Middle Provo River at Midway Utah

Fly Fishing the West
Vol. 16, Issue 1
Monday, October 26, 2009
Middle Provo River, North of Midway, Utah

Jerry, Charlie (a friend of Jerry’s) and I traveled to the Middle Provo River north of Midway, Utah, a mile or two passed the round-about near a new subdivision entering the Fisherman Access parking lot on the north side of the road. We arrived about 3:30 pm. Charlie and I hiked passed the beaver pond (with now 2 dams rather than the one the last time we were there in September) to the river ‘bend’ area. Jerry fished downstream from us. I was nymphing and Charlie was fishing with a size 6 beadhead, all white streamer with a slight tail. Charlie almost immediately caught a brown, then another, then another (They were 10-13”.) Then he hooked and landed a beautiful 21” hook-jawed brown. Charlie would in the next hour or so catch about 6 more browns from 10-14”.
Having watched him catch the big brown, I switched to a streamer. I tried a black leech pattern with no luck. I then tried the Carey Special (size 6 brown body). I still had no luck. I then put a small lead shot weight above the fly about 18”. I immediately caught a 10” brown. I later switched to a size 10 flash-back hare’s ear pattern and caught a 12” brown. One key to Charlie’s success was how he brought the line in after casing across the stream. He would “strip” it in, in very short (2-3”) increments. He showed me how to do it and I caught the two browns. We fished until about 6:15 pm. Jerry down below caught one brown.


Other Miscellaneous Information/Observations:

1. The weather was cloudy with the temperature about 45 F, starting to turn windy.
2. Non-resident Utah fishing license for 2009 is $12, $32, or $70 for a 1-day, 7-day or 1-year license, respectively. The annual license is good for the 365 days subsequent to the day it is purchased.