Provo River Fishing Report Mid May; fow is up

The Fly Fishing Theme on the Provo River is the same as last week.

The water is still running extremely high, so look for slower water on the inside bends and along the banks.

***Be very careful if wading this week and make sure to wear your wading belt. The Lower Provo in Provo Canyon is too dangerous to fish (see video below) and this is likely to continue for at least another week.

We took a risk this week by not returning to our proven holes, but just to do something different we searched for some new holes on the upper part of the Middle Provo.

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We found a few more spots that produced fish with the high water flow (see video below). We caught most fish on San Juan worms (we should start calling them Provo River worms), but we also caught fish on grey sow bugs.

The high water flows and the cold water (low 40s °F) coming off the bottom of Jordanelle Res. has disrupted the normal hatches. Has anyone seen the Mother’s Day caddis hatch?

The upper part of the river still has some midges, but with the high water washing over the banks and flowing back into the river and with the flow causing the banks to collapse, lots of worms are being washed into the river. Not surprised fish are looking for worms.

The fishing was a little tougher for us this week, but that was mainly due to the fact we spent time searching for new holes in a section of the river we haven’t fished in years. We have no doubt the hot fishing would have continued at our favorite holes we fished last week.

If you caught fish last week, you will catch fish this week in the same places using the same techniques. If not, keep searching for slower water and make sure to fish deep enough. If that bounce rig isn’t “bouncing”, you are not on the bottom and you will not catch fish.

Fishing Report provided by Jim O’Neal & BackcountryChronicles.com