California Green Rush

California Green Rush from Mikey Wier on Vimeo.

Tahoe Fly Fishing Guides Day

Every year around the end of the season we have a guide appreciation day at the Tahoe Fly Fishing outfitters. This years outing was on the Sirrini Ranch on the California Nevada state line section of the East Walker River. We fished, bbq'd burgers, drank beers and shot some guns. Now that's a fun day with good friends.

Jon Copeland getting that rod bent.
Jon releases a nice rainbow in the scenic waters of the Walker.
Jon was the MVP of the morning session with several nice rainbows and browns.
Mike Curtis nymphing a run.

Mike C releasing a nice bow.

With so many good anglers on the water fishing nypmhs and streamers, i figured i'd hold it down with the dry. I've been fishing a 7 foot bamboo rod that Dave Stanley of the Reno Fly shop lent me for the 50's shoot. It's a super fun little set up for classic up stream dry fly fishing. Flows were a bit high on the river and now ideal dry fly conditions. Still managed to get a few grabs on the surface. This was my fish of the day. Nice fat brown on the dry, 5x and classic bamboo. What a take and fun fight.

The Tahoe Fly Fishing Outfitters crew. Peter, Victor Babbit, Mike Curtis, Jon Copeland, Brendon Burnside, Dan Cockrum, Jared Beer and Mikey Wier

Flying in.

Last Fall i had a really fun adventure to Mexico with Richard McPherson from Blue Mule Outfitters in phenix arizona. In addition to running a killer fly fishing travel and guide service, Richard is a pilot and owns his own plane. I'd been telling him about a remote air strip near one of the rivers i fish for several months. This past couple days Richard and his buddy Rusty finally came out to visit me.

Richard took me on a little flight from Markleville to Tahoe. The airport is just right down the road from my house.
Tahoe is so beautiful. There was a pretty stiff breeze so crossing over the mountains was a bit wobbly.
Parked the plane and walked down to the River. I kept telling them how remote this place was and how we'd probably have it all to ourselves. Wouldn't you know it, everyone else thought the same dame thing. Saw more people on this section of river on a random monday in Sept. than i've ever seen in a couple decades of fishing down there.
Still managed to get a few fish to come up for dries despite the crowd. Nice little rainbow buddy.
So on day two we found some river that we had all to ourselves. No net so i helped Rusty land a couple of his bigger fish.
This brown moved 4 feet to grab my cherry chocolate nymph.
Rusty with a nice one!
We could see these two big rainbows hanging out together in the tail out of a big pool.
Rusty got the male and i got his big fat girlfriend. What a great couple days with a super fun couple guys. We had a blast. Thanks Richard and Rusty for a great time. Keep an eye out for Richard and I's adventure catching Large Mouth Bass in Mexico in SOULFISH 2.

SOULFISH 2 Intro shoot

Some photos from a film shoot earlier this week. We decided to shoot a super classic retro 1950's fly fishing scene for the opener. Ralph and Lisa Cutter came down and Ralph was my subject. We did the filming at Pleasant Valley Fly Fishing preserve managed by Jim Crouse. Dave Stanley from the Reno Fly Shop lent us some antique fly gear. Old bamboo rod, silk line, hardy reel and some old fly boxes. My friend Kyle Schwartze did the principal filming and Sean Davis ran the camera crane. Jared Beer from the Tahoe fly fishing outfitters brought his dog, Doc Girzwald to help with the shoot too. A good time was had by all.

Ralph and Griz in the 51 ford.
Kyle and Sean getting the shot while i direct the scene.
Super classic!
Beautiful vistas at Pleasant Valley. What a great place to visit for any reason. It's a private stretch of stream. Pay to play fishery. The rod fee is $95 per day. I guide out there regularly if anyone is interested. It's only 75 if you go with a guide. Best fishing is early summer. Water is a bit low right now, but the fishing is still pretty fun. If your interested contact Jim Crouse at Alpineflyfishing.com
Ralph runs through it.
10 and 2 Norman...10 and 2.

Ralph killed it with the old bamboo rod. Managed to pluck a heafty trout on a royal wolf dry fly. The film looks epic! Check out Ralphs site, flyline.com if you haven't already and buy a book or video. He's one hell of a good fisherman and a skilled writer and camera man. I highly recommend Ralph's books, video and school. Do yourself a favor and check it out today.

Keep an eye out for SOULFISH 2. Coming this winter.

Small Mouth Bass

In the dog days of the summer when the rivers are crowed and the trout aren't rising, it's sometimes fun to take a little break and try something different. I love bass fishing so it's super fun for me to go fish for small mouth bass in the highcountry. Sometimes the fishing can be spectacular. I usually just use a hopper dropper set up or small jig style flies. Here's a couple shots of Andy Burk and i picking on some small mouth in a lake near Truckee.

Little smallie on the split wing foam hopper.
Smallie face. Cool bars.
Andy Burk looking like the Dude!

Small Creek and Dap rodding

This summer i had the opportunity to guide Chuck Cook, the Director of the Nature Conservancy and some of his associates for a couple days. One of the venues we stopped at was a small creek i sometimes like to fish in the spring near hopevalley.

Chuck and his friends raised many small trout to dry flies. Here's Chuck with his cigar.
Along the way upstream we ran into a couple guys from the valley Dap rodding. This guy had a 20 foot rod on a 2 foot wide creek. The rod telescoped and only had a 3 foot piece of line on the end. No casting involved. Just lean it over and place the bait or lure in the water. Too bad these guys were fishing worms. Would have been way cooler with flies.
Nice little trout fry enjoying the slow moving side water in a beaver pond. He was too small to be messed with by the baiters. Better hide when the otter or osprey come by though.

Fathers Day Trip

So the fishing has been super good this summer. I've been guiding a ton and spending as much time as possible out on the water. That's why i haven't had allot of extra time to update the blog. So i'm trying to make up for it a bit by posting a bunch of back logged photo reports from this summer now that things are slowing down a bit.

Here's some photos from a fun canoe trip i took with my dad for fathers day up at Bear River.

Nice bow on a nymph.
Big brother bow.
In the spring and early summer the lady beetles congregate and mate. Here's a little singles mixer happening on my Galvan Torque.
My Dad and my canoe set up. Great for two people and camping gear. Super stealth and eco friendly access. Great to fish out of. Love it.
When you spend allot of time out doors and doing crazy stuff every once in a while your going to get taxed. This time a rock jumped out and whacked me in the face when i was trying to dive into the lake. I was just diving in to go swim over and jump off a big rock and made the mistake of jumping right into the afternoon glare. Luckily some other campers lent me some bandaids.

Rivers Fiji

Had an opportunity to do some filming for O.A.R.S. rafting company in Fiji this summer. Here's just one of the five promotional videos i put together from the trip. Most people don't think of Fiji for it's rivers but they were some of the coolest i'd ever had the chance to float.

Rivers Fiji from Mikey Wier on Vimeo.

For more check out riversfiji.com

East Carson Float

Here's a few photos from an East Carson River float earlier this summer. Floating the E. Carson is always one of my favorite couple days of the summer. This year i only got one float in, but we got it just right. It's a tough one because the water fluctuates so much on this river. It's either too high and the fishing is tough or it's too low and impossible to float. So you have a window of sometimes only a week where you can do both with success. It's a 22 mile float. You can do it in one day but i like to make two or sometimes three out of it and really fish it hard. If you get stuck in the canyon it's a long walk out so you need to have your act together. My outcast pack 1200 is the perfect boat for two people.

This year Dave Shankman joined me. Dave stuck some great fish. I was very impressed with his luck and skill. Here's a nice rainbow on a streamer.
First fish of the morning on day two. It was a beauty.
I rescued a baby swallow who fell in the river on his first attempt at flight.
We rowed right up on this little black bear that was walking down the side of the river. The wind was blowing up canyon and he was near some rushing water. Dave and i got about 10 feet away from him before he finally turned around and saw us. Scared the beejesus out of him. We had a great wild life day. Saw two coyote, three deer, river otter, this bear, and even a Mt. Lion!
Dave with another nice rainbow on some nymphs.
This was my best fish landed for the trip. Photo is a bit blurry but you get the point.
Dave crushing it! Nice Carson bow. Props.