05-22-2019, 02:07 PM
[#0000ff]You are singing my song. I have fished the Provo since the early 1960s. In those days it was legal to use bait and there were no size or slot restrictions. There were fewer fish but more big healthy ones.
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[#0000ff]I pretty much quit fishing the Provo after the Orvis dorks took it over and the overly protective regs were put in place. However, if you are after quantity...of runt fish...it is still a great water. Just for old time's sake I have stopped on my way back from Starvation or Deer Creek a few times to fish some of my old spots. And I can verify that jigs and sunken flies still produce well.
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[#0000ff]Even though it was legal to use bait in the olden days, I always did better with flies or marabou jigs. I tie my own of both genres. Fished the area above and below the Heber Creeper trestle almost every evening during the summer...and did not have to time my casts between inner tubes.
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[#0000ff]Most evenings produced well into double digits in numbers. Mostly browns...the smallest about 13 inches and the average closer to 18 inches...with at least a couple over 20 inches on every trip. More than a few over 5#. My biggest was a 33" 14# beautiful female brown...on a size 12 peacock scud of my own design...fished "bottom bouncer" style. More on that in the attached PDF file.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]While I initially fished a lot of size 6 marabous on 1/16 oz. heads...blacks, browns and olives...I later included some small tubes and twisters. Most caught fish if properly presented. My number one son once caught the biggest brown of the day on a chartreuse twister he had left on his line after a previous trip to Willard for crappies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In the early 1960s I was a college transplant from California. While surf fishing there for surf perch and corbina I began fishing flies above a sinker. I would cast them out into the surging water and keep a tight line as the waves washed the flies around. That rig kept the flies just off the bottom and they were eagerly intercepted by feeding fishies.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]When introduced to the Provo River by a fly tying and fly fishing employee of the old Innes Sporting
Goods in Provo, I fell in love with that stream. After a few trips of mediocre catching on fly rods, I reasoned that sinking flies on spinning tackle might be a better way to fish some of the deeper and faster fish-holding runs on the Provo. So I experimented with various ways of rigging.
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[#0000ff]I fished streamers with a sinker above the fly and cast quartering downstream or worked them next to brushy overhangs along the bank. They worked. But once I started using my "bottom bouncer" rigs, and casting upstream, it was gangbusters.
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[#0000ff]That rig worked well and I introduced it to quite a few other tanglers along the Provo. I moved back to California after college, but found myself back in Utah in the late 70s...for business. Imagine my surprise to find both spin fishermen and fly fishermen all using the "Provo River Bounce" rigs. And even more amusing was the number of anglers who claimed to have invented it. No problem.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]In the years since, I have employed this system on many waters...for many species. It still works. The main variables are the size and type of flies, the amount and placement of the weights and the method of presentation. Once you get the right combo you can usually do very well.[/#0000ff]
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[#0000ff]Here is an excerpt from my larger writeup on "Spinning Flies". I have also included a picture from the days when my hair was darker. I am holding an "average" sized brown...taken on a bottom bounced peacock nymph...fished with my 9 foot converted fly rod.
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[signature]
[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I pretty much quit fishing the Provo after the Orvis dorks took it over and the overly protective regs were put in place. However, if you are after quantity...of runt fish...it is still a great water. Just for old time's sake I have stopped on my way back from Starvation or Deer Creek a few times to fish some of my old spots. And I can verify that jigs and sunken flies still produce well.
[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Even though it was legal to use bait in the olden days, I always did better with flies or marabou jigs. I tie my own of both genres. Fished the area above and below the Heber Creeper trestle almost every evening during the summer...and did not have to time my casts between inner tubes.
[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Most evenings produced well into double digits in numbers. Mostly browns...the smallest about 13 inches and the average closer to 18 inches...with at least a couple over 20 inches on every trip. More than a few over 5#. My biggest was a 33" 14# beautiful female brown...on a size 12 peacock scud of my own design...fished "bottom bouncer" style. More on that in the attached PDF file.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]While I initially fished a lot of size 6 marabous on 1/16 oz. heads...blacks, browns and olives...I later included some small tubes and twisters. Most caught fish if properly presented. My number one son once caught the biggest brown of the day on a chartreuse twister he had left on his line after a previous trip to Willard for crappies.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]In the early 1960s I was a college transplant from California. While surf fishing there for surf perch and corbina I began fishing flies above a sinker. I would cast them out into the surging water and keep a tight line as the waves washed the flies around. That rig kept the flies just off the bottom and they were eagerly intercepted by feeding fishies.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]When introduced to the Provo River by a fly tying and fly fishing employee of the old Innes Sporting
Goods in Provo, I fell in love with that stream. After a few trips of mediocre catching on fly rods, I reasoned that sinking flies on spinning tackle might be a better way to fish some of the deeper and faster fish-holding runs on the Provo. So I experimented with various ways of rigging.
[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]I fished streamers with a sinker above the fly and cast quartering downstream or worked them next to brushy overhangs along the bank. They worked. But once I started using my "bottom bouncer" rigs, and casting upstream, it was gangbusters.
[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]That rig worked well and I introduced it to quite a few other tanglers along the Provo. I moved back to California after college, but found myself back in Utah in the late 70s...for business. Imagine my surprise to find both spin fishermen and fly fishermen all using the "Provo River Bounce" rigs. And even more amusing was the number of anglers who claimed to have invented it. No problem.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]In the years since, I have employed this system on many waters...for many species. It still works. The main variables are the size and type of flies, the amount and placement of the weights and the method of presentation. Once you get the right combo you can usually do very well.[/#0000ff]
[#0000ff] [/#0000ff]
[#0000ff]Here is an excerpt from my larger writeup on "Spinning Flies". I have also included a picture from the days when my hair was darker. I am holding an "average" sized brown...taken on a bottom bounced peacock nymph...fished with my 9 foot converted fly rod.
[/#0000ff]
[signature]