2nd day fly fishing 2025, February 19th – Middle Provo River – water temp 37, browns rising to midges
Sounds a little too obvious, doesn’t it? One of the great things about trout rising to the hatch, is that they easily give up their position. Easy right? Put on the right fly, make a good cast with a solid drag free drift, and bingo! WIsh it were always that easy, right?
Today was one of those days. I got to my spot around 10:30am. There were already a few fish rising when I got there, so I didn’t even bother rigging my euro nymph rod, I went straight for the Scott G2 3wt. The action was slow for the first hour as the rises were very sporadic and the hatch was sparse. Intuitively, I decided to tie on the same fly that worked a few weeks back, also under sparse hatch conditions, the orange Asher. Well, after 20 minutes of non-stop casting, basically carpet bombing the entire area where I was was seeing heads, with zero interest from the fish, I knew I had to change it up. So next is the round robin of fly changes trying to find a match. Next, I tried a small (size 26) Griffiths Gnat which is a similar tie to the Asher, but a different color combo. No luck there after about 20 minutes, so I then tried the killer Provo fly, the no-see-um. We were coming up on 11:30am and the hatch was not becoming more robust and consequently, there were more more fish rising in my spot. The no-see-um did produce a few eats and my first fish, but it was not “killing it” either. It was a fly that I tied and I was not 100% confident in it either.
Incidental Eats
According to the Oxford dictionary, Incidental is defined as: adjective 1.accompanying but not a major part of something. A few years back I coined the term “Incidental Eat” which describes an eat as one that “accompanies” but is not really a match to the hatch. It is an eat that happens occasionally, where 9 times out of 10, or 19 times out of 20 you might be getting refusals, but make enough casts and you might be having a decent day. This is where I felt like I was at today. I was experiencing the peak hatch at noon, where there were at least 50 fish in casting range rising frequently. In this scenario, if I had the right bug on the end of the line, my percentage of eats would be much higher, perhaps one in 5 casts, however now I was getting an eat in 1 out of 40-50 casts, which had me thinking I was getting refusals 9 times out of 10 good casts.
What Makes a Cast a Good Cast?
There are four aspects to a good cast. First is as we discussed above, the right fly. Next is a drag free drift, followed by having the fly presented precisely in the feeding lane of the fish. Finally, the timing needs to match the feeding frequency of the feeding fish. She might be rising every three seconds, or maybe only once a minute. You have to time their feeding frequency and deliver the fly when the fish is ready to rise again. Tippet size can also influence refusals. I was using Trout Hunter 6.5X fluorocarbon and a firly long section at that. However, because of the shear number of refusals I was getting, I did drop down to 8X. I was still making fly changes too, the latest being a size 26 midge Adams. This latest fly did seem to produce more eats, but I wasn’t sure if it was the fly, the tippet change or the fact that I was now in the peak of the hatch / feeding frenzy. It might have been a combination of factors. Another factor that may have influenced my eat percentage may have been the low light. We had overcast conditions all day. Seeing the fly, particularly a size 26 was impossible. Also, the 8X was causing break-offs on the set. But, not being able to see the fly was causing some late sets, a few of which were too aggressive for the 8X tippet!
Rise Forms
Most of us experienced anglers know how to read the rise forms and the more you watch and study, the better you get at determining each type and what they mean. The most common is the regular eat, where you see the the mouth rise above the surface. There is a more aggressive eat where the fish head comes up out of the water. This eat is common when the flies are skittering above the surface. Then there is the sip or slurp, where the mouth is just at or slightly below the surface and they literally suck the fly into their mouth. This eat is often present when the fish are eating spinners or other dead flies on the surface. You will see the ring, but not the fish. Finally, there is the subsurface eat where you may see the back of the fish, or you may see it porpoise. It this case, the fish stays mostly horizontal to the surface and it is eating emerging insects that are in the film. Quite often when the fish are targeting emerging insects, they won’t even touch one on the surface, but not always. On this day, I was seeing all four types of rising which made fly selection somewhat of a crap shoot.
The Emerger Eat
After I broke off my midge Adams using the 8X tippet, I switched to a fly similar to the no-see-um, that I designed to ride in the surface film. Like the no-see-um, it has a slender thread body, but in place of the hackled, I tied in a CDC puff, that once wet, would not buoy the fly above the surface, but it would suspend the fly in the film. This fly worked better than any other on this day. But within 10 minutes I had two breakoffs on the 8X, as I found it difficult to detect a take. So, I switched back to 6.5X and I landed several fish on this fly. With many of the eats there was no detectable rise and I’m sure I missed many takes.
Checking in With Other Anglers
As the hatch wound down around 1pm, the rising became sparse. I fisherman nearby say that I was having success with the emerger and asked what I was using and we exchanged info. His success was with a white no-see-um. I then tried a white midge because I did not have a white no-see-um, but I did not get an eat on the white midge. As I was packing up a little after 1:30pm, I ran into another angler in the parking lot who was fishing above me and across the river. He had only fished a little over an hour but was having good success. I asked him what he was using and he was fishing a Mother Shucker. I found that odd, because I usually fish the Mother Shucker closer to March. This is because a Mother Shucker in size 18 is a good match for the Buffalo midge which begins hatching in late Feb/early March. When I asked about that, he said he was fishing one in a size 22. Ahhhhhh……
Summary
Lots of learnings today. Change flies, read the rises, experiment with tippet, talk with other fishermen. All good stuff!! Thanks to a robust hatch, I ended the day with 11 fish in the net, but I really had to work for them! The largest was 13″+ (below).
Quick update – March 5, 2025
Returned to the same spot March 5th. Hatch got underway around 11:15am. Used similar flies, but decided on a tandem rig. For the lead fly, I went with a hi-vis klinkhammer in an 18 so I could see the fly and follow the drift. Behind was the smaller midge pattern. Funny but the klink got the first eat. Later as the hatch really got underway, I changed it out for a “stuck in the shuck midge” and behind I went with an emerger. The light got really flat and I could not see anything. Still I did get action on both flies. After losing the emerger, I went with a no-see-um and that worked brilliantly for a long time. The day ended when the hatch ended around 3pm. But thanks to the long hatch, I ended the day with 16 fish to the net. I also had a double! The first eat double eat on a tandem dry rig. Unfortunately, they broke off as i was readying the net. Great day!
