Provo River — Upper, Utah

Mirror Lake Highway headwaters

The Upper Provo forms where its north and south forks meet in the western Uintas and drops along UT-150, the Mirror Lake Highway, east of Kamas. Pulloffs and Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest campgrounds along the highway put you on small, fast pocket water, and the upper highway is closed by snow for the winter and usually opens in late spring; the river itself runs high with snowmelt into early July.

Woodland to Francis

Below the forest boundary the river follows UT-35 through Woodland, where the USGS gauge this page reads sits, and on to Francis. Much of this valley reach is private ranch land, so fish from the bridges and public parcels or ask permission; it is bigger, slower water with more browns than the highway stretch.

Francis to Jordanelle

From Francis the river runs a few more miles to the arm of Jordanelle Reservoir, where the reservoir's browns and rainbows move into the river in season. There is no gorge on the Upper Provo; the canyon reaches of the Provo are all below Deer Creek Dam.

Brown trout

Wild browns are the dominant fish from the forest boundary down to Jordanelle and the only trout you may keep on this reach. Golden stones and caddis in early summer, PMDs in July and August, hoppers into September and baetis in the fall are the dry fly season once runoff drops.

Cutthroat, rainbow and brook trout

Cutthroat and rainbows must be released on the whole reach above Jordanelle, which protects the native Bonneville cutthroat that hold in the upper river and its tributaries. Brook trout, introduced but long established, are the fish of the highest water near the highway, small and eager on attractor dries.

Season and regulations

The Upper Provo is a runoff river: it is high and dirty from May into early July, then fishes from July through October, with the Woodland gauge dropping from summer peaks near 800 cfs to 60 to 90 cfs in late summer. Utah shops put the wading window at 50 to 200 cfs, below which the fish get wary and above which the gradient makes wading hazardous, so that is the band this page uses.

Utah's 2026 guidebook makes the Provo from Jordanelle Reservoir upstream to the confluence of the north and south forks artificial flies and lures only, with a limit of 2 brown trout under 15 inches and mandatory release of all cutthroat and rainbow trout and their hybrids. Check the current Utah DWR fishing guidebook for the forks and tributaries.