Strawberry Reservoir fishing

Fall outlook: DWR says cutthroat and rainbow trout fishing improves from mid-September, as the water cools, and stays strong until the ice comes on; it can bring some of the year's fastest action. For cutthroat, DWR suggests trolling between 1.0 and 1.8 mph with a white or green tube jig, 3 to 4 inches long and baited with a bit of worm, fished just under the surface roughly 100 feet back. Jigging a tube straight down from a boat, kick boat or float tube is another option, and rocky points and steeper shorelines are good places to try; a fish finder can help find the right depth. Anglers in a boat or on a kick boat can also cast jigs toward shore and retrieve them back out, which DWR rates a good way to reach larger cutthroat cruising near the bank. Hard plastic minnow-imitating baits and topwater lures fished along or across the shoreline can also produce fish there. In October and November, fly fishing can be very productive for cutthroat and rainbows, particularly from kick boats and float tubes, typically with olive or darker patterns; the trick, DWR says, is getting the depth and the retrieve speed right. Rainbows are often caught by anglers who fish bait from shore or from anchored boats, and trout dough bait or a nightcrawler fished on the bottom or beneath a bobber regularly produces them; the boats typically target water under 30 feet deep.

Keeping kokanee is prohibited statewide, starting Sept. 10 and running through Nov. 30, and DWR says the kokanee season at Strawberry is closed until Nov. 30 while the fish spawn. DWR says kokanee fishing normally improves a bit in January, once ice forms.

Our summary of the Utah DWR fishing report dated Sept. 16, 2026, in our own words. Read the original on DWR Fish Utah.