Virgin River/Zion's area

[albinotrout]

My wife and kids want to make a trip to Zion's next week. Looks like Monday and Tuesday. We were thinking of doing a little fishing and I was wondering how the virgin river is fairing. Looking at places around Springdale and inside the park. What species of fish are we looking at getting and how are the conditions? Or would it be better to just goto sand hollow for a few hours? Thanks for the help!
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[PBH]

you'd be better of at Sand Hollow.


The Virgin River is not known as a fishery below Zion. It's more of a red colored river with very little trout habitat. You can certainly find good catfishing in and around St. George.

You can find some small brown trout in the higher portions of the river. But, in all honesty, you're wasting your time fishing the Virgin.

Sand Hollow and Quail would be good places to soak a line for a few hours.
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[riverdog]

+1 on Sand Hollow or Quail Creek.
There are trout to be caught in Washington County streams. Most are small and either take a lot of work to reach, fighting thick brush to cast or a lot of time to find. I will rarely do it with a friend but mostly just me and the dogs. Very tough fishing for my son or wife to find enjoyable.
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[albinotrout]

Thanks, having never fished it before this helps a lot. I will go with sand hollow or quail creek.
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[TylerKunz]

I'm surprised trout could even survive in that hot water?
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[riverdog]

Swim upstream and settle into deeper holes in warmer weather and extend downstream in colder weather and higher flows but there are trout in Zion. I've also caught them in 4 streams outside the park in Washington County. Some years most do die off but they always seem to bounce back eventually with better water flows.
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[PBH]

Tyler -- the Virgin River starts out on the mountain. I wouldn't necessarily call it "hot" water.

Water quality in the lower end (below Zion) isn't really conducive for trout. That doesn't mean they don't migrate downstream from higher areas. It just isn't a good trout stream below the park (or even inside the main section the park).

You have to also consider that both Kolob Creek and Blue Creek / North Creek have trout. The possibility of trout being around those confluences isn't out of the question. Still, I wouldn't waste my time...

Numerous tributaries coming the Pine Valley mountain (as riverdog mentioned) are full of trout. Even the Santa Clara river has trout. So trout getting to the Virgin even around St. George isn't out of the question -- just not a good bet for fishing!

I'd look for catfish around St. George.
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[TylerKunz]

Interesting... I'm thinking the lower parts because that's what I'm used to seeing. And in the summer when it's 115 degrees and were driving to vegas, that water is nice and hot! That's why I never would have thought twice about any trout swimming around in there. But I guess all those little creeks and rivers running together would make it easy for some to start swimming up the wrong way!
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[albinotrout]

Here is the latest info I was able to get from Zion National Park on the fishing conditions:

[#0000ff][size 2]"We have not had any fishing reports, but the river is high, silty, and cold due to snowmelt. For a list of common fish in the park, visit our park website, [/size][/#0000ff][url "http://go.usa.gov/2d4C"][#0000ff][size 2][url "http://go.usa.gov/2d4C[/size][/#0000ff]"]http://go.usa.gov/2d4C[/size][/#0000ff][/url][#0000ff][size[/url] 2]. "[/#0000ff][/size]

[/#0000ff][#000000]Also here is a file from the Park service detailing the fish in the park. Reading it I must agree with the others the fishing will be poor unless you really want to go for a long and difficult hike.
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[Envenomation09]

The part you see on the way to Las Vegas is much too far down for fish. You need to go much much further upstream to find any fish. Except for natives. Not even catfish in that part of the Virgin or at least they are extremely, ultra, very rare. You could fish it but I seriously doubt you could ever catch anything. I would fish Sand Hollow or Quail.
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[riverdog]

True most of the time. That region does have massive floods ever 30 years on average and smaller one much more frequently. Beaver Dam Wash was flowing many 1000's of cfs in January 2005 the last major flood. Much higher flows than normal kept a descent amount of water flowing into early summer down to the lowest spot in Utah at the Arizona border. That flood actually lowered the lowest spot in Utah from about 2170 to about 2165 ft above sea level based on averages on multiple gps readings I did. I've caught trout well below 2200 ft after a couple of these events. Spring of 2005 the fishing was best because Schroeder Dam just across the border in Nevada was breached releasing additional thousands of bows downstream in the high flows. Nevada also spent $500,000 in 2009 to improve habitat after the dam was removed. Nevada does stock the stream with hundreds and sometimes thousands of fertile bows since 2009 that swim down and during floods get wash far down into Utah.
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[Envenomation09]

Interesting that surprises me. Nice looking trout.
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