Blue Ribbon Trout Stream is no joke - Provo River, Utah

I'm not sure if I have ever fished a "Blue Ribbon" trout stream before. Rivers like the Pere Marquette, San Juan, Henrys Fork, Davidson are all well known by their reputations as premier fly fishing destinations. I've just never been a blue ribbon guy, until this afternoon when I spent a couple of hours on the Provo River in Utah. As Carole and I had wrapped up our couple of days filming for The Chosen season six, we had some down time before flying home. She graciously gave me a hall pass to go fly fish for a couple hours. No waders or boots; I packed only the minimum as I really didn't have any expectation of fishing. I packed my 3 weight rod that I made back in my Project Healing Waters days, dry line, one fly box with a smattering of streamers, nymphs, wet flies and dries, and that was it... hindisght - I wish I had packed better!

Weather was 50s and water temp was probably high 40s. I ended up wading wet in a pair of sneakers as fishing from shore wasn't happening -- too tight for casting. I started witha streamer and prince, and saw that I was spooking a lot of fish... big fish too. I laned a little brown trout on the prince, then proceeded to lose both flies. Switched to a another streamer and pheasant tail, had a nice short hookset, then lost both those flies to a tree. You get the idea - I was quickly running out of flies - streamers and nymphs were gone. After a while, and partly due to no better options, I switched to dries. And about that time, I saw some fish sipping on the surface - tiny BWOs. I only had aabout 3-4 dries so I first tried a 14 mosquito but it was too big. I put on a griffiths gnat and had a nice hit, then lost that fly. No parachute adams... would have been the ticket. I put on a caddis even though there were no caddis anywhere to be found, but the fish were pretty active still on the surface. I had a narrow tight line to cast upstream as trees had gotten several of my other flies. I laid one cast up to the top of the run and BAM - fish on! It was a big Brown. I worked him away from the bushes and submierged branches to the back of the run and saw that he was hooked solid in the lower jaw. What a fish... about 17", and fat. I saw many fish bigger during my couple hours on the water. After a couple pics, I released him unharmed. Last cast - last fish. Perfect way to end on a high note. With the right gear, I have to believe some epic days could be had on that river... definintely a Blue Water stream.