I was curious about the upper Provo, near Woodland/Francis area, outside of Kamas. I will be staying in the area in about a month. I have never heard a word about the Provo above Jordanelle. Is there any of you guys that have suggestions on flies/set-ups used up there, or have fished it? Is it even fishable? Really I am curious about that part of the river at all. Any thoughts or input?
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Above Jordanelle is fishable. Then you hit Victory Ranch which is all private waters.. You will see the signs and barb wire and the general smell of assholes.
As long as you are targeting trout, the normal tactics work. Its a slower area to fish in my experience not as many fish are pulled out up there.
Right now BWO's are the ticket, apparently, due to the hatches we experience in UT.
Nymphing or streamers is what I would try personally. San Juans are a staple I feel, and some kind of midge nymph.
Orvis gives a good report on working flies, etc.... If it works in UT on one river, it will probably work on another river.... mostly.... Hope that helps.
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It's very much a freestone type of river much unlike the Middle and Lower sections. Shallow water mostly with some deeper pools. I love fishing that section on occasion to just get away from crowds a bit. The fish are pretty eager to eat usually too but they are generally small (8-12 inch range). Cool thing is you have the possibility to catch anything from browns, brooks, rainbows, cutts and whitefish.
A month from now (assuming early May) I'd be ready to throw dry hopper/dropper combo all day long, a parahopper/hare's ear or pheasant tail type of setup. I like the parahopper but really any big dry would work probably.
Keep some Adams and Elk Hair Caddis sizes 14-18 on hand too. That section "matching the hatch" is less important in my opinion, just put something tasty on the water and you can get some takes.
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I spent some fantastic days last fall up there above Francis barely into the canyon. Never had a hatch come off that got them looking up, but a Tail Water Sowbug, or a tungsten pheasant tail took many nice fish. Some of those fish surprised me coming out of the water I found them in.
There is definitely not the biomass of fish that you find in the lower river sections and a good day up there is a few fish, but there also isn't the biomass of fishermen either. I will take that any day.
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The area just above Woodland is where my dad would take me to fish as a kid and where I learned how to do it. It holds a special place in my heart. A lot of where I used to fish is now off limits, but there are still a couple of public areas there and it still represents one of my favorite places to go.
As said, the fish are on average a bit smaller than, say, the lower, but are often very willing.
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