# Hunting Creek, Manti-LaSal Nat'l Forest



## dickr (May 2, 2013)

I'm a big fan of this trout water, and I need to know if it is fishable this summer. Last summer a forest fire raged through the area, and a mudslide down Engineer Canyon pretty much finished it off, I thought. Does anyone have any first hand knowledge of how the creek is doing?


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

You can still catch fish. It had some serious issues downstream, but it didn't kill everything. If anything, it thinned out the population and helped the remaining fish.

The upper reaches of the Left Fork and Right Fork were unaffected, so there's still a good amount of happy fishing.


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## dickr (May 2, 2013)

*Great*

Sounds more optimistic than the guy at the Nat'l Forest admin office told me. I think they don't get out too often.


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## Kingfisher (Jul 25, 2008)

everything above electric lake is untouched. below the creek has sustained some major damage from debris flows last summer. lots of silted in areas, lots of charred logs and debris in the stream. still fish can survive. low snow and early melt due to lowered albedo from carbon will help stabilize the area some this spring and summer if we dont get a lot of high intensity thunderstorms on it. snowmelt characteristics will be changed for some years to come, expect early flows compared to normal. there was a lot of work done last summer and fall to minimize erosion and the potential for debris and mud flows. still, there is a lot of exposed bare ground that can move to the stream.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Here's a photo of the tail water section of the Right Fork from last fall. You can't even tell there was a fire for the first bit of that canyon. It gets pretty bad about a mile or so downstream, but there were places for the fish to hide that weren't affected by the fire.


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## MKP (Mar 7, 2010)

I'm sure you mean Hunting_ton_ Creek.  The river up from North Hughes Canyon should be okay. Below that, there may be fish but they will be few and far between. I live just a few hundred yards of the creek and watched last last year as it roared by, nothing but black sludge, not much can live in that. 
Just as an FYI the top end of the Left Hand Fork is still inaccessible and the gate will be close for awhile yet. The trail along the Left Fork was totally obliterated, so there will be no hiking it for some time.


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## Kingfisher (Jul 25, 2008)

here is a pic from april lower in the canyon in the fire.


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## Kingfisher (Jul 25, 2008)

here is a map of the debris/mud flows from last summers events. the pink are mud flows post fire last summer, the yellow and orange are active but historic mass wasting events. just gives an idea of the extent of sediment in the lower canyon. a positive is that low snowpacks will have less flow, less potential for more damage and allow some healing time.

and btw... how do you post pics now so they show up like loahs? instead of a thumbnail?


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Use Photobucket.


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## RYsenTrout (Jun 6, 2012)

I drove to Left Fork a couple of weeks ago and there is a sign that says "no foot traffic". A forest service guy pulled up as I was gawking and said "left fork is very unstable right now with mudslides" and "will be off-limits for sometime".


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

That's where they must be hiding the UFO's.:O•-:


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## dickr (May 2, 2013)

*Thanks*

I really appreciate the info, guys. I have a group of friends in SLC that make it every July to fish the creek, for over 20 yrs. We are now in the process of scouting other areas, but this one had roadside access like no other. Something along Miller's Flat Road, maybe?


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## MKP (Mar 7, 2010)

You could fish the top end of the Left Fork from there, as well as the small tributaries. They're challenging due to there small size however.


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

The top end of the LF is a great place to fish. Below Cleveland is a great area.


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