Provo River Fishing Report Early September; PMDs & sow bugs

Big Utah Brown Trout – August 29, 2017

This past week, we guides some folks to one of our outlying rivers (see video at bottom of page) and fished some of the high mountain lakes, so we didn’t personally fish the Middle or Lower Provo River this week.

So many places to fish and so little time…

Provo River Fishing Report and Outlook

Rod reported catching some nice fish in the evening on the Middle Provo, but the caddis hatch seemed to be a little slower in that section than before.

Rod still caught fish on top with his favorite double Renegade, but not so much this week using the yellow Sally.

The afternoon PMD hatch and the evening caddis hatch should still be on as long as the summertime heat hangs on. In past seasons, we continued to catch fish on caddis well into October (see our version of a Hatch Chart; the Catch Chart), before turning to egg patterns in November, December and January.

We will be fishing the Middle Provo this week to skate/skitter for fish with Jim’s special skitter bug. If you haven’t caught trout this way, you don’t know what you are missing.

Utah Mountain Lakes Fishing Report

It’s been the hottest summer old people can remember in Utah. That has influenced the fishing. The big hatches have pretty much come and gone in the mountain lakes and the trout feed more at night.

That means best angler success comes in very early morning before the sun hits the water or late evening after the sun goes down. The fish are well conditioned, at least the ones that are wild or were stocked in the Spring when the living was easy. Now food is scarce; in many cases the trout are feeding on minute plankton and tiny midges.

Since it’s so hot and dry, that’s good for grasshoppers along the mountain streams. You win some, you lose some.

Anglers who want to fish the lakes during the day, should go deep with small bead head woolly buggers or leech patterns. If the lake has submerged moss beds, fish down just above the vegetation, that is, if the water there is deep enough for the fish to feel comfortable. No moss? Fish right along the bottom in the deepest areas of small lakes, especially if they are relatively shallow.

I [Jim] was at a small lake just before sunrise the other day and trout were feeding here and there on the surface; I caught five nice rainbow trout in 20 minutes but when the sun hit the water, the action turned off. The lesson here, go as early as you can or better yet, camp overnight.

Ideally, you could get to the mountain by late afternoon, fish the evening rise, enjoy a cool night in camp, and get up early at first light and catch a bunch of fish before breakfast.

All this said, we do live in Utah, September weather can turn cool in the valleys suddenly after a strong cold front; at high elevation that means frosty conditions.

Fine, let it come soon, I for one have had enough time under the solar heat lamp.

Fall is coming… It won’t be long before we will be happy to put the waders back on for protection against the cold water.