# Middle Provo



## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

With the busy weekend and little time to fish, a short trip to the Middle was in order on Sunday. It was time to check on a spot that I haven't bothered much this year.

On the ride up, I somehow coerced myself to try a really rocky spot at Deer Creek for an hour or so. That didn't amount to anything, so I got back on track.

Like usual, there were tons of people at the bridge and underneath, but not very many upstream. Getting away from the crowd didn't take long and I got into a mess of planter rainbows pretty quickly. Most of them were pretty small, but they were quick to bite.










One of them had much brighter colors than its buddies.



















It seems as though a lot of the browns are getting the fall fungus again, as I saw a couple swimming slowly and some big ones half-buried in the weeds.

Every couple of bends, it seemed, a tightly huddled mass of little rainbows awaited me. That was nice, in between the occasional corpses of diseased browns.

There were plenty of healthy browns too. Most weren't interested and spooked after the first pass with my Blue Fox. Two of them grabbed it as soon as it hit the water though.



















Wading upstream, the fishing started getting spotty, so I eventually turned around to try and test my luck at the planter holes from the way up. They yielded fewer numbers coming back, but a couple still took the fox. One rainbow was a bit bigger than the rest and saved me some trouble by tail-walking onto the bank for me.










Casting into a mossy flat got me into something pretty big. It fought lazily and drifted right up to my feet after only a few outbursts. Turns out, it had a really nasty case of the funk. It was also foul-hooked near a fin, so it doesn't really count. It was released to drift off and finish dying in a moss bed like it was probably about to do anyway.



















Pretty sad. It was a good sized brown pushing 20+ and thick. It felt nice and firm in my hand, it just looked horrible and was acting like it was totally worn out from the start. Too bad.

With the fast action for a couple of hours and three for the table, it was a satisfying afternoon on the river after getting the usual treatment from Deer Creek. The trip home was nice and the cliffs in the canyon were glowing from the golden sunset.




























Happy Fishing, Humans.


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## Nueces (Jul 22, 2008)

Sounds like a fun trip. What causes the big browns to have all those spots and die?


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## JERRY (Sep 30, 2007)

Nice pics and post! Looks like a good time.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

That brown trout was spooky looking. Deer creek really is your nemesis isn't it.


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## troutgass (May 5, 2009)

Nice pics. I have never seen or heard of that disease with brown trout. That really is too bad as that was a pretty good size brown.


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## sawsman (Sep 13, 2007)

Nice report LOAH. Nice pictures as always.

I too have never heard about that disease on those browns... So they only get it in the fall or what?


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Browns with weird skin is nothing new in the Provo every fall. I'm pretty sure I've heard that it's caused by a fungus that gets into their skin, possibly from rubbing their slime coat off in the gravel or mishandling even. 

Hasn't anyone ever watched fish swimming around with pasty white skin blotches? I've seen that for years on the Provo. My first time on a certain stretch of the Strawberry, I saw some fish with the same thing going on, but that was in the spring.

Not all of them die. That big brown was history though. Usually it's just a couple of spots along their backs.

It's not just those places either. They're around in a lot of streams. It seems like mostly fall when I see it.

Pretty sure I've seen posts in the past about this same thing and that's what the main verdict was, if I recall correctly.


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## HopperLover (Jul 7, 2008)

I agree with what has been said. I am no biologist, so I certainly could be wrong, but it seems I read once that over-population of brown trout in the Provo River contributes to it also, as the fish aren't as healthy and are more susceptible to disease and fungus when there is over-population. That, combined with the stress of the spawn, contributes to it. Really, it is nothing to be too concerned about, since it is nature's way of thinning out the population a bit. And if there is over-population of brown trout in the Provo, a few dying will be a good thing. I see this every year also.


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## Size Matters (Dec 22, 2007)

It looks like you had a awesome time thanks for the great report and photos.


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## idiot with a bow (Sep 10, 2007)

full blown aids...


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## Tigru (Oct 15, 2007)

Looks like a nice trip. Some great colors (excluding that horrific looking funk Brown of course -)O(- )


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## Edwin (May 30, 2011)

Hi LOAH,
Awesome pictures and looks like you had a good time.
As you have mentioned most of the fishes were pretty small but they were quick to bite, how many fishes did you caught?


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## BrookTroutKid (Oct 10, 2007)

You dug up a 2 year old post?


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

Edwin said:


> Hi LOAH,
> Awesome pictures and looks like you had a good time.
> As you have mentioned most of the fishes were pretty small but they were quick to bite, how many fishes did you caught?


Sorry, my memory eludes me on the exact number of fish. I'll have to stick with "bunches".

Wow, that's an old post. Thanks for reading though.


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## allremington (Nov 11, 2007)

I've seen browns with "the funk" in several places on the Provo. A few in the area of the Hwy 40 bridge below Jordanelle, and several not too far below Deer Creek. Too bad the DWR can't release some otters that have been trained to take care of them!!


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

LOL.... good call BTK. Thats pretty funny. I'd bet he did a search and this old post came up or something. LOAH, I've seen that too... but only on the Provo. Its pretty nasty lookin. Those little bows were sure pretty though. You and I need to hit DC and you can win one of the battles with her.... get back to showing her who's boss.  I need to pick your brain about another spot I'm contemplating as well.... somewhere that you've definitely owned in the past.


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