High Uintas - Upper Provo Basin

[gofish435]

I could be wrong, but part of the reason the Boulders fish get so much larger is that there is far less pressure.  The Uintas being so close to SLC is both a blessing and a curse.  As soon as word got out, the lake would get pounded.  Maybe artificials only and a strict catch and release policy would work, but I think any “daily limit” would overwhelm fish numbers due to sheer volume of anglers.

Nice pics too!!

Thank you.

Boulder Mountain definitely sees less pressure and very few (if any) “drive up” fishing opportunities. Could be something to do with the ecology of Boulder lakes vs Uintas as well. Might simply be more fertility there for some reason. Reason I say that is because even the more remote lakes in the Uintas that receive infrequent stockings don’t seem to produce trophy-proportion fish like Boulder does.

As far as pressure goes on a “quality” or “trophy” project lake in the Uintas, it may not be as much as you think. In my experience, the meat hunting crowd follow the great white fleet from DNR. The stocking trucks show up and a hundred lines garnished with PowerBait are cast right behind it.

I pulled some of the stocking data last night on seven (7) of the larger lakes along the Mirror Lake Highway and the amount of fish they put into these lakes is staggering. Most “fertile” trout lakes can support around 300 fish/acre. These are lower elevation, full menu, long growing seasons, etc. Many of these lakes along the MLH are stocked at a rate of 400-450 fish/acre and they have nowhere near the fish carrying capacity of lower elevation lakes. Basically they are “prettier” versions of community fishing ponds.

I’m drafting an email to send to the DNR just out of curiosity. See if they respond (they usually do) and I’ll post any replies here.

Back in the day when my wife and I use to backpack we found a few lakes that held some good fish but for the most part I think that because of the elevation and long winters that most of the lakes are not capable of growing big fish.  Some have a difficult time just over wintering fish.  

I think your idea is a good one but that there are not a lot of the lakes that would qualify.