Fishing southern Utah area

[Weplaygolf]

Hello , I’m new to the group and fly fishing. I have been fishing for 30 yrs mostly in upstate New York everything from bass trout musky walleye all Lake Erie. I have fell in love with fly fishing last year took trip up from Vegas to panguitch. I just went in streams around there caught a bunch of small trout but had a blast. A friend gave me 2 fly rods looking for advice on setup and any good places in southern utah to hone my skills. 

* Cabelas letort 8.5  (5-6)
* SFA Stillwater premium graphite 9’ #5

I do have cabelas Cahill 2 Reel 

Are these any good for fishing in Utah and what will give me best setup? Reel, line, etc thanks you in advance  I appreciate ya.

[fishalot13]

Those are great rods for just about anyplace you want to fish. set them up with a good line most decent lines are $50 or more. Some of the cheap lines will make it harder to cast. I havent fished a lot in southern utah. but what I have read panguitch and minersville are great! Hope you have a great time!

[Weplaygolf]

Sounds good thank you. Is this SFA a good brand? Not familiar. Any recommendations on line to get?

[Joe_Hill]

Hello , I’m new to the group and fly fishing. I have been fishing for 30 yrs mostly in upstate New York everything from bass trout musky walleye all Lake Erie. I have fell in love with fly fishing last year took trip up from Vegas to panguitch. I just went in streams around there caught a bunch of small trout but had a blast. A friend gave me 2 fly rods looking for advice on setup and any good places in southern utah to hone my skills. 

* Cabelas letort 8.5  (5-6)
* SFA Stillwater premium graphite 9’ #5

I do have cabelas Cahill 2 Reel 

Are these any good for fishing in Utah and what will give me best setup? Reel, line, etc thanks you in advance  I appreciate ya.

Here's a link to fishable places in SW Utah.  https://redrockadventure.com/fishing/oth.../index.htm  It is the same list (Utah DWR originally put this together) of places I used 20 years ago to guide my explorations into fly fishing the streams in the area. 
Unfortunately it's not been updated since. I enjoy fishing smaller stream such as Leeds, South Ash (Browse) and Beaver Dam Wash in solitude. The first 2 are difficult to fish and nearly impossible with a rod that is made to handle 20-25 inch trout routinely. If you ever want to target these small streams a 7 ft 2 wt rod is the absolute biggest you want to use. It's better to get some experience and then shift down in rods and creeks if it interests you. Beaver Dam Wash is remote and a lot of work. It however is wide open. The fish top out at 16 inches on a good year but you can use any size trout rod from  6ft 0 wt to 9ft 5 wt without issues. Good Luck

[fishalot13]

Sounds good thank you. Is this SFA a good brand? Not familiar. Any recommendations on line to get?

YOu want to match line with what flies you are casting.  As a beginner i'd stay with the line size that matches the rod.  If the rods are a little stiff up size to a 6 weight line.  will make ur casting a lot easier.  As far as brands and a good line brand I like to stay with the big boy names.  I tried the off brands before and they are not to the same standard.  rio, scientific angler are both trusted.  I wouldnt go so far as to pay $100 for ur line.  You wont know the difference anyway.  something around $50-70 you will get a real good line.  take care of it and it will last a long time.  

I dont know a lot about the brand of rod you have.  If they are like the other off brands that I have seen in the past the upsize on line from 5 to 6 is a good trick to help the rod work a little better.  Hope this helps and you catch a ton of fish!

[richyd4u]

I live in Southern UT, so if you are interested in catching bigger fish, PM me....