The water levels have subsided to what I consider to be optimal for fishing the Mighty Provo; slightly off color and still strong after run off, but manageable enough to wade.I have to say that this time of the year is only a slight second behind fall for being my favorite time to be on the river (a few points lost due to the summer tube hatch). The fish are at their most powerful and hard fighting after having endured run off, and there are more overlapping insect hatches than at perhaps any other time of the year, including the mythical green drake and golden stonefly. If you see one of these guys swimming around in the water then consider yourself lucky.This year’s epic snow levels have created some of the hardest fighting fish in recent memory, and I had a blast trying to land them. I can honestly say that I hooked into a couple of beasts that were comparable to fighting a large bull trout in Montana. If you’ve ever had the privilege of accidentally hooking into a bull (it is illegal to purposely catch them in many places), then you understand what I mean. Every fish was fighting twice its size. Even this little guy fought hard!Over the course of 7 or 8 hours on the Middle Provo, I was able to land fish on the surface using green drakes, golden stones, PMDs, and midges, along with consistent sub surface action throughout. There is nothing quite like watching a small shark rise in the middle of fast moving and choppy water to destroy a size 10 green drake or stonefly. This is typically followed by a challenging fight. My favorite such instance on this day was this large brown that took a green drake in the middle of a rapid. It reminded me of shark week when the great whites jump out of the water to get a seal, but at one thousandth the scale.I’m not one to exaggerate my fishing stories, and I always measure before making any claims or placing a fish in my record book, but I can honestly say I believe I lost my biggest Provo River fish ever this time. It was a rainbow that fought me for a while before making one last run into the rapids as I was trying to get it in the net (it didn’t fit in my 19” net). It’s been a long time since I lost a fish that way, or one that large, and I was quite upset in the moment. About 15 minutes later I caught the fish pictured above on a green drake dry fly and my disappointment was quickly forgotten. Later, as I reflected on the experience, I thought about the role that disappointment plays in forging us as a person. It’s actually disappointment that makes us better and drives us to improve. I don’t think we learn much on the days where everything goes exactly according to plan, but rather, it’s the times when we have to pick ourselves back up and try harder that we truly progress. In my experience, it’s usually only after we’ve had to pick ourselves back up a few times that anything amazing ever happens. In a strange way, it’s what keeps us coming back for more I guess.