# European Flyfisher comes over to visit Provo River - but needs help!



## ASebestian (Sep 23, 2019)

Hi,
Sorry for short notice, this was all planned differently.

I'm flying over from Austria on this friday (27th September) to Salt Lake City for a full week business trip in Draper.
The fact I have to work there for a week, I decided to definatley spend 2 days (Saturday & Sunday) at the Provo River for flyfishing. I'm fishing in my country only on small flies mainly on trouts, rainbow's and graylings so I would call myself a well educated flyfisher. So I was not planning to book a guide - would have explored the area by myself.

Hotels, Flights and even a rental car was booked and all is prepared. I also did write with a flyfishing shop for a rod purchase which afterwards will be shipped by the shop back to europe. 

Last saturday I was telling very good friends about my plans and they were very excited with me. Till the moment, they asked me about my international driving license. 

Häh? International Driving License? What for?! Then the desaster started..... I realized, european driving licenses are not accepted in USA and I need an additional document certifying the active drivers license. So I went to the office and applied for this additional document but was disappointed about the short timing. They cannot guarantee me I will have my international driving license on Thursday (and Friday Morning I'm already flying).

So I do something what I normally won't do: I'm asking people I don't know for help!

Is there a flyfisherman, living in the area of Draper and would go fishing on saturday &/or sunday at this area and is so helpful to take me with him? I would definatley pay the fuel and a lunch! 

Please - if there's someone who says - yes for sure - reach out to me!
Best via Email to A.Sebestian "@" sebestian.com 

This would safe my trip and I would be very grateful.

Alexander


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## BPturkeys (Sep 13, 2007)

I guess I am a little confused here, are you saying you can not rent a car? Maybe one of your "good friends" could drive you up there, it's only about a 30-40 minute drive to either the lower Provo(via Provo Canyon) or middle Provo in Heber valley. Also, if all else fails you could just Uber up Big or Little Cottonwood Canyon and fish. The fish are a little smaller but I've spent many a fun afternoon trying to out smart those little devils.


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

I think he is saying he is not sure his certificate for international DL won’t come in on time and doesn’t want to drive without it. 

I’m booked out on Saturday or I’d take you up. Sorry! I hope you’re able to get a good day or two on the river.


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## wyoming2utah (Sep 12, 2007)

I am thinking that it may also be hard to rent a car without a driver's license...


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## ASebestian (Sep 23, 2019)

BPturkeys said:


> I guess I am a little confused here, are you saying you can not rent a car?


Hi,
this is exactly my apprehension. I'm worried AVIS will not let me pick up the booked rental car.

The local office here is trying to send me the "International License" (a kind of a addon document) till Thursday and everything will be good.
Then I will be independent and all will be good. If not - I'm worried if I can ask one of my colleagues to drive me up to Provo River on their weekend.

But many thanks for your responses.

Greetings
Alexander


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

wyoming2utah said:


> I am thinking that it may also be hard to rent a car without a driver's license...


Two things that are harder than renting a car without a drivers license:

A. Checking into a hotel
B. Purchasing an $8 screw driver from Home Depot.

Believe me. I know from experience. 

Alexander's situation is different than mine own.


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## ASebestian (Sep 23, 2019)

PBH said:


> Two things that are harder than renting a car without a drivers license:
> 
> A. Checking into a hotel
> B. Purchasing an $8 screw driver from Home Depot.


Well, I'm visiting the states often but never had to organize a rental car.
In New York City you do everything with public transports and in Sunnyvale I usually take a uber or hotel transfer from the airport to the hotel.

A: Checking into my hotel usually works with my passport ?! Never had to show my driving license. :-?
B: Well, I can imagine.... It will be very interesting if they will open my suitcase on the flight over to USA where my Flyrod is packed into. (I specially choose a 8.6 ft rod which has no aluminium tube)

Let's see how things will work out. It's my first trip where I do have the chance to fish in the states and then in one of the best rivers!
Very excited.

Just finished a phone call with a colleague who told me I shouldn't worry about my driving license - he always rents a car with the normal european driving license.... So I'm a litte relaxed now.

Anyway - I will report how things went and if someone see's me at Provo River please talk to me! We will for sure have something to lough about.

Greetings from (today) cold and rainy Austria

Alexander


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## PBH (Nov 7, 2007)

ASebestian said:


> Well, I'm visiting the states often but never had to organize a rental car.
> In New York City you do everything with public transports and in Sunnyvale I usually take a uber or hotel transfer from the airport to the hotel.
> 
> A: Checking into my hotel usually works with my passport ?! Never had to show my driving license. :-?
> ...


good luck. Hoping for the best for you.

I once flew from Cedar City --> SLC --> LA. My driver's license somehow got left at the security checkpoint in Cedar City. My flight from SLC to LA was not fun...I worried about what I was going to do the whole flight, knowing that I didn't have my driver's license (my only form of identification!).

No worries. Hertz rented me the car (a camero!) without any ID at all!
The hotel was a bit more struggle, but after a few minutes of discussion with the on duty manager, I was able to check in to my room.
But Home Depot? No way. Nada. Absolutely not. They would not, could not!, sell me an $8 screw driver without identification. I had to have someone else at our remote office go buy the stupid screw driver for me!!

The camero was sure fun to drive!!


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## ASebestian (Sep 23, 2019)

Hi all,

here's my report from my trip to Provo.

First of all: My worries about the rental car with a traditional european driving license was exaggerated. The lady at the counter didn't even ask for another license. Just entered the data of my paper license and gave me the keys.

The fact it was already 8PM maybe helped. Everybody was tired and just wanted to go. Same for me.

So all was fine - Saturday Morning I went to FishWest to pick the purchased Rod 10ft Class 4 and to borrow a net. After a short conversation about the hassle and my background of flyfishing we did the licensing part (I took a 7 days license - where the cheap price surprised me) and I directly drove from Sandy up to the Middle Provo. At the River Rd I was very surprised to see a parking sign for fishermen. This is something you rarely will find in my region. Most parking slots are either for hiking / skiing but never for fishing. So I went the sandy road to the parking lot and saw already lots of cars parked. Next to my car a couple was preparing their rods and we got into a conversation. Very helpful informations about the rules and the river made me very excited so I didn't spend too much time and went directly to the river.

It was windy and no rising fish were spotted. Also no flies on the surface so it was clearly a nymph tour up the river.

Suprisingly it didn't take long to catch the first fish and it was already a proper brown trout. A short drill to the bank and an easy unhook of my self tied nymphs brought me the first picture. 

Then I caught many small (~20cm) Brown Trouts on my way up to the damm until I got to a place in the river which dissappointed me very much.

I know it's sometimes hard to cast close to obstacles but if I get a hang there I do have to remove the flys from this tree trunk.

Guys, we all are taking lots of care to unhook fish after we caught them, we carefully release them with wet hands or even without touching it, but then we leave flys floating in the water attachted to a tree trunk????
Imagine how painful the fish will die because he will not be drilled to the bank, get the hook removed and then released back into the wild!!!
Shame on these people!!!! 
(I removed this - and it was not hard reaching out to this)

After some minutes just watching this beautiful location, making some pictures of the surrounding I walked further up and it didn't take long until I caught again a beautiful Brown Trout. 6 similar sized fish (~40cm) where caught and in the time between many uncounted small brownies made this day fantastic. 
From ~11AM till 5PM I caught ~70 fish and had beautiful moments in this perfect stream. 
Also the short conversations with locals who where fishing too, some exchanged nymphs with me, some just enjoyed the short talk made my expirience unforgettable.

Sunday Morning the forecast was worse than saturday with much more wind so I decided to drive up to the Legacy Bridge very early. 
I arrived shortly after 7 AM and waded upwards again. But this day it was very difficult to keep the tippet stable in the water without getting it pulled out from the gusts. 
It was very hard but I caught again some very nice marked brown trouts in the size between 15 and 30cm but I was really trying to catch a "real american Rainbow" - we do have Rainbow Trouts here as well, and they are very good fighters so it was on my list to catch an original Rainbow.

But this area seemed to be too flat for these kind of fish so I decided to drive further up again to the parking lot from saturday but this time I wanted to go stream downwards.

The wind was getting stronger and it was even harder to get a catch but then I suddenly hooked a majestic brown trout! It was definatley the biggest fish I caught on that weekend and the drill was very exciting. It was jumping out of the water took lots of line and because of the windy situation it was very hard to have a good stand in the stream. 
I saw someone fishing a little further down and I was calling him if he can come up to make a picture of me with this trophy fish.
And he came up but was not friendly at all. Because of my adrenaline I was not getting calm enough to get a good touch of this fish and the guy was kind of pushing so I decided to let him just make a picture with my phone in the net until I released this beauty. 
Then this guy went directly downwards and then I realized "Oh my god - he's guiding a group".... So I wanted to excuse myself at the group for this interrupt of the paid guiding but I didn't get the repsonse I was expecting.
Instead I was unpleasent asked to move on and let them alone. It was never my intention to fish close to them (which I never do - I do respect people from fishing at a spot and do not force them to move - I usually wait until they move on).

Very confused and really feeling bad I vanished river downwards until I found another nice spot below them.
Still having them in sight I started to realize why he was so unfriendly.
The place he was obviously teaching 3 guests was the only one without the strong wind gusts and so it seemed the best place to educate casts/drifts/strikes . I felt even worse but on the other side I was very upset about the way he was expressing his unkindness. 

I mean if he doesn't want to help/support someone foreign why did he accepted my request for taking a picture? I would have accepted it clearly.
In the meantime I caught some smaller fish but still my feelings where very mixed and I was even sad not having asked him for his name. Cause honestly - if I'm guiding I should treat foreigners differently as he did. 
If I meet someone from outside at my rivers I would totally make the opposite. Would exchange some words, giving some hints about patterns, places or even casts but not send him away and ask him very unfriendly to leave me alone.

Anyway - they left some time later, other fishermen came down to me and we again had good conversations and my mood got better again.

And then, what I was never expecting, I saw fish rising. Oh no - I really can switch my rig to dryflies? I was very excited to see fish taking my drys but I was either too tired, slow or just too stupid but I was not able to set the hook.

But this didn't destroy my feelings about this beatiful stream and the fantastic landscape!
You definatley have a jewel you can fish and I will try to follow this forum to at least read some good stories about it.
So please share also some nice fish pics so I can continue to dream about it.

One more thing: If you need equipment, it's definatley worth to visit Westfish in Sandy! Those guys are very helpful, expirienced, and I'm pretty sure to say it's one of the best fly fishing shops I visited (and I visited very famous ones too)

So long story short! It was a pleasure and who knows, maybe we will see us again. 

Best regards

Alexander


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## BGD (Mar 23, 2018)

Thanks for a report on your experience. I am glad you had a good time. Too bad you had a run in with someone that was a bit grumpy. I know it is hard but Don’t take it personally. You never know what that person may or may not be dealing with. Thanks for sharing some pics too!


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

Thanks for the report. It sounds like, overall, you had a good trip. 

A couple of things:

1. If you are still in the area and still want to catch a rainbow, the lower Provo has more bows than the middle, especially the AFL part. All I catch on the middle are browns, but I usually get some rainbow love on each trip on the lower. The lower is felt to be a little more challenging, technique wise, than the middle, but it sounds like you have the chops for that. 

2. The middle is probably the most crowded stretch of river in the state. It is no surprise that you ran into some grumpy folks. It happens there. Most of us shrug it off or better yet, fish somewhere else.


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## TPrawitt91 (Sep 1, 2015)

Haha it sounds like you did better than most of the locals do!! Probably why they were grumpy. The middle Provo is combat fishing so I usually only go during the most undesirable times of year!! 

I only hope to be a good enough fly angler that I too can travel to a different country and out fish the locals!! Good work!


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## Jedidiah (Oct 10, 2014)

That grumpy guide probably just hadn't helped his group catch any fish and wanted to make a show of blaming you for it. 

There is soooooo much more fishing than just the Provo in this state. Literally hundreds of miles of rivers, and probably a few thousand miles of water if you count the smaller streams. I've been fishing the Provo less and less the last few years, I'd rather find beaver ponds on a backcountry stream and teach all the fish in them a lesson. You can also drive up into the Uintas and fish the lakes for brookies and other trout, and fish the streams in between. Maybe give yourself a few extra days next time and stay in a cabin up there during the spring or fall.


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## ASebestian (Sep 23, 2019)

TPrawitt91 said:


> Haha it sounds like you did better than most of the locals do!! Probably why they were grumpy.


Haha, this is what I was thinking too! :smile: But, isn't it snooty?
I mean he was obviously a guide and I'm "just" a small european flyfisher.



TPrawitt91 said:


> I only hope to be a good enough fly angler that I too can travel to a different country and out fish the locals!! Good work!


You are very warm welcomed to come over and I promise you you will have a great time too. 
I wouldn't say I out fished the locals - I just caught beautiful fish and had a overall great time.

And listen: What if you won't catch fish you still would have a great expirience in a beautiful landscape. At least this was my expectation when I was fishing at Provo.

Regarding the Lower Provo - this is what I was thinking on my return flight to Europe - had 10,5 hours time and you can imagine I was having a lot of time to think - but I was only 2 days available, the week till Friday Morning was my main reason traveling over to Salt Lake City - business..

BUT: I might come in January again, and then I will definatley will consider lower provo a visit.

Greetings
Alexander


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## Jedidiah (Oct 10, 2014)

Watch the weather, January on the rivers here can be so cold that your line guides freeze up. Either way you will want to have a couple layers to wear under your waders. You could also just go icefishing, if you come out and it's too cold message me and I'll gladly set you up a seat and pole in my tent, it's a great time.


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## Catherder (Aug 2, 2008)

ASebestian said:


> BUT: I might come in January again, and then I will definatley will consider lower provo a visit.
> 
> Greetings
> Alexander


If you are here in late February, March, or April, let me know and I can probably get you on some LoPro (oops Lower Provo) rainbows. They might even be in prespawn colors too. Those are the times I fish the lower the most. By May, it starts getting too crowded.


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