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What species of trout are spawning now?
I was at burristons ponds yesterday, casting a gold and red spotted red jakes, and i landed a nice trout a fat 16"er, it was a male, had a hook jaw, bright orange mid section, brown back with thick spotting and on his belly he was a lighter orange with very faint big blueish spots, and he milted a bit, so i am sure that he was ready to spawn. anyways i forgot my camera, doh, but i did release him unharmed, so he is still in there to be caught again.
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The rainbows are the closest to be spawning right now but what you described appears to me to be a brook trout. I am not sure, but I thought they spawned in the fall. I am sure someone will post tomorrow and let us know. Congrats on a beautiful fish anyway!! Where are the Burristons ponds located? I have never heard of them. Jake
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Burston Ponds are located in Mona, not too far west of the exit. There are a few ponds and usually a lot of camping areas. Nice place to take the family for a short trip. If you go on a weekend in the summer, get there early because it seems to get crowded fast.
As far as swimming in them....its cold! The main pond has a few springs in it. When I was in Scouts 15 years ago we would take our snorkel gear and see who could go down the closest before freezing!!
Fun place to go - mostly planter size fish, some a few bigger.
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It's a brookie alright with those blue spots. Sounds like an escapee from Payson mountians where there's tons of brookies up there. They spawn in the fall, which explains why Payson mountian fishing is the best during the fall!
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Yeah i forgot to mention the fins, but there wasnt much there to talk about, they were just nubs, they had been eatin. I am sure that he was a brood stock fiish.
When i caught it i thought that i had landed a brown, and i kept thinking that untill i realised that the browns spawn in the fall, so thats cool.
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Brookies up Payson?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?[shocked] Where? Not that I doubt you but I've fished up there for years and year and I never saw a brookie until I went fishing in the Boulder Mountain area. The only two species I am aware of up Payson Canyon are rainbows (which there are tons of) and Bluegill (in one place I know of that even DWR doesn't know about).
If there are brookies up there let me know where. I would love to get into them.
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Hey f4f, those nubs don't come from being eaten. The fins on the undersides of hatchery raised fish get rubbed raw and "sanded" down to nubs by the cement raceways that they live in while in the hatchery. You'll see the same thing in nearly all the 10-12" planter rainbow trout that they release during the warmer months for put-and-take areas. If the fish are release as fingerlings, usually the fins are intact and ok and they continue growing in lakes and reservoirs (as they are planted in Strawberry, the high uintahs, etc.). If they stay much longer than that in the hatchery, they develop those ugly nubby fins.
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They are in the lower 2 of the Payson lakes. I haven't caught a brookie in the main lake however if you go down the mountian abit more you will see one right off the road, then the lowest one takes a short drive through campsite to get there. They are in there. If they aren't there now, I'll be danged because they were there about 7 years ago...(last time I went before becoming a walleye convert...)
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I've fished Grand lake up there (the big developed lake at the top) and Maple Lake (just off the Maple Bench campground). I've not spent much time fishing McClellen or Box Lakes which I think are the ones you're talking about. I may have to give them a shot.
If you don't mind a bit of a hike there are bluegill in Red lake. I went into the Springville DWR office to ask about it since I haven't been to it in years and they didn't even know it existed. They were more shocked when I told them it was chuck full of bluegill.
I guess there was a bucket biologist at work at Red Lake [sly].
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Big East (the largest and upper Reservoir up Payson Canyon) and McClellan Reservoir have had brook trout in them for years. In 2004 on June 4th 4,997 brookies were planted in Big East, and 2,000 brookies were planted in McClellan. I believe most years there are typically more brookies than that planted.
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The water from Payson Canyon eventually runs into Utah Lake. So unless a brookie had some help from a bucket biologist, it would not be possible for one to escape from Payson Reservoir and end up in Burraston Ponds.
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The spawning trout were planted in burraston ponds in december. The DWR does that every year to let people catch them, kids and stuff . The fins are gone because of the raceways that they are kept in. They are usually albino, or rainbow trout. I have never seen them plant anything else in the 45 years I have been fishing this lake! As for payson lakes, there have been brook trout in all three lakes up there for as long as i have been fishing. You have to fish for them with spinners, jigs, or worms. You will very seldom catch them with traditional power baits and such. You can also catch them with flies if you use nymphs close to the bottom. There are some nice ones in the upper lake(Payson Lake), fewer in the next lake(Box) which the dam broke in the 80's and flooded the town below, and a few in the Mclellan lake, which is the lowest of the three. Maple lake is further down the canyon, and also has a good splattering of brook trout. If you fish with power bait, cheese, ect. you will probobly never know the brooks are in there! By the way, you used to be able to have pretty good access to red lake before the flood in the 80's which washed out the road, making it hard for DWR to plant. By the way, I forgot another bait we catch the brooks on in the fall, balls of fire salmon eggs. Use a small hook with inly 2 eggs. Good luck out there! CAL OUT!
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