PELICAN LAKE

The federal land agency that runs the campground here puts it in one line: "Pelican Lake is well known for the outstanding bluegill and bass fishing" 1 2. The wildlife division's own project record says the lake "has been historically known for its ability to grow large bluegill and also be a quality bass fishery" 4.

Its regional sportfish biologist, describing the lake she fished as a child in the 1990s: "bluegill so big that my little 7 year old hand had to lip them" 7.

Then common carp. They uprooted the aquatic plants that covered the bottom, leaving "a muddy, mucky bottom," and they outcompeted the bluegill for food. The federal recreation record: "The carp's ability to outcompete bluegill for food eventually led to a decline in bluegill condition and a few years later, a decline in largemouth bass condition" 3 4.

Nothing found says the carp were put here illegally. That matters, because the two Utah waters treated in October 2018 are usually written about together, and the other one was an illegal introduction. Contemporary coverage draws the distinction explicitly: the goldfish at the other water were "illegally placed," and the carp here are described only as having been released, method unspecified B. The division's own language is ecological throughout, never enforcement language. This page does not call it an illegal introduction.

On 10 and 11 October 2018 the wildlife division treated Pelican Lake with rotenone. The lake was closed to the public from 10 to 31 October A. Rotenone is not selective, so everything in the lake died, not just the carp.

The regional aquatics manager at the time: "The only way to completely eradicate carp is through the use of rotenone." And on the timing: "This year's drought dropped the lake to the target water levels. It's time to treat it" A.

It worked, at first. In May 2019 the division measured a Secchi depth of fifteen feet and called it "amazing water clarity" after the carp removal, with abundant daphnia and copepods for the bluegill and bass to grow on 11.

It did not hold. By September 2022 the division was tagging carp in Pelican Lake with pink tags and paying anglers rewards to remove them. In 2023 it named this lake one of three Utah waters where anglers should target and remove a specific fish 10. The biologist: "Carp are highly problematic in an ecosystem like Pelican Lake because they directly compete with bluegill for food and can disrupt spawning nests" 10. The 2026 guidebook rule for carp here is not a limit. It is a requirement to kill every one you catch C.

Almost nothing about the treatment itself is published. No cost, no acreage treated, no volume or concentration of rotenone applied, no environmental assessment or decision document, and no detoxification plan. The division's news and blog, the state habitat project database, Reclamation's environmental documents index and the federal land agency were all checked. The treated area was presumably the whole lake, about 1,119 acres by the federal polygon 13, but no agency states that, so this page does not either.

Four years before the treatment, the wildlife division ran an angler survey at this lake. 286 anglers, 30 October to 25 November 2014 8. It is one of the few times an agency in this series has published what the public actually said before a decision.

One printed comment from the survey: "Pelican has always been a lake you can take a kid and have them catch 20 to 30 bluegill no problem in a day" 8.

This is the part that needs care, and the care is the point.

• The lake sits inside the exterior boundary of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation as mapped by the Census Bureau. A point query at this lake returns exactly one feature, the Uintah and Ouray Reservation. The same query run at Salt Lake City returns nothing, which is how this page knows the spatial filter is genuinely working rather than matching everything 22.
• It is not on off reservation trust land. The federal layer for that returns nothing here 22.
• The recreation site is federal public land, administered by the Bureau of Land Management out of Vernal 1 2.
• Utah's wildlife division publishes fishing rules for this lake as a named water C.
• The Ute Indian Tribe's own 2025 fishing proclamation does not name Pelican Lake. It names Bottle Hollow, Big Springs, Cedarview, Clay Basin, Elders, Golf Pond, Midview, Red Rock, Towave, Twin Pots and Weaver, and it defines its reach by reference to the Tenth Circuit's decision in Ute Indian Tribe v. Utah rather than to the exterior boundary D.

There is also no documented link between this lake and the Uintah Indian Irrigation Project. The Bureau of Indian Affairs page for that project does not mention Pelican Lake 23, and every agency source found attributes the water here to a private mutual irrigation company. And no Indigenous history specific to this lake could be found from the state history division, the state historic preservation office or anywhere else. Archaeological site locations are lawfully withheld from public disclosure, so an absent public record is expected and is not evidence of an absent connection. The Tribe speaks for its own history; this page carries none rather than paraphrasing a tourism site.

Pelican Lake is a natural lake used as irrigation storage. The federal survey codes the polygon FCODE 39009, a lake and pond code. The code for a reservoir is a different one and is not used here 13. The wildlife division calls it, in its own words, "a shallow irrigation lake" 4. A federal wetlands inventory of the Uinta Basin lists it among the region's few perennial water bodies, named separately from the reservoirs around it 21.

The water is controlled by the Ouray Park Irrigation Company, a private mutual irrigation company. The state habitat records are blunt about it: "the Ouray Park Irrigation District has ultimate say over any structures built along the canal" 5, and "the irrigation company typically begins filling the lake November first" 6.

Whether there is a dam here could not be settled. No record was found in the national dam inventory or in the state's dam safety inventory, and the state's own search tools are closed to automated reading. But one state habitat project lists Dam Safety among its partners for fish screen work at this lake 5, which may mean a regulated structure or may mean review of a low dike or a control gate. This page asserts neither that there is a dam nor that there is not. The Utah Division of Water Rights dam safety section is the place to settle it. Water rights records could not be retrieved either; the state's search is behind tooling this page cannot read, and the irrigation company's own website has been taken down.

No hours or season are published on either the Bureau's page or the federal booking record. Payment is by the federal recreation app or an on site iron ranger taking cash or a cheque 3. Bird watching is one of the listed activities: the Bureau notes waterfowl come here in spring "to live and rear their downy young" 3.

Fathom has pages on both of the other Uintah County waters, at /steinaker and /red-fleet. Some of the connections between the three are real and some would be decoration, so here is which is which.

What would be decoration. There is no agency document treating these three as a management unit, they are not hydrologically connected, and two of them are federal reservoirs under one water district while this one is a natural lake under a private company. This page groups them because Fathom has built all three and the contrasts are informative, not because anybody manages them together.

The mercury advisory is the only fully documented hazard at this lake, and it is a consumption hazard rather than a contact one. It is set out in the science section above.

• No drowning, fatality, boating incident or search and rescue call at Pelican Lake, Utah could be found from any source. Searches returned other lakes of the same name in other states, and other Utah waters. This is a clean negative and it is not the same as saying nothing has ever happened here.
• No ice incident. Ice fishing is a listed activity here and the guidebook entry has a six line ice fishing provision C, and no incident record was found.
• No mussel detection. Pelican Lake does not appear on any Utah infested or suspect list found. The one affirmative fact is prevention rather than infestation: the 2026 guidebook states the division has installed new clean, drain and dry stations at Pelican Lake and at Scofield 19. That is infrastructure, not a detection, and the distinction matters.
• No wind station and no agency wind guidance. This is a broad shallow basin at 4,800 feet with no shelter, which is exactly the shape of water that gets rough quickly, and no agency publishes anything about it.
• No agency documentation of swimmer's itch or biting flies, which are widely described here in non agency material. Nothing from the state health department, the state parks health page or the county health department names this lake.