People think that you have to get away from urban areas to catch fish and small creeks are usually overlooked by bait fisherman so urban streams are sometimes a nice place to go if you want to catch fish and you’re not interested in size. City Creek in the heart of Salt Lake City is a good example of this. It starts up in a canyon and runs right past the capital building and even flows right through a mall. Make sure you don’t fish in the mall because the fish in there are fed and basically are considered pets because there is a screen that keeps them from leaving. You might be charged with animal cruelty if you try to fish for them.

Best thing to do is when you’re close to the capital building try and find B street. B Street will take you on a one way street (but it looks two way, one lane is for cyclists). There is a hair pin turn that goes right over the top of the stream with a road off to the right. If you turn on that road it will take you to a parking lot and there is a locked gate right in front of it. Right at the hair pin there is a pool of slow running water that has a couple browns in it that are quite spooky. There was a higher population of trout in that pool but a recent accident of a retaining wall breaking drained the pool and lots of fish died because of the accident.

You can find a paved road that follows the canyon and stream for five miles with lots of hikers and bikers. There is a water purification plant a little over 3 miles in. The stream is decent with small pockets here and there. There are rock wall retaining walls built in so that spring run off doesn’t wash out the road. There can be small chances to catch these spooky browns hanging in these corners.

There is a couple deep spots that hold several fish in the fall when the flows are low and when the spring run off happens and water levels are higher the fish are a bit more dispersed and find homes in more pools. You’ll have to put in some miles if you’re looking to catch high numbers of fish but if you’re just looking for fantastic scenery and a couple pretty brown trout close to town.