# Lower Provo, middle Provo, Weber river fishing report



## flyguy7 (Sep 16, 2007)

Here's the latest copy of the fishing report from our website if any of you are interested...

09-18-2009

Middle Provo (Jordanelle Reservoir to Deer Creek Reservoir)
Flow – 275 CFS 49deg.

It has taken several months. The leaves are starting to change, the days are getting much shorter, and the middle has finally come down to normal, easily wadeable flows and is fishing fantastic. The lower water has brought excellent hatches of Pmd’s from 2:00 until 5:00 in the afternoons. The closer you get to Jordanelle Dam, the better the PMD hatches have been. Caddis continue to be prevalent throughout the day with the best activity taking place in the evenings. All techniques have been producing lots of fish lately. Deep nymphing caddis pupa and PMD nymphs has been very deadly. Early afternoons you can watch the fish move onto the fronts of the shelves, head of the runs, and into the riffles as the fill up on the steady conveyor of PMD nymphs making their emergence as well as the available caddis pupa. Dry dropper fishing has continued to be very successful. The best approach for us has been fishing a high floating, easy to see large caddis pattern (#14 Stimulator, Elk Hair Caddis, or Goddard Caddis) and fishing a tungsten PMD nymph or caddis pupa on a long (36”) dropper off the dry and just cover every square inch of every riffle and pocket water. Hatch fishing during the Pmd’s has been great but sometimes frustrating. The low, clear water has made these fish super fly, leader, and drag sensitive. In other words, they can be tough as hell to get in some of the more popular flatwater dry fly spots such as the diversion and Lunker Lane. Scale back to 5X or even 6X, fish 12’ leaders, and use natural, sparsely tied dries such as Lawson’s Thorax, PMD Cripple, Sparkle Duns, CDC Biot duns, Silhouette Duns, and Befus Emergers in size #16-18. The most rigorous way to catch fish right now but definitely the most fun is hopper fishing. The hopper fishing is very good right now but there are a few keys to being successful – 1) Use heavy tippet (2X is our favorite). 2) If you want to turn big fish, you need to throw a BIG hopper in the #4 - #6 size range. Anything tied with lots of foam and rubber legs should do fine. Leave your #12-#14 Para-hoppers and Dave’s Hoppers home if you want to consistently turn fish over 16 – 17 inches. 3) Cover lots of water! Fish are not feeding on grasshoppers like they would mayfly duns. They opportunistically 
eat them at random when the fall into the water. When you are covering water, don’t just hole hop from nymph run to nymph run and throw your hopper imitation where everyone lobs their indicators. Fish hard through every nook and cranny of fast water and bank water and you will be rewarded with some exceptional fish. The farther you get away from everyone, the more eats you will get.

Lower Provo (Deer Creek Reservoir to Olmstead Diversion)
Flow – 120 CFS 59deg.

This year has probably been the best year in recent memory for our experienced guide staff on the Lower Provo. It has consistently produced huge numbers of fish and lots of big fish for the majority of the summer. Flows have been up, water temps down, makes for a longer than normal window of opportunity this summer down in the canyon. Those two factors have also help keep the “Moss Monster” at bay all the way through the month of August. Unfortunately, all good things come to and end and the fishing has slowed substantially over the last week or so. Moss is starting to settle in some of the slower buckets and that funky green colored water just won’t go away. That being said, there are still fish to be caught down there. A few caddis are still poking around in the evenings offering some decent dry fly fishing. These fish are usually not too selective with the off color water so a #14 Royal Stimulator or Elk Hair Caddis will work just fine for the dries. Nymphing will continue to be the most effective method. Small sow bugs, PMD nymphs, caddis pupa, and baetis nymphs will all catch fish. Most importantly, look for the fish holding in the fastest water you can find. While overall fish in the net may be down, the quality of the fish we have been seeing are exceptional. It just goes to show what a huge factor high water is in the overall health of the fish. Remember to fish as heavy as tippet as you can get away with. We usually run 4X and many times you can get away nymphing with 3X. 

Weber (below Rockport Dam) - 176 CFS

Flows are still running at a great level out of Rockport and the Weber has been fishing fantastic. As usual on this river, deep nymphing sowbugs, caddis larva, caddis pupa, and PMD nymphs has proven to be the most successful way to put numbers of fish in the net. Whitefish, as always, will make up the majority of the catch in the river. But it you are willing to spend more time fishing the riffles and pocketwater, you will exponentially increase your catch rate of browns to “Senior Blanco’s”. If you want to seek out only the big browns, the key is sitting in your terrestrial box. Hoppers. Big ones! Just as on the middle Provo, those big #4’s and 6’s will connect you to much less fish but much better quality fish. To help land the big fish and turnover that awfully wind resistant fly, stick with 1X and 2X tippet. Again, it’s not something where you can just tie on a big Fat Albert and cast it 10 or 15 times into a big, slow hole and magically catch a 24” brown. You need to tighten up the laces, bring plenty of water, and cover a couple miles of river hitting every possible holding lie in that stretch of river. While it is starting to look more and more like fall, the temps have been very warm. Once we get our first cold weather snap, be prepared for the fish to move into pre-spawn mode and become very aggressive. Once this happens, be prepared with your streamer selection. Until then, with the very warm evening we have been experiencing, the small Brachycentrus caddis will still be active from 7:00 until dark. #16 E/C Caddis, E-Z Caddis, Hemingway’s, CDC & Elk, and Partridge Caddis make good adult representations of these caddis and should be the ticket if you find fish eating adults along the many cutbanks of this river.


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## cazmataz (May 18, 2009)

This is one of the best reports I have read on fishing waters in Utah. Thanks.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

Flyguy what is your website? If you can't post it in the general forums could you PM it to me? Thanks! :mrgreen:


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## browntrout (Apr 27, 2008)

Thanks Flyguy7. Great information as usual.

Regards,
Browntrout


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