The lakeside parks, pond by pond, with the rules.

Steed Pond is about two and a half acres of water inside North Steed Park, 11.5 acres next to Holt Elementary in Clearfield, with a 64 person pavilion, grills, three sand volleyball courts, youth soccer fields, restrooms, walking paths and a connection to the D&RGW Rail Trail; South Steed Park across the way is another 11.5 acres with sixteen pickleball courts, three softball diamonds, small pavilions and an adult soccer field, so the pond is one half of a 23 acre complex. Clearfield's parks run 5 am to midnight and the city itself lists fishing, kayaking and paddleboarding at the pond, which settles an older report that floating was prohibited.

The new thing is the dock. Under the state's watershed restoration program, a universally accessible fishing dock connecting to the parking and the paths was built at Steed Pond between July and November 2025, in a Northern Utah community fishery project that also refurbished the docks at Andy Adams Reservoir in Layton, a $590,732 job with Clearfield, Layton, Kays Creek Irrigation and the wildlife division as partners. The pond is a state community fishery, two fish a day, stocked with rainbow trout in the cool months over channel catfish, bluegill, smallmouth bass and carp; pavilions book from March 1 for the May through September season, in three and a half hour blocks, at $15 for residents and $35 for others plus a deposit.

Farmington Pond sits at the mouth of Farmington Canyon on Farmington Creek, at 750 North 75 West by the city's address and 611 Farmington Creek Trail by the wildlife division's, which is the trail-side door to the same water, and it is the prettiest setting on this page and the closest to the county seat. The city lists restrooms, picnic tables, a fishing dock, a hiking trail and paved parking, and bans open fires here from June 1 through October 31 each year. It is a state community fishery with the two fish rule, and the species that circulate, rainbow and brook trout, cutthroat, bass, perch, wiper and catfish, come from anglers rather than the division.

The state's water quality program tested it three times in the 2026 season, on June 12, July 7 and August 3, and found no visible harmful algae and E. coli below recreational thresholds each time, with the state's own line that swimming, boating and eating the fish are fine from a water quality standpoint. That is a health finding and not a city permission; Farmington publishes no swimming rule and its boating rules are unresolved, with two aggregators contradicting each other, so this page will not tell you to swim or float here until the city does. The canyon road, the gate and the trails above the pond are the canyons page's; the pond and its lot are Farmington's.

The Kaysville Ponds are not a city park. They sit on the Utah State University Botanical Center campus at 702 South 50 West and are run by USU Extension: four ponds, Blood's, Slough, Barton's and South, dug in 1995 to make an urban fishery, hold Kaysville's stormwater from the south end of town and Fruit Heights, improve water quality and teach wetlands, which is the honest framing, engineered retention ponds rather than natural lakes. About a mile and a half of trail circles them, they are open seven days a week from dawn to dusk at no charge, and the wildlife division stocks them with rainbow trout, largemouth bass, bluegill and channel catfish under the two fish community rule with a license required.

The rules are written and generous. Fishing, canoes, kayaks and stand-up paddleboards, walking, jogging and dog walking are allowed, dogs on leash, and this is one of the very few Davis ponds that says yes to dogs in writing; swimming, fires and overnight stays are not allowed. On the west side of Slough Pond, Wetland Discovery Point of 2008 was Utah's first LEED Platinum public building, the county's 4-H runs youth fishing camps here, and the Great Salt Lake Bird Festival sends a field trip to the ponds each May. Restrooms, parking and any accessible dock are not published by the university, so plan on the trail and the water and nothing else.

Andy Adams Reservoir sits inside a 7.5 acre Layton park at 1713 East 1000 North, with 65 parking spaces, two Little League fields, two pickleball courts, a tennis court, a playground, a pavilion that seats 150, a restroom, a 0.46 mile walking trail and free wifi from the city's fiber utility. The reservoir itself runs on tighter hours than the park: open spring through fall only, from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset, fishing only, no swimming, no motorized vehicles, park in designated areas and respect the private property around it, in the city's own words. Andy Adams Reservoir and the shorter Adams Reservoir that aggregators list are the same water.

It is a state community fishery, two fish a day, and its docks were refurbished between July and November 2025 in the same watershed restoration project that built the new dock at Steed Pond. Whether you can float a kayak is unresolved: the city's reservoirs page says fishing only, secondary sources describe a launch for small motorless craft, and the honest answer is a call to Layton Parks at 801-336-3900 before you load the boat. Pavilion reservations run May through September with seven days' notice, $35 minimum for four hours for residents and double for others, plus a $50 deposit.

Layton has two more reservoirs and each carries a rule that disqualifies the casual visit. Hobbs Reservoir at 2360 East Canyon View Drive, which is also the Canyon View trailhead of the Kays Creek Parkway, is open year round for fishing only, no swimming, no motors, and it is not a community fishery: the state's rule for Hobbs is a limit of two trout under fifteen inches, everything over fifteen released, artificial flies and lures only, which makes it the one serious anglers' water on this page and makes bait fishing there illegal. Around it, Kays Creek Parkway runs two and a half paved miles plus most of a mile of soft trail on the reservoir's shore, from four trailheads including the Adam J. Welker lot at 2700 North 2125 East.

Holmes Creek Reservoir at 2692 East Gentile Street is open year round with the same no-swimming and no-motor rules and one more: no floating at all, and a walk-in access permit from the wildlife division is required to enter, which makes it not a stroll-up pond. Its fishing rule is the opposite of the community ponds, a limit of six largemouth bass with only one over twelve inches, a bass-management water. An irrigation company partnered on the 2025 dock work, and the permit's cost and season live on the wildlife division's site, so get them there before you go.

Bountiful Pond is not in Bountiful. The wildlife division lists it at 1275 West 1600 North in Woods Cross, the main lot is commonly given as 1610 West 1600 North, and no city or county claims it on a parks page; the state's outdoor recreation division lists it as a venue and the wildlife division as a community fishery, two fish a day. What is there is a level loop of paved and unpaved trail, benches, restrooms, and, by the Audubon chapter's account, the strongest birding pond in the county outside the wetlands, a stopover for gulls, terns and waterfowl with songbirds and owls in the trees around it; a spur reaches it under Legacy Parkway from the Legacy trail in less than a mile round trip.

In 2026 it is also the one pond on this page under an active health warning. The state's water quality division has had a harmful algal bloom warning in effect through the season, updated June 12, July 7 and August 3 with the same finding, that harmful algae mats are present, and the guidance to not touch or swallow the mats, keep dogs and children away from the water, and not drink or filter it, while wading, paddling and fishing remain acceptable. Read the state's advisory page for the pond the week you go; the birds are why to come, and the water is why to keep everyone out of it.

Clinton's Pond Park sits at 2850 West 2415 North by the city's page and 3000 West 2415 North by the wildlife division's, a state community fishery of roughly four acres, two fish a day, that the city lists for fishing and for watching waterfowl and wildlife, and about which the city publishes no hours, pavilion, restroom, playground, dog or boating detail at all. What the city does publish is unusual and worth reading: it installed an aeration system after the pond was built to keep oxygen in the water, it treats the pond chemically at least once a year for plants and algae, and it samples the water regularly, noting that in some years the pond has been posted for E. coli and residents told to stay out.

The city also writes plainly about avian botulism, which strikes Utah's waterfowl most years between July and September; ducks at the pond have tested positive while the pond itself tested negative for harmful algae, and city crews check for dead birds every working day in season. That candor is why the entry is here. The aggregator claims that circulate, dogs not allowed, boating and floating by permit only, hours to 10 pm, are unverified at the city and worth a call to the recreation department at 801-614-0780 before you plan around them.