BURL FISH

Secret creek steelhead

2012-02-02T11:16:00.000-08:00

Here's a few snap shots from a trip last week up north. All photos curtsy of Isaac Roman.
I love fishin small rivers for steelhead.
Double Hook up.
Chad and i with a double.
They look so cute in there together. The net is a lot less lonely place when you have a buddy.
Got some nice little guys too which shows the runs are healthy still. Missed some bigger ones too.
High stickin a nice looking rock hole.
Saw a fish roll and got it indicator less nymphing. Was about to leave when another one rolled. I managed to get it too. Definitely a high light of the trip. The second was a way more chuncky fish. Lost it just at the net after a long hard battle on a five wt. So no photo there.
Floated some great swing water too.
Jason's fish of the day.
Dime bright.
Huge thanks to Isaac Roman for the photos and showing me around. Isaac guides for Jack Trout international guide service and specializes on the Lowwer Sac, Upper Sac, McCloud and Klamath rivers as well as some other small streams and lakes around Northern California. If your in the area and looking for a fun guide drop him a line at isaacroman@sbcglobal.net.

Fun in the Sun

2012-01-25T14:11:00.001-08:00

Fun in the sun is a short video compilation by Paul Swint of William Joseph fly fishing. Keep an eye out for a couple shots of a fishing trip we did together to Wyoming and also the Fly Tackle Dealer show in New Orleans. Great work Paul!

Upper Truckee Wild and Scenic

2012-01-25T14:00:00.000-08:00

Check out this video by Nate Lishman about the wild and scenic proposal for the upper truckee watershed.

Here's another video by nate of the Truckee Cutthroat Classic from 2011. I've got a little cameo in this one.

Mokelumne Vid in the Wild and Scenic Film Fest

2012-01-12T12:07:00.000-08:00

For years my brother and I used to have to sneak into one of our favorite sections of our home river, the mighty Mokelumne. The land surrounding both sides of this section of the river is owned by the East Bay Municipal Utility District. They had big No Trespassing signs up along their barbed wire fences. We, however strongly considered the river to belong to everyone. So every once in a while we would float down through the rapids on inner tubes and stop in the beautiful and secluded pools to swim or try catch and release fly fishing. Along the way we’d check out the old miners trails and wild flowers. Or stop at the ruins of the historic mining town of Middle Bar. Or imagine we were Mewuk people catching Salmon in the river and admiring the giant blue oaks that produce so many acorns. Because the land had been protected and this small river canyon was relatively secluded and seldom visited, it had also become a refuge for local wildlife. We could always count on seeing an Eagle sitting over the river in one of the big Cotton Wood trees or the old Bull Pines. There were always ducks sitting on the pools that would fly around to the next bend as we would round the corner. Snakes, Lizards, Wild Turkey, Quail, Deer, Jack Rabbits, Raccoons and Otters were all common sights along the rivers edge. And of course there’s nothing better than some cold white water on a hot summer day. The tubing run ends at the old Middle Bar Bridge and the high water mark of Pardee Reservoir. Back then we used to have to sneak around a bit and throw our tubes over the barbed wire fence. These days there’s a parking lot and a take out that’s been built for kayakers and rafters. But recently the fate of this spot became hanging in the balance of California’s water politics.

The Mokelumne River flows from the high alpine peaks south of Lake tahoe down through the foothills and to the San Joaquin Delta in the Central Valley. The river is the dividing line between Amador and Calaveras counties. There are currently 5 Dams and power houses along the Moke including Pardee reservoir that supplies drinking water to the East Bay. In 2009 East Bay MUD announced it’s 2040 water plan that included a proposal to expand the Pardee Dam. The result of this would be 4 more miles of the Moke and the entire Middle Bar run all the way up to above State Highway 49 would be flooded. The last best riverside riparian habitat in this elevation of the Mokelumne would be lost forever along with the recreational opportunities it provides for the local community and habitat for fish and wildlife. And with it a piece of my heart that holds dear all the good memories of my childhood created along that stretch of river. So as you can imagine the issue hit hard with me. I learned of some meetings being held by East Bay MUD to discuss the plan with the local community and there would be a time for public comment. I have to admit I was a bit surprised to see how many people showed up to these meetings. They more than filled the entire room and were flooding out the doors and peaking in through the windows. I was among many people who stood up and shared memories of this place and asked that East Bay MUD please re consider their decision to Expand the Dam. Especially given that other, less destructive alternatives were proposed.

It was at these meetings that I met many other Amador and Calaveras County locals that were just as excited about the river as I was and also had a deep desire to protect this spot. Among them was the crew from O.A.R.S. rafting company including George Wendt. Also the crew from Friends of the River was there. And the very dedicated group from Amador County called The Foothill Conservancy. Together we hatched a plan to raise awareness about this issue and help rally the local community as well as raise awareness of what was happening with East Bay MUD customers down in the Bay Area that otherwise would be clueless of where their water is coming from and what was happening in our community in order for them to have it. So the plan for this movie project was born.

Our strategy of saving this section of river included two parts. First and foremost try and stop the immediate threat of the Dam Expansion. Second secure lasting protection for the entire remaining free flowing stretches of the Mokelumne River through a national wild and scenic designation. I spent the next month filming all through the entire Water Shed of the Moke from the head waters in the Mokelunme Wilderness all the way down to the Delta. Along the way I came up with the concept of having the true locals, the wild life, have a say in the video as well. Since they were going to be even more directly effected than us. Mean while the Foothill Conservancy was hard at work attending all meetings, rallying the community, filing law suites and collecting signatures for the Wild and Scenic petition.

Fast forward two years later. This weekend my short film is screening in the Wild and Scenic film festival in Nevada City. In the mean time allot has happened. Most of the videos being screened in this film festival have an environmental twist. Almost all raise awareness to certain issues effecting our environment or society. Some offer solutions and others just point out the problems. As with most environmental problems these days, most of the movies don’t have a happy ending. I’m proud this weekend to get up on stage and say that our movie does. It was just recently announced that East Bay MUD has decided to drop the expansion of Pardee Dam from their 2040 water plan and seek other options of water storage including under water aquifers. This action is a direct result of the efforts of the Foothill Conservancy and affiliates making a stand for what they hold dear. The announcement was made following yet another costly law suite filled by the Foothill Conservancy against East Bay MUD concerning the environmental impact reports for the Dam Expansion proposal. It was also a direct result of the public out cry to save this stretch of river the and all the people who went to the meetings, signed petitions and wrote letters to East Bay MUD.

This is indeed a huge victory for the people of Amador and Calaveras counties. But the fight to save the Moke is not over. You can still help. Please take a moment to visit Foothill Conservancy.org and sign our Wild and Scenic petition the will help insure long term protection. Also, if you can, make a donation to this hard working organization that has been instrumental in helping protect the river as well as opening up more public access and recreational opportunities on the Moke and beyond. And please take a moment to attend a meeting or write a letter to East Bay MUD to let them know you respect and support their decision to drop the Dam Expansion from their thirty year water plan. Together we can save the places that make California so great.

Mike E. Wier

Little Truckee Float

2011-12-17T16:44:00.000-08:00

Well, this one might stir some emotions in a few people but what can you do. This spring Daren Elmore and i floated the Little Truckee River! It was late spring and the river was running at over 1000 CSF. Daren is the California Rep for Scientific Anglers, Umpuqa, Buff and Air Rafts. He had a 9 foot raft that we figured would be perfect for a little jaunt down the LT. I always thought it would be fun to float just for grins and giggles if for no other reason. Luckily it was one of those days where there wan't a million other anglers down there to yell at us. In fact, we had the whole river to ourselves which is a rare occasion these days on the LT even at those flows.

Droppin in at the upper lot.
LT brown on the Jig Nasty streamer.
Daren Working a run.

Casting Call 2011

2011-12-17T15:59:00.000-08:00

Casting Call is a joint effort between Trout Unlimited and Cal Trout to raise awareness at the California state capital for fresh water fisheries conservation. Learn more at TUCalifornia.com and CalTrout.org.

Back in action.

2011-12-17T15:52:00.000-08:00

O.K., here's the deal. I haven't been posting much on this blog over the summer. This spring i got busy with guiding a bunch and pretty much stayed busy all summer and fall. Between guiding, producing another big movie project and all the other side work it takes to keep both businesses running, I've just plane been crunched for time. I've got a tone of photos, videos and stories that i need to start getting up on here to get caught up. So i'm going to try and make it a point to start uploading again. Stay tuned for lots of goodness from this summer and fall. And i'll try to keep up a bit better over the winter.

Thanks for your interest and or support to anyone who comes once in a while to check in.

Mikey Wier

Middle Fork two-day float trips.

2011-08-03T00:31:00.000-07:00

Middle Fork American River Ruck-A-Chuck Falls. Class 5 white water at the end of the upper middle fork run.

Tunnel Chute rapids start off the first day with a good rush. Class 4 white water with class 5 consequences. You've got to have good rafting gear and know what your doing to attempt this one. Keeps most recreational fisherman out of the run.
Last chance drop is a class 3 hole that you have to make just before tunnel chute or you could be in for a very wild swim.
In between rapids theres some great streamer water. Cold clear and full of wild healthy trout. All fishing gear has to be stashed for the bigger rapids.
River camp. Good food, drinks and good times.

The middle for holds a healthy population of wild browns. On the two day float you get to fish the river at the prime times in the evening and mornings.

Lots of beautiful wild rainbows. Hard fighting and fun to catch on streamers or single barbless spinners.
This trip is not recommended for beginner fly-fisherman. You have to be able to throw heavy streamers in fast current while bobbing around in a raft. You have to be able to tie on your own flies and fix your own leaders and tangles. The oars man has to be on the stick at almost all times during this fast paced float. There are times when we can stop and help out with gear. Eddies provide good placement for fishing but navigating current takes almost constant attention from the guide. All we can do is point out the good shots as we go by.

You only have one shot at many of the good seams and riffles. Heavy flies get down in the zone quickest but are hard to throw and can break rods. Another average rainbow taken on my jig nasty streamer fly.

Terry with a nice brown taken on a heavy streamer and sink tip line.

Hard work can sometimes pay off with the fish of a lifetime. The middle fork has the potential to produce such a fish.

My outcast pack 1300 set up.
Gradey and his 13 foot sotar white water raft/fishing set up and another very nice Middle Fork Brown. Up to the second freckle form the shoulder.

I'm now rowing trips with Gradey of Wilderness Adventures. We offer two and three day rafting and fishing trips. Spin or fly, single barbless hook and all catch and release from our boats. Catered grommet food and shuttle service included. $600 per angler for a two day trip. $850 per angler for a 3 day trip. 3 anglers minimum, 6 anglers maximum. Limited dates available depending on flows. Monday-Friday starts only. We can offer exclusive fishing put in and take out options where we don't have to run the Tunnel Chute or Ruck-a-chuck falls. Call us or drop an e-mail to experience this amazing west slope fishery this summer. Wildrivertrips.com or fisheyevideos@live.com.

FISH SCHTICK interview

2011-07-06T12:37:00.001-07:00

Had an interview this week on the fish Schtick. Great show, check it out if you have a minute.

http://mauromedia.com/podcast/fish-schtick-episode-74-mikey-weir/

ICE OUT!

2011-06-17T11:47:00.000-07:00

Silver Lake just broke and Caples is just thawing enough for some casting space between the shore and the ice. This is the prime weekend to come up and fish Ice Out!

MF American Float 6.1

2011-06-09T21:48:00.000-07:00

Chris, Gradey and Tom ready for action.

Tom fishing the wall.

Fatty Bowski.

Big Head Brown.

Kanaka Falls.
Gradey and Tom surviving the drop.

Tom Bartos manages Horseshoe Bar Fly Fishing and Game preserve on the Middle Fork American.

Gradey works for Wilderness Adventures White Water Rafting.

Check em out if your ever interested in doing a fun float on the Middle American.

EW guide trip

2011-05-31T09:40:00.001-07:00

Had a couple fun guide trips last week on the East Walker River. Flows were up around 400csf and the fishing was great. Here's a few photos of clients Tim Bennett and John Lotter from the bay area.

We went over some nymph fishing techniques in the morning and before too long the mends and drifts were looking good and we started hooking some fish.

The action was steady all day but Tim was the end of the day VIP. He landed a few really nice browns in the last hour home stretch.

Another nice brown in the net.

John with another beauty.

If your interested in doing some guided fishing in the Lake Tahoe area this spring, summer or fall, drop me a line.

For contact info check out:

fisheyevideos.com

SOULFISH 2, FISH MODE DVD's

2011-05-21T11:28:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce that SOULFISH 2, FISH MODE is now available on DVD. This ultimate fly-fishing adventure DVD is a must have for anyone with a fishing DVD collection. It's a feature length (90 min.) movie with fishing stories from around the world. Order your copy today at FISHEYEVIDEOS.com

Cold spring day.

2011-04-13T14:53:00.000-07:00

A collection of photos shot by Collin Carlson while on a recent day fishing with him and Paul Swint up in Wyoming.

Fighting a nice bow.

Cheery Chocolate nymph was a slammer in this spot. Couldn't keep those bows off it.

We caught one beautiful bow after another in this spot. They were stacked in this pool.

Got a couple decent splake too. This one grabbed a big streamer fished deep.

Beautiful gill plate coloring.
Paul Swint from William Joseph with a nice bow.

The man, Collin Carlson with another of his many nice rainbows.

Yep, you guessed it, another rainbow trout.
Man this was a cold day. At some points were waded through knee to waist deep snow just to get to fishing spots. Had to break ice off the guides of the rod every few casts. Brutal cold conditions but worth it 100%. Big thanks to Collin and Paul for showing me one of their favorite fishing spots.

All Photos shot by: Collin Carlson

Wasatch Fly Expo SF2 Premier

2011-04-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

SF2 Premier in SLC at the Art Museum theater at BYU. The film fest was part of the Wasatch fly tying and fishing expo at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City.

Big Thanks to Colby Crossland, Curtis Fry, Jason Haslam and Nick Jones for helping put on the event and having me come out.
Paul Swint from William Joseph was the proud recipient of a SOULFISH 1 DVD.
Show went well. Everyone had a great time. Lots of and lots of great comments about the new movie. It's was great for me, after all this work, to see it on the big screen and hear the audiences comment and see their reactions. More shows will be popping up over the next couple months. So keep an eye out in a town near you.

SF2 World Premier-Wasatch Fly Expo

2011-03-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

SF2, FISH MODE is officially done!!

Tomorrow night is the World Premier in Salt Lake City. I'll be showing the full movie as part of the Wasatch Fly Tying and Fly Fishing Expo. The movie is showing Thursday night. I'll also be the key note speaker at the Banquet dinner on Friday as well as giving some tying demonstrations on Saturday. Come join us if your in the area.

DVD's will be ready in a couple weeks. Keep an eye out for more showings coming soon to a town near you. More on that later.

Dreaming of Summer

2011-03-18T18:43:00.000-07:00

Summer on the East Carson. Hot days, cool nights. Sporadic hatches and prolific wildlife. Bears and snakes and eagles. It's a beautiful way to spend a day. It's getting harder and harder to find solitude on the East Carson though. These days if you want to get away from the crowds you have to hike your butt off over hot rocks, through willow thickets and down dusty trails. And even then, you might still run into some other anglers. On one fine mid summers day Jared Beer, his dog Grizwald and i decided to go for a little hike on down the rivers. After some 4 wheeling to one of our favorite spots, we headed off down the river. As luck would have it, we were the first people to fish that spot for the day. I regimented myself to only fishing with the hopper. Didn't really care how many fish i got this day, just wanted to see one grab that big chunk of foam. We thought for sure it was going to just be game on. Instead, the fishing was slow. We covered pool after pool with nothing more than a couple refusals. Finally we reached one of my favorite pools on the river. It was getting late in the day and the shadows from the big Jeffery pines were creeping down onto the water. I crept to the rivers bank through the willows and roll cast the hopper out onto a slow slick at the back of the pool. I knew there was a big boulder in that spot the fish like to sit around. I watched the drift very carefully until it started to swing. Just then i looked away at Jared on the other side of the river. As i lifted my rod i heard a huge splash. I looked down river just in time to see a huge tail roll out of the water as a massive fish tried for my hopper. OOOhhh. it was a biggin. I sat and waited for about 5 minutes before i cast again. This time the hopper drifted perfectly back over that same area. Wham, with a much smaller splash this time, a huge beak poked out of the water and inhaled my foam hopper. I lifted the rod and he was on. After a nice strong fight, i managed to land one of the most beautiful dry fly caught fish of the summer, for myself, on the Carson River. Managed to snap a few shots before he swam away. Shortly after that fish, Jared hooked into a nice fish on some nymphs in the same pool. I came running up expecting a huge bow. Instead it was a big old Whitey which turned out to be his big fish of the day. Griz gave it a kiss and off it swam too. I'm sure the fish spent the rest of the afternoon down there in the depths swapping abductions stories. I spent the rest of the evening contemplating which fish exaggerated the most about how big the humans they saw were.

Jared and Griz on the EC.
Griz standing at attention, waiting to greet the fish.
Even Griz was reluctant to lick a whitey.
Split wing foam hopper.
Does the trick again.
Love those white tip fins.

Tahoe Wild and Scenic Film Fest

2011-03-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

Tonight is the annual screening of the Wild and Scenic film festival here in S. Lake Tahoe. This year i'm the featured local film maker and have three short videos playing in the show. The retro intro to SF2, California Green Rush trailer and Mokelumne Wild and Scenic video. Representatives from the Foothill Conservancy will be on hand to collect signatures for the Wild and Scenic petition to try and help save an amazing stretch of river from a proposed huge new dam expansion plan that would destroy that habitat forever.

Here's a link to an article in todays local news paper about the event and my films.

tahoedailytribune.com

Here's a link to some info on the event being hosted by the Tahoe Resource Conservation District and the Sierra Nevada Alliance.

tahoercd.org

If you haven't already, please sign the Mokelumne Wild and Scenic petition with the Foothill Conservancy and buy a Mokelumne Wild and Scenic tee shirt to help support the work the foothill conservancy is doing to help save our river.

Foothillconservancy.org

Hope to see you there.

Snap Shots by Paul Waters

2011-03-11T13:59:00.000-08:00

A collections of snap shots by SOULFISH contributing artist Paul Waters from the Pleasanton Fly Fishing show and SF2 preview screening.

Fairbanks rep Jamie Lyle all smiles.
Talking with Jeff Currier in front of his booth as the evening light creeps through the windows.
Richard Anderson of California Fly Fisher.

Jeff Bright, artist and steelhead master.

Lots of laughs and good times at the Hop Yard for the SF2 preview.
The fine art to traditional steelhead flies.
Brent Dawson of War Path Flies.
Loren Elliott came all the way down from Bellingham W.A. to be at the fly show.
The man, the myth the legend, Paul Waters. Paul has been hard at work on some amazing and inspirational art work for the SOULFISH 2 movie. More on that soon.

All photos curtsey of Paul Waters.

Wild on the Fly - Mongolia show

2011-03-11T13:53:00.000-08:00

Recently edited an episode for wild on the fly's adventure fly fishing t.v. series hosted by Joe Daniel. The show aired last week on the outdoor channel. If you missed it, keep an eye out for re runs.

There's also a great article about our trip to Mongolia written by Genevieve on the Wild on the Fly website. Have a peak if you get a chance. It's a great story. www.wildonthefly.com

Keep an eye out for the full mongolia video story in the upcoming release of SOULFISH 2, FISH MODE. Coming soon.

Pleasanton preview screening

2011-03-11T13:45:00.000-08:00

Couple photos from the Pleasanton Fly Fishing show and preview screening of SOULFISH 2, FISH MODE.

SOULFISH 2 Champion Jeff Currier signing books and doing art at the show.
Loren Elliott was there tying flies and giving presentations on Stripe Bass fishing in the surf.
Ben Frumpski and Conway Bowman are all smiles.
Had a great crowd come out to the Hop Yard for the preview show. It was nice to show the movie to a group of friends. Many of whom were part of the making of the movie in one way or another. Big thanks to everyone who attended for their support of the project.
Couldn't imagine a better group of people to see the film for the first time.

FISH MODE Preview Pleasanton

2011-02-24T00:35:00.000-08:00

Muskie on The Fly

2011-02-13T14:18:00.000-08:00

Ever think about chasing Muskie on Fly. One of my only regrets in filming for SOULFISH 2 is not having had the opportunity to make it up to film some Muskie fishing with Robert Tomes. Robert is a very competent Muskie angler and author of a great book, Muskie on The Fly. Here's a few photos Robert shared with me from a fall outing in Wisconsin.

Muskie are a gorgeous fish and fierce predator. Making them one of the best and most aggressive fish to catch on a fly in North America. I tell people all the time they are the closest thing we have to a Taimen on our continent. Known for shocking top water takes, huge jumps and long strong fights, Muskie are a more than worth while addiction.

Keep an eye out for Robert on the show circuit this winter doing Muskie on The Fly presentations. For more info, take a look at this Article published in the New York Times about Robert and his new book.

Photos: Walter Hodges/Ten & Two Magazine

If4 International Fly Fishing Film Festival

2011-02-13T13:39:00.000-08:00

The International Fly Fishing Film Festival hosted by Fly Max films out of Canada and featuring scenes from SOULFISH 2 as well as many other great fly flicks, kicked off a couple weeks ago in Calgary. Check out the story and photos here.

http://flyaddicts.com/flymax/2011/02/01/if4-kicks-off-in-calgary/

Keep an out out for more shows and dates and check out Fly Max Films websites and blog.

SF2 Preview

2011-01-27T18:04:00.000-08:00

Just a few shots from the SF2 preview on Friday night after the Sac ISE show.

I brought down a couple of Andy Burk and i's paintings to help style the place out a bit.
Good crowd of awesome people.

After party down town.
April V always looking good.

SF 2 Screening Sacramento

2011-01-17T18:35:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends,

Just wanted to let you all know about a preview screening of SOULFISH 2 that we are doing after the International Sportsman's Expo show in Sacramento this coming Friday the 21st of Jan. It's all ages, family friendly, very informal and everyone is welcome. Some of the celebrities from the movie will be on hand including: Ralph Cutter, April Vokey, Brent Dawson, Mike Copithorn, Richard McPherson and myself. Just going to show some of the segments from SOULFISH 2, FISH MODE so they get a chance to see their parts before they go final on the DVD. Feel free to come join us if your in town and bring anyone you'd like. Going to try and get the movie going by 8:30.

It will be at Roundtable Pizza in the party room. 1566 Howe Ave. 1 block from the East end of Cal Expo Fair Grounds. From the Expo go right on Arden Fair, Turn Right on Howe Ave. You'll see Roundtable on the Left. Make a u turn at the next light and your there.

Reno Fly Shop Closing

2010-12-22T20:15:00.001-08:00

This past weekend we had a little going out of business party and inventory sale at the Reno Fly shop. It was a great gathering of local patrons, fly club members and Reno Fly Shop Staff. Sad to see Dave closing the doors after many many years of serving the fly fishing community of the greater Reno area. The Reno Fly shop will be greatly missed. Dave is going to continue to run the guide service and keep up with monthly fishing reports for the area. So stay tuned.

Darren Elmore holding down the fly bins so they didn't blow away with all the change in the air.
Tim Haddon, Jason Shields, Justin Olson, Dan LaCount and Matt Heron.
Stefan McLeod was one of the key components in helping organize this great event. He's the Truckee Trout Unlimited Chapter president and a heck of a fly fisherman. Way to go Stefan on getting all the food and beer donated!
The shop ended up having a good day at the register. Nice to see the local support. I helped clean out some of the fly tying materials.
Me, Dave Stanley and Andy Burk.
Doug, Matt, Keith, Justin, Tim, Andy, Dan, Dave and Kate.

And there you have it. Go buy some stuff from Dave if you can make it down there before the end of the month. Then it's good by forever to the Reno Fly shop.

Stand Up Paddle Board Fly Fishing

2010-12-19T16:03:00.000-08:00

This past summer i started experimenting with stand up paddle board fly fishing. It's now one of my favorite ways to access the water. Here's a few shots of my friends Jon Slyvich stand up paddle board fishing and surfing in the Lower Mokelumne River this past fall.

Hooked up.
Positioning is tough with a rod and paddle. I've found the best thing to do is strap a milk crate to your board. You can store your gear in there and then use it for a stripping basket while you fish. Another good innovation for fishing is a paddle strap. That way you can sling it behind you while you fish and get at it quick to make adjustments to your position. It's very hard to do in a current situation. You need to be fast and precise.
In between fishing sessions it's fun to surf the little waves in the river. The board can also be a great way to get down most rivers without launching a raft or boat. The cheap foam top boards work best for the rivers. You don't need to worry about bumping rocks and they are very light and easy for one person to deal with and even place on top of a truck or car.

BURL Owl sighting.

2010-12-19T15:53:00.001-08:00

The symbol i use in some of my BURL Productions logos is an ancient indian pictograph that my brother and i spotted in the canyon of the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho when we were teen agers. This past summer Jenny Hatch of Cal Trout made that epic 100 mile rafting journey. Before the trip I told her the story of that experience for my brother and i and how the Burl Owl symbol came to be. Along her way, Jenny spotted the same cave drawing and snapped a photo of it. This is the original BURL Owl. I'm not sure what it meant to the ancient hunters but it came to be a symbol of brother hood and friendship for me and some of my oldest friends. Nice spot Jenny!

Creek Exploration.

2010-12-19T15:12:00.000-08:00

These are some summer shots of exploring a remote and seldom seen by people section of an Apline County creek with my friend and fellow film maker Kyle Schwartz.

Nothing but some small animal paths to follow in this decent into a remote canyon.
Kyle surveying the low water for any signs of fish.
We came across an old bridge built for an old flume from the early gold and silver mining days of Alpine County. The date on this bridge footing was 1925.
Neat old rock work.
Kyle casts to a productive looking run.
Another beautiful and unspoiled pool.

SOULFISH 2, FISH MODE.

2010-12-09T00:24:00.000-08:00

SOULFISH 2, FISH MODE from Mikey Wier on Vimeo.

After many long hours of editing I've got a little trailer done up for SOULFISH 2. It's going to be a great flick. Ok, back to work for me. Many hours of work still to be done.

Hawaiian Bonefish with Duffer

2010-11-30T15:29:00.000-08:00

As some people may or may not know, the Hawaiian Islands are home to some of the biggest bonefish in the world. The island of Oahu has some of the best flats to try and sight fish to these giant fish that can reach over 15 pounds. Unfortunately Oahu also has the highest population of people out of any of the islands. So many of these flats could be considered urban due to the amount of traffic they see. These fish are big smart thugs that have ruled these small flats for many years. They are not easy to catch. But when you do, it can be a fish of a lifetime. When Coach Duff gave me a call and invited me over to chase around these trophy bonefish with him, i knew i shouldn't miss this opportunity to get a true trophy Pacific bonefish on film. Big thanks to Coach Duff's Hawaiian Bonefishing as well as Blake McHenery and Brent Dawson for a fun week.

I arrived in Hawaii on Veterans day. The air was thick with pride for our county and I could feel the heritage that Oahu has played in serving our armed forces. Coach Duff is a retired Marine who severed our country for many years. After several tours with 2ed Force Recon in Somalia and the Middle East, Duff has seen more than most folks could ever imagine. His life story reads like a movie script for an action hero. These days Duff is a family man and a dedicated fly fishing guide. I was honored to spend some days with him listening to his stories and stalking these magnificent bone fish. Because of his stent in the Armed Forces, Duff has special clearance to launch on and fish near the military bases on the island. This flat is near the famous airstrip that was attacked during the raid on Pearl Harbor. As we drove by the buildings that still brandished bullet holes from the 50 cal machine guns I felt a cretin feeling of country that one only gets when in the presence of something much greater than themselves. I was proud to be in the Truck with someone who had fought so hard for the ideals we believe in and helped preserve the lifestyle i get to enjoy.
While walking the flats near Hickman i looked down in the sand and noticed a ring sitting there. I picked it up to check it out. It was a titanium wedding band. No doubt it had probably belonged to a solider. I slipped it on. It fit perfectly on my ring finger. I could feel it had energy. Someone else's energy. I began to speculate how it got there. If some happy swimmer dropped it or if some pissed off Solider threw it out there. Either way i felt like Froto taking on the burden of this ring. i quickly took it off and put it in my pocket. I removed it from the Ocean but left it in Hawaii where it belonged. I just simply didn't have time to take it to the volcano and destroy it. We had fish to chase!
A nice tailing bonefish on a calm hawaiian morning. At one point the rest of the crew was off a ways away and i stayed behind to film some swimming crabs. All of a sudden i was sourounded by 3 huge fish tailing right next to me. Unfortunately i didn't have a rod with me. I was armed with only a camera. It reminded me of the wild Turkey's back home. When your just out for a walk or hanging out in the yard, they come right up to you. But as soon as you get a weapon your intentions change. All of a sudden the Turkey's split. Just like a herd of Gazelle can sense when the lions are hungry , so do the bonefish sense your intentions.
Coach Duff with a nice fish. Not easy to catch buy very rewarding when you do.

B.C. Photo Essay

2010-11-11T17:17:00.000-08:00

Fresh home from a little excursion to Terrace British Colombia. I went with pro snowboarder Eric Jackson and we met up with April Vokey. The three of us fished for five days with Nicholas Dean Lodge head Guide Dustin Kovacvich and Guide Sky Richard. Big thanks to Chad Black for helping set everything up.

Sky with a nice one. Sky is a master steelheader on the swing. He's never used split shot or indicators.
E-Jack swinging the big stick.
Sky with another beauty.
April is the real deal. She's intelligent, funny and a dedicated angler. Being beautiful is just one of her many great attributes.
Mossy trippy land.
Dustin and E-Jack shootn the shit on the rocks.
April concentrating on her swing.
Ohh Yeahhh, there's lots of nice steelhead around here.
Sky with yet another nice fish.
Even I got in on the action. Nice hen on the last day.
April with a respectable fish.
Fish 2 for april out of this pool.
Fish 3 for this pool.
Eric with a nice little buck.
April Sky and Eric getting ready to fang the white water.
Dustin and I with a fun little buddy.
Tying back in the hotel.
More hotel Jam sessions.
Fun crew for a fun week. Wish i didn't have to leave. Canada is awesome!

See more of our adventures in SOULFISH 2, coming soon.

Truckee Cutthroat Classic

2010-11-11T17:05:00.000-08:00

On the 23 and 24 of Oct, Dave Lass and I competed in the first annual Truckee River Cutthroat Classic tournament held in the NV section of the Truckee River. The event was sponsored by Trout Unlimited and Patagonia and organized by long time friend and Patagonia worker Kevin Weddel. There were 8 two man teams. The rules called for 2 8 hour days of fishing on assigned beats. The team with the most total combined inches of trout after the two days won. There was also a Truckee Slam award for teams catching all 4 major species of game fish in the Truckee. Brown Trout, Rainbow, Lahotan Cutthroat and white fish. Justin Olson of the Reno Fly shop and Mike Sexton of team USA placed first with over 900 inches of fish! Mike put a hurt on the Truckee like no one had ever seen. Dave and i pulled second with just under 300 inches worth of fish. Dave also got the grand slam!

Dave Lass and I with A nice Truckee river rainbow i pulled in during the tournament. My first fish of the weekend was a nice fat TR Brown but he did the deal on me, got down river and popped off. This 19 inch bow ended up being out best fish landed. They are all such beautiful fish down there.

Truckee River Day 10-17-2010

2010-11-11T16:12:00.000-08:00

On Sunday the 17th of Oct over 80 volunteers gathered together on the little truckee river to celebrate river day. In a joint effort organized by Trout Unlimited, Cal Trout and the Truckee Water shed council, volunteers helped to close and restore an illegal OHV trail on the LT.

Volunteers working to restore the trail.
So many great people showed up that it only took a few hours to complete the project.
Dave Lass of Trout Unlimited helping head up the operation.
Big thanks to everyone who came out to support the efforts.

Egypt Teaser

2010-10-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

Fly Fishing Egypt from Mikey Wier on Vimeo.

Check out this little promo short i put together for William Joseph for helping sponsor Brent and I's trip to Egypt. Much more to come in the upcoming release of SOULFISH 2. Check out all some of the new line at www.willamjoseph.net.

California Green Rush

2010-09-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

California Green Rush from Mikey Wier on Vimeo.

Tahoe Fly Fishing Guides Day

2010-09-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-09-22T23:25:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-16T20:16:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-16T19:08:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-16T18:38:00.001-07:00

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

2010-09-16T18:31:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-07T23:35:00.000-07:00

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.

American Float

2010-08-06T11:24:00.000-07:00

This summer i was invited on a float with Wilderness Adventures on the Middle Fork of the American River. They offer white water rafting trips on some of the best rivers around Northern California. This trip they wanted to explore some of the fishing opportunities in the MF canyon so they invited some fishing professionals including Ralph and Lisa Cutter, Cal Kellog the editor of the Fish Sniffer Magazine as well as myself and 8 other spin fisherman.

Ralph and Lisa staying calm in the tunnel shoot rapid as guide Grady pulls the oars.
Brian rows Cal and his niece down the gnar gnar.
Whip Tail Lizard. They are the fastest lizards in California.
Ralph and Lisa casting into a beautiful pool.
My first rainbow on the Middle American.
Ralph and Lisa bombing out some perfect casts.
On day two i got a really nice brown. We were the last boat so 9 spin fisherman had just hit this water right before i floated through and got this girl on a size 2 jig head streamer i tied up.
Ralph enjoying a killer spread of great food. We were totally spoiled for two days.
Grady in the heavy water of Rucka Chucky Falls. He lost an oar on this one but made it though alright.

High Sierra Music Festival

2010-07-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

20 th annual High Music Sierra Music Festival

3 stages. Too many good bands to list.
This year i helped work the Cal Trout booth with the wonderful Shannon Moon.

We had some interactive games for the kids including some painting. I brought some canvas and donated some paints to the cause. Also worked on one of my own paintings of some leopard sharks throughout the weekend.

Holding down the fort.

Merchison Falls, Uganda

2010-07-08T21:44:00.001-07:00

Some photos and a report from my friends Craig Smith and Jonathan Boulton's recent trip to Merchison Falls in Uganda. Might be the biggest Nile Perch ever caught there on fly.

Hi Guys - Don't want to bore you with too many details.

Just got back from a trip to the Murchison Falls in Uganda. It is a

fascinating rift valley where over millions of years some of the rivers have

changed the direction the used to flow in. It is rich in culture - Ernest

Hemingway, Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Queen Elizabeth have

all hunted there. It was a real adventure as few people have fly fished this

area. It was hot - over 40 degrees in the gorge, humidity was 100%, the

river pumps, tsetse flies were all over you all day, hungry crocs, hippos,

snakes, colobus monkeys, etc. We stayed at the Red Chilli backpackers where

we were fed bacon with nearly every meal. The accommodation was really

sparse and the ablutions were shared by over 50 people. But, the beer was

always cold and plentiful.

Jonathan checked my equipment every evening replacing broken lines and

retying all my knots. We fished at the bottom of the falls at the start of

each day. The Victoria Nile is channelled into a gap of 6 meters and drops

down 40 metres spilling 300 cubic meters of water a second - not sure what

that is in feet. I fished hard about 8 hours a day for 6 days and landed a

total of 4 Nile Perch. One of these happens to be the new recorded record on

fly - 25kg's. It fought me for about 35 minutes (with a lot of instructions

being shouted by Joanthan - I think he panicked for me) on a 10 weight rod -

I did not know fly rods could handle that amount of punishment. Length 1.23m

and girth of 82 cm's.

Our guide was the renowned wildlife expert Paul Goldring who was fascinating

and taught us a lot about the bush. He also showed us a lot of unusual

things we would never have seen if we had been on our own - for example:

fresh leopard tracks on a path we had walked on the day before, a royal

python in the papyrus (something he said we would never see in our lives

again - he has picked up a dead one which he has in a jar in his house, and

then the one we saw with him). The rocks you see us flyfishing from always

had crocs on them and we had to chase them away to get a spot.

We also experienced the true Africa in Kampala where we had to bribe a local

traffic officer for an alleged offense - even having to give him 2000

shillings for his taxi ride back to his post after he had fleeced us for 60

000 shillings. I loved his response - either put up with it or leave - this

from Paul, not the policeman. He was not planning to leave.

Craig Smith

Go Rafting

2010-06-29T01:33:00.000-07:00

Summer is in full effect and California's rivers are roaring. It's a great time of year to try rafting. White water rafting is one of the best ways to spend a hot summer day. It's a great thing to do with family and friends or co-workers and chances are there's a killer river not to far from where ever your at. You can float down a mellow class 2 or 3 and check out the canyon walls, wildflowers and wildlife or fish. Or you can get the heart pumping a bit with some class 4 rapids like i did last week on the North Fork of the American River. Check out this little promo video i put together for O.A.R.S. with the help of Steve Markle their marketing director, his wife Nicole, Lauren De Remer, the trusty O.A.R.S. guides and a great group of clients.

North Fork American River with O.A.R.S. from Mikey Wier on Vimeo.

The North Fork of the American is an intense class 4 run through a seldom visited Wild and Scenic canyon just outside of Auburn and right off the Hwy 80.

O.A.R.S. is a great company that offers rafting trips on some of California's best white water as well as other incredible destinations around the world. Stay tuned for some video from Fiji soon.

Ice out with Doug and Sam

2010-06-18T18:28:00.000-07:00

Ice out is one of my favorite weeks in the Sierra's. It's a short and unpredictable window when the lakes start to thaw out and the ice begins to break through. The best time is when there is just enough open space between the shore and the ice to make a cast. As the ice melts back the fish see sun light for the first time in months. Lots of bugs that have been frozen in the ice all winter begin to appear and create a fish buffet. It's a great time to try and jump a big fish feeding close to the shore and something i look forward to every year.

Two weeks ago I managed to catch ice out just perfectly with a couple new clients. Doug and Sam Reese from Chicago I.L.
Sam at 15 is on his way to becoming a darn good angler. Here's one of many nice browns and rainbows Sam got throwing his home tied streamers from the shore.
To top the night off we stopped by a smaller lake in the area known for it's LT cutthroats. Here's Sam with a nice one. There was only 5 or 6 feet of open water between the ice and the shore. Fish were cursing right on the ice shelf and spooky so presentation was difficult.
Doug topped the night off with the fish of the day. A beautiful 24" LT.
The fish were very active the last hour of light. Cursing the ice shelf looking for any food they could find.
Even i got in on the action with a decent LT.

Bass N Fly 2010

2010-06-03T23:35:00.000-07:00

Spent a couple days on the Delta again this year for the Bass N Fly Challenge. I gave a talk for the Tracy Fly Club on Wednesday night. Then pre fished with Robert Johnson on Thursday. Competition on Friday the 21st. There were 44 teams this year. Way to go team Bass N Fly!

I love all the funky houses and crazy old run down boats and stuff floating all around the Delta. It's like a whole different world out there.
For those who might recognize this slough and are wondering, we did NOT fish here during the comp. Just poking around in pre fishing and checking out all the trippy houses.
Ripping around the Delta with Robert on his bad ass bass boat is always a good time.
Fishing conditions for the comp were tough this year. Super windy. We only managed to get two fish in the boat on game day. I hooked three others but couldn't seal the deal. One was a monster. It was so windy Robert had to just control the boat while i fished a wall. I hooked up a good fish and pulled him out from some weeds. It took a huge jump right in front of the boat and shook my fly in the air. Robert and i both let out a yell. I fell to my knees on the deck of the boat. The knee of my jeans ripped out and my oakley sun glasses fell off my head and i watched them sink. It was basically a huge bass kick to the nuts. It would have been the big fish of the day for the comp. Oh well, that's how it goes. Makes you hurt but keeps you wanting to come back for more. See you next year bass lips.

Truckee Brown

2010-05-19T01:44:00.000-07:00

The Truckee River kicks down. There's a few places on the river i love to visit in the spring. On a recent trip down to Reno i stopped by the good old Truckee. After walking for a while i spotted this brown feeding in shallow water. I could tell it was a fish, but i couldn't tell how big it was. Luckily the wind was blowing hard and the water was chopped up. The fish stayed around and let me fish to it for over an hour. I threw several drys and got a couple looks but not commitment. Finally i hooked him on a size 18 nymph on 5x tippet dropped off of one of my hoppers. He gave me a good head shake and poof, was gone. I couldn't stop thinking about it, so i slept in my truck and went back the next day. He was still here. The wind was blowing again and he looked happy. I threw at him a few time and bam, he ate the dropper again. This time i finessed my way through the fight. He went up and down and all over the show. As i was fighting the fish a couple people stopped to watch. When i landed him there was a stimulator hanging out of his mouth. He had busted someone else off earlier that week. What a brute. He broke some poor dudes 4 x. I was jealous they got him to come up for the dry. What a specimen. I'm a brown trout fiend and this guy made my month. It's so rare to have the chance to sight fish to a fish like this around here. This was totally NZ style right in my back yard. A passer by Robert Miller shot this photo for me with his camera. He also was nice enough to film with my video camera. Keep an eye out for this shot down the road. It was a great take.

Egypt

2010-05-02T20:18:00.000-07:00

When Jeff Currier mentioned to me he went fly fishing in Lake Nasser Egypt, I was intrigued. I thought to myself that must have been an interesting novelty. When he mentioned that the lake record Nile Perch is over 270lbs and that it’s possible to catch fish over 100lbs on fly, I was hooked.

We talked about doing a trip there for about a year and a half. Finally our opportunity came. Jeff’s friend Jonathan Boulton of Mavungana Fly Fishing out of South Africa had a group of fly fisherman booked through African Angler to fish the lake. When there was a cancellation among the group we were invited to fill the spot. It was a big stretch for me but I jumped on the opportunity to be one of just a small hand full of Americas who have ever fished this exotic lake.

Our team consisted of Jeff Currier, one of the worlds best traveled and most dedicated fly fisherman, Brent Dawson of War Path Flies and myself. Each of our individual talents compliment perfectly to create one of the best fly fishing travel exploration and documentation teams on the globe. Jeff is one of the most consistent and methodical fly fisherman out there. He can cast like a machine and cover water with determined patience like now one else I’ve ever met. Jeff was one of the first people to ever try fly fishing for Nile Perch in Lake Nasser and had already landed two fish over 40lbs. The biggest anyone had ever recorded on fly at the time. Brent ties some of the most progressive large predator fish flies in the business and can also cast and fish like a champion. His flies and fishing skills were proven in Mongolia and he seemed up the challenge. I love a good exploratory trip and the chance to see a new country and fish to large challenging fish. I also enjoy documenting the experience with photos and film. After our truly incredible Journey in Mongolia together I knew our crew could pull off this trip and potentially capture some great imagery. With fishing conditions potentially dwindling every year, we knew this might be the chance of a lifetime to experience this fantastic lake before it is too late.

After many hours of travel including some extra hours due to the Volcanic Eruption in Iceland, we all arrived safe in Aswan Egypt. There we met the rest of our group and spent the night in a luxury hotel overlooking the river Nile. The next morning the whole group boarded a small shuttle bus and departed for the lake. First stop was at a military check point where we picked up our two armed guards that would accompany us on our journey to the launch site. Second stop was at a small market for the South African’s to buy cigarettes.

After an hour and a half drive through some very dry and bleak desert we arrived at a rough cement dock where we were greeted by our guides and placed our gear on the individual fishing boats that would become our floating homes for the next 7 days. The way the tours work is there’s a floating houseboat they call the supply ship. Then each group of 2 or three anglers has a boat and captain assigned to them. It’s the only place I’ve ever fished where you actually stay right on the boats you fish from. After a quick acquaintance with our guide and once our gear was settled we headed out onto the open waters of this massive lake.

Lake Nasser is a huge impoundment on the Nile. It stretches from Upper (south) Egypt all they way into Sudan. It’s one of the largest reservoirs in the world with over 250 km of shoreline. Because of it’s semi clear and calm waters it’s considered to be one of the best opportunities for sport fishing for Nile Perch in the world. As well as a host of other species including Tiger fish, fresh water puffer fish, Vundu and Electric Catfish and many species of Tilapia. Fishing on the lake has traditionally been trolling for Perch and Tigers and occasionally shore fishing with giant plugs. Fly Fishing for these species is fairly new and still in it’s developmental stages for this fishing operation.

Our first stop was an island perched out in the middle of the lake. It was a tall rock island with no vegetation. We all departed the boat with fierce anticipation. My first instinct was to get high as possible and try to spot cursing fish. Brent went straight to casing off the rocks and Jeff headed around the other side of the island to check out the scene. Around the far side of the island I spotted the first Nile Perch cursing along with a huge school of Tilapia. I estimated the fish at over 20 lbs. I yelled to Jeff and he scrambled to get into a casting position down the bank. As the fish approached, Jeff threw out a perfect cast with his 10t and a size 3/0 Tilapia imitation. The fly landed perfectly in front of the fish and Jeff started stripping. The fish tracked the fly, refused it and then disappeared into deep water. It would be our last decent sight fishing opportunity of the trip.

With very limited visibility and no fish in sight, the name of the game quickly became covering water. As much as possible, as quick as possible. Sometimes we would cast as far as we could into open water. Other times very short cast close to shore and pulling the fly past undercut rocks and ledges. Jeff preferred a weighted line and light fly. I became more fond of a heavy fly and intermediate line on a 10 wt.

Nile Perch are for the most part a lay and wait predator. They look allot like a huge Silvery Large Mouth Bass. Unlike their Australian cousin the Baramundi, Nile Perch don’t seem to be very surface oriented feeders. They for the most part lurk in deep water and in caves or near drop offs along the shore and wait for baits to swim by. Their eyes are orange which is speculated to help them feed at night. The eyes are aligned close to the top of the head indicating the fish most often attack from below. Their teeth are like sand paper and their mouths are very large in relativity to their body. They attack by sucking in a large area of water like a Snook or Large Mouth Bass. The main source of bait in the Lake is a range of different species of Tilapia as well as a couple other small bait fish species.

Lake Nasser also holds lots of Tiger fish. The Nasser tiger fish are smaller and more slender than their Southern African cousins. They have a mouth full of razor sharp teeth and can cut bait in half with one swipe. As a sport fish they are fast and aggressive. If a spot looked good for tigers, we fished sink tip lines on 8wt’s with a steel leader and small bait fish imitations. With Tigers, the faster the retrieve the better. The fast retrieve helped induce strikes and increased your chances of sinking the fly into their hard mouths.

Brent tied up nearly 100 different flies before this trip ranging from small flashy red and white streamers for tiger fish to size 7/0 marlin flies with double hooks and over 15 inches long.

The terrain around the lake consisted of mainly hot, dry, sharp, loose rocks. There were occasionally sand dunes and sometimes small juniper shrub looking bushes and small trees. It’s was a very stark but beautiful landscape mostly comprised of shades of brown, tan and grey. The sky was free of clouds most of the time but there was a heavy haze in the air. With temps hovering around 100 degrees during the day it made for some seriously challenging scrambling. Each time we stopped we would all fan out and start fishing as much water as possible until we covered the whole island we were on or excused all the water within walking distance. I as usual spent alot of time heading for high ground and trying to spot fish or film.

In terms of Egypt, Lake Nasser if very remote. Other than some very small local fisherman camps there’s no town or settlements on the lake with the exception of Aswan right at the dam. All the open water and space provides great refuge to a variety of wildlife and birds. Some of the highlights for me were seeing Egyptian fox’s, Nile Monitor Lizards and giant fresh water Crocodile. There’s also some creatures you need to watch out for. When walking around the lake its important to watch every step. There’s many scorpions, snakes and spiders that can be potential trip or even life enders if they bite you. Also Nile Crocks kill people every year. Makes you think twice about that afternoon swim or stumbling off in the bushes to take a leak at night.

Our guides were native Nubian people. They are all Muslim and wear the traditional white robes, pry to Meca 5 times a day and eat traditional food. Suca was our boat captain and a couple of the days we were joined by some of the guides in training, Mizzo and Mohamed. They were all pretty enthusiastic and fun loving people. The whole group met three times a day at the supply boat for breakfast lunch and dinner.

One night our guides got all hopped up on the Hookah and we had a big party and jam session on the top deck. That Egyptian Stella Beer goes down too easy after a long hot day of stumbling around on the rocks.

The first few days we fished hard. I mean real hard. Lots of walking and casting. Covering water and ground as fast as we could and still no fish to show for it. We got totally blanked on the first two days. Then Brent finally got a small Nile perch on day three. Jeff was shaking his head and saying the fishing his past two trips had been much better.

Finally day four I got a grab from a nice fish and had him on for a second. I cast again and managed to pull a fish around 12 or 14 pounds out from a ledge on a very steep cliff area that according to some inscription on one of the rocks was named Nile Perch Heaven. It was a sign of hope for all of us. Each day after that the fishing slowly improved. We never got into great numbers of fish, but at least we were getting fish on a semi regular basis. Reports were similar through out the group. Finally on day 5, Jonathon Boulton got a massive fish. It was never officially weighed but he estimates it at over 60lbs. It was his only fish of the day. His biggest before that was just over 20.

The next day Jeff and I fished with Jonathon. We started off on a small group of rocky islands. Fishing was good right off the bat. Jonathon got a nice fish around 15lbs. Jeff started getting into some nice tiger fish and small perch. Jonathon got another fish over 10 and I managed a 15lber. Action stayed consistent all morning.

Jeff and Jonathon both talked of experiencing better fishing on past trips. We speculated whether it was due to over fishing by the local subsistence fisherman with their long lines and gill nets or if it was due to a small cold front in the weather. Temps had dropped from the 100’s down to the 80’s and a stiff wind had picked up.

The next morning we ended up on a small island we dubbed Tiger Island. For a good 20 minutes Brent and Jeff were getting grabs on every cast. Brent squealed like a girl when a giant Tiger grabbed his fly. I saw the flash and can vouch that it was a massive fish. The next cast yielded a 4 lber. As we were landing and photographing it, Jeff started yelling. He hooked a small Tiger and while playing it in a giant double digit fish came in and attacked it. After landing the small fish he cast back out and hooked a 7lber. He claimed the first fish he saw was at least twice that size.

Finally on the last evening of the second to last day, I decided to try a different technique. I talked the guide into killing the motor off a nice point and letting the boat just drift with the wind for a while so we could cast flies or let them sink and jig near the bottom. I tied on the heaviest of a few jig style craft fur streamers I had tied up a couple nights earlier. I cast it out on a 12 wt with 400 grain sinking line. I let it sink deep and started to twitch the fly as we floated along. Within minutes I got a massive grab. The fish started running hard and I knew it was a big fish. I was thinking for sure I had a 80 to 100 lb fish. Eventually it came to the surface and jumped. I was like, what, that fish just put that bend in a 12 wt. It was a nice fish but not the 80 lber we were hoping for. When we got it the boat and landed it, we tried to weigh it. At first it bounced out the boca grip that ends at 30lbs. I thought it must be like 35 or 40 lbs but once the scale settled it measured only around 27 lbs.

We decided we might be onto something and motored up for another pass at the same spot. This time Brent hooked up on his giant super tomahawk dredger fly. The same pattern I got my huge taimen on in Mongolia. Brent reefed his fish in on a 14wt rod. Another nice fish around 25 lbs. That pair ended being the biggest of the trip for our boat. An epic ender to an epic trip.

After our tour on the lake we were carted back to our Hotel in Aswan where we had a nice meal on a floating restaurant on the Nile. Jeff, Brent and I took a stroll through the local market. We checked out all the shops and took in the local culture. It’s always cool to see how people live on the other side of the world. Cars spend in and out of pedestrians and ox driven carts. There were kids playing soccer in the streets, women shoping and men smoking the Hookah pipes. The smells there were amazing. Every scent, herb and fragrance you could think of wafting out of small shops. The smoke from Hookah pipes and cigarettes drifted off the streets and filled our noses as we strolled down the colorful streets. It seemed surreal after being in such a remote desert lake for the past week.

The last day of our trip we returned to Cairo on a morning flight. We spent the day touring the Great Pyramids and riding camels. Then took a quick tour of the Egyptian museum. Our flight departed late that night so we killed the rest of our hours in Egypt at the airport hotel bar.

All and all it was a great trip and another epic experience all in the name of fishing exploration. Keep an eye out for video of the trip in SOULFISH 2.

For a more detailed day to day report of the trip and even more photos check out the travel blog of global fly fishing expert Jeff Currier. www.flyfishbum.blogspot.com

This trip was made possible in part by a contribution from William Joseph. www.williamjoseph.net.

Mongolia Video on the Tin Shed

2010-04-13T01:40:00.000-07:00

Patagonia Tin Shed

Next stop- Lake Nosser, Egypt

2010-04-08T18:17:00.000-07:00

Heading to Egypt to fish for nile perch on lake Nosser with Jeff Currier and Brent Dawson on the 17-28th of April.

Target species, Nile Perch. The worlds largest fresh water predator.
Most fish are caught trolling with conventional gear. However there are opportunities to cast at laid up fish, such as the ones in this photo, with fly rods. Jeff Currier has been there twice and holds what might be the lake record fish on a fly.
There's also a ton of Tiger Fish in the lake. They eat a wide variety of different things.
Our camp for the week will be one of these fishing boats. You fish all day from the boat or from the shore of the lake then sleep on the boats at night. There's a mother ship where community meals are served in the morning and evening.
Stalking fish from the shore is the preferred method for fly rodders.
Lake Nosser near Asawan Egypt. Sight fishing for huge fish in an exotic location. Sounds like my kind of adventure.

Patagonia On-line fly fishing catalog

2010-04-08T18:04:00.000-07:00

New Patagonia On-line fly fishing catalog just released. New on-line format helps save paper and resources that would normally be used by shipping thousands of paper catalogs. Check out cool videos and audio commentary that help describe the products and some of the people who use them.

http://www.patagonia.com/web/us/fb/index.jsp?id=1&ln=305

Adam Barker Photography-Belize 2010

2010-04-01T21:16:00.001-07:00

Belize images shot by Professional Photographer Adam Barker of Salt Lake City U.T.

Silver King.

Ryan Hawks does battle with the Silver King.

My first decent permit with nice evening light.

Underwater Beauty. Belize has miles of alive and very beautiful reef.

Permit release.

Permit food.

Running through the mangrove.

Another beautiful sky moment. The light changes so many times through out the day. Clouds provide the drama.

A giant Tarpon i hooked on the last day takes to the air. Tarpon are so bad ass.

The golden hour.

Jamie Connelly stalks and hooks a beautiful permit as guide Deano looks on.

The best souvenir.

Belize 2010

2010-04-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

Belize 2010 Mother ship trip with Mike Copithorne, Ryan Hawks, Adam Barker, Jamie Connolly, Carl Bellovich and Myself. Hosted by Mike Copithorne and Ryan Hawks from Off the Hook Fly Fishing. Organized through Don Muelwrath at Fly Fish Belize. With hard working guides Nato Verde, Noel Westby and Dean Mayers and Carol Young cooking wonderful meals.

The Rising Tide mother ship. Home for ten days.

Mike Copithorne and Ryan Hawks getting ready for another long day of patrolling the flats for Tailing Permit.
Mike with an epic permit. Topping off his Grand Slam day. As he hooked this fish another huge Permit popped up and started tailing right next to us. Never fails.
Noel Westby running to the next flat.

My first good Permit on a Crab fly i had tied when i was in Belize 4 years earlier and never got to fish. Fished all day and finally got a good shot in the last 20 minutes of light.
Ryan Hawks with a nice permit he got wading. We pulled up on a f lat first thing in the morning and a school of tails popped up. Ryan got out of the boat and stalked them down. Made a good shot and hooked up. We picked him up off the flat and chased the fish down into the deep water.
Conch for dinner. Picked em up as we fished.
Mike Casting to some tailing Bonefish.

Keep an eye out down the road for some footage of Mike's grand slam in SOULFISH 2.

Tap Tap Tap...

2010-03-17T20:53:00.000-07:00

Fly Fishing the Florida Keys - Tap Tap Tap from Mikey Wier on Vimeo.

Tailwaters Fly Fishing - Louisiana Redfish video

2010-03-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

Tailwaters Fly Fishing Company- Louisiana Redfish from Mikey Wier on Vimeo.

Winter Fishing

2010-03-05T15:21:00.000-08:00

Ahh the cold days of winter. A sharp chill in the air. The sound of crunching snow under your feet. Cloudy grey skies, Ice cycles, snow drifts, slow drifts, frozen runs, high heel snow on your boot accumulation, frozen guides, sluggish fish, low water, low body temps, frozen hands, frozen boots, crunchy waders, beanies, layers of clothing, small flies, midges, little black stones. But all worth it when you catch a few fish with no one else around.

Picky rainbow finally took a slow drift.
Cold hand release.
Fishing a frozen run with beautiful ice formations on the walls.
Quint Gerber with a nice Truckee River rainbow.

Belize Mother Ship Trip 3/19-28/2010

2010-02-20T18:26:00.000-08:00

Next Month i'm schedule to embark on a Mother Ship based fishing trip to Belize with Mike Copithorne and a group of anglers. We are going to be doing some filming for SOULFISH 2. We've had a couple cancelations in the group if anyone is interested in joining. There's two, possibly 3 spots left. It's a fantastic trip and a good price.

Here's some links to information about fishing, the boat and about the tip, prices ect...

http://www.flyfishingadventures.org/Newsletter/66A.pdf

http://www.flyfishingadventures.org/Newsletter/fishing_belize_09.pdf

Taimen Tails

2010-02-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

Brent and i paddled into a pool where Peter, Gen, Paul and Jeff were already fishing. I could see them all lined up down the back, but couldn't tell what they were doing until it was to late to pull off before going into the rapid that lead into the pool. Brent got a little squirmy on the oars and ended up going right down the main tong of the pool. I think Peter and Gen had already been fishing the pool for a while but Peter seemed aggravated. Like Brent had just spoiled his water. We pulled over in the tail out to watch them fish for a bit. Just then, Peter got in his boat and started smacking the oars around on the water right over the meat of the pool. Like we already wrecked it, so he better just go ahead and seal the deal in case we had wanted to fish there. Which i didn't. I just wanted to watch and film and maybe see if i could spot fish for them. Paul followed suit and paddled off down river too. Either way, i felt like we better give them some space, so i told brent we were going to get out for a bit and just chill. I told him to get in where he fit in. Or in other words, waters all yours dude, pick your spot. He dilly dallied around for a bit then headed up into the bushes to take a growler. I figured the pool looked like good water, so i better make some casts. My first cast with a heavy streamer Brent ties called the toma hawlk, was right into the head of the pool so it would drift for a bit and sink into the sweet spot before i started the swing. Just about the time i thought the fly would be getting close to the bottom, it stopped. I reefed back hard, but thought for sure it was a snag. Just in case, i always wait an extra moment before i give slack or start pulling to hard. Just then, there was a massive surge in the line. I knew it was a big fish right away. He proceeded to pull out all the stops. He did the down and dirty head shakes, the gill flare tail walks, the massive gator rolls while pumping his jaws. I managed to run over 100 yards down river on some loose, sketchy rocks and finally get some control over him near the tail out. When i finally wrestled him to shore, the fly just fell out of his mouth. It was an epic catch and turned out to be the fish of the trip, maybe the fish of my lifetime.

Red Fishn'

2010-02-08T10:18:00.000-08:00

Hey Fishing Friends. Just wanted to share a few photo from this past week of fishing the Marsh in Southern Louisiana. Spent some quality time on the marsh, made some new friends and had a great time. Our trip was hosted by David Leake and Brent Boone from Tail Waters Travel Service out of Dallas Texas. http://www.tailwatersflyfishing.com/ We fished for five days with Capt. Bryan Carter and Capt. Shane Mayfield. Also joining us throughout the week was Brent Dawson of War Path Flies, Mike Thompson from Patagonia and Bre Cambell.

We stayed at the historic Woodland Plantation as many anglers that fish this area do. Accommodations were top notch, food was amazing and what a great place to spend a few nights drinking, eating and laughing with good friends. The owner/manager Foster made us fee like family.
My first black Drum. They look really cool when they are small.
Bryan Carter and David Leak with a 54 lb. Black Drum. They don't look quite as cool when they get big. I dubbed them the zombie fish or the swimming dead. When they reach this size the Black Drum gets all kinds of sours on it flesh and the slime is horrific. If it gets on you, it never comes off. Bryan said it's like silicon. I never understood why the guides didn't like the big Black Drum until i got to see one up close. They are like a big old zombie doomed to cruse the flats forever.
Brent Dawson with a nice Red Drum on his Whammy jig head streamer. Brent tied for several months in preparation for this trip. He showed up with an arsenal of Red Flies that you couldn't believe. If your planning at trip to the Marsh any time soon, you should think about buying some of Brent's custom hand tied flies. He has a red fish selection that is un matched anywhere.
Capt. Bryan Carter with a nice Spot Tail.
Bre with her first Red Fish. Showing the guys how it's done.
David Leake showing off a beautiful Red.
Mike Thompson knows how to get it done. Wasn't his first Rodeo. In fact the last go around in the marsh with Bryan, he got a 34 lbr.
Big Black Drum.
Capt. Bryan Carter and Capt. Shane Mayfield.

Taneycomotrout.com

2010-01-28T17:26:00.000-08:00

Wow, check out some photos sent to me by Jeremy Hunt of Taneycomotrout.com. Jeremy lives in Missouri and regularly guides and fishes the waters of the White River in Arkansas, the Norfork and Lake Taneycomo in Missouri. For years and years i've been hearing about the monster brown trout and rainbows of this area but have yet to fish it. I'm planning to now though after seeing some of these mega trout Jeremy and his Wife (pictured below) have been catching. The Ozark region of Arkansas is one of the best and most underrated trout fishing areas in the nation. It's a also a great destination for winter fishing for trophy trout. If your interested, you might think about checking out Jeremy's site before you go and maybe hiring him for a couple days. We are planning at trip for this spring to do some filming with him.

Hatcho Dan

2010-01-12T01:23:00.000-08:00

Last week i floated the American River with JJ Plank from the Sac Sierra Chapter of Trout Unlimited. I knew there was some steelhead in the river but i couldn't resist the urge to throw a ten weight with a huge streamer instead of an indicator rig. This feisty little hatchery steelhead took a size 2/0 streamer that i was hoping to hook a striper on. I had just hooked one fish and lost him. Thinking it was a striper and there might be another one, we rowed up a bit and fished through the hole again. When this guy grabbed, i thought for sure it was a schoolie striper. He was ripping line off the 10wt like a beast. When i saw it was a trout not a bass i was really quite shocked. Kudos to you hatchery steelie.

Loren's Delta Striper

2009-12-24T01:58:00.000-08:00

Loren Elliott loves to catch giant fish on his home tied flies while on his breaks from college.

Huites Bass Club

2009-11-30T21:40:00.000-08:00

Here's a note from Richard McPherson from Blue Mule Outfitters about our trip to Huites Bass Club.

I just got back from the best Bass Fishing Lake in the Americas! My friend Mike Wier and I flew down on AeroMexico to Los Mochis last Thursday. We stayed in El Fuerte, at Hotel Posada del Hidalgo for one night, then went to the Lake Huites Bass Club for three days. While we were there, we caught over 120 Large Mouth Bass on fly rods, actually Weir’s second fish was a 10 pounder (more about that later). Several fish were over fiver pounds, with the average about three pounds. These fish aggressively attacked Poppers thrown near the banks and streams fished deep around submerged boulders and flooded trees. After we left the bass club we stayed in Los Mochis at the Hotel Santa Anita. Check out the pdf or my webpage about these great locations and the fabulous Lake Huites Bass Club.

Capt. Richard McPherson
Chasland Enterprises
3318 North 15th Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85015
USA
1(602) 297-1960 office
1(602) 573-6848 cell
www.bluemuleoutfitters.com
www.youtube.com/N6160Qhttp://twitter.com/McPhish

Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T17:42:00.001-08:00

Annual Thanksgiving session with my brother.
Seems to choose to rain on our only day for the past few years. Doesn't stop us from having a good time. It's always fun to spend some time on the Moke and see it's many moods.
A good rain brings all the water loving creatures and plants of the forest to life.
First cast brown trout.

Youv Gatta Big Mouth!

2009-11-21T09:46:00.001-08:00

Fresh back from deep in the heart of Mexico with Richard McPherson of Blue Mule Outfitters. Here's a few photos from our trip to tease the imagination.

You've got a Big Mouth Boy!10 lb. LMB Caught on my swamp monster worm fly.
Richard McPherson of Blue Mule Outfitters. www.bluemuleoutfitters.com
Devil's Creek inlet. Lake Huites is one of the most beautiful lakes i've ever fish for bass in.
Larger side of average. Many thanks for Brent Dawson for his War Path Flies that worked so well here. The Tamahawk dredger was the ticket for getting down fast for those deep laying mid day fish.
The view from Huites Bass Club hotel.
Richard with a nice top water caught fish. Check out the structure in the water and backdrop. It doesn't get any better for bass fishing.
Magic hour on the lake. Mornings and evenings were steller for top water.
Giant Tolapia. Really neat looking fish and great food for Giant Bass.

Bass Fever

2009-11-11T00:32:00.000-08:00

Bass Fever is worse than swine flu. It will make you crazy. Casting heavy flies all day, sleeping in your truck, shooting rapids in a canoe. Here's a few shots from a float trip down the lower American River last week. I drifted the river in my canoe with pro snow shred John Jackson. John had a video premier in Sacramento and i was in the area so we decided to go chase some stripers. Did a long mission the first evening after milking a stiff hang over. Only one follow to show for it. It was enough to make us sleep in the truck and do a full day float the next day. Sunrise to Watt. In an evening and another full day, we only hooked a sucker, one steelhead and three stripers. It was allot of cast for so just a few pulls. It was worth every minute. Sorry John, i really wanted to get this shot of you with the striper.

I'm off tomorrow for a few days of bass fishing in Mexico for large mouth.

Fall Browns

2009-11-05T20:08:00.000-08:00

Ah, Fall in the sierra means less people, less water, cool colors and brown trout.There's been some great calm sunny days for sight fishing this Fall.
Check out the colors on this guy. He had blue on his back and head. Cool red tip adipose fin.
If you look close there is a dark blob in the water. It's a school of lots and lots of big browns. They are hard to spot in real life too.
Fat moma on here way up stream.

Truckee One Fly Tournament

2009-11-03T23:49:00.000-08:00

Here's a couple way overdue shots from the Truckee One Fly Tournament. It was a great event hosted by the UNR Wildlife Society Club at the Nature Conservancy land east of Reno. I think a good time was had by all even though the fishing was a bit tough. I got stoked and managed to land a couple nice fish. Both were exactly 17.5 inches. The first guy here was a real charger. The second bit in the wild horse run. They came down and got a drink right in front of me. That was definitely a highlight. My two fish were good enough for first place. I ended up donating the prize to the Wildlife Society club. It was a last minute decision. There was a couple real nice girls from the club that were my judges and measured my fish. I like to see kids stoked on nature. The prize was an orvis helious rod 5wt and a Battenkill IV reel. They are holding a silent action with it to raise money for the club. I think it closes today though so sorry for the way too late post on this. Just been crazy busy through Oct. so blogging has been minimal.

Here's a link to an article about the event.

http://www.unr.edu/nevadanews/templates/details.aspx?articleid=5238&zoneid=40

Caples Lake

2009-09-24T14:07:00.000-07:00

I've been avoiding Caples all summer but finally figured i was due to go check it out. This past week has been calm sunny mornings. Perfect conditions for one of my favorite things, sight fishing still waters. Caples was one of my favorite spots until they drained it this past fall, shocked and relocated most of the fish and pretty much destroyed a huge chunk of the food sources the trout used to thrive on. As part of their deal though, the EID paid lots of money for lots of big trout to be placed back in the lake over the past few months. There are plenty of small brookies, Mac's some catchable and sub catchable browns and some HUGE Dobson Rainbows from a private hatchery. These fish eat a fly well and provide some good sport. If you have a chance, do yourself a favor and keep an eye on the weather. If it looks like a sunny day with light wind, grab your 6wt and head up to Caples.

I like to sight fish from the rocks but stripping streamers from a boat or tube can be productive too.
I saw lots of big fat rainbows patrolling the shore. Sometimes they would come in schools of 4 or 5 fish. There were surprisingly tight lipped though. For the amount of shot i had, the number of fish hooked was pretty low. The good thing was that i had almost constant shots.
Due to the fact that most of the aquatic insects the fish used to eat like Calabeitis and Midges were killed off while draining the lake, the fish haven't really keyed in well on dry flies. I couldn't get any of them to come up to the surface. They weren't even looking up at all. They were eating nymphs pretty well. I got all my fish on a basic hopper dropper rig with a bead head nymph.
Sight fishing the rocks is my favorite.
Lots of big rainbows cursing around.
The fish were surprisingly leader shy. I got all my fish on 4x. You have to set easy and play the fish very gently. I managed to only land about half the fish i hooked. The rest broke off.
Last fish of the day was a killer little brownie. He didn't look like the planters. i suspect he was a hold over that managed to elude the shocking crews. Maybe he can teach the big slobs how to eat dry flies.

FFR 09

2009-09-15T22:17:00.000-07:00

Had a fun time at Fly Fishing retailer this year. Turns out it's going to be the last year in Denver and they are thinking of combining it with Outdoor retailer in SLC. Could be cool.

Brent "Fish Pimp" Dawson pimping his fish at the show. People are really diggin his custom flies. Check em out at www.warpathflies.com
Mongolia 08 reunion. Peter and Genevieve and their partner Ken Iwomasa come down to see the new Mongolia video I had in the Drake Film Awards. Only Currier and Paul were missing. This exact time last year we were all floating down one of the most remote rivers in the world catching taimen. It was great to relive those memories and have a get together. I owe it all to these guys.
My "River Time Forgot" five minute piece took best story at the Drake event. www.drakemag.com. It wouldn't have been possible without meeting Peter on that fateful day in a Boulder hotel parking lot. Next thing i know i'm flying to Ulaan Bataar and i turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life.

Friday night i did a showing of a longer version of the Mongolia 08 video for Patagonia at their reception. Shown is Bill Klyn, Peter Mullet, Ken Iwomasa and Brent and i drinking beer.

Had more beers and fish tacos with Bryan Gregson and Bryan Carter after the show. Lots of laughs and good fish stories.

Images curtsey of Brent Dawson.

Backpacking

2009-09-13T22:34:00.000-07:00

Here's a collection of photos by my friend Paul Waters from a backpacking trip we did in August. Paul, his friend Farzaneh, and myself hiked up to one of my favorite small high country lakes not far from my house. I love to fish the high country lakes this time of year because the rivers are getting warm and crowed and fish up there in the cold water will still eat drys. It's always nice to strap on those boots and head out to some of the seldom seen parts of California. For years this lake was know for it's golden trout. Five years ago the lake was stoked with Lahontan Cutthroat trout. We were hoping to catch and photograph some of the spectacularly colored goldens that i had seen in the past. For better or worst, i think this lake can be described as a success story for the LCT. They have managed to not only compete with the goldens but thrive and overtake them. Last time i was there in 06, we caught around 85% goldens. The biggest LCT i saw was around 16 inches. This time we couldn't manage to land a single golden. It was all LCT. I spotted a couple goldens but couldn't manage to land any. There were LCT all over though. We watched them feeding on a variety of insects and each fish we landed was fat bellied. Paul and i both landed a fish around 20 inches and saw several others in that same range and bigger. Surprising to see trout that big at a lake almost 10 thousand feet in elevation.

We were surprised to see 7 other anglers on their way out. None reported landing any fish. This guy said he hooked one but didn't land it. One of the most spectacular views in the area. Looking out over Washoe territory on the East Side.

This couple was hiking the PCT and made a detour to find a good swim and a fish dinner.

A mid summer swim feels great in the high country.

Camp. Leave no trace.
Lahontan Cutthroat trout.
I don't keep many fish, but i love a good trout once in a while from a clean high country lake. This was my one trout for the year. It's easier to justify keeping one when we saw several nice health mature fish feeding. They don't have the opportunity to reproduce naturally anymore. They do however have trucks, helicopters and airplanes these days to help them get around. Paul and i each kept one and had a killer lunch.

Cowboy cooking over the campfire.

Lunch.

Everything taste better at 10,000 feet.

Plucking a few flies from the Dry Fly box.

Misty Trail view. We got caught in a pretty strong hail storm on the walk back. By the time we reached the trial head, some of the peaks in the area had so much hail it looked like snow. Goes to show you can't even count of August for dry weather in the up country.

Burl Style Juniper Trees. Surviving the elements and thriving in a harsh environment. These monsters have seen many years pass. The trail winds though some beautiful old growth.

Photos curtsey of Paul Waters.

http://www.Paulwaters.org.

Mongolia 06

2009-08-31T11:19:00.000-07:00

Here's a few never seen before images taken by world renound photographer Corey Rich (coreyrich.com) on our first journey to Mongolia. As i have some time i will continue to upload some of the hundreds of images captured between the different groups on both trips to Mongolia. It's a very beautiful and stark landscape that loves to be photographed. Chimbaat's Camp near the Eg River. Custom two man gears (yurts). They are tied together with woven horse hair ropes.
Evening float on the eg.
One of my first taimen. Notice the shoveled out head that allows them to hold to the bottom of the river with minimal effort. Upturned eyes allow them to see prey all the way through the water column. They are most actively hunting at night. During the day they just hug the bottom of the river and keep a close watch. If something looks good, they will chase it until it gets away or they kill it. Seldom does a taimen just come to inspect. More often that not, when they lock onto something, they commit.
Hours and hours of casting with 10 wt's and heavy flies.
Wade fishing on the Eg. It's like a long day of steelheading. Cast, Cast, Cast, step down, Cast, Cast, Cast. Only we were using giant popper instead of traditional wet flies. When you get a hit you know it. Often you see them chasing it down before the commit to the bite. Sometimes they slap it with their tail first or roll onto it to drown it. Other times it just KA-Blush!!!
Peter dropping some Chingas Vodka after a long couple day float.

The River Time Forgot

2009-08-03T21:14:00.000-07:00

Wild Mongolia "The River Time Forgot" from Mikey Wier on Vimeo.

In 2006 I joined Peter Mullett and Genevieve Villimizar of Mongofly travel for an overland exploratory journey through northern Mongolia. On that trip, with the help of our Mongolian Guide Chinbat, we discovered a remote river deep in the heartland of the northern steps. To the best of our knowledge we became the first westerners to fish that spot. It was one of the most beautiful rivers any of us had ever seen and a stronghold for the legendary Taimen. After two of the most spectacular days of fishing any of us had ever enjoyed, we vowed to return.

Two years later we did just that. It took Chinbat two years to secure all the nesesary permissions and permits to float the river. In the mean time, Peter and I worked on getting a fleet of pontoon boats and an oar raft over there. We assembled a team of American Anglers consisting of Brent Dawson of warpathflies.com, Jeff Currier of jeffcurrier.com his friend Paul Cavanugh, Peter, Gen and myself. Chinbat assembled his own team of hearty Mongolians and off we went into the unknown. We floated over 140 miles of pristine water in 16 days. The landscape, local people, wildlife, fish and river were incredible. Here's a short sample of some of the footage that will be in a DVD about fly fishing for Taimen in Mongolia due out this fall.

Enjoy

O.A.R.S-Rafting for Conservation

2009-07-29T20:10:00.000-07:00

O.A.R.S. - Rafting for Conservation from Mikey Wier on Vimeo.

This summer, veteran rafting outfitter O.A.R.S. has donated six fully outfitted rafting trips over the course of two days down the Mokelumne River on the border between Calaveras and Amador counties in the Sierra Nevada Foothills. To date, the Angels Camp-based organization has helped raise nearly $10,000 to help fund the Foothill Conservancy and their efforts to support National Wild and Scenic River designation for the Mokelumne River.

The Foothill Conservancy’s mission is to protect, restore, and sustain the natural and human environment in Amador and Calaveras counties for the benefit of current and future generations. Currently, the greatest threat to the area is an East Bay Municipal District (EBMUD) plan to expand Pardee Reservoir – which would inundate some of the river – destroying a popular whitewater run and flooding some of the best riparian habitat left on the lower reaches of the Mokelumne.

To prevent this from happening O.A.R.S. and the Foothill Conservancy hope that you will join the growing list of businesses, organizations, and individuals who support National Wild and Scenic River designation for the Mokelumne River.

Add your name to the support list today at www.foothillconservancy.org!

Massive Trout Tail.

2009-07-20T02:52:00.000-07:00

O.K.,O.K. Everyone keeps asking about the big cuttie, or cut bow or what ever it is. So here's the deal. I was out for a hike with my roomate and his girlfriend to Far Lake. I wasn't planning on fishing much if at all, but of course i had some fishing stuff with me. It's a place with allot of water and allot of water takes allot of time to cover and we had other adventure on our minds. We were way out on a far shore and from the trail i noticed a couple fisherman near where a seasonal feeder flowed in. It was odd to see other anglers out there so i stopped for a closer look. It was a guy and a girl with spinning rods. I watched from in the bushes as she pulled a decent trout from the deep dark water. They flopped it on the rocks he whacked the shit out of it. I was bummed i had to witness that, but i took a mental note that there must be some trout in that area. Later in the day, we passed that spot again. The other fisherman were gone. I figured it had already got whacked, but what the heck, i have a few minutes and i'll throw a few cast.

As i neared the water i was looking, looking, looking like I always do. In a crack between some big boulders i spotted a face looking up at me. It was a trout face. Clearly a rainbow. We made eye contact. I threw my streamer at it. A few small bubbles came up as it laughed at me and disappeared into the deep. I yelled up at my buddy, "Hey, there's a trout in here. I'm going to fish for a few." Since the trout had already laughed at my favorite streamer, i decided to probe the deep with some nymphs. After about fifteen minutes of slow fishing in deep water with a size 12 stonefly nymph, my line stopped. First i thought i snagged the bottom again. Then came the huge thud and i could feel i was into something with some weight behind it. It started making massive body bends that translated into huge pulsating thumps down my rod. i reefed back and we danced. He went this way and that and stayed deep. There was some, for sure loose the fish, snags near by that i tried with all my rods might to steer him away from.

After several minutes of this, he rose from the depths. I saw his color and shape and started to shake. I knew it was a cuttie and the fish of a lifetime. I could also see my little nymph barley sticking out of the tip of his upper snout.

He looked at me and i looked at him. He ran out away but near the surface of the water. I thought this is it, he's not stopping and i'm going to loose him. Then all of a sudden he stopped and turned around. He started heading right at me. I was perched knee deep on just a small foothold that was the only place in the boulders i could stand and cast a fly and possibly land a fish without dragging it over rocks and jacking it all up. I didn't have a net, but at this moment i wished i had. I stripped in line as fast as i could and he just kept coming. Right at me. He came in like a torpedo. Trying to take out my knees. The first week spot he could see from the water. I juked as best i could and lifted a leg. He went through my legs and banked off the rock. I lifted my leg over the line and my rod and barely managed to keep my balance on one leg without going in. He ran out again and made an attempt at a jump. His massive flanks barely clearing the water as he pulled a 180. He came in again fast and this time with his mouth open. I could see the glean of his razor teeth. In a split second i switched the rod from my right hand to my left. I leaned sideways and just as he came in for my leg i tried to punch in in the side of the face. My fist grazed off his this boney head but managed to knock him off course enough to deflect his attack.

In a second he was back off the rocks and turned for another assault. He shot in fast and I tried to give him a left foot kick because my right foot was on the best foothold. He swirled around me trying to wrap my legs like how Luke took out the At At's in The Empire Strikes back. I pulled a Karate Kid and switched feet with a quick jump. I raised my left leg high. Distracted, he glanced at it for a split second. It was all i needed to swan kick his ass in the side. He turned up on his side and in fish talked yelled "Uncle". I tried to make a quick grab at his tail. I couldn't get my had around it with any kind of grip. I didn't want to grab his gill, so i went for the jaw. I grabbed his lower right jaw bone hard with my thumb in his mouth and four fingers dug into the lowers of his outside mouth. Chomp once, Chomp twice. He cut a tick tack toe board into my hand. I let go and he thrashed like mad. I thought he was gone but my rod came tight. Somehow he was still on my line. We were both winded, but i knew i had to whip him in round two.

I wanted to climb the top rope at that point and DDT his ass. Instead i just played him out. Give and take, give and take. In the end, it was my high priced graphite that whipped his ass. He once again played dead and rolled to the top. He opened his massive jaw and i took it as a sign he was giving up. i mistook the white of his massive mouth for a white flag. i took the bait and once again went in for the grab. As soon as i had a tight grip on his massive jaw, he came back to life and began to thrash. It was like a gator had gotten ahold of my arm. He almost ripped it out of the socket with his gnarly body bends. I knew this might be the biggest trout i ever get to touch. Death grip set in. With my rod barley dangling i grabbed the rock with my other hand to hold on. All my roomate could do was stand helplessly on top of the rock as i held on for my life. Then a miracle, the trout stopped shacking. I yelled quick, quick, get the shot. My buddy held his arms down the face of the rock. I grabbed the fish with one arm completely around it like you would hold a small dog or a 4H pig. I couldn't lift it out of the water. I repositioned and bent my knees into it this time. I hoisted him from the water and smiled like i just won the lottery. Rubini got the shot right before the giant creature bent and i dropped it. My line was tight and the hook popped out when it hit the water. I made another slash for it's tail but couldn't grip his mass with one hand. He splashed and disappeared into the depths again. I just sat there shaking until....Drip, Drip, Drip, the blood from my hand stained the water. Who ever said Lahontans don't fight is tripping. It was one of the best and one of the most frightening moment of my life.

I put my rod down and said "that's it. i quite. " "Rubini, i'm done. Tell everyone i quite fishing. That was the trout of a lifetime." He said "That was gnarly but, yeah right. That's like when Snoop Dog put out a press release telling everyone he stopped smoking weed." " You'll probably be fishing again in a few minutes. In the mean time, let me get a couple cast up in there."

Livin Large in Smallywood.

2009-07-20T02:16:00.000-07:00

Dams suck. But in some instances they have created a condition where the water is the right temperature that Trout can mingle with Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Catfish, Squawfish, perch and Carp. These situations can make for some interesting fishing. Tonight i watched a trout pull a full on smash and grab on a school of small bass. It was right in front of a bait fisherman with a ball of power bait out. The trout swam right past his bait to ram the tiny bass. It looked like a basking shark swooping through a wad of krill. Then we watched some huge carp jump. Then we got some large and small mouth to come up and smash poppers. That's pretty cool. I really needed to catch a bass after the beating Mike O'Dell, Derek Rust and I sustained the other night on lake oroville. Mike O'Dell Quote about the hike out up a 60 degree scree slope, "When i had to grab handfuls of star thistle too keep from falling back, that was the only part where i thought for a second i might die."

Big mouth easy to lip.

Small mouth harder to lip.

Hung Over

2009-07-20T02:04:00.000-07:00

On Sunday every guide working for the Tahoe Fly Fishing outfitters was assigned to guide a wedding party. We were scheduled to meet 23 people at 7 in the morning for a half day guide trip. I was assigned to hike down into the canyon of the carson on one of the steepest trails around. Jeff Babbitt and I got the three guys with "Fishing Experience". They said they were up for a walk so we agreed to take them to the real waters. Turned out they were all pretty hung over from the night before. Like good wedding party guest should be. After some huffing and puffing i decided to take my client for a walk up stream so Jeff could have the two killer runs near the end of the trial. Decision paid off for Louis Gendle from Montana. In just a couple hours of fishing he got 4 fish on dries and two on nymphs including this monster bow with great colors and nice orange fins. Wish we got to see the one that broke off.

Death Ride Saturday

2009-07-20T01:06:00.000-07:00

Joe Snyder with an East Carson Brown. Pressure was off when he got a killer brown on his second cast. Moments like that, i love my job.
We had a great day on the river. Getting lunch in Marleeville was a bit tough though. It was Saturday of the Death ride. On this weekend 3000 crazy road cyclist descend into this area to ride five passes and over 100 miles in one day. The very small town of Marleeville looks like the Tour de France for this one day of the year. In town the streets were lined with people ringing cow bells and shouting at the riders as they went by. Once down on the river though, all the commotion falls away. The beautiful scenery was interrupted only occasionally by a mass of florescent colors and spandex wizzing by on the road above.
Like Father, Like Son.

Brown Town Smak Down

2009-07-20T00:39:00.000-07:00

After several drifts from the side, Rob Horgas changed to a straight up stream presentation. This brown came up and grabbed the hoppicator first drift. Great visuals. I thought for sure he was going to take the dropper.

At 8, Ryan's got the grip and grin down.

The first time i ever fished with Ryan and he got a nice 13 inch rainbow on the second cast. Made the cast, i helped a bit with the hook set, and he fought it in. I knew it was going to be a good day. Ryan really wanted to fish where Loren Elliott fished in FISH EYE 3.
He wants to be a professional fisherman when he grows up. He also wants to drive a Monster Truck around to all the good fishing spots. He could become the youngest pro BASS CAR driver.

Surf Zone

2009-07-12T20:57:00.000-07:00

A seldom taped into resource for California Fly Fisherman is the sometimes awesome, most of the time frustrating surf fishing potential for Striped Bass. On his days off of working at Western Sports, Loren Elliott has been out chasing the stripes from some of the beaches both north and south of the golden gate. With many days not even touching a fish, it's a hard game of paitence and reward. All Loren's time spent and hard work pays off once in a while. He got the top fish last night. On a day last week, Loren pulled 3 nice stripers out before 10a.m. He asserted that it was his best day yet. Check out the popper caught fish on the bottom from another of his outings. It's possible.

Fathers Day

2009-07-11T20:53:00.000-07:00

Fished the East Carson Fathers day weekend with Loren and Doug Elliott. We had a great day to say the least. It had been a couple years since we had last fished the high sierra's together. Both Loren and Doug whaped some nice bows on the carson. The highlight was a solid 20 incher coming up and grabbing the hoppicator. Loren set the hook and landed him. It was super fun to watch. Water was high still and just coming into shape. It also happened to be Doug's Birthday and he was rewarded with a killer 24 inch bow.

Trout Family

2009-06-28T23:48:00.001-07:00

This past week i had the pleasure of fishing with the Trout family for two days. That's right, the Trout Family. Noel Trout, Christian Trout, and Adam Trout. Noel contacted me through the Tahoe Fly Fishing outfitters for a guide trip in my area. Noel and his two sons are participating in the California Heritage Trout program and really wanted to catch some Lahontan Cutthroat. Lahontan Cutties are native to the Lake Tahoe and the surrounding drainages. At one time, not too long ago, they were the predominate species in all the small lakes and creeks from Pyramid lake to Lake Tahoe and throughout the entire Washo territory and into the headwater streams of the Eastern Central Sierra's. These days controversial restoration efforts are under way to restore lost or struggling populations into the native range. Long story short, wild Lahontan Cutthroat are hard to find. We had a great couple days of hiking into some of the small creeks and high-country lakes in search of these beautiful fish.

Dave N Kurt

2009-06-28T22:57:00.001-07:00

Kurt Peterson with a nice East Walker Rainbow during a rain storm hatch.
Dave Shenkman of Kite Connections (www.kiteconnections.com) with a huge East Carson Rainbow early season.