By Brett Prettyman

Too much of a good thing and not enough people taking advantage of it.

That is quick way to sum up the reasoning behind a major regulation change on the middle stretch of the Provo River in the Heber Valley - news that leads the list of hot fishing topics in Utah for 2004.

Officials started a massive $30 million mitigation project in 1999 on the 10-mile portion of the Provo between Deer Creek and Jordanelle reservoirs. Securing constant flows was a huge victory on the river, and widening the channel, elimination of concrete banks and putting the meander back in the river has worked wonders on the middle Provo.

"Completion of Jordanelle Reservoir in the mid-1990s and ongoing work to restore portions of the middle Provo River have reduced sediment in the river and have greatly improved river flows and fish habitat along the entire 10-mile stretch. With the improved conditions, the number of trout in the river is increasing," said Tom Pettengill, sport fisheries coordinator for the Division of Wildlife Resources.

Flyfishers have been reaping the benefits with some of the best fishing in the West in recent years.

The entire stretch of the Provo from Jordanelle to Deer Creek has been artificial fly and lure-only water, but anglers were allowed - and even encouraged - to keep two brown trout under 15 inches.

But catch-and-release angling is widely practiced by flyfishers, and few fish were being culled from the ever-growing population. "In 2002 anglers kept only 1 percent to 2 percent of the brown trout they caught on the middle Provo," Pettengill said.

Dedicated Strawberry Reservoir angler Dave Tolman cradles a 13-pound rainbow trout he landed after a 30-minute fight. He used a Crystal Bugger leech pattern. Photo courtesy of Dave Tolman.

As the number of fish increased - as much as fivefold in some spots, according to DWR sources - the health of the trout population as a whole began to decline. The skinny fish started to take on a snakelike appearance rather than the linebacker appearance they had sported not so many years earlier.

"The number of brown trout in the river is increasing and that's impacting the population. The length, weight and overall quality of the fish are declining," Pettengill said. "Some fish are also dying each fall from fungal and bacterial infections. This loss is occurring because brown trout are too abundant for the resource, and fish are in poor condition."

Biologists saw the writing on the wall and decided to take action. "We want to be proactive rather than reactive," said Don Wiley, who conjured up the regulation change, the aquatics manager of the Division of Wildlife Resources.

Wiley proposed that bait anglers be allowed to fish from the Charleston Bridge - just above Deer Creek Reservoir - to the Legacy Bridge on State Highway 113.

The first reaction from the fly-fishing crowd was shock, followed closely by an effort to maintain ownership of their prized Provo.

Flyfishers pleaded with the DWR and the Wildlife Board to take more time to research the situation and give the river time to heal itself in the natural cycle of the world. They said they understood the problem and promised to educate fellow flyfishers that sometimes it is better to keep a fish than let it go unharmed.

The Wildlife Board would have none of it. "The big issue in income revenue economics is recruitment," said WB member Brenda Freeman. "Can you recruit enough kids from fly-fishing? Most likely not."

There was also strong sentiment from the Wildlife Board to give something to the bait anglers. Senior angler Gary Foutz, the only private speaker at the public meeting in support of the proposal, put it this way: "I fish with bait because that is what I was taught and that is what I like to do. All the blue ribbon bodies of water are fly-fishing waters. The waters I fished as a boy are no longer available. They can fish wherever I fish, but I can't fish where they do because I don't fly-fish."

Flyfishers countered that the data Wiley and Pettengill had used to sell the proposal were gathered from 1997 to 2000 and that the Provo was a different river now, especially considering the restoration effort, which was started in 1999 and will continue at least through the summer of 2004.

"We are in the fifth year of drought, we had a hot summer, the river gets an incredible amount of pressure, and the reconstruction has resulted in high levels of non-suspended siltation. Give it some time before making changes," said Bill Klusman of High County Flyfishers out of Park City. "The river is sick. Let the river heal itself."

The fly-fishing groups were also dismayed with the amount of time they had to organize and appeal to the DWR proposal. The first time that any talk of allowing bait anglers on the middle Provo came up was in late July 2003. The proposal then made the rounds across the state at the Regional Advisory Councils to allow for public comment. In contrast, anglers were allowed more than a year to digest a proposal to change the fishing regulations at Strawberry Reservoir.

After the Wildlife Board voted to pass the fishing proposals on a 3-1 vote, the flyfishers cried fowl. "We are disconcerted about the whole process. The Wildlife Board did not listen to public input. The Regional Advisory Council process may have failed," said Paul Dremann, representing Trout Unlimited, the Utah Anglers Coalition and the Blue Ribbon Fisheries Council. "From our perspective [the Wildlife Board] did not understand the issues and only took into account what the biologists said in spite of the other information being offered to them."

Wiley said he needs about five years to get a real handle on the affect the new regulations will have on the river and whether bait anglers are helping fix the Provo. Until then, flyfishers will have to share the middle Provo.

Beginning Jan. 1, the combined trout and kokanee salmon limit will remain at six fish, but all of those fish can be lake trout. The kokanee salmon limit will remain at three fish, and anglers will be allowed only one lake trout over 28 inches.

"This regulation will keep plenty of big lake trout in the reservoir while helping reduce the number of smaller fish," Pettengill said.

Here's a look at Utah's best trout fishing spots for 2004.