Fly Fishing the West Series

On May 14, 1804 Lewis and Clark and what has come to be known as the Corp of Discovery set out from St. Louis, Missouri headed for the Pacific Ocean. It turned out to be an epic journey uncovering the beauty and majesty of the American West. One major reason for the huge success and notoriety of the journey is the fact that Meriwether Lewis and others kept meticulous journals of their daily experiences. In this spirit of the adventure and trying my best to record these experiences, Fly Fishing the West has become a series of reports and pictures summarizing fishing trips I have made beginning in Nov. 2008. The purpose of the series is to provide some hopefully useful information to the reader for future reference, should an opportunity come to visit any of these locations. (Note—The summaries include more information that just about fishing. This lends credence to the notion attributed to Henry David Thoreau that, 'A man may fish his entire life before he realizes that, what he is trying to catch, is not fish at all...')

Rainbow Trout

Rainbow Trout
Caught by Tyson Lower Provo River

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Lower Provo River, Provo Canyon, Utah (APRIL 2010)

Fly Fishing the West
Vol. 22, Issue 1
May 13, 2010

Lower Provo River, Provo Canyon, Utah

Thursday, May 13, 2010-- Tyson, Jason and I arrived at the Lower Provo River at about 2:30 pm at the railroad ‘trestle’ about 5 miles below the Deer Creek Reservoir. The weather was overcast, windy and cold. We first hiked upstream about ½ mile to start. Here just after a bend in the river is a place with several boulders and a slower moving water area in the middle of the stream. In this middle area I caught a 13” brown and a 12” rainbow on a size ~18 ‘mating midge’ fly (nymphing with a strike indicator). Tyson caught an 18” brown on a size 14 sow bug he tied (nymphing with a strike indicator). Jason had no luck.

We moved downstream below the trestle down to ‘Jason’s Run’. I tried the mating midge here with no luck so I switched to a size 14 ‘shiny purple’ sow bug (Tyson tied) and immediately caught 4 browns from 12” to 15” long. I lost another bigger fish (broke the line in the fast current.)

We left about 5:15 pm.

Other Miscellaneous Information/Observations:
1. Weather was overcast, windy and cold, i.e., rather miserable.

2. Non-resident Utah fishing license for 2010 is $70 for a 1-year license. The annual license is good for the 365 days subsequent to the day it is purchased.

3. Apparently the Utah Legislature just passed a law in March 2010 that will restrict fishermens’ use of streams in the state if the streams run through private property. This may impact negatively impact fishing along some parts of the Lower Provo.
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