Fishing Sevier River

Sevier River | Cortney Boice, Blue Halo

Weather: Mostly Clear, 31F

The East Fork of the Sevier, just outside of Bryce Canyon National Park, is a river of contrasts. The Kingston Canyon section below Otter Creek Reservoir (another great fishing destination) is a fine tailwater fishery subject to irrigation use. The Black Canyon section south of Otter Creek is a more wild stretch that limits anglers to artificial-only regulations on a major stretch of the river. Work has been done on both sections to restore natural conditions to the river and the surrounding environment.

Kingston Canyon

If you are looking for larger fish on average, you should typically focus on the Kingston Canyon section. The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, with the help of the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, secured a big chunk of public access on the upper portion of the Kingston Canyon section in 2004. You are likely to catch cutthroat, brown and rainbow trout in the Kingston Canyon section of the East Fork of the Sevier. All forms of fishing are allowed on this stretch of the river. Streamers are a lot of fun for fly fishers. The big fish seem particularly interested in them and many casts produce follows. Those using spinning rods like to use weighted woolly buggers and flashy spinners. Bait anglers do best with night crawlers.

Not all of the Kingston Canyon stretch of the river is open to the public. Private land is found at the head of Kingston Canyon and at the end of the canyon near the town of Kingston.

Black Canyon

The Black Canyon section of the East Fork is mostly a brown trout fishery, but there are occasional cutthroat and rainbow trout that will show up on an angler’s hook. Even a random brook trout might be enticed to take the bait.

The East Fork of the Sevier in Black Canyon is reserved for artificial flies and lures only from the Bureau of Land Management boundary — approximately four miles south of the town of Antimony — upstream to the confluence of Deer Creek. Bait is allowed upstream from the Deer Creek confluence. A lot of effort has been put into rebuilding meandering stretches, fencing out livestock and recreating floodplains to help the East Fork improve as a fishery.

Terrestrial fly patterns are a good choice from mid-summer on and streamers work well in high water. Flashy spinners and lures imitating forage fish are solid options for hardware anglers.

Access

There are four public access points in the form of pullouts along the Johns Valley Road — State Road 22 — between Antimony and Widtsoe. Bryce Canyon National Park is just a hop, skip, and a jump from the end of State Road 22.