The Middle Provo is Salt Lake City and Park City's home water — the tailwater between Jordanelle and Deer Creek that everyone drives to when they've only got an afternoon. It got rebuilt, literally: a stream-restoration project put the meanders and riffles back, and the brown and rainbow trout responded by getting fat and numerous. It's a public-access tailwater with stable releases and a reliable bug calendar — Baetis and midges in the cool months, PMDs and caddis through summer. Technical enough to keep you honest, forgiving enough to be a good day's fishing even when you're rusty. Crowded on weekends; that's the price of being this good and this close to the city.
The Middle Provo runs between Jordanelle and Deer Creek reservoirs in the Heber Valley, an hour from Salt Lake, and it is the rare tailwater that has been actively rebuilt — a restoration project gave it back its meanders, its riffles and its gravel after decades as a straightened ditch, and the brown and rainbow trout responded by stacking up in numbers. It's a medium, accessible tailwater over rounded cobble and gravel, winding through ranch land under the Wasatch with the steady flow a dam provides and the bug life — blue-winged olives, the famous green drakes — a lake-fed river grows. The bed is clean cobble, the lies in the riffle drop-offs and seams. Wading is comfortable on firm footing. It is busy, being close to the city, but it fishes far better than its modest size and easy access would lead you to expect.
Wading: Busy water, otherwise easy footing
- Limestone
- Unconfined
- Pool riffle
- Meandering
