# Night fishing at Deer Creek no longer allowed.



## dubob (Sep 8, 2007)

I don't fish Deer Creek, so I didn't know about this until it was brought up on that 'other' fishing website a couple days ago. I thought all y'all should know about it as well. This became effective some time in 2020. The new ruling went into affect in 2020 and was put in place to prohibit boat camping and people using the lake to access camping in areas outside the state park. As of right it is being enforced at Deer Creek SP with a trespassing ticket if any boat is on the water past 10 PM. The Deer Creek SP Manager stated to a member on that 'other' site that he was not aware that people actually fish deer Creek at night. He also indicated that he was going to check in with the other state park managers and see if this is something they were going to enforce. So, it is not very clear to me if this restriction is a new restriction for all State Parks with fishable water or just something unique to Deer Creek SP. I don't night fish, so I don't know how wide spread this will be. You folks that do night fish other SP waters might want to look into this.

The authority for doing this is contained in Utah Code; Title 79, Natural Resources; Chapter 4, Parks and Recreation; Part 3, Board Creation and Duties; Section 304, Board rulemaking authority; (Effective 5/10/2016) which says, in part:


https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title79/Chapter4/79-4-S304.html said:


> *9-4-304. Board rulemaking authority.*
> 
> (1) Rules made by the board shall be made in accordance with Title 63G, Chapter 3, Utah Administrative Rulemaking Act.
> (2)(a) The board may make rules:
> ...


There are 9 board members and their names/emails are published on a utah.gov website. See the list below (Brent Boswell would be the member from the region covering Deer Creek:


https://stateparks.utah.gov/resources/board-of-utah-state-parks-and-recreation/ said:


> Board Members:
> Bob Murri, Chair
> _Davis, Weber, and Morgan counties_
> [email protected]
> ...


Their next scheduled meeting is on May 20, 2021. I have no idea if this will be an open meeting or a virtual meeting.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

dubob, did you ever find the actual law that says that you can't do it? 

I did a search for "fishing at night in Utah", and "boating at night in Utah" and didn't come up with a thing. 

I also looked at the Deer Creek State Park web site and it has nothing, but I may of missed it.


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## dubob (Sep 8, 2007)

I looked and couldn't find anything either. The person on the other site says he talked to the park manager and got the information direct from him. I also looked at the Board minutes back through November 2019 and didn't find any mention of it. I was planning on talking to the Parks & Rec office early next week to see if they could give me a source for the rule change. Stay tuned. 🙂


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## MrShane (Jul 21, 2019)

Please remember this issue is just not going to effect boaters, this also applies to night ice fisherman.
If this particular managers opinion spreads to other bodies of water, such as Pineview, it will stop a lot of fun night fishing.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Yea, the only thing that I could find is that the park closes at 10pm. 

But if there is no night fishing you would think that it would be in the fishing regs. 

But the question of using a boat to access a camping spot on Deer Creek other than the State Park area is next to impossible, unless you want to do some hiking to get to one.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

Critter said:


> Yea, the only thing that I could find is that the park closes at 10pm.
> 
> But if there is no night fishing you would think that it would be in the fishing regs.


As I understand it, the State park closes at 10, which includes the boat ramps, but would likely not include some of the walk-in areas accessed from the highway, therefore the fishing regs would not say anything. 

I do agree that if the State Parks choose to enforce the 10 PM closure, it will be a notable loss for anglers.


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