Provo River Part Duex

Just one week ago, my brother-in-law and I nailed fish after fish for many hours up on the Provo River. My brother-in-law brought home a good fish story that he told to his Dad which got his Dad wanting to try his luck as well. Well, lucky he was as we experienced a great day of almost non-stop action. We met at the mouth of the canyon around 8:20 and headed up once again to the river. We rigged up to nymph and I let Jim have at it and I think on the first cast or so he hooked up with a nice little brown. We knew it was going to be a good day. The fishing started off a little slower than the previous week. After Jim landed a few fish I started fishing the head of the hole and Jim fished more toward the tail section. Before long, Jim had dialed it in and was pulling fish out left and right. There was some evidence of midge activity and that is what we were catching our fish on. Jim soon hooked into something slightly bigger. I went to inspect and we saw a decent sized fish but extremely thick. This fish had shoulders! Turns out that it was a mountain whitefish which was fun.

Whitefish, cool!

Jim was doing better in his little seam than I was at the head of the hole. The fish had not started stacking up in my area to feed just yet. After a bit I could see fish start to move into the area I was fishing as the hatch started to pick up a bit. I suspended my nymphs a bit and started catching consistently. Jim came up and got in on the suspended nymph action for a little while then headed back to his spot and continued catching there. I noticed one particular fish that stood out from the pack and I was able to drift my nymphs right at him. My indicator went under and I bagged the fish of the day (and probably one of the biggest fish I have ever caught from this hole) after a nice fight.

The fish of the day, a good looking brown trout

One thing I noticed that was different from the previous week was that when the hatch swung into gear larger fish moved up the water column and made their presence known. Last week I was thinking that the average size of the fish in this hole was way down. This day though, I realized that the "average" sized fish that I experienced last year at this hole were still around, in part because I caught several of them. Maybe there are just more small fish mixed into the bunch and last week the larger fish eluded us somehow. We soon lost count of how many fish we had caught. The wind stayed light for the most part and overall it was great day to be out on the water. Two amazing days of fishing in two weeks was a real treat. At one point Jim headed down stream to explore a bit. Right when he left the fish started rising quite a bit so I threw on a parachute Blue-wing olive (mostly as an indicator) and trailed a midge emerger off the back of it. I quickly landed several fish. When Jim showed up again I let him use my rod to cast to the risers and he quickly added two or three more fish to his tally. Once the rises stopped we called it a day. Despite some cold hands, it was another perfect day of fishing. Until next time, tight lines!

My Father-in-law with a nice little brown

Check out the color on this adipose fin!

Ever wonder why trout are sometimes referred to as "toads"?

Very nice coloring on this trout

Cool spots

Corner pocket, sort of

Darker colored brown

Handsome brown

Removing flies was a common theme of the day

Small black zebra midges were the ticket, got this one right on the kisser

Me holding the catch of the day