10th Day of Fly Fishing, March 21, 2025 -> January – March 2025 – Summary of 8 days of fly fishing the middle Provo
In winter, we don’t make it up to Victor as often as in other seasons. Therefore, for me in winter, the fly fishing focus in the SLC metro area is the Provo River. Of course we have many other rivers in Utah. Many suffer from low flow conditions in the winter, but that does not mean that they are not fishable. And now that I am retired, I really should be expanding my range. If you have read much of my blog, you know that I am a dry fly junkie. Sure I like stripping streamers and swinging soft hackles too! But indicator nymphing has become my least favorite fly fishing method and it is always my last resort, so I will always be chasing hatches.
For me, travel time to the middle Provo is about 40 minutes and about 45 minutes to the lower Provo. So I can be rather ambivalent as to which direction I go, east or south. The opportunity to fish a hatch is really what drives my decision making. Both sections of the Provo River are tailwaters. Each has access below the dam and then excellent access for several miles. On the middle, it’s the Jordanelle dam and Deer Creek for the lower. It should be obvious, but the elevation is quite a bit higher on the middle and this affects both water temps and air temps.
This winter’s midge hatches have been stellar on the middle Provo. For me, on any given day that I fished, it has been like nothing happens prior to hatch. Today is a great example. I arrived at my favorite spot for fishing midge dry flies. It’s my favorite because of a riffle lane that is really consistent, both speed and a gentle chop that goes for about 25′, then abruptly the lane becomes a tail out. The tail out then widens into a flat. Most of the casts I make are directly upstream + twenty degrees or so to either side. Oh and did I mention that these are the casts that I prefer to make when I’m dry fly fishing?
It was today that I really began putting it all together. My usual spot on the river was occupied and there was already a crowd at 9:30am. Including a few guides and their clients. One such crew was right across from my usual spot. So I bailed to another access site downriver and it was much less crowded. I found a spot that I had fished before, perhaps three times with my friend Ron. On two of those occasions, we hit a hatch and the fishing was great! The third time, not so much, no hatch. Today it was overcast and cold. I had ice in my guides the first hour, and measuring the water temp it was only 37 degrees. I was actually in shock!
It was overcast and there were no rising fish, so I started by throwing a leech. Leeches are my go-to in winter and pre-run-off spring fishing. I got one solid tug but we didn’t connect, and that was it. Thinking a color change might help, I worked the same area again with no luck. Further, after having just watched a video by Charlie Craven, who talked about the advantages of dead drifting a streamer under an indicator, particularly in winter, I went that route as well. Still no takers. Then I opted for indicator nymphing, using a small baetis pattern as a point fly and a midge pattern for the money fly. No success on either pattern and I was getting frustrated! Nymphing, whether with an indicator, or tight line with my Euro rig has been tough for me the past few years. What’s more I don’t really feel like I know what I’m doing, even though when I first started fly fishing, I was tremendously productive. Nymphing was my go-to, especially on the Big Thompson, the Colorado, the South Platte and other rivers in Colorado.
Temperature and the hatch
At my Bonneville Fly Fishers meeting on Wednesday of this week, I learned during a presentation by Dave Whiteman that midges prefer to hatch between 42 and 44 degrees of water temp. What I measured was 5 degrees away and today it was overcast. In that same presentation I learned that convection from the sun rays is the primary source of energy to heat the river water. Well today was cloudy, so very little convection would be taking place. So I’m thinking, how long will it take for the water temp to reach 42 degrees from 37. Each popular species of aquatic insects prefers a different temperature to hatch at. For instance, blue wing olives, or BWO’s, prefer 45-55 degrees. Caddis like 52-54, which the temperature typically achieved during the infamous “Mother’s Day caddis hatch”. Last year I bought a stream thermometer thinking I would take temps in summer, concerned about waters warming above 68 degrees. Now I am thinking taking water temps as a way to time hatches might even be better.
Return to my favorite spot – always a crowd
So after being frustrated about how dead the fishing was, I decided to go back to my favorite spot to see if it was occupied. When I arrived, there was one parking space left and cars along the road. I took the space and went over to check my spot. There was a guy a ways downstream and a guide with two clients across. Crazy how busy and pressured this spot is. Also crazy is that over the past 6 weeks I have fished this spot one day each week and have averaged over ten fish per each time on the water. As I approached, the guide upstream asked me in a snied way, “are you really going to fish here”. Remember now, he and his two clients were across the river from me. And, every time I fish this spot, there are always guys across the river from me. At that point, the guide grabs a rod and starts casting over my way to prove a point and says “all the fish rising right now are in this spot”. I had to chuckle a bit because I knew there was no way either of his clients could make those casts. I also knew it was going to be up to me to calm this guy down and explain, that I was happy fishing the run up next to my bank, not out in the middle, where he was casting. The run along my bank is an area that there was no way he could reach and he knew it. After I acknowledged that he was here first and I did not want to move in on his water at all, his mood changed and we started chatting each other up. By the time he left, we were practically best friends!
Fly selection for midge hatches
It was 1:30pm now and the hatch was just getting underway. I checked the water temp and sure enough, 42 degrees! I went with a black mother shucker in front and an emerger behind. The mother shucker was an easy call. It has been the fly of choice the past few weeks on the middle Provo. One day I had surveyed a few dry fly anglers in the parking lot and all were casting mother shuckers. In my opinion, because the fly was so popular, on the water, fish were starting to refuse it. The mother shucker is a Phil Bair pattern. For those of you who may not have fished Utah in general, or the Provo specifically, Phil Bair has legendary, almost god-like status on the Middle Provo. He has innovated several fly patterns that just plain work. His other notable pattern is the No See Um. He sells them on his website and also through the local fly shop in Heber called Fish Heads. Fly Fish Food has a good tying video here. The No See Um is here.
The No See Um is the classic Phil Bair pattern. It is killer for imitating midges, but particularly early to mid-season midges which tend to be smaller. When tied in a 22, it works great, imitating much smaller midges. From late February to late March, the buffalo midge hatches and the Mother Shucker is the fly of choice. The buffalo midge is larger and the Mother Shucker is usually tied as a size 18 The fly has a foam body and a trailing shuck. When a midge still has their shuck attached, the fly is much more vulnerable and fish know it. It is a similar concept to fishing a cripple instead of a dun when baetis are hatching, or an X caddis when caddis are hatching.
Of course there are other patterns that work during the midge hatch. In fact, the guide who was fishing across from me yesterday was fishing a Griffiths Gnat, which is an old school pattern. He got several eats on the fly and other anglers have echoed that they rely on it as well. One fellow I met on the river back in February was fishing the Orange Asher and doing quite well with it. I bought a few and they worked great, then I began tying them and those worked too! My secret, not so secret fly is an emerger that I tie with CDC. Using a curved nymph hook in size 22-18, I tie them with different colored dubbing from olive to black and so far, the color doesn’t seem to matter much. Use a super fine dubbing and make a really skinny noodle, as the midge body profile is very thin.
Fishing two dry flies on a tandem rig
Size is always important, more so than color, but shape is also something trout key on. The basic idea of a tandem rig is to present options to the trout. Each of the flies should be able to stand on it’s own and be appropriate for the hatch that is underway. But presenting options is the key and getting to know which fly is working and which is not. In most cases, the fly that gets the most eats stays on the rig. There is one exception to that. One of the ways I like to start is with a size 18 Mother Shucker in front tied to 2 feet of Trout Hunter 5.5X fluorocarbon tippet. The total leader is 12′ long. To the the hook bend of the MS, I tie 18″ – 2′ of 6.5X Trout Hunter fluorocarbon tippet, and to that I tie on my CDC emerger(described above). During the midge hatch the size will be 20-22 early in the season, but 18 works during the March hatches I’m writing about here. But here is the thing, early in the hatch when things on the water are just getting going and later in the hatch when it is winding down, the emerger outfishes even the mighty Mother Shucker. Today was no exception. I fished this rig just as the hatch was getting uderway, Today I tied on a size 20 with a black body and dark dun CDC. In the spirit of Charlie Craven’s Mole Fly, I tie the CDC facing forward over the eye of the hook. Anyway,, as I began fishing this rig one of the biggest fishes of the day ate the emerger, after enough casts to get the fly down into the film. The second eat was also the emerger. After awhile, most of my eats shifted to the Mother Shucker. Then eventually the fish were also refusing the Mother Shucker, so I switched to a No-See-Um as the trailing fly and picked up a couple on that fly. At the end of the hatch, I put the emerger back on and caught another fish on the emerger.
A tandem rig will often shine a light on what is working and what is not. Whether fishing two dries, or a dry and an emerger, it is easy to compare results. Further, when fishing midges, when you chose a visible fly like a parachute Adams as the front fly, you can use that as a spotter for the back fly. Also, the front fly acts like a strike indicator, when the back fly is eaten, the front fly will be pulled under.
Conclusion
The focus of this post has been a recap of the day I had on the water on March 21st, which is my 10th day fly fishing this year. Nine of my first ten days of fishing were on the middle Provo. Fish were caught every day and hatches were consistent each day as well. On days when I arrived early I usually nymphed or swung a streamer. With the exception of a few fish total, those tactics were not successful. It is my feeling that when the hatches are that consistent, the fish are really eating prior to the hatch. It is the hatch that gets them going and feeding aggressively. Also, it is the water warming to approx 42 degrees that triggers the hatch. Becasue of this reality, the time of day that the hatches started varied, mostly based upon air temps and more so on cloud cover. With the cloud cover it took longer for the water warm, which delayed the hatch. There was only one day where the water reached 42 degrees and there was no hatch. It was also my only day on the middle where I was completely shut out.
In January, the Orange Asher was the top fly and in February it was the No-See-Um. March is Mother Shucker month! Finally, fishing tandem flies always improved my odds. It will definitely be my tactic as we move into BWO season.
Photo notes:
The featured image is of one of the spots I fished March 12th with Ron. He was one hole upstream from me. I was frustrated, there was no hatch and I had no eats on nymphs or streamers. I went up to chat with Ron and lo and behold, he had fish rising to a hatch. He was changing flies and said I could make a few casts in his hole. I was casting a mother shucker in front and my CDC emerger behind. I saw what looked like bigger heads rising right off the far bank. It was a tricky cast as there was a slower flow rate in their lane off the bank. I realized that I could stay grag free for about 4ft. I run a long leader with about 5′ of tippet. If you can land the flies such that you have slack in that long tippet you can really delay drag. It was a necessity in this case, as I was not able to mend the cast without moving the flies out of their lane. Anyway, the cast was spot on, I saw movement and I had the eat! Hook set was clean but this was a big fish and he had designs on taking me downstream to the awaiting rocky fast riffle. It was clearly not this big brown”s first rodeo. The scary part for me was I was fishing 5.5X to my front fly and 6.5X to the back fly. The 6.5X fluoro tippet is only 3lbs breaking strength. Knowing the limits of my tippet, I worked hard to make gains on the fish. I pressured him with upstream force and found myself moving both across river toward the fish and downriver, which is where the fish wanted to take me. Ultimately I made it over to the slower current on the far bank. I had the first upstream from me and was able to coax him into the net. The fish below is that fish. Ron took the picture.
For those who are wondering, the featured image is not my favorite spot. 🙂
