Fishing Lower Provo River Vol. 29 8APR16

Fly Fishing the West

Vol. 29, Issue 1

August 8, 2016

Lower Provo River, Provo Canyon, Utah 

Friday, August 8, 2016—Tyson, Norm and I arrived at the Lower Provo River at about 6:45 am just below the trailer court below Deer Creek Reservoir. We hiked down to the stream about 75 yards below then upstream along the railroad tracks about 150 yards to what we call “Big Bend”. The weather was clear but cold (about 33 degrees F).  The sun was not yet up (see Note 1 below). As the day before we were ‘Euro-nymphing’ (see Note 2 below) with a setup by Tyson. I had a size 6 stone fly nymph (weighted by a double bead head on the dropper line and a size 18 unweighted flashback midge on the trailing line. I fished the bend and on the second or third cast hooked and landed a fat, 17 inch rainbow. The fish took the trailing size 18 flashback midge. Norm was fishing downstream in a chute of water about 150 yards long. He at the same time caught fat rainbow (about 16 inches) then a nice brown (about 14 inches on a trailing size 16 weighted midge). I then moved downstream below Norm. Tyson was pretty busy going from Norm to me, back to Norm helping to land fish before he could even get his line in the water. Norm then caught a 14-inch MOUNTAIN WHITEFISH, see PICTURE 29-1. (We have been fishing the lower Provo River just below the Deer Creek Reservoir dam for about 10 years with Tyson and this is only the second Mountain Whitefish I have seen caught there.) We then worked our way downstream about ½ mile with Norm and Tyson catching several browns about 12-14 inches. Norm then caught a nice brown about 16 inches; see PICTURE 29-2.About 11:30 am we decided to go back to the chute run just below Big Bend. There the stream seemed to turn a bit magical as the fish started actively feeding and we were catching browns and rainbows from 14-18 inches, see PICTURES 29-3 and 29-4. One last fish I caught was a beautiful, 19-inch rainbow with a thin orange ‘slash’ marking of a cutthroat trout on the underside of its mouth, see Picture 29-5. This would be due to interbreeding of rainbows and the native cutthroat trout. Lance Egan (Provo River fly fishing expert) believes there are very few cutthroat trout left in the Lower Provo.)

We left about 1 pm. 

Other Miscellaneous Information/Observations:

1. It was cold when we arrived. We were the first to arrive. After about 9 am when the sun began to fill the canyon it warmed up to pleasant temperatures. There was no wind.
2. Euro-nymphing is a method Tyson has trying for several years. We went to a Fly Fishing Expo on Saturday, April 2, 2016 near Sandy, Utah and attended a 2 hr. class on Euro-nymphing by Lance Egan, a famous fly fisherman on the US World Fly Fishing Team, and works for Cabela’s in Lehi. See Volume 28, Issue 1 dated 7APR16 for more details on the rod-line setup we used for euro-nymphing.
3. Tyson was able to catch the action of two fish being caught on a GoPro. (Not included here.)
4. The water was cold and clear with little ‘milfoil’ (seaweed type growth). The water level was very low making wading with hip waders no problem at all. 

Non-resident Utah fishing license for 2016 for 2 years is $148. The annual license is good for the 365 days subsequent to the day it is purchased.