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Show - 4 - White also enjoys catching and consuming them. "My personal pick of the river is the wall-eye pike-so delightful!" "Delightful" can also be used to describe some of the Provo's picturesque settings. Closer to the mountains the shimmering quaking aspens and pines line its winding shoreline. Further into the valley, cottonwoods and willows drape delicately over the clear rush. Charley Thompson, regional fisheries manager for Utah's Wildlife Division, sums it up quite simply as "the Provo is really a beautiful river and has a lot to offer." Getting the rest of the state to realize this is part of his job, and to Thompson it's also a very personal goal. "We're really trying to attract attention to the river so that people will take an interest in it...so they'll want to keep it beautiful," he explains. One method that Thompson uses to generate interest is stocking the river with 4,000 rainbow trout "catchables" every March and April. An additional 20,000 rainbow are stocked along the canyon section later in the year. Studies completed by the Wildlife Division have calculated that in the lower Provo River there are 876 fish per quarter mile. The figures may sound fishy to the discouraged angler but to Thompson the numbers bear out the obvious. "If you know anything about fishing you'll catch something every time you go." Admittedly, the lower Provo can't be the answer to everyone's fishing problems despite the tabulated fish density. Oust ask Greg D'haenens. He believes the Provo River is "...for grandpas uho don't really care about catching fish." |
