Utah Pro

I am a Utah fishing guide and have noticed that when I started out on the Provo and Weber Rivers years ago I made the same mistakes that I see most other beginners on the river making that just aren’t catching as many fish, which is: spacing! The spacing between your weights to the first fly and then from your first fly to the last fly makes a big difference in the amount of fish you will produce. Here is a very easy way to figure out if you have your fly fishing rig set to proper proportions.

When you setup your rig you should start by adding at least 8 feet of leader to the fly line. At the bottom of the nine foot line attach about 16-18 inches of 4x tippet and tie on your first fly. Now attach 16-18 inches of 5x tippet to your second fly making sure that you tie on your tippet to the eye of the hook(not the shank of the previous fly). Remember to put, depending on the depth, about two “BB” weights above the first knot coming down to the first fly. So it would look like this:

ROD——-(8 feet of leader)—–X—————-X————-X————X
(strike indicator-6 feet to weight)       (weight)       (1st fly)       (2nd fly)

If you follow these steps and go and fish on the Provo river you will do pretty well. Especially if you use a #16 “PR Sow Bug” tied by Rainy’s flies as your first fly(with some orange thread by the eye of the hook) and a #18 “Split Back PMD Emerger” tied by solitude flies as your 2nd fly.

Now that you know the secret to spacing, you will now catch more fish!  This spacing technique works on almost any fly fishing river with over two and a half feet deep water. Good luck to you while your fly fishing Utah.

If you are ever fly fishing Utah and want a professional Utah fishing guide I would love to help. Justin@utahproflyfishing.com