Autumn Bite Heats Up in Salt Lake City Fisheries

It’s Artificial Lure with your Saturday morning Salt Lake City area fishing report for September 27, 2025. The sun rose at 7:19 AM and sets around 7:18 PM today. No tides here in the mountain West, but expect low wind early and clear, crisp fall air—temps climbing from the upper 40s at dawn to a pleasant high around 73. Autumn’s working its magic on the water, cooling things off and really revving up fish activity. Let’s kick things off with local catches. Jordanelle and Deer Creek Reservoirs have been producing solid numbers of **rainbow trout** and **smallmouth bass** this week, along with some chunky **brown trout** in the deeper pools. Recent reports from the Utah Division of Wildlife say anglers pulling double-digit numbers of rainbows with a mix of sizes – most in the 12-17 inch range. Smallies are especially aggressive right now, taking deep-diving crankbaits and soft plastics fished slow along rocky points. Word from electric lake echoes the same, with cutthroat and rainbows chasing bait at dawn and dusk. Fish are feeding up for winter and showing consistent action, especially near inflows and drop-offs. In the rivers nearby, Provo River continues to deliver up wild **brown trout** and ***rainbows*** eager for drifting nymphs or small streamers. The Weber’s seeing moderate flows and plenty of rising trout; dry flies like Blue-Winged Olives and midges in the afternoon have drawn strikes. Early risers report best success—once the sun gets high, it slows until late afternoon. Fall fishing is picking up in the high country too, with Bear River and the High Uintas lakes waking up as the water cools. Blacksmith Fork is a sleeper hotspot this time of year and fall foliage is making for a pretty drive and even prettier trout waiting to be fooled. Now let’s talk tactics. The most productive lures for reservoir trout have been **silver and gold spoons, Rooster Tails, and Rapalas** in perch pattern or plain black. Bass are smashing ***crawfish-colored jigs, Ned rigs, and Texas-rigged plastics**—natural colors work best. For bait, it’s hard to beat worms for trout, either on the bottom or suspended under a bobber. Anglers soaking cut bait are catching bigger rainbows and browns. Fly folks should run olive or black woolly buggers, and keep a few zebra midges or pheasant tails handy for nymphing. Stripers and wipers at Willard Bay are feeding heavily—chasing shad and schooling close to the inlet. The best bets have been **white swimbaits, bucktail jigs, and live shad** when you can find them. According to recent outdoors columns, anglers chasing ghost shad schools with sonar are finding the most action at dawn. For hot spots today: - **Jordanelle Reservoir inlet** – consistent trout, some big browns lurking at the mouth - **Deer Creek rock piles**, especially near Wallsburg Bay, for smallmouth and rainbows - **Provo River stretch at Vivian Park**, best numbers of wild browns and still a touch of dry fly action - **Willard Bay North Marina** fo This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.