Rainbow Trout
Caught by Tyson Lower Provo River
Monday, March 21, 2011
Lower Provo River, Provo Canyon, Utah (MARCH 2011)
Fly Fishing the West
Vol. 23, Issue 1
March 10, 2011
Lower Provo River, Provo Canyon, Utah
Thursday, March 10, 2011—Alan and I arrived at the Lower Provo River at about 11:00 am at the railroad ‘trestle’ about 5 miles below the Deer Creek Reservoir. The weather was sunny but cool. We hiked down from the trestle on the north side of the stream about ¼ mile to ‘half-moon bay’. I fished the rapids up top and Alan fished the slower tail-out downstream. No luck on a flash-back midge, mating-midge, sow bug. We then moved downstream to ‘Jason’s run’ which parallels the freeway just above us. We fished this ¼ mile stretch for about 3 hours with no bites, trying a myriad of different nymphs, egg patterns, and wet flies. Then, at about 4 pm I caught a brown trout about 13” long on a size 10 yellowish stonefly. I then caught two rainbow about 12-13” and then a 12’ brown. I then switched to a size 12 ‘silver spider’ (tied by Tyson—it is a long shaft hook wrapped with one layer of silver for the body with a thin, light-brown streaming hackle that ends just short of the bend in the hook. A really simple fly.) With this fly on I caught another brown and twelve more rainbow ranging from 9” to 12” in length. At the same time Alan caught several rainbows, one pretty fish about 14” long. We were both fishing on the bottom (I was nymphing with a strike indicator and Alan had a size 10 or 12 caddis-looking fly trailing about two-feet off of a large, black weighted streamer.)
This was a really odd day, having fished the Lower Provo for about 2 years now. We fished basically the same way, same place for about 4 hours without a bite, then in 1 ½ hours we caught about 24 fish, albeit not real big fish. This is my first time of fishing the Lower Provo and catching 1) so many fish and 2) nearly all small fish.
We left about 5:30 pm.
Other Miscellaneous Information/Observations:
1. One of the 12” brown trout I caught was just speckled all over with red and black spots. A pretty fish.
2. Weather was sunny and cold. I ended up with a mild sun-burn on my face and hands at the end of the day. A lot of reflection of the sun off the water and also old snow piled up along parts of the stream. Some places we sank in snow up to two feet hiking below the railroad trestle.
3. 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.
4. Utah Legislature just passed a law in March 2010 that will restrict fishermen’s’ use of streams in the state if the streams run through private property. So far I see no impact of this law on fishing the ‘normal places’ we fish on the Lower Provo River.
Vol. 23, Issue 1
March 10, 2011
Lower Provo River, Provo Canyon, Utah
Thursday, March 10, 2011—Alan and I arrived at the Lower Provo River at about 11:00 am at the railroad ‘trestle’ about 5 miles below the Deer Creek Reservoir. The weather was sunny but cool. We hiked down from the trestle on the north side of the stream about ¼ mile to ‘half-moon bay’. I fished the rapids up top and Alan fished the slower tail-out downstream. No luck on a flash-back midge, mating-midge, sow bug. We then moved downstream to ‘Jason’s run’ which parallels the freeway just above us. We fished this ¼ mile stretch for about 3 hours with no bites, trying a myriad of different nymphs, egg patterns, and wet flies. Then, at about 4 pm I caught a brown trout about 13” long on a size 10 yellowish stonefly. I then caught two rainbow about 12-13” and then a 12’ brown. I then switched to a size 12 ‘silver spider’ (tied by Tyson—it is a long shaft hook wrapped with one layer of silver for the body with a thin, light-brown streaming hackle that ends just short of the bend in the hook. A really simple fly.) With this fly on I caught another brown and twelve more rainbow ranging from 9” to 12” in length. At the same time Alan caught several rainbows, one pretty fish about 14” long. We were both fishing on the bottom (I was nymphing with a strike indicator and Alan had a size 10 or 12 caddis-looking fly trailing about two-feet off of a large, black weighted streamer.)
This was a really odd day, having fished the Lower Provo for about 2 years now. We fished basically the same way, same place for about 4 hours without a bite, then in 1 ½ hours we caught about 24 fish, albeit not real big fish. This is my first time of fishing the Lower Provo and catching 1) so many fish and 2) nearly all small fish.
We left about 5:30 pm.
Other Miscellaneous Information/Observations:
1. One of the 12” brown trout I caught was just speckled all over with red and black spots. A pretty fish.
2. Weather was sunny and cold. I ended up with a mild sun-burn on my face and hands at the end of the day. A lot of reflection of the sun off the water and also old snow piled up along parts of the stream. Some places we sank in snow up to two feet hiking below the railroad trestle.
3. 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.
4. Utah Legislature just passed a law in March 2010 that will restrict fishermen’s’ use of streams in the state if the streams run through private property. So far I see no impact of this law on fishing the ‘normal places’ we fish on the Lower Provo River.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
