Price River, Utah

Lower Fish Creek below Scofield Dam

The trout water on the Price River is the reach Utah calls Lower Fish Creek, from Scofield Dam down through a narrow, willow-lined canyon to the White River confluence near Colton, followed by UT-96 and the railroad. It is a small, cold tailwater, a walk-and-wade stream that never floats, and it is a Utah Blue Ribbon fishery. The USGS gauge this page reads is just below the dam.

Price Canyon along US-6

From Colton the Price River drops through Price Canyon beside US-6 to Helper, past the BLM Price Canyon Recreation Area campground on the rim above the highway. Diversions take most of the water below the canyon; the USGS gauge near Helper often reads only a few cfs in summer, so the fishing is thinner and more seasonal than on Lower Fish Creek.

Helper to Wellington and the desert

Below Helper the river passes Price and Wellington and heads for the Book Cliffs and the Green River as a warm, silty desert stream managed for native chub and suckers, not trout. Huntington Creek, which the old copy pointed anglers to, is in the San Rafael drainage in Emery County and is not part of the Price system.

Brown trout

Wild browns are the main fish on Lower Fish Creek, holding in the pools and undercut banks of the canyon. Baetis in spring and fall, caddis through the warm months, PMDs in midsummer and hoppers along the grass banks in late summer are the surface fishing, with midges, scuds and sowbugs the rest of the year.

Cutthroat and rainbow trout

Cutthroat and rainbows, along with mountain whitefish, share the tailwater with the browns, and Scofield Reservoir above sends tiger trout and cutthroat into the top of the river. Release the cutthroat; they are the native fish here.

Season and regulations

Lower Fish Creek is open all year. Utah shops put good wading flows at 30 to 120 cfs at the Scofield gauge; below 30 cfs the fish get very spooky, and above 120 cfs the canyon is hard to wade, so that is the range this page compares the gauge to. Irrigation releases push summer medians well above 100 cfs from May into August, and winter flows fall to a trickle.

Utah's 2026 guidebook makes Lower Fish Creek artificial flies and lures only from the railroad bridge about one mile below Scofield Dam downstream to the White River confluence, with statewide limits. Check the current Utah DWR fishing guidebook for the Price River and Scofield tributary rules.