# provo river



## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

Today after work i find myself at home doing nothing but searching this forum for the new reports and see some nice fish porn as well while my wife had taken my little boy to a birthday party. Needless to say i couldn't stop at just looking at the pictures i had to go see them in person. I loaded up my toys and headed for the river. I got there around 5 while a guy was leaving. I made some small talk to see how it was and he said it was hot the hatch was going strong and they're just rising really quick. i headed down to the water and it was just incredible at all the rises i saw so i put on a bwo and went at it. I got a few hits but they were too quick. It took me about an hour and a half to finally figure it out with many flies tried and failed. When i did figure it out i hooked into one big 18 incher. i fought him for almost ten minuets before i could get him to a point where i could grab him and unhook him. Then not more then 2 minuets later i hook into another one and fought him for about 5 minuets to get him out i wanted more, but by then i had to go so until next time. I think its deer creek tomorrow.


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## flyguy7 (Sep 16, 2007)

If there were a good amount of fish rising while you were there at around 5pm, those fish were eating midges, not blue wing olives. The blue wings come off from around 1:15 until about 4pm at the latest. The "hatch" you see in the evenings (roughly from 5pm til dark) are actually swarms of mating midges. In the evenings, all the midges that hatch throughout the day come back to the water to mate and lay their eggs. Its some of the best dry fly fishing of the year and nobody gets a chance to see it because almost everyone leaves the river after the bwo's are finished up. The peak of the mating midge activity lately has been from around just after 7pm until its too dark to see your fly (around 8:30). The darker it gets, the more reckless the fish get. Usually about a half hour after the sun goes down all you really need is a #16 Parachute Adams.


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## Bhilly81 (Oct 18, 2009)

Well my bad still fairly new to fly fishing and about the only dry fly I had was few different bwo paterns so that's what I was getting them on and I also had no idea the midges came back at night to mate I will be heading up there more often now thanks for the input


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## lehi (Sep 13, 2007)

What color variations would be a good choice for Utah midge patterns overall?


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## browntrout (Apr 27, 2008)

flyguy7 said:


> If there were a good amount of fish rising while you were there at around 5pm, those fish were eating midges, not blue wing olives. The blue wings come off from around 1:15 until about 4pm at the latest. The "hatch" you see in the evenings (roughly from 5pm til dark) are actually swarms of mating midges. In the evenings, all the midges that hatch throughout the day come back to the water to mate and lay their eggs. Its some of the best dry fly fishing of the year and nobody gets a chance to see it because almost everyone leaves the river after the bwo's are finished up. The peak of the mating midge activity lately has been from around just after 7pm until its too dark to see your fly (around 8:30). The darker it gets, the more reckless the fish get. Usually about a half hour after the sun goes down all you really need is a #16 Parachute Adams.[/quot
> 
> Does this BWO and Midge activity (time of day) apply to both the Lower and Middle Provo? Thanks.


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## flyguy7 (Sep 16, 2007)

Yes, Steve, it does. The evening midge fishing has been more consistent on the Lower than on the Middle just because the hatches have been better. But you should still find a fair amount of rishing fish in the evenings in some of the better dry fly spots such as lunker lane, Diversion, Cottonwood Bridge, and the Bunny farm. Color seems to matter very little. Size and silhouette are much more important. Gray, black, brown, olive, maroon, and cream will all work well. Disco midges, larva tied with and overbody of micro tubing and an underbody of crystal flash (thread head), black beauty/miracle midge styles, wd-40's, Yong specials, and thread midges have all been working well subsurface. On the surface go with Morgans midge, CDC Biot midges, Hanging midges (cdc wing and sits vertical in the water), small oarachute adams, or brooks sprout. Fluffy Pea**** body midges (i.e. Griffith Gnat) seem to to be the least effective but will still catch fish.


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## browntrout (Apr 27, 2008)

As usual, great information. Thanks Dusty.


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## lehi (Sep 13, 2007)

browntrout said:


> As usual, great information. Thanks Dusty.


+1, thanks for the info. I had multiple experiences on the Blacksmith last year that no matter what I was trying, I couldn't get them to take anything, not even with the zebras that I always use. I'm quite sure it was a good midge hatch and I know they were feeding just below the surface and not actually on top, but I still couldn't get a strike and some nice fish were rising. I never really was good at identifying the midge hatches because I never really payed attention to them. Hopefully I will be able to attack the same situation this year with success.


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