Utah's best trout rivers are nearly all tailwaters, and that single fact shapes when and how the state fishes. The Green runs cold and clear out of Flaming Gorge Dam, the Provo comes out of Jordanelle and then Deer Creek, the Weber out of Echo and Rockport, the Strawberry out of its reservoir, the Ogden out of Pineview. While the freestone states to the north are blown out with snowmelt in May and early June, Utah's dam-controlled rivers are fishing, often at their best. Add the native Bonneville cutthroat in the Uintas and the Bear River drainage, and desert trout streams in red rock canyons in the south, and you have a state with more variety than its reputation suggests.
The Green River below Flaming Gorge Dam
The Green River below Flaming Gorge is Utah's signature water: seven miles from the dam to Little Hole in the A Section, then the B Section from Little Hole to Indian Crossing, then the C Section through Browns Park. Rainbows, browns and cutthroat feed on scuds all year, midges through the winter, and Blue-Winged Olives in a spring window from February into April and again from September into November. The cicada hatch in late May and June is the event people travel for: big foam bugs in #6 to #8 slapped against the canyon walls. Ideal flows run roughly 800 to 2,000 cfs, and USGS gauge 09234500 is the one to check. The standard box is Zebra Midges and WD-40s in #20 to #22, RS2s and Barr Emergers in #18 to #22, and a Pheasant Tail #18 to #20. Upstream, Flaming Gorge Reservoir is lake trout, kokanee and smallmouth water. Far downstream, the desert Green in Labyrinth Canyon is a different river entirely: warm, silty, and better for carp and channel catfish than trout.
The Wasatch tailwaters: Provo, Weber and Ogden
The Provo: Lower, Middle and Upper
The Provo River is the state's most-fished water, and it is really three rivers. The Lower Provo in Provo Canyon below Deer Creek Dam is a wading tailwater with the most famous Mother's Day caddis hatch in the West; the Brachycentrus emergence starts in March, peaks in April and May, and calls for black Elk Hair Caddis and Brachycentrus pupae in #14 to #16. Green Drakes follow in May and June, Tricos in July and August, and midges carry the winter. The Middle Provo through the Heber Valley below Jordanelle is a meadow tailwater with big brown trout and public walk-in access along River Road; ideal flows sit around 100 to 600 cfs. The Upper Provo above Jordanelle along the Mirror Lake Highway is a small freestone with brook trout and Bonneville cutthroat that fishes best from July into September with a Royal Wulff or Elk Hair Caddis.
The Weber and the Ogden
The Weber River below Echo Reservoir is the other Wasatch tailwater with a real Mother's Day caddis hatch, in April and May, and it holds brown trout, rainbows and mountain whitefish through the Middle Weber from Wanship to Coalville and the Lower Weber in Weber Canyon. Flows between roughly 120 and 800 cfs are the sweet spot on gauge 10128500. Small tributaries feeding the Weber, including East Canyon Creek, Chalk Creek and Lost Creek, are USGS-gauged but do not yet have guide pages here. The Ogden River below Pineview Dam is a small tailwater minutes from Utah's second-largest city, with its own caddis hatch in April and May and a crane fly window in August and September.
Freestone water and native cutthroat: Logan, Blacksmith Fork, Bear and the Uintas
Northern Utah's freestones follow the usual mountain calendar: high and dirty through May, dropping into shape in late June, best in July, September and October. The Logan River through Logan Canyon gets a Salmonfly emergence in April and May before runoff peaks, then Golden Stoneflies and caddis in June and July, and crane flies in August and September. Blacksmith Fork, next canyon south, is smaller and quieter with the same hatches. The Bear River, Utah's longest, holds native Bonneville cutthroat in its upper reaches near Woodruff and in Cache Valley. On the south slope of the Uintas, the Uinta, Lake Fork and Duchesne rivers are high-country freestones for cutthroat and rainbows from July through September, while the Strawberry River below the reservoir is a technical little cutthroat tailwater with flows around 20 to 300 cfs. Whiterocks River, Rock Creek and Yellowstone River are gauged Uinta streams without pages yet.
Southern Utah desert trout
The Fremont River runs through Capitol Reef country and holds browns and rainbows in a stream that rarely exceeds 300 cfs. The Sevier and its East Fork near Bryce Canyon are underrated freestones for rainbows and Bonneville cutthroat. The Paria is rainbow trout in slot canyon country, and the San Juan near Bluff is a float through Bears Ears where smallmouth bass are as likely as trout. The Price River in Price Canyon rounds out the central Utah freestones. These are early-summer and fall fisheries; monsoon storms in July and August can turn any of them to mud in an hour.
Stillwater: Strawberry, Fish Lake, Scofield and Bear Lake
Strawberry Reservoir is the state's premier lake, known for large Bonneville cutthroat and kokanee, fished from a float tube with chironomids, scuds and leeches in May, June, September and October. Fish Lake is high and cold with splake and lake trout; Scofield Reservoir is a cutthroat lake most people drive past; Bear Lake on the Idaho line is home to the Bear Lake cutthroat and Bonneville cisco.
Planning a Utah trip
Check the gauge before you drive: the Green, Provo, Weber and Strawberry all publish live USGS flows and the tailwaters can change with a release schedule rather than the weather. Regulations on the Green, the Provo and Blacksmith Fork include special sections that change, so confirm current rules with the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. For every gauged water in the state, including the ones that do not have guide pages yet, see the Utah fishing hub; for trout-specific detail, the Utah trout page.