It came to me the other day, while fishing the middle Provo, below the Jordanelle dam. There is a lot to timing a hatch. I was up there for a fly fishing club outing. In fact, there were three local clubs coming together to share an event. A BBQ social, timed early on account of the hatch. It was expected to come off around noon or twelve-thirty, so there was time to eat and then hit the river. I got to make some new friends and get reacquainted with old ones.
After the chit chat, working the crowd, I slipped away, off to locate a good spot. You see, I fish the middle Provo 3-4 times a winter. The past two seasons the focus was exclusively fishing dry flies during the midge hatch. This season was not going to be any different. A creature of habit, I had 4 favorite spots, two them were extremely popular, I would have needed to stake out either one of those holes at nine-thirty at the latest. The middle provo has become ridiculously crowded and on weekends, it is combat fishing. Lord help you if you rob a guide and his client of his favorite hole. Of the two remaining, I did a drive by the first and there were two people in it. Then I checked the parking (only 2 cars) at the second and decided I could take my chances and hike in. Thanks to my luck the hole was open.
By the time I was in the water and rigged, it was 12:45. We suspected that the hatch would be late, but I cast for an hour before the hatch really came off. The middle Provo below Jordanelle has become crazy busy in butt-cold January because of very reliable hatches, meaning literally every day in January and February, but of course there are exceptions. The hatch typically lasts one and a half to two hours but the start time time varies, based upon the air temperature, which in turn affects the water temperature. Sunlight is also a factor. The midges hatch when the water reaches a certain temp. If it has been warm lately, 30 degrees or above, mid-twenties at night, the hatch could be as early as 11:30 if it is a sunny morning. However, after a night at ten degrees and a cloudy start to the morning, the hatch could be a late as 1:30, it is just hard to tell. Anyway, 1:30 turned out the be the case on that day.
Light tippet is always a necessity, when fishing small flies, for a few reasons. The most obvious is that 5X just won’t thread through the eye of a size 24 dry fly. Next and also obvious is that the tippet becomes more visible to the fish when the water is gin clear and shallow. Finer tippet is less visible. The third, and perhaps less obvious reason is that the stiffness of the tippet has a direct effect on a fly’s drift. The effect is more pronounced as the fly size shrinks. My rule of thumb is size 18 and smaller, go with for 5.5X or 6X up through size 22. From 22 to 26 6.5X or 7X. At 26 or smaller I may go to an 8X for really picky trout. On this day, I paired a size 24 Adams with 6.5X tippet. I did feel like there was drag on the fly and wished I had 7X.
Long leaders are also must on this section of the Provo. Because of the fishing pressure, these fish are educated. They all have PhDs in refusals. So my leader including existing tippet measured 11′. It terminated in a section of 5.5X, which was perfect, for tying a 3′ piece of 6.5X with a blood knot. I know, blood knot, must be an old geezer. But hey, I have been tying them for 20 years. And, I’ve gotten fast and good. My knots are solid. Another reason I like the knot is the profile, crazy it is that I care about such a bizarre aesthetic, but yeah, I do. So I had my 14′ leader spun up by my Galvan T3 Torque reel attached to my Scott G2 883/4. Let me switch gears and talk for a moment about rod selection. Yes, I fish a three weight, almost 80% of my dry fly fishing, except for heavy flies w/ dropper. I’m not afraid of big fish either, I regularly land 20+ inch fish on the my 3wt, the largest being a 30″ bull trout. I can also cast my 3wt over 50″ sometimes farther. The most important reason is tippet protection. I rarely fish dry flies with bigger than 5X, unless it is a big hopper or other big bug, like a drake or a salmon fly. When I’m using Trout Hunter 6.5X tippet with 2lbs of breaking strength, I need as much tippet protection as I can get. Of course there are other reasons too. My 3wt is by far my most accurate casting rod. It is also Finally, 3wt line has a smaller diameter that I truly believe is less likely to spook a fish. Now, you never want to intentionally line a fish, however, what about all the fish you don’t see? IMHO, 3wt line is more subtle in the water than 4wt, or 5wt.
The Adams was chosen as a searching fly. Size 24 is in the middle of the range now showing in January. When the flies did hatch the ones I saw looked like size 22-26. But this was an hour before the hatch. I was casting around the pool 270 degrees, although I don’t like downstream casts I did make some. They just aren’t productive. For me, I have a tough time getting a natural drift casting downstream. You have to feed line and I just don’t feel like the fly behaves as well. Maybe I need to practice more.
Taking most of my shots upstream at various angles, and some across as well. When I got my first eat, I was a bit shocked. I missed the set. There were literally zero fish rising in this hole. I knew they were there, but I didn’t know they would be looking up. My disadvantage was I was blind casting 100%, as there were no rises to target. But I got two and missed two, prior to the hatch and that surprised me. Then I got to thinking, these fish are used to a daily hatch, starting sometime between noon and 1:30. It was 12:45 when I began casting and they were looking up because they were expecting a hatch anytime. In a way I enjoyed this time more. Yes, I had to blind cast but I also felt like I wasn’t getting refusals, which started once the hatch was in full swing. The bugs they were eating ended up being smaller than my 24. Once they trained their pattern recognition on the smaller fly, they stared to refuse my 24. I also had drift problems due to the micro-currents in a couple of sections where fish were rising. I changed flies including 24 double midge and a 26 Griffith’s Gnat. No dice, neither fly worked. I caught two more after teh hatch but really had to work for them. The hatch began to tail off at 2:30 and was gone completely before 3pm which is when I left for the truck.
There are two things I strive for, first is showing up and giving 100%. each day on the water, Since i made this promise to myself, each day I reflect on my mind-set for that day and if I am not sure that I can deliver, will cancel the day’s fishing. 100% can be different every day, but I know when I’ve given it and when I went through the motions. For me being totally present , reading every input, is the key. The second is learning something. This day I relearned the fact that fishing a reasonably good dry fly match before the hatch can be productive. I also reminded myself that I need to carry 7X and 8X tippet.
