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SALT LAKE CITY — Major changes could be coming soon to fishing regulations in Utah.
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources on Tuesday unveiled several new statewide fishing changes and regulations for fishing at nearly two dozen bodies of water that could go into effect next year if approved by the Utah Wildlife Board. Some of these changes detail how people can fish in bodies of water, while others dictate how many fish are allowed to be taken.
For instance, spearfishing would be allowed during the day or night, reversing a rule that only allows it from sunrise to sunset. Spearfishing would be allowed at 15 high-elevation bodies of water in the Uinta Mountains, and use of artificial light while spearfishing for any location with Utah chub would be allowed under the changes.
Four new community fishing ponds would also be added across the state, including Dry Creek Highland Pond, Provo River Delta Gateway Park Pond, Jordan River Big Bend Pond and the Willow Spring Pond.
Other statewide changes:
- Reduce of the number of hooks allowed per setline from 15 to eight, matching the daily limit of channel catfish that setlines are usually used to target. Setline tending would also be limited to anglers with a setline permit. The mechanical retrieval of a setline would be banned, and a setline must be checked at least once every 48 hours. All setlines must also be marked with the angler's setline permit number.
- Allow archery airguns to remove carp at any open body of water, as long as the airgun is only capable of firing arrows or bolts. It must also be pneumatically powered and solely pressurized through a separate charging device.
- Remove a "bonus" brook trout limit of four fish at lakes and streams in the Uinta Mountains in Daggett, Duchesne, Summit, Uintah and Wasatch counties.
- Allow anglers to kill and possess the fish they catch that are included on the prohibited species list and asking them to report those fish to the division. Anglers must release all prohibited fish species that they catch, including potentially harmful species, under the current fishing regulations.
Most of the individual location changes are proposed at Flaming Gorge in northeast Utah, in an effort to align Utah's regulation to recent rules passed by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department. The proposal for Flaming Gorge would:
- Remove the daily limit for lake trout 28 inches or less caught at Flaming Gorge Reservoir. The daily fish limit for kokanee salmon caught at Flaming Gorge would be lowered from four to three.
- Anglers can use lake trout (caught as part of their daily limit) as bait or legally dispose of them without violating the state's wasting laws while fishing in the reservoir.
- Allow for chumming, but only with legal baits, dead burbot or dead lake trout.
- Allow anglers to harvest both burbot and lake trout with artificial light when spearfishing. No other fish species may be harvested using artificial light while spearfishing.
- Limit the shooting line for spearfishing to 20 feet.
- Remove the 18-inch ice hole size restriction at Flaming Gorge.
- Require anglers to label their fishing rods or tip-ups with their name if ice fishing with more than two lines.
Other proposals center around bodies of water across every region in the state.
Additional changes proposed at Utah bodies of water:
- Barney Lake: Allow bait and increase the daily trout limit from two to four fish.
- Causey Reservoir: Allow an angler to use up to six lines when ice fishing, but the angler must check their own lines and attach their name to each line, pole or tip-up if more than two poles are being used at a time.
- Cutler Reservoir: Reduce the daily limit for black crappie from 50 to 15 fish.
- Deer Creek Reservoir: Remove the requirement that white bass caught at Deer Creek Reservoir must be killed immediately. Instead, there's no limit on white bass caught in the reservoir.
- Echo Reservoir: Remove the catch-and-kill regulation for walleye. Instead, there would be a statewide walleye regulation allowing people to keep 10 walleye, though only one can be over 24 inches.
- Gunlock Reservoir: Allow a daily limit of six largemouth bass of any size. The daily limit for black crappie would also be increased from 50 to 100 fish.
- Manning Meadow Reservoir: Allow bait and increase the daily trout limit from two to four fish. A seasonal closure to protect spawning cutthroat trout will remain in place.
- Mill Meadow Reservoir: Decrease the current daily limit of eight tiger muskie to match the statewide daily limit for tiger muskie, which is one fish over 40 inches.
- Pelican Lake: Keep the daily limit of 15 bluegill, but only five of the fish caught may exceed 8 inches. An angler may use up to six lines when ice fishing, but the angler must check their own lines and attach their name to each line, pole or tip-up if more than two poles are being used at a time.
- Pond at Poulter Preserve: A new community pond in northern Utah. Only artificial flies and lures and catch-and-release fishing would be allowed from the second Saturday in September through 6 a.m. on the third Saturday of the following May. Statewide community fishery regulations would apply other times of the year, allowing the use of bait and a daily limit of two fish.
- Porcupine Reservoir: Allow an angler to use up to six lines when ice fishing, but the angler must check their own lines and attach their name to each line, pole or tip-up if more than two poles are being used at a time.
- Provo River Delta: Require that any June suckers caught at the Provo River Delta must be immediately released. Any walleye caught in that area from March 1 through 6 a.m. on the first Saturday of May must be released, which is in the middle of spawning season for the species. All northern pike in the Provo River Delta must be killed immediately. Nighttime bowfishing — from sunset to sunrise — would also be closed from the first Saturday in May through 6 a.m. on the second Saturday of July, under the proposal.
- Quail Creek Reservoir: Allow a daily limit of six largemouth bass of any size.
- Recapture Reservoir: Close the reservoir to underwater spearfishing for largemouth bass from April 1 through the fourth Saturday in June, which is in the middle of spawning season for the species.
- Sand Hollow Reservoir: Increase the daily limit for largemouth bass from six to eight fish of any size. There's currently a limit of only one bass over 12 inches, but that would be removed.
- Stansbury Lake: Any largemouth bass caught there must be released. There will be a 10-fish limit for a combination of bluegill, green sunfish and black crappie, as well as a limit of two channel catfish.
- Strawberry River: Clarify that artificial flies and lures regulations also apply to instream lakes and ponds between the Pinnacles and Soldier Creek Dam at Strawberry Reservoir.
- Utah Lake and its tributaries: Allow spearfishing for white bass at Utah Lake and its tributaries west of I-15, including American Fork Creek, Beer Creek, Dry Creek, Hobble Creek, Spanish Fork River and Spring Creek Run.
- Willard Bay: Reduce the daily limit of 50 yellow perch to 15 and its inlet channel.
- Yuba Reservoir: Allow setline fishing at Yuba Reservoir.
The sweeping changes were proposed after analyzing data and collecting feedback for multiple years, said Trina Hedrick, coldwater fish coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, in a YouTube video explaining all the changes. She said more than 3,500 anglers responded to a survey that the division sent out about possible changes, and it held meetings with other groups that helped craft the proposal.
"Fisheries are always changing, and we always try to be as responsive as possible without being confusing," she said.
The Utah Wildlife Board is expected to vote on the proposal during its Sept. 19 meeting. If approved, all of the regulations would go into effect at the start of 2025, including the changes to the Utah side of Flaming Gorge.
A public comment window on the plan also opened on Tuesday ahead of a final decision. People have until Sept. 10 to submit comments through the state's website. Public comment can also be provided during the 9 a.m. meeting at Eccles Wildlife Education Center, 1157 S. Waterfowl Way in Farmington, or the five regional advisory council meetings between Aug. 27 and Sept. 5.
