Utah Fly Fishing Report : This past week brought some nasty weather to northern Utah but, it didn’t effect the fishing at all. Next week looks to bring warmer weather and sunny skies. With excellent fishing and beautiful weather, getting on the river should be a real treat. The Middle Provo is flowing at 205 CFS which is a really nice flow to walk and wade the river. The fishing on the Middle Provo hasn’t changed much in the last week. We are still seeing a nice Blue Winged Olive hatch in the afternoon. The hatch has been strongest up by the dam. I am having best luck nymph fishing in the morning. Try a Blue Winged Olive emerger, like a Barr’s Emerger, Juju Baetis and a Two Bit Hooker in a size 22-24 as your point fly and drop a variety of thread midges, size 24-26, behind it. In the afternoon, look for rising fish on Blue Winged Olives around 12:00-1:00 depending on the weather.
The Lower Provo is flowing at 163 CFS which hasn’t changed from last week. The rainbows are spawning on the Lower Provo, so please be careful not to walk on there spawning beds. As far as fishing- when it’s not broken don’t fix it. The fish on the Lower Provo are still suckers for a sow bug rig. As for a nymph set up, we are still fishing a double sow bug rig with a big sow as our point fly in a size 14-16 and a small sow bug in a size 20-22 as our dropper.
At 85 CFS the Weber River has come up to a nice fishable flow in the last couple of weeks. I got a chance to fish the Weber River the other day and the fish are healthier than I have ever seen. Just like the Lower Provo, as the water comes up, the fish get pretty fixated on sow bugs. When I fished it the other day, it didn’t seem to matter what size of sow bug pattern you were using. Having said that, I caught most of my fish on a size 18 sow bug. The fish seem to be concentrated in the deeper runs, where the water is flowing a little slower. I did catch a couple fish in the more shallow riffles where the water is a little quicker. In the next week or two, the Mother’s Day Caddis hatch should start and bring some amazing dry fly fishing.