Idaho Fish Report

Kokanee fishing is good and there is a tagged rainbow trout contest running until October 31 with many prizes are yet to be claimed. That means, though, that there is a lot of boat traffic at Strawberry on the weekends. There is much less traffic on weekdays. You do not need to register if you want to participate in the tagged rainbow trout contest.


Last week, Tom Ogden and his group fished the Bryant's Fork/East Portal area on their kick boats from 7:30 until 2:30. They caught eighteen fish, mostly rainbow trout, using sinking line (from a medium sink to a fast sink) with size 4-8 leeches and crystal buggers in Canada blood, purple, black and copper, and red. They didn't catch many fish before 10:00 and fishing slowed again after 1:00. They all missed quite a few fish, so the fishing wasn't bad but the catch was was slow. Most of the day, there were some fish feeding on the surface that were after midges and some damsel flies. The water temperature was 60 to 62 degrees and the visibility in the water was 10 to 12 feet. There were quite a few boats and some other anglers in kick boats. It seemed like most people were catching fish. The reservoir level is at 77 percent and dropping slowly.


There are special fishing regulations at Strawberry: the limit is four trout or kokanee salmon in the aggregate. No more than two may be cutthroat trout under 15 inches, and no more than one may be a cutthroat trout over 22 inches. All cutthroat trout from 15 to 22 inches must be immediately released. Trout and salmon may not be filleted, and the heads or tails may not be removed in the field or in transit. Check the Utah Fishing Guidebook for more regulations and for help identifying the Bear Lake cutthroat trout from the rainbow trout.