3rd Day of Fly Fishing – February 12, 2026 – MIddle Provo
Man, this has really been a slow start to the new year. Feb 12 and I’m only 3 days in. It is all good though, as my new rule this year is to not strive for big numbers of days, instead, go for bigger days! Anyway, we have had a lot of stuff going on at home in Utah which translates into fewer trips to the cabin. January came and went without a trip up north.
Instead of venturing south to a new spot, last minute, I opted for a tried and true spot. My favorite spot for a midge hatch. I did visit this spot in January and the hatch did not happen that day. But last year I did ten days of chasing midge hatches and most days rewarded me. So I decided to give it a go.
Check out the featured photo. Where is the snow? It is just crazy out there! I had about an hour of hard rain. It was during the hatch and my rain parka was in the truck. So my puffy basically got soaked through before I was able to get the rain jacket. But my point is, in mid-February, that rain should be snow. Instead of 44 degrees it should be 28.
Arriving at around 10am, I knew I was early, but the last time I visited this spot, someone was already on it by 10am. MIddle Provo = Combat Fishing. Also, mid-February and you can see from the featured image, there is very little snow.
Well, sometimes the fish are looking up, so today when I reached the water I decided to rig up my Scott G2 3wt with a dry and an emerger to start. I chose the orange asher as the dry fly, as it is my go-to, both before and after a hatch. I think of it as a “stimulator” for midges. The back fly was a new fly I tied this year, the blideside midge. On my last outing, this fly worked great! It is an emerger and works well in the film. I peppered the entire area without an eat and I had to remind myself that it was early.
Time now for a strategy shift. I rigged a nymph rig with the blindside midge on top and a zebra midge below. When I rig nymphs for midges, I go with very light tippet, namely Trout Hunters 6.5X
Worked the are for almost an hour and picked up a little brown on the blindside. Had to make fly changes halfway in as a snag stole both my flies. Moving out to the middle to try and rescue them, I realized how deep i was out there. Then it hit me, that zebra midge probably was not makaing it to bottom, so I changed over to a small perdigon, a gasolina in a 22. My second fish ate the gasolina and it confirmed my thinking. Then it was time for a change.
Heads began popping up, just as a guy came in across the river from me. I think it was a little after noon. He was respectful and asked me if he could fish there. I recognized him as a regular and told him he was fine fishing across. I pointed to the water I was working and asked him to honor that. I knew there wouldn’t be an issue. But I needed to get back to my dry rig. I decided to go single fly to start. The rises were showing heads up, which signals a dry fly eat. So I stuck with the orange asher and got an eat right away and landed a nice 10″ brown. After several more casts, I felt like I was now getting refusals. The hatch had picked up steam and I now had 20 fish rising in range.
Next up, I tied on a Morgan’s midge. A dry fly with a a trailing shuck. It wasn’t long after the change I had a really nice fish eat and I had a 13″ brown to the net.
After several more casts, Morgan’s midge was getting refusals, so it was tie to switch again. The Morgan’s is tied as a size 22, with a hackle that is more like a size 20. In this case, it was a little too big. The fly “when all else fails” is the no-see-um. Even when tied on a 22 hook, it can look more like a 24 or 26 even. Tied the thread body sparse and short with 18/0 thread and it looks smaller than it is. The no-see-um delivered the next fish, another 13 incher, and then the hatch fizzled out.
At this point, I did not want to go back to the nymph rig, so I tied a on another emerger, the blindside and I put it about 18″ back. Then, I made a dumb casting error and wrapped both flies around the rod and they were tough to get out. Ten minutes later I decided to go back to the orange asher. Then, the hatch came back! The Asher had an eat and it was a bigger fish! I was ecstatic, trying to land this fish with 6.5X tippet and at the moment, he had the advantage of current working in his favor. Eventually after several solid runs I got him to the net. A solid 15″ fish, possibly 16″.
Then once again the Asher was getting refusals. I switched back to the no-see-um and eventually got an eat. Another 13er. Shortly after, the hatch fizzled out.
The learnings today, 1) I never felt like I had a good match to the hatch. The naturals were much smaller. 2) Sparse is also important which is one reason the the no-see-um worked a couple of times 3) The hatches don’t last that long, get your best fly on and work it non-stop 4) If they are feeding on top as they were today, stick with the single fly rig, it makes fly changes faster 5) The Clic reader glasses are a game changer! I used them on every fly change and 6.5X tippet going into size 22 eyes would be problematic without them.
It was a good day! That bigger fish was the icing on the cake! Time to get back to the vice and make them small and sparse!
