I made it up to the middle yesterday around 4:30 pm and a small
BWO hatch was going on. I tied on a size 18, grey and olive bodied BWO and landed
a small brown with my first cast. The hatch slowed down pretty quick and I
decided to move around a bit. Caught a few in the riffles on various sizes and
colors of mayflies.
The action started picking up pretty heavy around 6 and there were
a couple hatches going on. One was a lighter bodied, large mayfly (didn't get
the species) and the other was a smaller, dark bodied mayfly. I tied on both
but had the most success with a size 18 grey and black bodied parachute adams.
That hatch lasted until about 7:30, when I had to head home.We fished down river
of the HGTV dream house and found little traffic. I think people were not
moving much due to the awesome fishing.
Cody
Green grew up in Utah and has been fishing the Provo for 10 years. During
Cody's college years, he was a drift-boat guide on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula and
guiding helped him to graduate debt free. After living out of state for 5 years, Cody recently moved back to Salt Lake City and can be found making up for lost time on the Provo.
First, I cheated on the blog. Last week, I fished the Middle
from 7 am until just before dusk. In terms of action from start to finish, it
was some of the best I have experienced on the Middle--was hoping to see the hatch.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Jim and his son, Chris, who are both
out-of-towners from San Diego. Jim informed me that even though they do not
live near any rivers, his son surfs the web, soaking up information on trout
and fly-fishing and even practices catching sponges in their backyard pool. After
rigging up Chris's fly-rod and moving up river, a brown took his baetis nymph
and I helped him land his first fish on the fly--was good times all-around.
Chris proceeded to catch several more browns, not including the few that broke
free.
Fast-forward 4 years and two rods later, I convinced my wife
that we should camp at the base of the hill, near that same section of the
Upper that I had spent a good half an hour on. Minus packing all of our gear
down and the even more treacherous task of hauling everything back up--harder
when you are dodging items that your wife is dropping, the
"spot" is as good as it gets if you enjoy off the trail camping. In many ways, sections of the Upper remind me of one of my childhood favorite fishing destinations: The Muddy River, which flows into the Upper Lewis River, above Washington State's Swift Reservoir. Unfortunately for the Muddy, significant residential developments--"cabin communities," were recently built in close proximity and I suspect that the fishery has been affected by the increased pressure.
Upper Provo Fishing Report:
One of the reasons that I enjoy fishing the Upper, is the diversity
of trout species that it holds. Unlike the Middle and Lower, where browns reign
king, anglers are likely to catch Brooks, Cutthroat, Rainbows, Cuttbows, and
Browns. In the three days that I logged in on the Upper, I managed two Browns,
while the majority of fish were Brooks and Cutties--two of my personal
favorites! As you can see from some of the photos, fallen trees and underbanks provide excellent trout cover and habitat to support impressive trout and insect populations.
While this undercut features very shallow water, look for undercuts that feature deeper water and you'll find the Browns
The Salmonfly--one of my favorite insects of all-time!
Nymphing baetis nymphs, hare's ear, UFOs, and rainbow
warriors was successful in the morning and day and dropped off noticeably
towards the evening, or when the sunlight is off the water.
Dry-fly fishing was superb. June 25, from 6:45 pm until 8:30
pm, the mayfly hatch was in full effect. I couldn't help but sit on the bank
and just observe the frenzy. I had hoped to take reading of the water temperature, but I busted my thermometer during a small spill on the way down the hill. After about an hour of taking pictures and filming
the hatch, I tied on a size 16 BWO and headed to one of the deeper runs, which
are far and few in-between on the Upper--prepare to do a little walking.
Mayfly Hatch--Around 7 pm
Several
casts in, I was caught off guard as a large trout rose and took my BWO. As the
trout started to reset its feeding pattern, it soon realized it had been hook
and I struggled to angle him away fallen tree that hung over the run. Short
story, short, I lost and the trout won. The next morning I tried the same
pattern in the same run and to my dismay, a equally huge trout took my BWO and
away we went. This time, a humble me got the upper hand I was able to photo
document--more like collect evidence for disbelieving family members, of the
large, what I believe is a Cuttbow--if you disagree, feel free to comment. As a
colorblind guy, I won't take offense : )
For dry fly fishing, I tied on a 4 to 5 ft. section of 5x fluorocarbon
tied to a smaller section, roughly 8 inches of 7x tied to the BWO. With my 9ft
rod, I was able to manage the BWO through runs and achieve good drifts.
That's it for this week. Hoping for an outing on the Middle
or Lower next week.
It is better to fish some, than to not fish at all. That was certainly the case this morning, as the Mrs. and me were only able to log several hours on the Middle. Fortunately, during that short period, we were Bonnie and Clyde and the river was our bank. The Mrs.' first cast yielded a stocky brown that required a little play.
Only seconds after she released her fish and waded back to her prior spot, a longer brown took her baetis nymph and torpedoed upstream. While I tried my best to instruct her to keep the line tight--was likely using a vernacular of Angler English she was not accustomed to, some lessons are best learned in action. Alas, the brown craftily created enough slack in her line to break free and I watched with understanding, as my wife's face morphed from joy to disbelief, to anger, and then helplessness. The events marinated a little, before she reset and was ready for another run. Though none of the subsequent fish challenged her quite like "the one that got away," it was great to see her angling evolve.
Next week, we will be fly-fishing on the Upper Provo and some of the Uintah lakes.
Mollan Media produced this great short showing some excellent footage of mayflies in their various stages. If time permits, I hope to write a blog entry describing the different mayfly species of the genus, Drunella, and chronicling their different stages in the Provo River. For a complete list of macroinvertebrates of the Provo River, please visit this blog's new page (Comprehensive List).
Mollan Media has an excellent youtube channel and if you are youtube fan, please consider subscribing to their channel.
In other news, my wife and I are heading to the Middle tomorrow. Hopefully the South blowing wind will be somewhat kind to us.
Minus the slightly higher than optimal river levels, yesterday's
conditions were near perfect. Water temps continue to warm and fish can be
found in riffles, deeper runs, and holding pools. Yesterday was also my wife's
first fly-fishing outing and it was exciting to see her in action. Unlike many
men that I have taken fly-fishing for their first time, where their emphasis is
on casting as far as possible, my wife understood that presentation and staying
within a "water lane," leads to a more natural dead drift. If you are
on the river and are trying to instruct a first time angler how to properly dead
drift, I find it best to describe the river as a huge freeway that features
many water lanes. The more your files cut across the lanes of traffic, the more
disturbance you create. By staying in your water lane, you create less line
disturbance, or micro tension, and you have a greater chance of inducing a fish
to take your fly.
The morning started off slow, but by midday, we were both
consistently into the fish. Unlike my past set-ups, where I have bounced very
small baetis nymphs and UFOs off the river bottom, yesterday I took a slightly
different approach and it paid dividends. We both used a size 14 pheasant tail
(beaded) as our lead fly, with a green bodied baetis fly (size 18) as our
trailer fly. Though there's more water moving through the Middle right now, our
lead flies provided enough weight to reach water depths from the middle to just
off the river bottom. I should also preface that we were both using a long
section of leader (9 ft in total length--2/3 5x and the final 1/3, which
featured our flies with 7x). We also used medium sized thingamabobbers attached
by perfect loops--leader section also tied onto the perfect loop.
As for the insect activity, there was not much above the
surface, though we ended up leaving around 4:30 pm. I did observe a few smaller
fish taking some insects off the surface in a deeper pool. Most of the action
is clearly occurring subsurface. As I have noted in prior blog posts, turning
over a rock or examining a submerged stick will reveal an impressive population
of midges and nymphs, which also provides the opportunity to match coloring,
sizes, and patterns.
Traffic on the Middle continues to pick up, and it will only
increase until after the spawn. This is certainly a turnoff for most anglers,
including myself, but I encourage you to not despair. About 90% of the anglers
that I have observed lately are fishing dry flies. While a few of these anglers
may be getting into the fish, the vast majority are reporting that the
"fishing is very slow." If you ever want to gauge an honest account
of an angler's outing, observe the frequency of their changing flies, or in
yesterday's case, how long they stay on the river. My wife and I observed around 8 vehicles pull up after we
arrived and leave only a few hours later.
Moreover, it has been my overall experience that the browns,
cutts, and whitefish tend to reset fairly fast after the presence of an angler.
Case in point, one my favorite runs was being fished by two anglers and we
decided to fish several runs above them. After the two gentlemen had left, my
wife moved down to the run and hooked into two nice sized browns within the
first 15 minutes.
