I fished the Middle Provo on Monday. It was very hot, but occasionally cloudy. I don't think this put a damper on the Green Drake hatch because even I didn't get to the water until 1:00, two fishermen told me that I missed the adult Green Drakes by about an hour.

I saw several golden stones and caddis flying around, but there were almost no rises. So I started using pheasant tails and prince nymphs to get on the bottom. I had to have 2-3 split shot on my line to get me there, too. Even after trying midges, San Juan worms, RS2, and other PMD nymphs, the only flies that I caught fish with all day were the pheasant tails and prince nymphs.

This was the first time that I had ever caught a fish with a pheasant tail on the swing upward that occurs at the end of the drift. You can see that here:



When a fish takes a fly in the front of their mouth, that is often a sign that they took an emerger. And he definitely took on the upswing--a pheasant tail. I was pleasantly surprised. This tells me that the fish were looking for caddis and he mistaked my pheasant tail as a caddis emerger. I suppose the pt can imitate a lot of different insects, which makes it one of my favorite flies to use.

I caught quite a few fish during the three hours that I was on the river. I don't think I saw anyone else catch anything, though. Most people were using streamers, dry caddis, and drakes, but I chose to go deep and I was rewarded.



This fish was long but not fat:


Next time I fish this deep pool I'm going to have a 9-foot leader followed by about 4 feet of tippet. This was about a 17" brown that took a prince nymph in this deep pool.

chasing salmonflies on the Blacksmith Fork River

I drove up to Logan, Utah to try the salmonfly hatch that is going on right now. I used to fish this river all the time when I lived up there. You know when you found the stretch of the river where the salmonflies are in when you start seeing them flying all over the road and slamming into your windshield.

I tried several different stretches of the river, but I think that the fish were gorged on salmonflies because I got only a few strikes overall. I did see a couple of takes of naturals, though, but not a lot.

However, once I tied on a parachute Adams, I started getting more takes.

Here are a couple of shots of the Blacksmith Fork River:

It's not a big river, but it's got some nice fish. I came upon a small inlet where I saw several rises:

On the first cast I got a strike but I failed to set the hook. On the second cast I got this 15" fish on a parachute Adams:

May 26 on the Upper Provo

It was a cloudy and overcast day. We had some occasional light showers, which made me think that streamers would be good. I tried for about an hour using a woolly bugger and a muddler minnow. But, nothing. So, after tying on a black and brown baetis nymph, I finally got one. With the new fluorocarbon tippet I was using, I kept losing flies. Maybe I didn't have enough lubricant (saliva) on there when I cinched the knot? So, I called it quits and headed back home.

I can tell, though, that fluoro is much stronger and will last longer.

In this photo, I thought that this part of the river looked good.

Fishing the Lower Provo, April 20th, 2009

The weather has recently been turning more Spring-like. We have had a rainy and snowy Spring so far, but there it is the latter half of April and we're finally seeing some warm temperatures and sunshine.

The lower Provo fished very slowly. I caught only one fish in four hours of wading. I tried five different midges, three different sow bugs, a baetis, and even a pheasant tail, and still didn't do very well. But if it's any consolation, I was watching the fishermen above me and below me, and I never saw anyone else catch anything.

The river level was normal--not too high and not low. In fact, it was just right. I fished Pine Run as well as near the island, which are typically very reliable areas for fish. Maybe the warm temperatures caught the fish by surprise and they're seeing different insect activity? Who knows, but I'll get out again.