Great Salt Lake is a lake in Utah, near Box Elder County.
Great Salt Lake is a closed salt lake in northern Utah. Its full mapped area is about 925,982 acres, but the shoreline can move a long way as snowmelt, river flow, rain, heat, and evaporation change the water level.
This is not a normal fishing lake. The Bear, Weber, and Jordan rivers bring fresh water into it, but the lake has no outlet. Water leaves through evaporation, while salt and minerals stay behind.
Great Salt Lake is one of the largest salt lakes in the Western Hemisphere. It is split into bays and arms that can have very different salt levels. Gunnison Bay is often much saltier than Gilbert Bay, while Farmington Bay and Bear River Bay receive more fresh water.
A fact from one bay should not be used for the entire lake. Water level, salt level, exposed lakebed, and the amount of fresh river water can change greatly from one end to another and from one year to the next.
Fish cannot live in the main body of Great Salt Lake because the water contains far too much salt. The salt level is much higher than freshwater fish can handle, and parts of the lake can become saltier than the ocean.
Fish need to keep the right balance of water and salt inside their bodies. In Great Salt Lake, that balance fails. A freshwater fish placed in the open lake would lose water through its gills and body and could not survive.
Freshwater rivers, marshes, and ponds near the edge may contain fish, but those are separate waters. A fish report from the Bear River, Jordan River, or a connected wetland should never be treated as proof that fish live in the open salt lake.
You cannot fish Great Salt Lake itself because there are no fish in its main saltwater bays. The amount of salt in the water is too high for sport fish to survive.
No fishing bait, lure, rod setup, or seasonal fishing plan applies to the open lake. Anglers looking at a nearby freshwater river or pond should use information for that exact water instead of calling it Great Salt Lake fishing.
The lack of fish does not mean the lake is lifeless. Brine shrimp, brine flies, algae, and tiny organisms can handle the salty water. They form the food supply that supports huge numbers of migrating and nesting birds.
Brine shrimp are especially important. Their eggs, called cysts, can survive harsh conditions and hatch when water and salt levels are right. The lake also supports a commercial brine shrimp egg industry.
Brine fly larvae live along the bottom and shoreline before the adult flies gather near the water. Birds feed heavily on both the flies and the shrimp, which is why Great Salt Lake remains important even without fish.
The shoreline shown on an old map may not match the shoreline seen today. A small change in lake level can uncover a large area because much of the lake is shallow. As water drops, salt becomes more concentrated. When strong runoff raises the lake, some bays become less salty.
A railroad causeway also limits how freely water moves between the north and south arms. That helps create the strong color and salt differences sometimes seen between Gunnison Bay and the bays to the south.
The simplest way to understand Great Salt Lake is to treat it as a changing saltwater system, not as a giant freshwater fishing lake. Its defining animals are shrimp, flies, and birds rather than bass, trout, catfish, or panfish.
The main lake is too salty for fish. Freshwater species cannot keep the proper water-and-salt balance inside their bodies in water this salty.
No. The open salt lake does not support sport fish, so there is no Great Salt Lake bait or fishing pattern to use. Nearby rivers and freshwater wetlands are separate bodies of water.
Brine shrimp and brine flies are the best-known animals in the salty water. Along with algae and other tiny life, they feed the lake’s enormous bird population.
Explore nearby waters, including local Featured destinations. Check each page for access and fishing restrictions.
Distances are straight-line estimates between mapped water locations.