish combined, the Card Canyon to Red Banks stretch is artificial flies and lures only, and the water above Red Banks is closed January 1 through 6 a.m. on the second Saturday of July. Check the current Utah DWR fishing guidebook before you go.