A Saturday Evening on the Lower Provo River

I have fished the Lower Provo River more than any other river. This is a great fly fishing river and I learned to nymph fish here. The fish in this river have their Ph.D.’s. They get fished hard and if you don’t know what you’re doing, drag-free drifts and the correct small flies, you may get skunked. There were six cars parked at the access point where I intended to fish.

This time of year the canyons are gorgeous with the changing of color on the leaves. Usually the river is low and clear. Saturday evening however, the water was somewhat high and very off color. While wading you couldn’t even see the rocks in the shallow areas. I knew the fishing would be tough under these conditions. I was using pheasant tail and caddis emerger nymphs that usually work well in the fall. After a couple of casts into a current seam, I hooked one fish that soon got off. This was encouraging; at least the fish could see the fly. I moved upstream fishing further up the same current seam. I finally hooked a brown. It didn’t jump like the ones on the Weber usually do. I played it downstream a bit into some calmer water and then landed it.

Fishing into the deeper water further out from the current seam I managed to hook a large white fish. These white fish don’t like to be still while the hook is being extracted and they love to just keep flopping while pictures are being taken. But, as soon as you put them back into the water they lay still and float belly up. This fish was no exception. It flopped around so much that scales were coming off and getting all over the place, like on the reel and the rod handle. I finally got it to stay upright in the water and it then swam off into the deeper water.

I then went upstream to the next deeper pool but had no luck, even in the most promising looking places. I crossed the river to the other side of this deep pool and fished right where the fast, shallow water poured into to deeper water. After a few minutes I hooked a strong fish which started taking out line. This fish took the line right to the bottom of the pool, got the line to foul hook on some debris and broke me off. These are the fish that leave you wondering just how big they really are.

After tying on another caddis nymph, I went back to the same spot. At the end of a drift I pulled up sharply to imitate the caddis pupa beginning its ascent to the surface. A fish hit and this time I kept it from going to the bottom of the deep pool. It ended up being a nice rainbow. This was a good finish to another gorgeous fall evening.