Utah County lakes, rivers stocked with fish for the summer by DWR
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- A women fishes at Salem Pond on Tuesday, May 13, 2025.
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- Silver Lake Flat Reservoir is pictured Monday, June 16, 2025.
A spring wave of fish stockings has Utah County’s bodies of water full of fish as the calendar officially turns to summer Friday.
Lakes, rivers and ponds statewide are stocked with fish throughout the year by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to boost fishing recreation and assist native fish populations.
In Utah County, most of these efforts are carried out by DRW’s Central Region, which primarily harvests rainbow trout out of a hatchery in Springville and distributes the fish throughout the region.
“What we usually do is we start stocking in early spring, like the first part of February,” said Springville Hatchery Supervisor Richard Hartman. “We stock most of our fish out at the hatcheries before July because the water gets too warm to stock, especially with trout during the summer months.”
In the summer, the hatchery switches to catfish, a warm-water fish, and distributes the species out on a smaller scale. The process restarts with trout in September, with fish being stocked out in early November.
“It’s kind of a continual rotation,” Hartman said. “We’re just always rotating fish through.”
The process begins when eggs are brought in and hatched, and kept in the hatchery building until they’re 3 inches long, Hartman said.
The fish are then moved to the outside raceways and raised up to roughly 10 inches long, then they’re ready to stock.
Most fish are delivered to their new aquatic home by truck; DWR has fish trucks with water tanks equipped with oxygen to keep the fish alive.
Less accessible lakes, though, such as Silver Lake up American Fork Canyon, require dropping the fish from an airplane or backpacking them in.
“Some of those higher-elevation lakes that don’t have roads to them will have airplane stock as needed,” Hartman said. “But if there’s roads to them, then we usually just drive in.”
The large reservoirs receive the greatest bulk of supply. Over 150,000 rainbow trout were dumped into Deer Creek Reservoir this year between Jan. 16 and April 23, and Strawberry Reservoir gained a total of 400,000 fish — a combo of kokanee salmon and rainbow trout — between March 4 and June 4.
But local ponds in Utah Valley are also stocked for fishing purposes. Salem Pond received over 15,000 fish from Jan. 13 and June 1, and Bartholomew Park Pond gained over 5,000 fish between March 5 and June 10.
Hartman said from the feedback he’s received so far, the stocking efforts have made for a good fishing season this summer.
“I talked to some people last week that said it’s been really good,” he said. “They’re really happy with the fisheries this year, and the fishing has been great.”
Here’s where fish are stocked in Utah County and when each water source was most recently stocked, as of Thursday, according to DWR.
American Fork Creek
- Latest stock: 499 rainbow trout, May 27
American Fork Creek North Fork
- Latest stock: 350 rainbow trout, May 27
Bartholomew Park Pond (Springville)
- Latest stock: 546 cutthroat trout, June 10
- Other fish stocked: rainbow trout
Box Lake
- Latest stock: 1,008 rainbow trout, June 3
Canyon View Park Pond (Spanish Fork)
- Latest stock: 563 catfish, June 5
- Other fish stocked: rainbow trout
Diamond Fork River
- Latest stock: 18,900 brown trout, May 28
Highland Glen Park (Highland)
- Latest stock: catfish, June 19
- Other fish stocked: rainbow trout, tiger trout
Manila Creek Park Pond (Pleasant Grove)
- Latest stock: 374 tiger trout, May 29
- Other fish stocked: brown trout, rainbow trout, wiper
Maple Lake
- Latest stock: 1,377 rainbow trout, May 29
- Other fish stocked: muskie tiger, tiger trout
McClellan Lake
- Latest stock: 1,197 rainbow trout, June 3
Payson/Big East Reservoir
- Latest stock: 2,570 rainbow trout, May 28,
Pole Canyon Park Pond (Santaquin)
- Latest stock: 1,125 catfish, June 19
- Other fish stocked: rainbow trout, tiger trout
Provo River Delta
- Latest stock: 1,125 catfish, June 5
- Other fish stocked: rainbow trout, tiger trout, wiper
Salem Pond
- Latest stock: catfish, June 19
- Other fish stocked: brook trout, rainbow trout, tiger trout, wiper
Silver Lake Flat Reservoir
- Latest stock: 1,000 rainbow trout, June 4
Spanish Oaks Reservoir (Spanish Fork)
- Latest stock: 500 rainbow trout, May 28
Spring Lake
- Latest stock: catfish, June 19
- Other fish stocked: rainbow trout, tiger trout, wiper
Tibble Fork
- Latest stock: 1,000 rainbow trout, June 4
Utah Lake
- Latest stock: 10,471 June sucker, May 29
Vivian Park
- Latest stock: 400 rainbow trout, May 20
Willow Creek Pond (Lehi)
- Latest stock: catfish, June 19
- Other fish stocked: rainbow trout
