Flaming Gorge: Lake trout fishing is red hot

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Ryan Mosley, UDWR project leader at Flaming Gorge, sent in this report for 1/4/13:

Ice is quickly forming on the upper end of the reservoir and where there's safe ice, the lake trout fishing has been red hot.

Just to validate the good fishing, I've made three trips in the last week to the Lost Dog or Confluence area. Ice in this reach as of January 3rd was 9 inches. We found really good fishing for lake trout pups (15-22 inches) in main channel depths of 60 ft. Tube jigs, minnow jigs, jigging raps, etc. will all work, but we've had the most success using 3/8 oz Northland Buckshot jigging spoons, tipped with sucker meat. I fished with a good friend yesterday and he initially struggled to put fish on the ice. After I had landed five to his zero, he added a fluorocarbon leader to his offering and began to leave me behind in the totals category. Just a tip, water clarity is really high on the Gorge and lake trout can be finicky feeders and even line shy, so take the extra precautions to make your presentation as realistic as possible. Using a fluorocarbon line or leader, which is nearly invisible in water, changed the whole fishing experience.

As safe ice travels downlake, expect new opportunities to arise on daily basis. Hope it helps and be safe on the ice,

— Ryan