# How do I fish a river with a lure?



## flyfitch (Sep 22, 2007)

For the 30 years that I have fished rivers, I have only used a fly rod. That is what my dad did and that is how I was raised. I have never thought of using lures like the rapalas and things that I have read about on some of these forums. Do you fish with the divers or ones that just sink? Do you cast across river on an angle like I would with a streamer? It looks fun. I don't know if I will actually ever do it, but I keep thinking about it. It seems weird to me to take a spinner rod to a river, but it seems to be very popular. And from the post (a few down the page) about the Middle Provo, where I also love to fish, it seems to be pretty successful. I think next time I will throw in my spinning rod. Any tips on what kind of lures would be great. If you need any info. on fly fishing, I would love to help you out, but like I said, spinning rod on a river would be new to me.


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

Wow now that is one humble fly fisherman! haha First off, you will have a HUGE advantage in that you are probably really good at reading rivers and knowing where to make casts and where fish usually hang out. I like you grew up river fishing, the first fish I caught was on the Sevier with my cousin and it was on a roostertail spinner. I was hooked and have since fished a lot of different rivers with a lot of different things. 

Luckycraft pointer minnows have been the best for me for two reasons; Lots of fish and usually bigger ones. Pointer minnows work great on rivers because they are relatively heavy for their size so they cast a long ways or can be flipped easily but they also suspend so you usually stay up out of moss and snags. The best color for me has been ghost minnow and the only size I use on rivers is 65. Before finding luckys, I fished floating rapalas in size F7 and in gold and black or silver and black. The CD or countdown rapalas sink so before you know it you are hung up. The floaters run about a foot deep. Like flyfishing, always always fish up river. Cast to the head of a hole or run and burn it back to stay ahead of the current. Your lure will have good action and the fish wont have a lot of time to decide if they want to eat or not. A lot of the time you will have a fish slam it as soon as you start cranking as long as you get right into the retrieve as soon as the lure hits the water. Last but not least, use good line. I like the six pound P-line or Berkley Vanish fluorocarbon.

I will let the spinner fisherman explain those but that is what I threw before and I have caught lots more on spinners that swim baits but it wont be long before that changes since I spent some 10 years throwing panther martins and have only thrown swimbaits for about a year.

Good luck and if you want to fish with any one of us just ask and we can set something up. I have met lots of great guys and excellent fisherman on here.


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## flyfitch (Sep 22, 2007)

Thanks Nor-tah. It was your guys story about the Middle Provo that got me thinking. I love throwing streamers into seams and it does make sense that a lure would work the same way. I just thought you would have to real so fast to keep up with the currant that the fish would not catch up. But like you said, usually fish will hit a streamer really quick, within the first couple strips of the fly line. So I think it will be quite similar. Now, to your point about a humble fly fisherman. I tried being one of those stuck up fly fisherman that shops at Western Rivers, hates anybody that doesn't use a fly rod, and won't give anybody the time of day. That didn't last long because I HATE those kind of people. I just love to fish. I don't care what kind of fishing it is. Fishing is fishing, meaning that it is fun, peacefull and relaxing to me. I fish the Middle Provo at least a dozen times a year, and the same old routine works well for catching fish, but it is getting boring. It is time to try something different. I just talked myself into it and the next time I go, I will take my spinning rod. Even if I do go with my fishing "pals" that only fly fish. Maybe I will announce on here when I am going and see if anybody here would like to go. It is always fun meeting new people, as long as you don't take me somewhere and leave me for dead, or swimming with the fishes.


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## scientificangler (Aug 13, 2008)

Well said Nor-tah! And I agree with flyfitch, fishing is fishing. Enjoy yourself and catch some fish (hopefully!).


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## rugerdogdog (Nov 18, 2007)

Wow that IS a cool post. Especially from a fly fisherman. River fishing with a lure is something that I have wanted to try also but have been too embarrassed to admit I haven't been able to figure out.
It takes a big man to ask such a remedial question and a bunch of big men to not flip you crap for not knowing.


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## GaryFish (Sep 7, 2007)

I'm the opposite of what you've described here. I grew up stream/river fishing but we did it exclusively with spinning rods, casting in-line spinners like Mepps, Rooster Tails, and Panther Martins. Eventually, we got the tackle craft catalogs and started making all our own lures - much like tying our own flies. And that is how I actually got into fly tying - we bought a basic fly tying kit so we could make our own rooster tails! Funny how all that goes. 

As for fishing in-line spinners, as was mentioned, you already know how to read seams, holes, plunge pools, riffles, etc... The fish clearly are in the same places. The most simple explaination is to cast your spinner upstream from the hole, and retrieve it so it hits the seam of the hole, or goes across it. For example, upstream and a quartering away, you see a large rock with a hole behind it. Cast the spinner to the near side of the rock, above the rock, and then use your rod tip to control where the spinner goes, and reel it through the edge of the hole - much like you'd do with a streamer - only you are using your reel instead of stripping the line. Work all the holes this way. I will say that you don't have to work only up-stream. I was fishing a small stream in Idaho this summer -teaching my son - and we would flip the spinner quartering upstream because that gave us the best presentation through an undercut bank. Do whatever it takes - up stream, cross stream, or down to get the spinner through the hole. Different than standard fly fishing through, your spinner is a bait fish imitation, so it can swim upstream past a hole - where flies really can't do that (spinner excluded). 

Using spinners, the hits will be harder, and you won't miss the hook-ups like you can do with flies. Best of luck though.


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## Nor-tah (Dec 16, 2007)

flyfitch said:


> Thanks Nor-tah. It was your guys story about the Middle Provo that got me thinking. I love throwing streamers into seams and it does make sense that a lure would work the same way. *I just thought you would have to real so fast to keep up with the currant that the fish would not catch up.* But like you said, usually fish will hit a streamer really quick, within the first couple strips of the fly line. So I think it will be quite similar. Now, to your point about a humble fly fisherman. I tried being one of those stuck up fly fisherman that shops at Western Rivers, hates anybody that doesn't use a fly rod, and won't give anybody the time of day. That didn't last long because I HATE those kind of people. I just love to fish. I don't care what kind of fishing it is. Fishing is fishing, meaning that it is fun, peacefull and relaxing to me. I fish the Middle Provo at least a dozen times a year, and the same old routine works well for catching fish, but it is getting boring. It is time to try something different. I just talked myself into it and the next time I go, I will take my spinning rod. Even if I do go with my fishing "pals" that only fly fish. *Maybe I will announce on here when I am going and see if anybody here would like to go.* It is always fun meeting new people, as long as you don't take me somewhere and leave me for dead, or swimming with the fishes.


I have been really surprised how fast fish swim especially down stream after a lure. I have realy burned it before and hooked up. Its nice because the fish hooks itself as soon as it bites it trys to turn and you are still reeling. One more tip is to but a spinning reel with a high gear ratio, like in the 5s. It will be a lot less work for you then say an ultra light reel which you will get frusterated trying to keep up with.

Let us know when you go ar at least how you do. Most of us are pretty normal but stay away from that .45 guy. :lol: :shock: 8)


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## Huge29 (Sep 17, 2007)

Nor-tah said:


> A lot of the time you will have a fish slam it as soon as you start cranking as long as you get right into the retrieve as soon as the lure hits the water.


For this reason and the fact that sometimes the water is quite shallow I will do a somewhat high lob to create a little more time for me to already be cranking on the retrieve before hitting the water, just my $0.02.


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## xxxxxxBirdDogger (Mar 7, 2008)

Go back about 20 years...I was a teen who worked near the mouth of Provo Canyon. Every day after work a friend and I would hit the Provo. I was exclusively a fly fisherman at the time. He fished with spinners. It didn't take me long to become a believer. I've never fished the Provo since then without catching a nice trout on a Blue Fox in-line spinner. Just throw it upstream and bring it back to you. Sometimes they'll even take it downstream, especially underneath an overhang.

***(You can't beat fishing scuds on the Provo, though :wink: )


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## SteepNDeep (Sep 11, 2007)

I'm like many on here. I grew up in north Orem/Provo and rode my bike up the canyon to fish. I sucked it up until I learned where and how to fish with lures. They already gave the good advice, but, for what it's worth, here's some more. I would use the advice you have and experiment from there. I know most that have posted are passionate about one kind of lure or another. In the process of experimenting I think you find what you like most, and come up with some useful standby's in the process.

A variety of lures on the Provo will work anywhere, but they are best in or near water that is moving. The big flat stuff is not the best place to fish with a lure IMO. Unless the fishing pressure has been light (rare on Provo) or it's near dusk, or the fish are voraciously feeding. I think the longer a fish has to look at a lure the less likely they are to take them. Having said that, I am just recently finding that a more staggered retrieve than I ever would have thought can work wonders. A few weeks back I watched a big brown follow my lure out and so I stopped as he wasn't taking it. I started and stopped it 3 more times before he hit it. I try to play with my retrieve speeds a bit anytime I go out, but that stagger is new for me I almost always continually retrieve more or less. Still, one of the cool things about lures is that everything's game. You can fish any part of the river, but you can't expect to linger like a flyfisherman might. I think most lures "bust" the hole for a period of time. This is also why a heavy lure is nice as you can toss them from way back and fish the end of the hole first. Your first casts are also pretty important on a big open hole. I tend to approach those large flat holes from way back and then progressively move in on them. Almost always fish upstream, but I've had plenty take it when casting downstream and retrieving up. It just isn't as effective as across or upstream casting though. And I never seem to have much success standing right over the spot I am fishing (unless the water is moving quickly, it's near dark, or has white to hide me) like I see some fly guys do. Casting is very important to success, and you need to learn to drop the lure within inches of where you intend for it to be for some of the edge fish. As others have said they sometimes hit it, maybe even out of aggression like a Bass, the moment it hits the water. Don't be discouraged if you can't cast that tightly as you obviously don't need to to catch them. Also, on slower days, getting it deep can help a lot. I'll often let my lure bump along the bottom and you kind of learn to fish it in the deeper stuff by the bumps. 

I can almost tell when the river has been heavily fished by the places I end up catching fish. I think a lot of people overlook stuff along the edges, shallow riffled transition waters, sides and ends of holes, and especially fast waters. If you see that dark blue/green, fast, thin strip of water along the edge you want to get the lure right next to the rocks or up at the top of the water and pull it back across and through that stuff. Even dropping it through that heavy whitewater will sometimes produce some of the biggest fish as they can handle it. As others have noted, up along the sides under brush or overhanging stuff is always a good place to try.

Lastly, I echo what someone else said, I'm often reeling the moment, or before, the lure hits the water. Because I cast towards the bank, I often stop the cast short to ensure it doesn't actually hit the bank. This is not necessarily a bad thing to be overcasting as you need to learn to pop that sucker down up against the edges as you can. In any case, edge or not, you want to have a reel that will allow you a quick transition from the cast to spinning. You want a reel that will spin on demand. Nothing irritates me more than a reel that won't, or that hangs on an attempt to get the bail, or whatever it is called, back down and running. Along the same lines you want line that comes easily and smoothly off the spool. Don't fish with the spool at capacity or on the low end as one causes a mess and the other causes too much friction and stops your casts shorter than you want. I don't know the exact size, but I prefer a rod in the 6 to seven foot range that is flexible. I'm not a gear guy, so I can't explain it in numbers, but I like a longer mid flex kind of rod. Enough flexibility to get some help on the cast and more fun fishing, but not so much that the cast is soft and harder to control. I use 6 or 8lb but try to get flexible 8. You get some big fish when lure fishing, and so I'm not ashamed to fish with 8. Too many break offs have taught me to always check my drag before I start fishing.

Can you tell I like lure fishing?


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## martymcfly73 (Sep 17, 2007)

I shop at Western Rivers from time to time does that mean I'm stuck up? :lol: A lot of people that fish the Provo with lures that I see overlook some of the big deep slow holes. Your average fly fisherman can't get down to the bottom unless they "bounce" which is unheard of in your elitist UTOF circles. Which I admit proudly to doing. It's easier to get into those holes and in my experience there are some hogs in those places that are untouched if you can believe that for the Provo. So hopefully that helps. Especially on the lower. Fish it like you do a streamer, no difference really.


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## Chaser (Sep 28, 2007)

I started with spinner fishing, and like many others, picked up fly fishing. The knowledge that I have gained over the years while fly fishing has really helped me to be a better spin-fisherman too. I know how to read the streams/rivers much better. 

Its interesting to me that most of you fish spinners upstream or across most of the time. I have almost always fished them downstream. Occasionally, where necessary, I will cast across the stream, but for the most part, I cast down. I also like to cast as far down as possible and cover a large area on each retrieve. This year especially, I have noticed that with a lighter spinner, such as a size 0 Blue Fox vibrax, it helps to not even reel at first, and then to reel slowly, letting the current spin the lure. This technique has been killer every time I have tried it this year. 

The black/gold floating rapala has also been an excellent lure in the past. The nice thing about it being buoyant is that if you get hung up between rocks, you can release the tension, and 9 times out of 10 it will float back up to the surface, allowing you to keep reeling. 

I will have to give the upstream approach a shot though.


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## SteepNDeep (Sep 11, 2007)

Wow. I'm as surprised as you are. I've caught them fishing downstream, but haven't been nearly as successful myself. What works works though.


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