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Home › Waters › Utah › Blacksmith Fork
River · Northern Utah, the Bear River Range canyon east of Hyrum in Cache Valley, flowing west to join the Logan River · Utah

Blacksmith Fork Fishing Guides

A canyon stream in Cache Valley with wild browns, native cutthroat and easy roadside access east of Hyrum.

A freestone river running through a rocky mountain valley in autumn in the Northern Rockies
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

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About the Blacksmith Fork

Blacksmith Fork drops out of the Bear River Range through a canyon east of Hyrum and joins the Logan River on the floor of Cache Valley. It is a classic northern Utah canyon stream: cold, clear, brushy in places and open in others, with a paved road running up the canyon that makes almost the whole of the good water reachable within a short walk of a parked car.

Brown trout carry the fishery. They are wild, well established and distributed through the canyon from the mouth up into the forks. Bonneville cutthroat, the native trout of this basin, occupy the upper reaches and the tributaries, and Utah manages the drainage with their conservation in mind. Rainbows and mountain whitefish fill out the mix.

The stream is small enough that stealth matters. Fish see the road, the campgrounds and a steady stream of anglers through the summer, and a heavy approach puts them down. Short casts, fine tippet and careful wading do far better than distance. Pocket water and plunge pools dominate the steeper reaches, while the lower canyon opens into longer glides with better dry-fly water.

The gauge sits above a small diversion dam near the canyon mouth, and flows below that point are affected by irrigation withdrawal through the summer. Above it the stream runs at natural levels. The upper canyon divides into the Left Hand and Right Hand forks, both of which hold fish and both of which are worth exploring on foot.

Access is genuinely easy here, which is unusual for Utah. National forest land covers most of the canyon, campgrounds are spaced along the road, and the Hardware Ranch wildlife management area sits at the top of the drainage.

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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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Reviewed by hand before it appears. Pick the water, not the spot — we never publish exact locations.

Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Blacksmith Fork.

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

Hyrum - the canyon mouth and the nearest town with services.
Blacksmith Fork Canyon road - continuous roadside access up the canyon.
Friendship Campground - developed camping with stream access.
Pioneer Campground - another established access point mid-canyon.
Left Hand Fork - a tributary road with walk-and-wade water.
Right Hand Fork - upper drainage access on national forest.
Hardware Ranch - the top of the canyon and the upper stream.

Seasons

Spring: snowmelt from the Bear River Range keeps the canyon high and cold through May.
Summer: the main season, with good pocket-water fishing and terrestrials along the banks.
Fall: clear, low and excellent, with browns coloring up ahead of the spawn.
Winter: cold with snow-covered access, though the lower canyon can fish on mild days.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the Blacksmith Fork?

As of Sep 17, 5:45 am, the USGS gauge BLACKSMITH FORK AB UP and L CO.'S DAM NR HYRUM, UT reads 47 cfs. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the Blacksmith Fork?

Anglers target Brown Trout, Cutthroat Trout, Mountain Whitefish, Rainbow Trout on the Blacksmith Fork in Utah.

Where can you access the Blacksmith Fork?

Hyrum - the canyon mouth and the nearest town with services. Blacksmith Fork Canyon road - continuous roadside access up the canyon. Friendship Campground - developed camping with stream access. Pioneer Campground - another established access point mid-canyon. Left Hand Fork - a tributary road with walk-and-wade water. Right Hand Fork - upper drainage access on national forest. Hardware Ranch - the top of the canyon and the upper stream.

When is the best time to fish the Blacksmith Fork?

Spring: snowmelt from the Bear River Range keeps the canyon high and cold through May. Summer: the main season, with good pocket-water fishing and terrestrials along the banks. Fall: clear, low and excellent, with browns coloring up ahead of the spawn. Winter: cold with snow-covered access, though the lower canyon can fish on mild days.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Blacksmith Fork?

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