Utah's Secret Season
While most of us are still hunkered in our homes—tying flies and anticipating spring hatches—Utah anglers enjoy an early spring in February and March. When these warmer months usher in the season’s first midge hatches and trout rise to dry flies, winter still clings to the peaks and precipices of the Wasatch Mountains.
This mixed weather gives locals and visitors the chance to ski powder at world-class resorts, and chase wild rainbow and brown trout on the nearby Provo River.
Shoulder-Season Fishery
Depending on the ferocity of winter storms, December and January can be great for winter activities like skiing and snowboarding, but hit and miss for catching local midge hatches. By February, dry-fly fishing opportunities on the Provo River increase. The most pleasant part of the day—the 10 A.M. to 2 P.M. window—produces the best fishing. Hatches become more consistent during prolonged warm fronts and toward the end of the month, as afternoon temperatures inch upward into the mid to high 50s. Winter water conditions are typically low and clear, and small patterns (#20-26) are the best producers.
On both the lower and middle Provo, February midge fishing provides solitude and dependable dry-fly opportunities. Regardless of snow-piled banks, when the midafternoon bugs start, you’ll see rising trout singles in tricky currents and long flat slicks, bank feeders, and pods of a dozen heads in the tailouts and faster riffles.
Although midge fishing is infamous for its technical traits, this “secret-season” fishery is different. In early spring, before the crowds arrive, 5X tippets and a #18 Parachute Adams catch fish. But for the inevitably tough trout, be prepared to drop down to 6X or 7X tippets and smaller flies. Marking and then resting a fish for a half hour or more is also a good strategy.
By late February and into March, midges are joined by the hotly anticipated Blue-winged Olives. BWOs signal the official start of spring and, on Utah rivers like the Provo, Green, and Weber, represent one of the best and busiest hatches of the year. Be prepared to share the water—everyone gets the memo—the secret season is over.
Lower Provo (Canyon Stretch)
After several days snowboarding Utah’s quality powder, some time off fishing the Provo feels like a cold beer in a hot, dry desert. If you use Salt Lake City as a base, the lower Provo River tailwater, below Deer Creek Reservoir, is within easy striking distance (about 60 miles—the middle Provo is closer).
Cascade Mountain lies to the south and Mount Timpanogos to the north, and the meandering road upstream from the Olmstead Diversion area provides easy public access to the special-regulations canyon water. Several pull-offs line the canyon road, offering quick bank scrambles to good water.
Despite the highway, which never strays far from the water, the lower canyon is a stunning stretch of river, home to mostly brown trout, with rainbows and cutthroat thrown into the mix. The trout average 12 to 16 inches, including healthy populations of 18- to 20-inch fish.
Steve Schmidt, owner of the Western Rivers Flyfisher shop in Salt Lake City, is a longtime Provo River angler and a well-known environmental watchdog. Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) road-widening projects over the years have not permanently impacted the river thanks to activists like Schmidt.
“With the road project on the lower, we almost lost much of the riparian corridor in the special-regulation section,” Schmidt says. “At one point, they had the road alignment actually in the river, but we were fortunate to win our case and force UDOT to realign the road through the canyon. After almost 20 years of negotiations, we were able to get the road moved from the river and establish a wider stream corridor.”
Recent trout population estimates below Deer Creek Reservoir remain high, at 3,000 to 3,500 fish per mile.
In February the Provo flows low and clear—about 100 cubic feet per second (cfs)—but can rise to more than 1,000 cfs later in the spring. The lower stretch provides idyllic wading at winter levels, and the trout are concentrated where you’d expect below riffles in the deeper holes and buckets and, when afternoon temperatures warm the water, on the surface in riffles, slicks, pools, and along the banks.
Targeting midge risers requires a stealthy approach, 12- to 16-foot leaders, and upstream and downstream reach casts. The midging fish often feed in pods, and you can pick off single risers from below and work your way up to the lead fish.
Accuracy is paramount; get close and land your fly anywhere from 8 to 18 inches in front of your target. Because this isn’t a blanket hatch, trout will move a few inches to take your fly, as long as it’s the right size and color and your drifts are perfect.
Rising browns and rainbows key on #18-24 and smaller midges, and take a variety of offerings, including Parachute Adams, Double Midges, and CDC Midges. When the trout aren’t rising, sow bugs (gray, brown, olive, and pink), San Juan Worms, BWO nymphs, and midge larva patterns are effective for scouring the bottom for larger trout. Nymphing often produces the lower Provo’s biggest fish.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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