Early summer can provide great fishing

Scofield Reservoir - Scofield, Utah (Carbon County)


by Utah Division of Wildlife
5-22-2025
Website

Early summer can provide great fishing for trout, tiger muskie and wiper. Utah chub are the most abundant prey for the other fish in the reservoir. Follow the chubs to find big fish.

 

Tiger trout: Early morning fishing is key to target tiger trout. Tigers will cruise the shallow shoreline before daylight feeding on Utah chub. Utah chub will congregate to spawn, in shallow rocky and weedy areas, and splake will target the spawning chub as a food source. Try using dead Utah chub as bait to catch fish during this timeframe. Cut off a 1” by 1” piece of chub meat and thread it on a 1/8oz or 1/4oz jig head. Cast the bait out and let it sit on the bottom. Casting tube jigs and swimbaits tipped with chub meat will also work from shore. Keep your jig close to the bottom as you retrieve/reel, because most fish will hug the bottom. Other good lures to try will be silver and white or black and white crankbaits. Tigers will go to deeper water later in the summer and be more active at night or early evening.

 

Cutthroat trout: Target cutthroat with similar tactics as tiger trout. Use tube jigs tipped with chub meat and crankbaits in early June. Target fish in deeper water later in the summer by trolling spoons or pop gear. 

 

Rainbow trout: Good fishing for rainbows is typical for this time of year. Use standard trout fishing tactics from shore like worm and marshmallow/salmon egg, powerbait, spinners and spoons. In July and August, troll a pop gear and worm or spoons to target fish in deeper water. 

 

Tiger muskie: Look for fish along rocky shorelines in water 5 to 15 feet deep. Most fish are feeding on Utah chub and crayfish along the rocks. This is a perfect opportunity to target fish with a fly rod. Large streamers, 4 to 10 inches, casted along rock outcroppings will produce best results. Cast swimbaits or crankbaits that look like chubs (silver/white and black/white) as another option. Later in the summer, fish will move to shallow weedy bays looking for chubs. Troll crankbaits and swimbaits to target these fish.

 

Wiper: Wipers will get very active in the summer. For wipers, use lures and flies that imitate chubs and crayfish. Night fishing in shallow water can be effective to catch wipers. 





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for Friday, February 21st

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