It has been a long winter in the Park City, Utah area, but in the last couple of weeks it seems like spring is getting the best of winter. This is great news for any fisherman that might be out here for a ski trip and is looking for another activity. The Middle Provo river flowing below Jordanell Reservoir is at winter flows, which is about 150 CFS (cubic feet a second). The midge fishing has finally started to get active in the past week, and there has also been a spotting of some buffalo midge. Nymph fishing has been most productive in the morning. The best rig for nymphing has been a light nymph rig with black or gray Zebra Midge as your point fly and small size 24-26 thread midge (best colors: red, black, olive and tan). You can look for some good dry fly fishing to start around noon.
This time of year it is really important to have a longer leader and lighter tippet. Typically, we have been using a 12 foot leader and 6-7 x tippet. The flows below Deer Creek Reservoir (the lower Provo River) have also continued to flow at their winter flows which is about 100 CFS. There has been consistent dry fly fishing in the morning with midge clustering on the surface. For the morning dry fly fishing, I have been fishing a tandem rig using a Quiggly Hackle Stacker as my point fly and small size 22 Mother Sucker trailing about 18 inches behind the hackle stacker. Once the sun hits the water, the dry fly fishing in the morning slows down. Not to worry the nymph fishing continues to be solid for the rest of the day. With the low flows, I have continued to have success with that lighter, in-line rig. This year they seem to prefer a larger sow bug in a size 14-16, with a small olive midge emerger size 24-22 trailing behind it.