Cold Day, Big Flies
Brown Trout, Cranefly, Fly Fishing, Nymphing, Provo River, Rainbow Trout, Red Fox Squirrel Nymph, Vivian Park, Whitefish, Winter
I had a great outing today on the Lower Provo River in Provo Canyon, UT. It started off rather sketchy as the day was really snowy and I wasn’t sure if my 20 year old Honda Accord was up to the task, but I figured if I just took it easy I could get there without any issue. My usual 40 minute drive was more like 80 minutes, but once I got there I found I had the whole stretch to myself. I went to Vivian Park and fished up from the bridge. Given then weather I determined I would be nymphing. It was about 18-20 degrees Fahrenheit and a constant snow was falling. I had in mind to fish a fly I haven’t used in a while; a big, juicy cranefly larva pattern about size 6. I trailed it with a size 14 red fox squirrel nymph. For weight I used a BB size split shot and an 8 ft leader with 5x tippet. On my fifth cast of the day, I took a nice brown trout about 15 in long. It took to the air straight away after being hooked. Once I landed it, I could see that he had eaten the cranefly larva. Over the next 10 minutes minutes I landed two more fish both were mountain whitefish of decent size and both foul hooked. I think they were taking the cranefly and I was hooking them with the RFSN. The cranefly was big enough they couldn’t fit it in their tiny mouths. I hooked 3 or 4 more browns ranging from 11-14 inches and all on the cranefly. The fish of day had to be the 18 inch rainbow that was a healthy slab of a fish. Rainbows aren’t common fare on the Provo River and this one as a great fish. It took the RFSN. The fish was a beautiful shade of steel blues and lavenders. I had originally thought I was snagged when I hooked it but he eventually started moving and put up a pretty good fight.
By the time I hooked him I had run out of 5x tippet (I know, stupid) but had switched to 4x and it didn’t seem to be an issue and allowed me to play him a little harder. I took a couple more browns from the same long run and then moved up several hundred yards. The weather was getting colder so I called it a day. Not a bad way to spend 3 hours.
Some additional notes from the trip. I saw several american dippers, song sparrows, and a bald eagle flew over head through the snow. I also observed at least 2 fish feeding up on the surface but didn’t make the switch to dries. It was a fun trip. Enjoy the slide show.
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» Fun with wader repairs -- Under the Aspens said:
Feb 16, 10 at 5:54 PM[...] most recent fishing trip confirmed a suspicion I have had from my prior trips; my waders have a leak. And not just one leak, [...]