Uintas - Trial Lake area report

Utah Fishing Reports & Discussion Utah Fishing General
1

I was surprised at what I saw and experienced today, especially based on previous reports. I am writing this to report the true status of the Trial Lake vicinity.

We tried to get into some lakes that take a little hiking to get to. The first thing to report is that, just where you get to Trial Lake dam, there were orange barrels and cones in the road to stop you from proceeding toward Washington Lake or the Crystal Lake Trail Head. I half suspected I wouldn’t get past there so the backup plan was to fish Crystal Lake. We hiked to Crystal Lake to find it mostly frozen. That really surprised me. We found our way to the little open water there was, but it was very shallow there and fishing was poor. I managed to hook one fish, but it got off half way in. The water in that lake was ICE cold.

We then decided to hike down to Washington knowing that it was at least half open based on previous reports on BFT. Wrong! It was 90% frozen, and where there had been some open water, the night freeze had left 1/4 inch ice. I could not see a place to fish at Washington. And, there were a heck of a lot of snow patches everywhere. I spent half the time walking in snow.

The campgrounds at Washington and Trial are far from open and there is too much snow near Trial to drive to the fisherman’s parking area. We walked on Trail Lake dam and Trial is completely open, as was Lilly and Teapot. There was still some ice on Lost Lake but it was fishable.
I did not drive much past Lost Lake.

We then went to a lake in the Murdock Basin area. The lake was open and I figure all lakes in that area are open. Again, there are still a lot of snow patches around there. The road is passable but as always it is not for the family sedan. The fishing there was good.

All the lakes I saw are full to the brim. The ground is soggy virtually everywhere. Every little stream is very, very full. I did not have any trouble with bugs which was nice. And the temperature in the day was perfect. No rain either.

In short, the area is just opening up and I bet the lakes higher than Crystal are still iced over and not worth the hike.

2

Awesome info and thanks. I have family in town the end of July and every year we make one trip to that area. Sounds like we MIGHT be fishing ice out conditions during the last week of July. Sweet.

3

Fished Washington 12 days ago, only had the inlet open, thought it would have been opened up more by now. Did well in the little open wAter that we did find. Thanks for the report.

4

I went back to Murdoch Basin yesterday. FYI the mosquitoes are out of control up to about 9400 ft elevation but as you get to the lakes a little higher up they were still bug free. So that gives you about 1000 ft that is both relatively bug free and snow free to fish. It obviously rained very hard Saturday night as the road and everything else was very muddy. It also poured like crazy as I left. Hit 3 lakes and didn’t see anyone else on them. Catching was pretty much nonstop at any inlet for an hour before it dropped off. Actual had a golden trout swim up within 10 feet of me at one inlet. I cast to him several times but he gave a look at my fly once and then spooked. Water was crystal clear and I watched him for a minute or more so quite certain it was a golden even if I didn’t land him. So at least 2 lakes up there have them. I’ve heard of another lake back there that have golden trout as well. If you’re going I’d make it soon because with all that standing water the mosquitoes will be out of control shortly. I’ve attached pics of the 3 empty lakes I fished. And that one with the dog in it isn’t just a pic of a marsh or swamp[crazy]. There’s a lake back there as well.