Today was a really interesting day on the Lower Provo. My friend Bryson and I had a really hard time deciding where to put in. But when we went to the spots up by the dam, we were blown away at how many cars there were parked up there. On the “About Bolderado” page I talked about the Middle Provo and how crowded it was, even in January! Today was the first time on the Lower Provo in a very long time. It was just incredible to me how many cars we saw along the river at 10:30 am on a Thursday. So now the Lower Provo is combat fishing. Even at the lesser crowded spot we chose, it eventually filled up with people standing in the river every 100 yards.
My game plan was to fish my Scott G2 3wt and swing soft hackles until there were rising fish. The rod selection was OK. The last time I cast dry flies with my 4wt, I felt that I had less accuracy. What didn’t work was swinging soft hackles. I was perplexed. Given that is is baetis season, and yes sometimes they are BWOs. Today, they were a baetis that I did not have a name for. Anyway, I alternated soft hackles and all were a baetis imitation, 14, 16, 18. Bryson found rising fish right we go to our spot. He rigged for midge dries but he did not stick with it. Bryson rigged up nymphs and it was the right call. He tied on a midge and a sow bug. He caught 5 on one run while I was fooling around with my soft hackles..
The hatch really got going around 1:30pm. I was rigging a BWO adult size 16 and I was on it. I was casting up on a long run. The were a lot of fish rising to BWO’s along the leeward edge. The wind was blowing upstream, but also across. So the bugs were stacked up on the edge and so were the fish. I was below the fish casting up. The BWO did not get a look and after 25 casts or so, I decided to replace it. I went with the size 18 Adams next. I thought parachute and smaller was a good idea. Actually not sure these BWO’s were really BWO’s at all. They were light blue-ish grey. They did not have a green body. Definitely baetis though. The hatch was strong right through to 3:30pm. I made a lot of changes. All kinds of baetis patterns, cdc, emergers. I also went from Trout Hunter 5.5X nylon to 6.5X fluorocarbon. It really didn’t matter. Bottom line, I couldn’t match the hatch. Another aspect of this location contradicts what I said in my “About Bolderado” page. There were a lot of fish once they all got into the top water action. I realized, the fish are there, but they have been pressured and are therefore very selective.
It was a great day anyway. Big hatches and rising trout get me excited. It was great to catch up with Bryson. We had an incredible day on the Henry’s Fork a couple of June’s back. All good. Happy to stand in a river and cast.
