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Home › Waters › Utah › Strawberry River
River · Northeastern Utah, the canyon reach below Soldier Creek Dam running east past the Pinnacles toward Fruitland and the Duchesne confluence · Utah

Strawberry River Fishing Guides

A canyon trout stream below Strawberry Reservoir, small water with an outsized reputation among Utah anglers.

An angler working a wide sagebrush river valley at dusk in the Northern Rockies
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Strawberry River

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About the Strawberry River

The Strawberry below Soldier Creek Dam runs through a narrow, rocky canyon past the rock spires that give the gauge site its name. It is small water – a stream more than a river through much of the canyon – and it is one of the more closely held favorites among anglers in northern Utah. The canyon is steep, the willows are thick, and getting to the good water requires walking, which does an efficient job of thinning the crowd.

Brown trout are the dominant fish and the reason the river has its reputation. The canyon holds a strong wild population, and the combination of cold water, abundant insect life and heavy bank cover produces fish out of proportion to the size of the stream. Cutthroat and rainbows are present, and mountain whitefish are common in the deeper runs.

Utah has invested real effort in this drainage. Habitat restoration through the canyon and a set of special regulations covering parts of the river have rebuilt a fishery that had declined badly. Those regulations vary by reach and change from time to time, so the current guidebook is essential reading before a trip rather than an afterthought.

Because the river comes out of a large reservoir it holds its temperature and clarity better than a pure freestone would, and it fishes across a longer season than the surrounding streams. Flows are managed and can change with reservoir operations. Nymphing the pocket water is the workhorse method, with good dry-fly opportunities on summer evenings and a productive baetis period in the fall.

US 40 parallels the lower canyon, and there are marked pullouts along the highway, but the better fishing is reached on foot upstream or downstream from those points.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Posting to Strawberry River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Pinnacles area - the gauge reach and the best-known canyon access.
US 40 pullouts - marked roadside parking along the lower canyon.
Soldier Creek Dam - the top of the river below Strawberry Reservoir.
Fruitland - the small community near the lower canyon.
Red Creek confluence - a tributary junction reachable on foot.
Canyon walk-in trails - foot access from the highway down into the gorge.
Duchesne confluence - the lower end where the river joins the Duchesne.

Seasons

Spring: runoff and reservoir operations can push flows up and color the water.
Summer: prime season, with terrestrial fishing in the canyon and cool water from the dam.
Fall: excellent, with baetis hatches and brown trout moving ahead of the spawn.
Winter: fishable on mild days thanks to the reservoir release, but access is icy and difficult.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Strawberry River?

As of Sep 17, 6:25 am, the USGS gauge STRAWBERRY RIVER AT PINNACLES NEAR FRUITLAND, UT reads 39 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Strawberry River?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout on the Strawberry River in Utah.

Where can you access the Strawberry River?

Pinnacles area - the gauge reach and the best-known canyon access. US 40 pullouts - marked roadside parking along the lower canyon. Soldier Creek Dam - the top of the river below Strawberry Reservoir. Fruitland - the small community near the lower canyon. Red Creek confluence - a tributary junction reachable on foot. Canyon walk-in trails - foot access from the highway down into the gorge. Duchesne confluence - the lower end where the river joins the Duchesne.

When is the best time to fish the Strawberry River?

Spring: runoff and reservoir operations can push flows up and color the water. Summer: prime season, with terrestrial fishing in the canyon and cool water from the dam. Fall: excellent, with baetis hatches and brown trout moving ahead of the spawn. Winter: fishable on mild days thanks to the reservoir release, but access is icy and difficult.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Strawberry River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Utah agency site: https://wildlife.utah.gov/guidebooks.html