Fishing! (St. George, Cedar City: live, castle, best place)

[pfeinauer]

Hey everyone,

I'm a new fisherman that would like to fish in some of the local areas now (in the heat of summer), catch and release, and using lures and tackle only, no live bait.

Where are some of the best places to go in your experience? I'm looking for a lake / pond type area in which you can sit on the shore and spend a good few hours of a day. I do not have a boat, and don't want to use waders to walk out in the middle of a river / pond / lake.

I went to sportsmans wearhouse and spoke with the salesperson there, he mentioned that there are several stocked ponds in the st george area that may be a good starting point?

-Pat

[slomofo]

If I lived in St. George, I'd be at Sand Hollow every day slaying large mouth bass. The only other places in Southern Utah that I go to are NewCastle which is like 20 miles West of Cedar City, Lake Powell, Yuba, and Fish Lake. Those last two are a bit far from you, but they have some good fishing.

I don't typically fish the community ponds, but I occasionally go and most of them are stocked with trout or catfish and it's pretty hard to catch them on artificial baits, so you may be better off bringing powerbait, a worm, some shrimp, or hot dogs with you. I'm not positive here, but I think the pond fish are starved before they're planted because the ponds are probably the only place on earth where you'll hook into a catfish using powerbait, bread, or any other non-catfish type bait. Other pond fish you can find are bluegill, wiper, largemouth bass, and I think that's it, but whatever you find, they'll probably be super easy to catch.

I like to use a variety of different lures, but mainly rooster tails, curly tails on a *** (White Bass/Striper bass), curly tails on a bobber (for panfish like crappie and bluegill), floating & sinking rapalas, bucktails (while trolling for muskie), panther martins, kastmasters (for trout), and topwater frogs (largemouth bass).

If you hop on facebook, there's a few local groups where you can get more info, but beware, Utah fisherman are STINGY with information and like to cry about a lot of stupid stuff, but if you sift through the garbage, you can find some good info, good friends, and good fishing. The biggest groups on there are Utah Angler's report, Utah local angler's report, Utah's big fish, and Utah Shore fishing.

[Code Stemi]

I think you would enjoy Kolob Resevoir, or Navajo Lake. Both within an hour of STG, both up in the mountains with pleasant scenery and plenty of fishing. Even Duck Creek, too. Or Aspen Mirror. Google them, perhaps.