12th Day Fly Fishing – April 23rd, 2024 – MIddle Provo, 632 cfs
Today was chosen because I did not have work obligations, Tuesday is the best day for fewer anglers on the water, and the forecast called for clouds. Clouds promote a baetis hatch. Heading up Parley’s I had a few drops on my windshield and there were a good amount of clouds, so I was feeling optimistic. When I got to the spot I wanted to fish, I immediately saw that there was a guy standing in my spot and a guide with a client directly across. But, I did have a plan B and a strategy, which was to rig two rods, my Orvis Recon 2wt Euro nymph rod would be deployed until the hatch got underway. My 3wt Scott G2 is always my go-to for dry fly fishing, so I rigged that too.. I recently rigged it with a new Cutthroat furled leader. I’m really sold on these, they cast really well. I fish it with at least 5′ of tippet, sometimes 7′, in leader shy places.
Thankfully, as I was parking at my plan B spot, I realized, “Hey, I’m the only one here!” . Spring was in the air and river was high! One oversight on my part was not checking the flows prior to leaving home. At 632 cfs, the flows were almost triple the normal amount for this date. With the high water reality a lot of the river was not safe to wade.
The bunny above greeted me as I made my way to the river. My spot was wadeable, but only partially so. The water in the run was moving very fast. Today, I knew that prior to the hatch, I would be Euro nymph fishing with my Recon. My goal was to catch my first trout on that rod and it was not meant to be in my first spot. I drifted the run from top to bottom with a Frenchie as an anchor fly and a purrple JuJu baatis as the second fly. One realization that I came to later was with the flows being as high and fast as they were, the Frenchie may not have been heavy enoug to get the rig down. My next move was to head downriver looking for a place to cross, but also looking for slower runs. At the new spot, the river was slower and also deeper. I decided to go heavier with the point fly and tied on a stonefly, basically a bead head Pat’s Rubberleg. That solved the sinking problem perfectly, but introduced a new problem, snagging on all the branches laying on the bottom. The beavers in the area are extremely active and they cut branches of all size and shapes and most end up in the water.
The good news is that this new run did produce my first fish on the Recon. Yay! And after a few more minutes, my second fish! At first I was a bit blown away, especially after missing a couple more. Once I found the run that held fish and was able to get down to the fish, magic happened.
All the videos and articles talk about how effective this approach can be. If your flies are right and you are down in zone, it is hard to believe that there is a more effective approach. The absolute key is keeping the line tight. In windy conditions this can be next to impossible, but you have two ways to detect an eat – feel and sight. Already, my focus is much more connected to the “feel” aspect. With dry fly fishing is is almost 100% sight, but streamer and wet fly fishing are all about the tug. When nymph fishing an indicator, you have the sight advantage when the indicator twitches or dives, but because you are not in direct contact with the fly, you only get a hook set on a fraction of the eats. Euro, tight line nymphing or mono rig nymphing, which are all variants of the same approach, give you that direct connection with the fly, as long as you are able to keep the line tight. In a situation where you are not tight, you still have the sighter to rely on. So far watching the sighter has not given me the visual cues I’m wanting in order to detect a strike. As of now, I’m feeling the eats, and some a really exciting! I had a big eat later in the day that was right up there with a big streamer tug as far as excitement goes.
Anyway, the rest of my day was focused on getting to fishy water that wasn’t too fast. Again, the depth was a problem and I was also getting wary about losing some of my best, heavy stoneflies to the branches on the bottom of the river. I had already lost two of them. Frankly, I was ill prepared. I need a box full of perdigon style nymphs that will plummet to the bottom. But then I thought, why am I not using a drop rig, or bounce rig as they call them on the Provo? Replace the point fly with some weight! One aspect of the Euro craze that I’m not sure I agree with is the reliance on the heavy point fly. This speaks to the origins of the Euro approach, as weights are illegal in competition. For the rest of us that never plan to compete, I think the drop shot rig is a perfectly good alternative. You won’t lose as many flies, that’s for sure!
So here are some of my conclusions from my second day on the water with my Euro nymph rod. First off, I absolutely want to perfect this approach to fishing. Nymphing is still my least favorite form of fly fishing and that is not going to change. But if I’m able to really perfect the “feel” part of it, I will like it a lot more. Also, indicator nymphing is the only practical way to nymph when you are in a drift boat.
Kelly Galloup is at the top of my list when it comes to anglers whom I have total respect for. Mike Lawson is another as is Charlie Craven. They are all excellent tyers and fly designers and very intelligent and thoughtful fishermen. Kelly’s video below really hit home for me:
His message is be well rounded! Learn all the different modes of fly fishing – dry, wet, steamers and nymphs. Perhaps Kelly is being a little too critical of the competition anglers. Lance Egan, who I have been getting to know these past few years is a competition angler, but he is not defined by that. Lance does fish all forms and should not be pigeon holed as a Euro angler. But I do agree with Kelly. If they want to have anglers compete, they should compete using all forms, not just one.
In closing, there is always so much to learn about fly fishing. After 25+ years, there are some days where I still really feel like a beginner. Also, it feels like I’m constantly relearning things from 10 or 20 years ago. Memories do fade especially as you age.
Last night was the full “Pink Moon. Not a great picture, but I captured it coming uup over the Wasatch mountains below:
