The Best Fly Fishing in Utah
with Spencer Higa
7:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
I know many of our members can be creatures of habit, and are generally risk averse. When we experience a fishing destination we like, we become complacent. Combined with limitations on budget and time, we’ll head to the same rivers in Montana and Idaho, ignoring other locations which can be just as good, or better, and even closer. To many of us, with the exception of the Green River, Utah is just another stretch of highway separating us from Montana.
While not unknown, many of us overlook the Provo River and surrounding waters. Just a couple hours by airline, or ten hours by car, eastern Utah is filled with lovely water home to plenty of friendly trout, and most of us just blow right by it. Our May program will give us the intimate details of six beautiful rivers which are home to plenty of large trout.
Our May speaker is Utah native Spencer Higa (pronounced “hee-ga”). Spencer started fly fishing when he was 12 years old, and he’s been fishing the lakes and rivers of Utah ever since. In fact, he has been fishing the Provo since his mother used to drop him on a section of the river in the morning and then pick him up eight hours later. An explorer by nature, Spencer’s driver’s license was his ticket to expand the territory he fished, always looking for more and more water to explore.
Spencer began tying flies when he was 14, and started tying commercially when he was 16. He has created several patterns that work well on his home waters, including one named “Higa’s SOS,” known to be extremely effective and a top seller at Orvis stores, catching fish around the western United States.
Spencer began his formal guiding career at the age of 21, and he’s been guiding throughout Utah since then. He managed an Orvis company-owned store from 2001 to 2005, where he taught classes in fly fishing, fly casting, and fly tying. He then began managing an Orvis-endorsed lodge in eastern Utah. Spencer competed for a spot on the USA Fly Fishing Team in 2007 and 2008 and has appeared on local and national television shows, the most recent being “The New Fly Fisher.” Spencer is currently the fishing manager at Falcon’s Ledge, which has just received the 2012 Fly Fishing Lodge of the year award from Orvis.
Spencer’s passion is seeing people enjoying the waters he grew up fishing. Spencer lives in Provo, Utah, just 50 feet from the Provo River. Our May meeting should open you up to some tremendous fishing you may have overlooked. Join us Thursday evening, May10th, at 7:30 p.m. at the San Marino Masonic Lodge, 3130 Huntington Drive, San Marino, 91108.
Seymour Singer