Has anyone ever fished the Jordan river within Salt Lake’s city limits? I drive past it all the time and it appears to be prime pickins. Would there be all the UL species that far down stream (SLC)?
All species found in Utah Lake are also in Jordan River. I’ve even caught rainbows and seen cutts caught out of the Jordan, towards the northern end of the river. We caught both of these on accident while fishing a worm on the bottom targeting carp to use for our catfish bait. I’ve also seen walleye caught out of there.
2 of us from BFT went last night from like 12:00 AM to 3:00 AM…we have some good spots between 3500 S and 5400 S. They were biting like crazy last night and we caught (3) 5-8 lb channel catfish. I’ve seen people bring out Suckerfish, White Bass, Trout, and on occasion some walleye. We enjoy the night fishing…however it was getting hard to see our poles as the nights are getting darker…so we went and bought some 1 and a 1/2 inch glow sticks and just taped them near the top of the poles…cha-ching! as soon as we could see them a bit better we were in business! Last night we used various baits…baby shads, night crawlers, and some liver powerbait all of which we got hits on. It was a warm night and bugs weren’t too bad, though if you go without spray, you’d better expect some nice bites. There are a couple places that are great to cast from but it takes a quick stroll down the trail to find them…as most of the river banks are full of brush and its very difficult to cast through…but when you find the nice spots…its worth it. Over the past 2 months I’ve mostly seen channel and some mudders…so based off of our excursions, most lively in there would be catfish…
Do you eat any of the species you catch from the Jordan River?
That’s a negative…so far anyways. I’ll let you know as soon as we decide to make some catfish tacos or something. 
What kind of water do you look to fish on the Jordan? The back eddies? Bouncing baits through the riffles? Calm side areas with little current? Thanks.
Mostly sides where there is some light churning of the water. Places to cast are hard to come by…so you do what you can…mostly I look for little side areas that are not in the main current…if you’re fishing directly from a bridge, you can go right in the current …I mean it works…but if you’re fishing from the river bank, you’ll want to stay clear of the current because it will definitely take your line and slam it into the side of the bank and snag like crazy. For my current rig for the Jordan River I just use a pretty big 3/8 egg-ish sinker, a swivel, and a 1/0 hook with whatever bait…seems to be doing the trick well enough. I currently have 8lb test line on my rig and it seems to hold up just fine…there are times where I feel it might just work better with braided though…The other BFT guy that comes with me uses braided and he seems to have a better “grasp” on the fish…the line stays snug to the fish better for him…I’m not sure if I’m explaining that well…but hopefully you understand what I mean.
after utah lake, the jordan is my preference. I enjoy the middle/south sections of 90th S. to 130th. I use a heavy sinker and pitch it into the larger pools and calmer spots. I have caught several big channel cats and even a beautiful grass carp. Bleeding them out and putting them on ice right away make them tasty and fine. … and no I dont glow green after consumption. I have also caught nice crappie / bluegill on the section that runs through the golf course off 94 th.
I was fishing the Jordan near 5400 and I saw a guy taking water samples. He was a college student working on his degree. He said around 7200 south a new development went in and they accidently tied a sewer line into a run- off to the Jordan. Has anyone else heard that, or verify that? Either way I don’t know if i’d eat fish out of there, but its still fun pulling big fish out of there.