Pine Lake and Tropic Res. in early May

[MrLipripper]

Think they'll be open then? How is early season fishing at these two lakes? I'll be camping near there and thought I might try them during the first week of May. Any other lakes to try down that way in early May? I know Kolob and Yankee Meadows are probably too high elevation that early but you never know!
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[MrLipripper]

Hm, no answers yet. I thought maybe some of the Down South crew could help me. I've still got some time before I go.
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[TubeDude]

[cool][#0000ff]We have a couple of regulars down south that can probably help you, but they sometimes don't check in too often. You might try sending a PM to [url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?username=hedgesd;"][#000000][size 1]hedgesd [/size][/#000000][/url] or [/#0000ff][url "http://www.bigfishtackle.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?username=PBH;"][#000000][size 1]PBH [/size][/#000000][/url].
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[fish4fish]

I hadn't chimed in yet because i had a phrase running through my head that states "bad help, is not nescessarly better then no help at all"

But here goes anyways, I havnt fished either of them, i havnt seen either of them so i cant attest to the water conditions, nor fishing conditions, but i do drive past both of these every other week and there is very little sonw on the ground in the hills surrounding the lakes, so i would suspect muddy conditions getting in to them.

Thats about all that i have, told you it wasnt great advise, [sly]
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[MrLipripper]

Hey, I'll take whatever I can.
You'll be my helper as the time gets closer; you can PM me with updates.

Thanks a bunch!
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[fish4fish]

I can do that
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[fishindaddy]

I grew up in Fredonia AZ. just across the border from Kanab. We fished tropic every summer atleast once. We actually spent most of our time up past tropic in the web of small streams that feed east fork which runs into tropic. Up in the streams is mostly brook and cutthroat. We would fish them as early as May most years, it just depends on how much snow there was. Tropic has mostly planted rainbows, along with cutthroat, brook, and brown trout. The browns have always been in there, but in resent years they have really grown in numbers. Up in the streams we catch far more browns than we ever use too, especially nearer to the lake. Last year at our family reunion up there we caught a lot of fish. Early morning has always seemed to be the best for the big cutthroat in the lake which we've caught up to over 20 inches mostly on a fly and bubble. We've never caught very big rainbows out of the lake though.
Pine lake has also been accessible as early as May. There really isn't any gate, so it just depends on the snow. Early spring can be really good for larger rainbows up there. The last time I fished it was with my brother about 6 years ago when we were doing a job in Bryce canyon in early April. It was the best trip I'd ever had up there and there was still snow on the ground. We caught a limit of fat rainbows around 18 inches on yellow roostertail spinners and yellow panther martins.
The majority of our trips up there were to catch the brook trout out of the beaver ponds upstream from tropic reservior.
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[PBH]

You should have access to both lakes by May, especially with the poor winter we have had. Recently, some big storms have hit the area, so access right now might be bad.

I can't really say much about the fishing at either. I don't have a ton of experience at either -- I guess there's just too many other opportunities in the area that I have always pursued. My in-laws live in Tropic, so I frequent the area quite often.

Tropic puts out some big fish every spring. Last year another 10lb brown was taken from the reservoir. Of course, this is the exception, and not the norm. Like has already been mentioned, it is mainly catchable rainbows. Tropic Reservoir is drained a couple times every winter, which is a very big reason why there aren't more big fish in the lake. With that being said, I already have plans to fish Tropic from my tube as soon as the ice goes off. I just don't know when that will be. I've never paid attention to it in the past...

Pine Lake is a very nice lake, and can hold some nice brook trout at times. It is a great place for catching lots of fish. It has a hard time overwintering fish some years. The small springs that feed this lake just don't deliver good enough oxygen content in the winter to make this place a more consistent fishery. I don't know how it will be this year. By May, you should be just fine going here. Just don't expect any 20+" fish.

I hope this helps out some...
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