October 14, 2012: Middle Provo: Fishing Still Decent

We experienced some rain over the last week, which raised the Middle Provo's water levels some. On the middle section, there's quite a few banks where the river bows and cuts into them. With the increased levels, the river was starting to hit some of the looser earth, causing the overall visibility to drop some--again, copared to last week's optimal river levels. This seemed to slow the fishing down a little, but it was still a great day overall and fish were still taking nymphs. Weather-wise, minus the heavy morning fog that hung over Park City, it was sun and blue sky. 

As the fish go, I honestly have a tough time keeping track of the total number of fish caught. Typically, I'll be able to keep track until I manage to hook into a large fish, then I'll manage to lose count without realizing it later on in the day. If I were to estimate the total number of fish, I'd say the total was between 12 and 15. It was much harder to present nymphs in the deeper sections of my favorite runs (with the rain), where the bigger brows seem to reside. 

In the way of fish, the biggest browns I caught were around 13-14 inches. I managed to hook into a nice sized brown and a guy fishing just downstream from me was nice enough to net him. The biggest fish of the day was a white mountainfish that was just a tad over 17 inches. This fish must have been hanging around cutthroat the way it jumped and splashed around. Once landed, I could see why it gave such a powerful fight. The girth on this guy was impressive. I have mentioned over the last few weeks to several anglers that I have caught 3 to 4 whitefish and they always react a little miffed. I don't have the same history on the Provo as a lot of anglers do, and I wonder if there's a healthy population of whitefish in the river. In many parts of Washington, anglers are encouraged to kill whitefish because of their effect on importance stream food sources for rehabilitating trour populations. 

So that's the scoop. Rain raised the river levels noticeably, causing things to be a tad more challenging. For one of the few remaining sunny and blue-sky days, especially for a weekend, the fishing pressure was fairly light.