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Weekend Angler: Salt Lake City
Species: Brown, rainbow, cutthroat, brook and whitefish. Locals do catch browns in the four-pound range and the river does hold browns ever bigger than that.
Tackle: 7½- to 9-foot rods with 3-6 weight line. Hip or chest waders if you wade but in the summer, you can get by with wading boots and neoprene socks.
Flies: Baetis, pale morning duns, caddis, stonefly. Try Pale Morning Duns in the afternoon and Caddis patterns in the late afternoons and evenings. You'll see caddis come off all day on cloudy days. Terrestrials play an important part of fly selection. The tops are Hoppers such as Dave's Hopper or Parachute Hoppers (#8-#10). Ants are effective as well. Local favorites for nymph dropper patterns include the Copper Bead Z-wing Caddis, Flashback Caddis Pupa in Olive or Tan, BH Caddis Larvae, or Peaking Caddis (#14-#16). For attractors, try Royal Wulffs and Humpies.
Regulations: In Logan, most of the public water is artificial flies and lures only. The trout limit is four from Card Canyon Bridge downstream.
Fly shops: Spinner Fly Shop, Salt Lake City, (801) 583-2602; Western Rivers Flyfisher, Salt Lake City, (801) 521-6424; Anglers Inn, Salt Lake City, (801) 466-3927.
Directions: US Route 89 runs beside Logan River for most of its course. Access: Substantial public access from the road along the stream, with lots of pullouts. Private water is well-marked.
Lodging: Plenty of camping along the Logan. Anglers will also find nice accommodations in Logan. Some of the favorite digs include Beaver Creek Lodge, (800) 946-4485, Alta Manor Suites, (801) 752-0808, Zanavoo Lodge, (801) 752-0084, and Best Western Weston Inn, (801) 752-5700. In Salt Lake City, you can stay in any of a hundred hotels, motels, lodges and bed & breakfasts. You can find exactly what you want by calling one of these: Utah Reservation Service, (800) 557-8824, Utah Travel Council, (801) 538-1030, Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau and Information Center, (800) 222-UTAH.
Suggested Reading: Utah Fishing Guide, by Steve Cook (Utah Outdoors); Hunting and Fishing Utah, by Hartt Wixom (Wasatch Publishing).
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The Logan River is a scenic freestone canyon stream with plenty of pocketwater, riffles, and long runs. Watch for rattlesnakes in the summer but the real hazards are all the anglers on this bouncy river, which is typically crowded on the weekends and holidays.
The Logan has wild browns and rainbows, with a small cutthroat population. Anglers will find a few whitefish as well. For the most part, the fish you'll land are a foot long, but if you fish deep, you've got a legit chance at a whopper brown.
You'll see waterfalls along the drive and come across excellent dry fly fishing, with lots of hatches for a canyon stream. And if you want to fish only with dry flies, you will have no problem catching quite a few 10- to 14-inch trout.
But if you really want to hook some hogs, tie on some big streamers, stonefly nymphs, or mayfly and caddis nymphs and go deep. Otherwise, you're not going to reach the big browns. Large browns are caught in Logan every year (how about a ten-pounder?) but the majority of fish are now stocked rainbows.
The fishing can be productive from Card Canyon to Red Banks. Wading can be tricky because of the steepness of the banks, so your best bet is to hop the rocks and fish from the shoreline. The Logan has three impoundments (the sections being named as First, Second, and Third Dams).
Despite all the other fly fishers dotting the river, with more than 35 miles of public water, you can still find stretches to call your own, especially in the brushy stretches, which most anglers find too much trouble. Try the Temple Fork and Right Hand Fork for great dry fly action and seclusion. Spring runoff usually ends by early June, and the Logan is open year-round.
Details mentioned in this article were accurate at the time of publication
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