Succumbing to Sow Bugs

We were able to return home to Utah for Christmas this year.  Cheryl and the C-ster left a week before me.  I got a ride to the airport, boarded the plane, and eagerly awaited my flight to Utah.  The next day I had a fishing trip planned with Jason, one of my best friends from school in California.  I hadn't seen him in a year and half, and I couldn't wait to get home and fish my home river.  After an hour on the ground at the gate, the pilot announced that there was a mechanical problem and the flight was cancelled.  Of course the next day was the busiest travel day of the year, and there was no way I could get from Memphis to Salt Lake!  I ended up arriving home 48 hours after scheduled, and I never got to see Jason.  Big bummer!

The rest of the trip went fantastic, though, starting with my first day trip to the Lower Provo River, my home water!

December 24, 2012 - Christmas Eve

Due to family obligations, I was only able to sneak out for a few hours of fishing, but it was worth it.  For some reason people have a hard time understanding why I would rather be fishing in the snow by myself than at a Christmas party with friends and family.  Duh?  Some people just don't get it!  Apparently everyone else had family obligations too, because I had the river to myself!

Normally I start nymphing unless there are fish actively rising.  I typically fish a two nymph indicator rig.  The point fly is a larger, weighted, attractor pattern, with a smaller, hatch matching dropper tied to the bend of the hook.  I rotate through both flies until I find something that works.  On the Provo River a sow bug immitation is always a good initial point fly, and in the winter a #22-24 midge larva or pupa as the dropper is often hard to beat.  In my experience, the majority of the fish are caught on the dropper, but not on this day!

As I waded to the first run I noticed the lack of midge adults on the snow.  The winter's hatch must not have started in earnest.  Undaunted, I fished the first run and within minutes watched my strike indicator hesitate, and felt a strong, slow throbbing at the end of my line.  Soon a nice 15-16" whitefish made himself visible.  Unlike most fly fishermen, I love whitefish.  They are midge-a-holics!  They are also the only native sport fish left in this section of the Provo.  You will never see one in the summer, but in the winter they make their presence known.  Disappointingly, this one came unbuttoned just inches from my net.

Soon I was fast into another fish.  By the quick run it made upstream I figured it was probably a rainbow, and I was right!  This time of year the bigger browns are lethargic, spawned out, and skinny.  The rainbows on the other hand are active and chunky, having gorged on brown trout eggs for the past two months.  My first landed fish of the trip was no exception - a beautiful, chunky rainbow!

I don't often think of rainbows as being that pretty, but this one was just about perfect!

Surprisingly, this fish had eaten the sow bug, and not the midge.  I continued fishing and soon caught a small whitefish on the midge.  I missed a couple fish and lost a couple flies (stinking 7X tippet!).  I decided to move upstream and fish a small run that I had never fished.  I was sneaking along the bank casting to slack water just off the current seam when my indicator shot upstream!  After a quick fight I had a small brown in hand.  Like the rainbow before it, it had taken the sow bug.  I had now caught three different species of fish! 

I continued fishing the small run, and soon had another nice fish on.  After a short tug-of-war I was able to coerce another decent rainbow onto the snowy bank.  He had taken the sow bug.  I was surprised.  Anyone seeing a pattern here?


Healthy rainbow.  Nothing special, but a lot of fun!

I spent enough time to thoroughly fish the hole when I lost my dropper on a rock.  What to do?  Instead of tying on another midge dropper, I went with a Ray Charles.  The Ray Charles is a sow bug pattern that apparently gets a lot of love on the Bighorn and Missouri rivers in Montana.  I had never tried it before, but I had tied some up in natural grey.

My first cast convinced me of the effectiveness of this pattern.  I moved back to my original run, and halfway through my drift the indicator hesitated, I swung, and immediately felt headshakes.  The fight was more sluggish like that of a whitefish, but soon a decent brown made its way to my frozen net.  This one had taken the Ray Charles!



A less than lovely brown, but a nice fish nonetheless.

After this fish it was time to head home and be social.  It had been a great day, though.  Five fish, three species, two and a half hours, and all the trout succumbing to the sow bug.  Notes taken.  Who knew that less than a week later things would be completely different!