# Great time on the Lower Provo



## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

Hit the lower Provo today but I forgot my camera :x :x . I wanted to go out in the morning but had other things I had to do that ended up lasting till 12:00 and I had to be back by 3:30. But some fishing is better than no fishing right? Since I didn't have much time I decided to just stop at Vivian Park and finally got on the water at about 12:30. There were more people than I thought there would be for an overcast day that forecasted rain. I saw at least 6 other fishermen in the parking lot or in the river. Two guys were looking for dry fly action but unfortunately the fish just weren't rising and I didn't ask how they did nymphing. Another guy said he caught 4 on sow bugs (3) and a wd-40 (1) browns and bows. 

For me, the first 30 minutes started off SLOW. I began to think there were no fish in the river. After scratching my head for a while I switched to the tried and true sow bug and a midge dropper and hooked up in about 5 minutes with a small skinny brown. After that the fish seemed to come in packs. Two or three really quickly and then nothing for a while, then a few more. All said and done in a couple of hours of actual river time I landed 8 trout (a mix of browns and fat bows) and a giant white fish. I didn't have a tape with me but most of the trout were about 12-14 inches with a couple of dinks and one pretty large one. The white fish was about 20-22 inches or so. I also had two other really big fish on that I never saw. One broke off and the other one spit the hook and sent my weights flying at my head. Most of the fish were on the sow bug and a few were on the dropper.


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## blueboy22 (Sep 30, 2007)

Getting about that time for the River isn't it. Iv haven't caught a white Fish yet, sounds like a great afternoon.


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## willfish4food (Jul 14, 2009)

Fishing was so great Saturday I went up again today and took a friend. Unfortunately, today was a completely different story. Fished for about 6 hours, froze my feet till they were numb, but didn't land a single fish. Had two fish on but both came off pretty quickly. We also saw a good number of fish but none were actively feeding and we couldn't entice any to take a fly. Pretty big bummer of a trip. But, the weather was beautiful. (other than the cold.)


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## blueboy22 (Sep 30, 2007)

I wonder what is was about Saturday that made Fishing so good everywhere?


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## catch22 (Feb 26, 2009)

blueboy22 said:


> I wonder what is was about Saturday that made Fishing so good everywhere?


I have found that fly fishing the lower Provo This time of year and into March, that I do best when there is cloud cover. When the blue-wings start coming off, it is those grey windless days that are key to fabulous action. Hundreds of heads out of the water in short stretches of stream. The other thing I like about the river is that there is no need to get up at four or five in the morning. Show up early enough to get your position on the stream and wait for the action to pick up. I don't move around a lot during the rush of March because I want to fish my favorite spot and it is too easy to lose position to the dozens of other anglers on any stretch. FYI - during the blue-winged olive hatches, even workdays draw a crowd on the stream and at times you have a guy just beyond your cast in either direction, but everyone is catching fish and then at 2:30 or 3:30 it slows down.

Glad you got out on a good day.


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## flyguy7 (Sep 16, 2007)

With BWO's, they definitely come off better on cloudy days. And the nastier the day, the better the hatch. But with midges it is the opposite. Sunny warm days offer BY FAR the best midge fishing (similar to caddis as the have a more closely related life cycle to midges than the blue wings). If you are willing to stick around in march and april after the blue wings are done until evening, you will be rewarded with some incredible dry fly fishing with midges. During March and April, the baetis are the main focus but in the evening all the midges that hatches throughout the day come back to the water to form huge mating swarms, lay their eggs and then die. Many times the dry fly fishing at this time is as good or even better than during the blue wings that hatched earlier in the day because the fish are far less picky. Because of the sheer number of mating midges on the surface, the fish usually focus in on the "clusters" of mating midges. Now instead of throwing hard to see #20 bwo sparkle duns, thorax patterns, befus emergers, etc..., you can throw #16 high vis Griffiths Gnats, Parachute Adams, or even Renegades (yes, Renegades!) and stick another 30 to 40 fish on dries AFTER pounding them with BWO dries all day. Last year in some of the better big dry fly runs such as Sattelite, hatchery, hoover, and pine run I counted over 200 rising fish eating the evening midge swarm LONG after most anglers have packed up and headed home.


> I don't move around a lot during the rush of March because I want to fish my favorite spot and it is too easy to lose position to the dozens of other anglers on any stretch.


Not a big fan of when people use this approach. I think this is exactly what leads to angler conflicts on the water. The middle and lower provo combined offers 22 miles of fishable water with an average of 3,500 trout per mile. ANYWHERE you go on the provo, there is going to be plenty of fish to go around. If you are willing to walk a little ways, Fish outside your comfort zone and find fish rising in the pocketwater, riffles, and micro eddies along the banks, you can find plenty of quality rising fish without a thousand hook scars and very few people around. Just because there are already 5 guys fishing lunker lane, tree hole, hoover hole, and Rainbow does't mean you can find fish rising to blue wings downstream of river road or upstream of legacy bridge on the middle; between the campground and hoover hole or from vivian park through frazier park all the way down to olmstead (and even well below olmstead) on the lower provo.


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## blueboy22 (Sep 30, 2007)

flyguy7 said:


> or from vivian park through frazier park all the way down to olmstead (and even well below olmstead) on the lower provo.


Hey don't send anyone Lower then olmstead, I like Fishing out of the crowd.


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## catch22 (Feb 26, 2009)

flyguy7 said:


> The middle and lower provo combined offers 22 miles of fishable water with an average of 3,500 trout per mile.


Some great advice Flyguy. I used to be able to fish that river for 8 hours without even a pee break and cover great stretches of the stream. Oh to be that young again. I do like the idea of fishing later in the day during the midge hatch after the crowds have waned and with a fly that I can actually see. I'll have to give that a go. The spots that I frequent are a bit away from the maddening crowd, but I am limited in the amount of stream that I can cover, and I try not to fish it alone these days. Don't want to be found on the bank by another fisherman after its too late.


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