# Provo Pigs



## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

The recent snowfall convinced me to keep it local this weekend and I decided to try a spot on the Provo that I'd never fished before. The special regs section of the Lower Provo always seems to have a lot of pressure and today I decided to go and see why.

After parking at the first pull-off upstream from the tunnels, I grabbed my spinning rod and worked a blue fox for about 45 minutes. Within a few casts, I had something thrashing at the end of my line. It put up a nice fight for a few seconds before it threw the hook. Pity I couldn't get a better look at it.

Another couple of minutes passed and I got nice brown of about 17 or 18 inches into my hand for a moment. It slipped away before I could get my camera out, but it was nice to hold. I got a smaller one a little while later that didn't get away though. Not until I released it anyway.










The action slowed down for the next while, but I noticed several snouts slurping up some tiny bugs. I went back to the car and grabbed my fly rod, rigged with a griffiths gnat. Despite my best efforts though, the fish wouldn't even look at it. Eventually, I scared them off with some bad casts.

Perhaps more visits to this part of the river are needed. It was fun to fish, but I felt like visiting another spot on the river to search for active bruisers.

When I pulled up to the parking area, I noticed some other vehicles and hoped they weren't fishing where I intended to go. Luckily, they appeared to have gone the the other direction.

Well, the first few holes I tried looked pretty good, but showed no signs of life. About 100 feet upstream, I noticed some bushes hanging down into the water. My cast went right where I wanted it and the olive cone headed bugger drifted down. Stripping slowly, I dredged the bottom and a mess of fish darted out for it. All of them missed and I set the hook to nothing. I saw at least two nice fish in the mix and the rest looked to be around 13 inches or so.

I repeated my first cast and was able to coax a second frenzy. This time, I connected with the hog. What a fight! This guy took me on a hard run toward some clutter to wrap me up in and all I could do was try to "guide the bullet". He got into some branches and I thought it was over, but I managed to play him back out and eventually into my waiting hand. What a chunk!










So far, my best river battle to date and it was my personal best brown at 20 inches and stout.

Knowing about the other fish by the bush, I tried my luck again. I couldn't believe it when I saw another big boy come out and grab my bugger. Just like his buddy, this one took me for a ride into the twigs and I was lucky enough to get him out and onto the bank.










He was almost the same size as the first hog and had a lot of color. Gorgeous fish.



















Again, there were more fish under the bush and I seemed to have their magic fly. I got a smaller one with the first cast and missed another big one on the second, before they stopped chasing. Talk about a productive hole!

Venturing further upstream didn't produce anything and I was already beaming with the nice hookups of the day, so I called it quits and went home very satisfied.

Happy Fishing, Humans.


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## Theekillerbee (Jan 8, 2009)

Looks like a great little outing. Good lookin' browns.


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## Grandpa D (Sep 7, 2007)

Great report LOAH.
Next time you try the gnat, drop a size 20 nymph under it 2' to 3'.

Good to see you are gaining some confidence in the long rod.


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## .45 (Sep 21, 2007)

Good job LOAH !!! 

It does my soul good to see some river fishing happening !! -()/- -()/-


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## Greenguy88 (Sep 7, 2007)

Dude! Those are some healthy browns for sure. Good on ya for gettin out and slammin em, on the fly rod is even better!


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## mjschijf (Oct 1, 2007)

That's awesome. Nice browns dude! Sounds like they were a ton of fun to catch, especially those two hogs. Great looking fish. 

Good to hear you're starting to get the hang of fly fishing the rivers. Just another technique to add to the arsenal. :twisted: Sweet!


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## troutwhisperer (Jan 1, 2009)

KUDOS TO YOU LUAH! Nice report & pictures, thanks for sharing.


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## orvis1 (Sep 7, 2007)

I am sure it was nice to get out of the house and get the line wet again! Nice fish impressive on the buggers good to see!


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## LOAH (Sep 29, 2007)

I will definitely sign up for that one, fatbass...I think I'll bring the 5wt for those thugs though.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)




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## catch22 (Feb 26, 2009)

Seeing these pics reminds me that I need to get to the river. The BWO's are going to be doing their thing if they haven't already started. If I can swing it I will be on the river on Sunday. I am a small fly guy and really love pulling the big ones from the shallows. I know some guys fish deep, its not my style. I catch 80 percent of my fish on a WD-40 in water just over my ankles.


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## Guns and Flies (Nov 7, 2007)

LOAH I wish I could fish half as much as you and half as good as you. Thanks for sharing!


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## Riverrat77 (Sep 7, 2007)

Nice job Lumpster.... thats cool about the "booger" being the magic clump of fur for the day. :lol: Those two pigs are sure beauties....


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## hunterfisher (Sep 14, 2007)

Jeez, those are some piggies you got there


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