Kanab Utah Trout Fishing?

[Joe_Hill]

If you are going to drive over an hour from Kanab -- which almost every suggestion will be -- then play the smart card:  go fish the East Fork Sevier in Black Canyon.

A.  The river will be ice free (high water table, lots of springs = ice free river all winter long)
C.  Access -- with the recent winter storms, some of the places mentioned may not be accessible.  The EF Sevier is a maintained (plowed) road.
B.  You will be fishing for rainbows, cutthroat, and browns that range from 12" - 24".  Legitimately nice fish.

As much as I like those small streams in Washington / Kane counties (Leeds, Browse, Harmon / Mill, Kanab Creek, EF Virgin etc.) they are just not great streams.  They are all very small, with typically very small fish (Leeds would probably be the nicest stream).  They are very brushy and difficult to fish.  They also will have unmaintained roads - which can be a problem this time of year.

If you were staying in St. George -- I'd throw out Beaver Dam Wash out near Motoqua.  That would be a legitimate wintertime flyfishing spot, that could actually produce some winter dry fly action for small wild trout.  The Santa Clara would be another decent option.


I know you are set on stream fishing for trout - but you have another option you could consider:  Lake Powell.  You could fish it from shore around Wahweap and get into some stripers....

We're getting further and further from Kanab but have you aver fished Beaver Dam Wash? Even from St. George it is  an all day commitment. First you have to get to Motoqua. That's a good hour if you drive really fast on dirt roads. You have to ford that creek about 10 times and hope the roads are passable to then get up past Doc's Cabin. If everything is perfect and you drive really fast for the conditions this is 40 minutes. You need at least 9 inches of clearance and lots of experience to have any shot at making it. Even a foot of clearance is no guarantee you'll be able to make it to Docs Cabin. Only on rare years do you find fish before you get there. Most years you have to start hiking up in the wilderness section several hundred yards to a few miles to find trout. I'd say plan on an hour before giving up given the time you already invested. Some years the water was too low and hot and there will be no trout. Very few wild fish in that section since 2007. There were some until a year or 2 after the Reservoir in Nevada was washed out. Nevada stocks the creek in the State Park even if the reservoir is gone now. They last stocked it with rainbows in April. I do have a report from mid September this year that trout were still living in the creek. It's a wide open space where stealth is a must but no worries about snagging your fly. It can be very fast winter fishing on dries and nymphs. Presidents day typically has a good caddis hatch in one of the basalt canyons but you won't always find trout in that section. Most fish are going to be 10-13 planters. In the old days a few 15-16 inch trout could be found most years. It would probable take a great water year to get that again. Despite all that I'll probable give it a shot in a month or two.