A Day Late

Tonight was the first time my fly fishing class went out on the river. We stopped at the park by the mouth of Provo canyon and Eddie Robinson from Eddie Robinson’s Fly Fishing taught us some casting techniques for about an hour. I learned some very good stuff and I’m definitely going to stop by his fly shop. The group I was with fished the lower Provo river by the tunnels, near the Sundance turnoff.

We started at about 6:30 and were planning to fish for about 2 hours. 2 hours came and went and no one had caught anything. I was a little frustrated, esspecially since I felt I was fishing a promising hole. I was fishing along when I happened to look down river and I noticed a shadow moving in the river about 7 feet down river from me. At first I thought it was weeds moving in the current but I kept my eye on it. Then it moved up stream towards me and stopped about 5 feet from me. That’s when I realized I was looking at a good size fish just 5 feet away. I wasn’t sure what to do since I was so close I figured any movement at all would spook him. I finally decided to try casting my line up stream and try to get it to pass in front of him. I was having trouble getting the fly to float in front of him, since I was directly in the current ahead of him. On one cast the fly floated by him and as I was getting ready to cast again when I felt the line go tight. I realized I had another fish on the line. I set the hook and reeled him in. He was only a teeny brown trout, about 6″ long. He didn’t fight at all, but catching a small fish is better than catching nothing at all.

I looked around for the big fish I’d been watching but guessed he must have taken off when I reeled the other fish right by him. I thought he might come back so I maneuvered to get a better angle and practiced casting my line so it would drift down where he was. After about 15 minutes I looked towards the shore and saw him between me and the shore, once again about 5 feet away from me. I reeled in my line until there was only about 2 or 3 feet of line out, plus the leader. I cautiously held it in front of him letting the fly drift down. After about 10 minutes I figured he wasn’t interested in what I had…that’s when he took it. Before i knew it my line was being stripped out. I grabbed my reel and started bringing him in. He was fighting pretty hard so it took a minute to get my line reeled in. Even then, I had 10 feet of leader hanging out so getting him in the net was no easy job. I tried to lead him up stream with my pole but as soon as I’d get the net near him he’d take off running again. However, after a few minutes, with the help of a friend I was finally able to bring him in. I’m a little disappointed with the picture we took of him. You can’t tell how big he was from the angle. Next time I’ll remember to take multiple pictures. We estimated he was probably about 14 or 15 inches. Not a bad way to end my first fishing class on the river. For those who are curious I was using a size 18 olive scud.

I’m planning to take another trip tomorrow morning up to fish creek near Schofield reservoir. My instructor said the fishing is great and I’ve heard the same from a few other people. We’ll see how things go.

I’ve gone fishing two times this year and I’ve been shut out both times. Not the way to start the year. Not at all.

Dave and I got up early Saturday morning to do a little fishing up in Midway. Although the fishing wasn’t that great it was still good to get out for a while. The picture to the right is me, by the way.

Oh, Dave’s comment of the day was “I’m going to tie on a dry fly, cause the only fish I see feeding are the one’s on the surface.” As I was contemplating how I should respond to such a comment Dave quickly realized what he’d said and followed up with “but, then again I guess I can’t see the one’s underneath the water.” Now, if you consider that in the hour we’d been in that spot we’d only seen 2 fish rise, it makes his first comment all the more hillarious.

I went back up to Heber last night to the same spot Dave and I fished the night before. It started off slow and I was getting worried I’d go 2 straight nights without a fish but luckily things turned around. I was planning on waiting till Saturday to go back up, but yesterday was such a nice day and I kept thinking about all the fish we saw and decided I couldn’t wait.

I saw a snake as I was walking to the hole, I hate snakes. Fortunately it didn’t look poisonous, none the less I gave him some space. So I get to the spot and I spent probably about 2 hours trying different types of nymphs (green drakes, golden stoneflies), which I had heard were working well. After two hours with not so much as a bite I decided it was time to try something new. I knew there were fish because they were rolling and jumping all around where I was. I decided to change strategies and try a dry fly. I had a “stimulator” fly Dave gave me the night before and decided to try it out. After rubbing some floatant on the fly I pitched it out and about the fourth cast a fish rolled over on it. I was so stunned I stood there dumb founded (this was my first experience using a dry fly). I yanked back on the pole and snagged him for a second then he was gone. Even though he got away watching him jump up and grab that fly was still awesome.

The fish were still rolling like mad so I kept working the area. At one point I turned around to look at something, and while I was distracted a fish must’ve grabbed my fly cause I had a nice brown trout on when I turned around. I reeled him in and finally got him close enough to lift out of the water. I grabbed my line just above where he was hooked and lifted him out of the water while I reached around with my left hand to grab him. Just as I closed my hand around him he started flipping around and my line snapped, plunging him back into the river. I was disappointed but it was still nice to get a nice fish on the line and get him in (almost anyway). Sadly enough he also took my only stimulator with him (there’s gotta be a joke in there somewhere).

I had another dry fly similar to the stimulator just a lot smaller so I tied it on and started casting again. It wasn’t long before a nice brown jumped out of the river and grabbed it. This time I was ready and I set the hook. I knew I had a good fish just by the fight he was putting up. At one point, when he was still about 20 feet out he rose up and jumped out of the river again twisting and turning trying to throw my line. It was like straight from a movie. He put up a great fight and this time I was careful not to raise him out of the water by my line before I grabbed him (to keep the stress on the line down). Once I got him out I realized what a nice fish he was. I was so awestruck that I forgot about my pole and dropped it in the river. Luckily it didn’t reach the swift part before I realized it was gone. I’d guess the brown was about 18″ or so and he was very thick and heavy through the body. He also had a nice set of developed teeth (browns are carniverous) and some nice large red spots over his body. I was tempted to try and get my camera out and take a picture but I wasn’t prepared to risk dropping it (the camera). I thought about keeping him but since I didn’t have anything to club him over the head with (I think smacking him with my forceps would’ve just pissed him off) I reluctantly decided to let him go.

That’s about the point the activity stopped. The fish stopped jumping so I tied on a sanjuan worm and tried it for 15 minutes or so with no success. I figured they were done for the night so I called it good. So, some things I learned: 1) I need to buy a net, reaching into the water while balancing the pole is a pain and it’s easy to stress the line and snap it. 2) If the fish are jumping like mad, don’t run nymphs along the bottom, take advantage of it. 3) Dry fly fishing can be a HELLUVA lot more exciting than nymphing. Watching a fish rise out of the water and grab your fly is a rush. 4) My casting is improving, it’s getting a lot easier to present the fly how I want it.

During one of my breaks I did take a few snapshots of the area. For those interested, here they are:

Looking up stream (I didn’t realize my pole and line were in the picture).

Looking down stream (you can see my car down on the road a ways).

Out across the river.

Across, the other direction.

Fishing was almost perfect last evening. The weather was great, nice and sunny but not too hot and not too cold. The water was nice and clear, you couldn’t ask for a better time to go fishing and it would have been perfect had I been able to CATCH A FISH! What’s worse is my friend didn’t have any trouble bringing them in (I think his count was 4 by the end of the night). I still had quite a few bites and had a few on the line for a few seconds but just couldn’t get them in. I was a little frustrated but I still had a blast. No plans for the weekend so I think I’ll probably drive back up and go again. The thing I need to work on? Setting the hook. Finding the fish and getting bites wasn’t a problem, I just couldn’t set the hook. Unfortunately it doesn’t come as a natural reaction when I see my indicator take off, it comes as an after thought and by then the fish are usually gone. Anyway, Dave found a good spot (better than we had before) so we’ll see what happens.

For those interested I think Dave was using a couple bead head nymphs, fairly large (size 12 or so) when he snagged his fish. I used a bead head green drake nymph (also around a 12) and had quite a few strikes on it. I also had a few on a sanjuan worm. I heard stoneflies are working well also.

I think the pictures turned out pretty well. Unfortunately I forgot to charge the battery before I left so I only got 5 or 6 pictures before it died. Anyway, for those interested here’s a couple more (I took the picture up above also):

Dave settling into his hole.

Stoneflies are out (I saw quite a few of these on the rocks)

I’m planning on driving up to Heber tonight to do a little fly fishing. I haven’t been for a few weeks and sitting in my cubicle, trying to finish out the afternoon is about killing me. I have a good feeling which I hope will translate into some good fish. I might take my digital camera with me and snap a few pictures. Taking a nice expensive digital camera into the river with me might not be the brightest idea. I’ll probably keep it in a zip lock bag tucked away in my vest (high on my vest) just to be safe.

By the way that reminds me. I had an unfortunate experience a couple weeks ago, fishing up in Heber. I was wearing my favorite fishing hat (ok, my only fishing hat) and I took it off to tie on a fly. The hat was in the way so I tucked it into my vest between my waders. Well…I forgot it was there and by the time I remembered it must’ve worked its way down and fallen into the river (I imagine it’s floating somewhere across deer creek reservoir right now). What was a real kick in the teeth was I bought it at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana about 5 years ago. I loved that hat. It was even reversible! It was a nice tan color on one side and black with dark purple stripes on the other. It was sad to see it go. I even tried visiting the IMS online gift shop, but alas no fishing hats. So if anyone happens to come across a water logged, probably nasty looking fishing hat on the reservoir, let me know.

So last Friday was just one of those days. You know the ones…it’s the end of the week, the sun is shining, and every minute that ticks by at work seems to take a little piece of your soul. It was a slow day so I decided to take off a few hours early and go fishing up in Heber. A couple friends and I found a nice little fishing hole up there. Everything was just perfect till I reached the fishing hole and realized the water was about a foot higher and the water was as muddy as it could get. Since I’ve just been fishing with nymphs and scuds I was pretty disappointed, unless the thing hit the fish on the nose there was no way they were going to see it. I thought about driving back down the canyon and try fishing the lower Provo, but it looked pretty crowded as I drove up. I thought about it a little and decided I wasn’t exactly fishing to catch fish. What I mean is, it was basically just an excuse to get out and get away for a while. Don’t get me wrong, most of the time it’s both…get away AND catch some fish, but not Friday. So I decided to try my luck at smacking a fish on the nose through all the mud for a couple hours. I didn’t catch anything but it was still a beautiful day and a great day to be on the river, even if it was too muddy.

Oh, by the way I think the mud was caused by a water reclamation project going on just below Jordanelle dam. I’ve heard some stuff about it but haven’t given it much thought since the waters been clear up until recently. Anyway, I may just have to stick to the lower Provo from now on.

I’ve spent the last week fishing quite a bit, both bait and fly fishing. The conclusion, I’m much better at bait fishing (since it doesn’t take much skill) but I’m still determined to stick with fly fishing. Although it’s more difficult I think it’s more fun, and also more rewarding when you actually catch a fish.

Anyway, last week I went up to the Hobble Creek catch basin quite a bit. It’s just a small catch basin but they stock it and it only takes me about 10 or 15 minutes to get there from my apartment. I found a good little spot and caught 2 fish in 10 minutes. Unfortunately it got too dark, but I’m sure had I stayed I could’ve caught all I want. They’re only little planter fish (probably 7 or 8 inches) but sometimes that’s good enough.

I went fly fishing on the Provo River around Vivian Park both Friday night and also Saturday afternoon. Friday we didn’t have much luck, but I did catch a couple on Saturday. Ok…well, I guess that depends on your definition of catch. I should say I “hooked” two fish, although the first doesn’t really count. I was trying to cast again and I couldnt’ get my line to come out of the water. It didn’t act snagged, the line moved freely but just like it had a little too much drag on it. I gave it another try and noticed a little 4″ guppie go flipping by me in the water. After a little wiggling it was able to get off the hook which was fine with me. It’s not a fish I would’ve been very proud to catch.

The second fish was a different story. It was a pretty good fighter and when I finally got it to the surface it looked pretty good size. I’d guess around 12 or 14 inches. Unfortunately just as we were reaching down to grab it my line snapped (I should get a net). Actually I think the knot on my hook may have given way, I probably didn’t tie it very good. To say I was ticked off is an understatement. Esspecially considering that was the last thing we caught all day long. I guess it doesn’t matter, I would’ve released it anyway, but the fact it was almost in my hand and got away was infuriating. Despite the frustrations I’m gonna try again.

Oh, I was using bead head pheasant tail nymphs (size 18 I think) when I caught both of them. I think I’m going to go again this Wednesday with some friends. We might try the middle provo and see how if it’s any better. I’ll probably post an update on how it goes.