Anglers will be allowed to bowfish for striped bass and use setlines at Lake Powell under fishing regulations the Utah Wildlife Board approved Sept. 17.
A setline is anchored to a stationary object rather than attached to a fishing pole. Existing Utah rules also require a setline permit in addition to a fishing license.
The fishing changes for 2027-28 affect waters across the state, including several in southern Utah. The board also approved elk hunting changes and new fees, according to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.
Southern Utah waters
At Navajo Lake, anglers will be allowed to keep one tiger muskie of any size per day. The daily brook trout limit at Donkey Lake will fall from 16 fish to eight.
The board set a daily limit of 40 northern pike, no more than two of them over 36 inches, at DMAD Reservoir, Gunnison Bend Reservoir, Redmond Lake and the Sevier River. It also approved spearfishing and bowfishing for northern pike at Redmond Lake.
Eleven Boulder Mountain waters in Garfield and Wayne counties will open for seven additional weeks of fishing each year, DWR said. Their revised closures will run from Jan. 1 until 6 a.m. April 1 and from Dec. 1 through Dec. 31. The waters are Beaver Dam Reservoir, Bulberry Lakes, Fish Creek Reservoir, Honeymoon Lake, Long Willow Bottom Reservoir, McGath Lake, Pacer Lake, Pine Creek Reservoir, Round Willow Bottom Reservoir, Scout Lake and Solitaire Lake.
Statewide fishing changes
The board reduced the daily limit for roundtail chub from two fish to zero and removed a special regulation for the species in McElmo Creek. It also reclassified 14 native fish species as game fish with zero-fish daily limits. They include bluehead, desert and flannelmouth suckers and Virgin spinedace. Anglers may catch and release these fish but may not keep them. White sturgeon will also have a zero-fish limit.
A related rule clarification bars underwater spearfishers from targeting game fish with zero-fish daily limits. The board also removed several species from the list of dead fish anglers may use as bait, including mountain sucker, longnose dace and speckled dace.
Other changes expand the methods allowed to take common carp, fathead minnows and redside shiners in waters open to fishing. Similar methods will be allowed for Utah chub, Utah sucker and white sucker, except in the Weber River, Utah Lake and its tributaries. Spearfishing affected by seasonal spawning closures will reopen at 6 a.m. on the fourth Saturday in June.
DWR said an angler survey showed broad statewide support for its proposed fishing changes.
Elk hunting and fees
For the 2027 hunting season, the board removed the 15,000-permit cap on general-season any-bull elk permits. It restored a multiseason any-bull permit, capped at 5,000, that will allow holders to participate in the general-season archery, muzzleloader and any-legal-weapon any-bull hunts.
The board also combined the early and late any-legal-weapon any-bull hunts into one 14-day hunt, added the Paunsaugunt unit to the general archery season and removed the 4,500-permit cap on multiseason spike elk permits. The overall 15,000-permit cap on spike elk permits remains.
The aquatic invasive species decal for motorized boats will rise from $20 to $25 for Utah residents and from $25 to $50 for nonresidents. DWR cited higher operating costs and reduced federal funding. The board also lowered the cost of a spot-and-stalk black bear permit from $93 to $50 for residents and from $889 to $480 for nonresidents.
Among its other decisions, the board approved changes to rules governing amphibians and reptiles, hunting permit relief after natural disasters and license rates for nonresident active-duty military personnel. It approved annual audit reports for its conservation and expo permit programs and shifted one 2027 Book Cliffs cow elk expo permit from the Bitter Creek hunt to the Little Creek/South hunt.
-Andrew Christiansen