Uinta Mountains fishing — Mirror Lake Highway & High Uintas lakes

141 lakes, creeks, and reservoirs · 54 roadside along the Mirror Lake Highway (UT-150) · 87 backcountry · distances from Mirror Lake.

The Uintas are the only major east–west range in the lower 48 and the roof of Utah — Kings Peak tops 13,500 feet — and they hold more than a thousand lakes, a few hundred of which the DWR manages for fishing. Brook trout dominate, with cutthroat, rainbows, tiger trout, grayling, and a few golden trout up high; most lakes are stocked by airplane on a rotating schedule, and the fish are rarely big but rarely hard to catch. The Mirror Lake Highway (UT-150) from Kamas to Evanston is the drive-up side: dozens of lakes within a mile of pavement between Trial Lake and Bald Mountain Pass. Everything else is on foot or horseback from trailheads on the North Slope, the Uinta River, Lake Fork, and Rock Creek drainages.

Getting there

UT-150 opens when the snow allows, usually late May to mid-June, and closes to vehicles with the first big storms in November. It's a fee area (Forest Service recreation pass). Trailheads at Crystal Lake, Christmas Meadows, Highline (Hayden Pass), and Bald Mountain reach hundreds of lakes; the North Slope roads out of Mountain View, Wyoming and the Uinta Basin roads out of Roosevelt and Duchesne reach the south and north drainages. The High Uintas Wilderness bans motors and bikes.

Season

Ice-off on the highway lakes is late June, higher basins into July. The first two weeks after ice-out are the easiest fishing of the year. July and August are prime, with afternoon thunderstorms nearly every day — fish mornings. September is quiet and beautiful, with the brook trout coloring up for their fall spawn; snow can close things any night after mid-September. The DWR stocks the highway lakes repeatedly through summer and the backcountry lakes by air every one to three years.

What works

A short fly rod with a Royal Wulff, a Griffith's gnat, or a small black leech covers nearly every lake; a light spinning rod with a small Panther Martin or a worm under a bobber does the same. Fish the inlets, the drop-offs off rocky points, and the shady side in the afternoon. Brook trout limits are generous — a bonus limit applies on many Uinta lakes to thin them out — and cutthroat and grayling waters can carry their own rules; check each water's regulations section.

Most recently stocked

• Washington Lake — Mirror Lake Hwy — 2d ago · 5 mi from Mirror Lake
• Mirror Lake — 10d ago · 0 mi from Mirror Lake
• Lost Lake — Uintas North Slope — 10d ago · 47 mi from Mirror Lake
• Pass Lake — Mirror Lake Hwy — 24d ago · 0 mi from Mirror Lake
• Butterfly Lake — 24d ago · 2 mi from Mirror Lake
• Lilly Lake — Mirror Lake Hwy — 24d ago · 3 mi from Mirror Lake
• Trial Lake — 24d ago · 4 mi from Mirror Lake
• Smith and Morehouse Reservoir — 24d ago · 12 mi from Mirror Lake

Roadside — within 3.5 miles of the Mirror Lake Highway (UT-150)

Backcountry — hike-in and 4WD

Species

By county