Upper Provo

“This is murder,” is all Johnny said while looking at a truly dazzling stretch of river in Woodland the entrance to the Uintah mountain range. It is a portion of the upper Provo river that is mostly PRIVATE. It seems that Utahans overlook the upper precisely because of this reason. Although Johnny’s statement is a bit on the dramatic side, he’s right that it’s just plain wrong to say you can’t fish this river, or any river for that matter.

Just to update you on the current status of the law, a few years back the public access to Utah rivers was repealed (a complete act of God) allowing regular Joes access to fish what was previously restricted/private areas. Keep in mind that this didn’t give fisherman the right to tromp across private land, to stomp through some fortunate home owners’ backyard; it just meant they could access the river, and exit it on public land.

Idaho, often referred to Utah’s backwash, has this issue figured out, and most residents seem to be happy with the current situation. When Johnny and I were fishing the Big Lost, there were a lot of homes on its banks, and plenty o’ “no trespassing” signs up that basically say: go ahead and fish this river, but don’t walk across my yard. Fair enough, for everyone involved, the fisherman can enjoy the river, and the landowner has the right to keep people off their land. Utahans often look down their noses at Idahoans feeling superior. Is it because Idaho’s license plates tout their famous potatoes, compared to our world famous snow? Is it because their metropolitan city is Boise compared to our Salt Lake? I could ramble on about this for ever. The thing is that Idaho has some pretty killer mountain ranges, and Boise is a bas ass little town.

Bottom line: come on Governor Herbert, so all your buddies and your brother-in-law own a lot of land on Utah rivers, stop using the lame excuse that river fisherman are Bubba’s who trash the land, break fences, toss their garbage all over, and go poop in people’s back yard. In all my years fishing I have never seen one river fisherman show any of that disrespect. Although, I have had stomach trouble on the river before that resulted in an emergency poop, but never in anyone’s backyard.

Sure there are some guys who will pull up to a lake, pull out the cooler, kill everything they catch, and throw the fish guts and beer cans from hell to breakfast; but were talking about the extreme exception to the rule. I have never seen this in a river fisherman. We have this part set up perfectly for these guys, it’s called lake fishing. These particular guys have a walking limit: it’s from the pick-up to the shore line, usually in the 25 yard range. And in all honesty 98.7% of those guys are respectful and clean up their mess. In a nut shell, we all know that Utah’s current law restricting fishermen from rivers has everything to do with exclusivity and nothing to do with stewardship.

Just looking at some of my photos of this area you can see my frustration—this is genuinely exquisite area. The drive through Wolf Creek Pass is such a treat. I have looked at this river so many times, and have never really given it its due. As you go further up the pass, the river becomes public. I owe it to myself to give this goddess some time in her waters.