Boulder Mountain fishing — Aquarius Plateau lakes

41 lakes, creeks, and reservoirs · distances from Posey Lake.

Boulder Mountain is the 11,000-foot Aquarius Plateau in south-central Utah, between Torrey, Escalante, and Boulder — the highest timbered plateau in North America and one of the best brook trout regions in the West. Eighty-odd lakes on the flat, aspen-and-spruce top and its shoulders are managed for brook trout, cutthroat, tiger trout, splake, and rainbows, and the fish here run bigger than in the Uintas: 16-inch brookies and 20-inch tigers are realistic. Most lakes are stocked by air; a few of the roadside ones by truck.

Getting there

UT-12 between Torrey and Boulder crosses the mountain's east shoulder at 9,600 feet, with the Bowns Reservoir, Lower Bowns, Oak Creek, and Pleasant Creek areas off it; the Posey Lake road (Hell's Backbone) from Escalante reaches the west side. Boulder Top itself is a rough 4WD road (the Boulder Top road) that reaches the plateau lakes — Raft, Ridge, Surveyors, Row Lakes, Miller — when it's dry, generally July through September. Snow closes the top by November and it opens in June.

Season

Ice-off on the top is mid-June; the shoulder lakes open a few weeks earlier. July through September is the season, with the same afternoon-thunderstorm pattern as the Uintas. Fall — mid-September into October — is the best time for big brook trout and tigers, when the aspens turn and the fish are shallow and colored up. The plateau lakes freeze by mid-November.

What works

Leeches, damselfly nymphs, and small streamers on a sinking line from a float tube take the bigger fish; dries in the evening; a spinner or a worm from shore works everywhere. The tiger trout lakes are the trophy draw — a slow-stripped black or olive leech along the weed edges. Several Boulder Mountain lakes have special limits or artificial-only rules to grow big fish; every water page lists them.

Most recently stocked

• Big Lake — Boulder Top South — 37d ago · 10 mi from Posey Lake
• Blue Lake — Escalante Mtn — 37d ago · 12 mi from Posey Lake
• Rim Lake — Boulder Top South — 37d ago · 14 mi from Posey Lake
• Chuck Lake — Boulder Top North — 37d ago · 17 mi from Posey Lake
• Crater Lake — Boulder Top South — 37d ago · 17 mi from Posey Lake
• Bess Lake — Boulder Top North — 37d ago · 19 mi from Posey Lake
• Raft Lake — Boulder Top North — 37d ago · 19 mi from Posey Lake
• Blind Lake — Boulder Mtn North Slope — 37d ago · 22 mi from Posey Lake

All Boulder Mountain lakes

Species

By county