Provo River

November 25, 2008

Being that we had a week planned in Utah for Thanksgiving with the family I figured that I would spend two of the days up fishing the Middle and Lower Provo River. The weather turned out to be on my side with a warm front through the state with temperatures along the river around 50 degrees the first day and although it snowed a bit the night before the second day it was still in the 40's for some perfect fishing weather.

The first day I stopped by a local fly shop in Heber called Four Seasons Fly Shop to get some advice about what was happening on the water. After getting some great advice and some new flies I was on the middle section just below the Jordanelle dam by 8 in the morning. It was a perfect morning to be fishing as there was not another fisherman in sight, it was looking like I would have the river to myself. I decided to start out just below the dam and work my way down river. After about 8 casts over some riffles along a shelf I watched my indicator shoot under and I was rewarded with a solid hook set and head shake as I was hooked into my first fish of the day. After a pretty good fight I landed a beautiful Brown. I continued to work the riffles for a while with no luck. As I continued to work down river I started to find some nice pocket water and after landing around 4 more nice browns all on nymphs in different locations I started to see fish slurping flies off the surface. After a few minutes of just enjoying the moment I noticed they were surfacing to a blue wing olive hatch. I tied on a size 20 BWO and started casting to them. I had a few misses but was having a hard time seeing my size 20 on the water with the glare of the sun so after 45 minutes without a fish on I decided to put my Hopper Dropper Nymph rig back on and continue down river. It seemed that things were starting to slow down and I was glad to be able to hook into two more fish, a Rainbow and a Brown before everything shut down for the day. Over all it was an exceptional day of solitude and good fishing, I think I landed around 6 or so fish from 8am to 1pm and then everything shut down from 1pm to 5pm.

November 28, 2008

After such a wonderful first day on the Provo I was set to get back up for one additional day so I could try out the lower section of the river below Deer Creek dam. While the rest of the world was going shopping on the busiest day of the year I was glad to be headed to the river. I got on the river early in the morning and didn't have a plan as to where I was going to fish on the lower section so I just pulled over at the first pull off along side the road and rigged up. It was a bit cooler than the previous trip as well as there was a dusting of snow on the ground. Just like the day before I hooked up early with a nice sized Brown in some ripples. Despite a day of beautiful scenery that was the only fish I landed for the day. There were several fisherman out and I didn't see anyone else catching any fish either so it appeared the fish just weren't biting. I did get to explore much of the river and next time I think I will continue up the canyon to what appeared to be the second pull off, there were more plunge pools and other good looking trout holding sections on this stretch then further down. All and all it was a great couple of days on the river and I cant wait to get back up there in the near future.