Pyramid Report 11/23/2018

[BS]

Not wanting to battle the "Black Friday" crowds, I did an all day'er at Pyramid today.

I fished @ Wino with a dozen plus people (off and on) throughout the day.
Sandhole appeared to be VERY crowded, Indian Head not so much.

The weather authorities were wrong with their forecast ......... there was a NORTH-west wind today.......not that it made much difference on the west shore of the lake.

I was on the water @ 7:30 a.m. and packed it in @ 4:30 p.m..

The fishing today was definitely a "morning bite".

A chartreuse/white balanced minnow under an indicator yielded the most fish and LDR's for me.

I DID bring my sinking line rig "this time" and landed a couple of fish stripping a bugger/popcorn beetle combo.

My total for the day was 5 for 8.

I landed one "rat" and the rest were, let's just say, significantly larger.......:o

Not too bad for a "Big Moon, No Fish" day.


Bob

[MrMoonlite]

Thanks for the report. I'm staying at the lake in my trailer. Fished the last two days for 4-5 hrs. and it has been good. Stripping a white/chart tadpole & bugger combo has worked the best. Had hookups on an indie rig with a balanced leech but I can only watch a bobber for about 45 mins before I lose concentration. Most of the fish are hitting out past half way in, no followers. These fish are feisty, strong and very bright silver sided with little color, even big adipose tagged Pilot guys. Anybody have a theory about this as I found last year at this time the fish had lots of color? I think my switch rods extra distance and wind beating power are making a difference. Haven't used a single hand rod out here for a long time and my creaky old body approves.

[BS]

I think my switch rods extra distance and wind beating power are making a difference. Haven't used a single hand rod out here for a long time and my creaky old body approves.

MrMoonlite,

I hear ya' on the "wind beating power" and the "creaky old body".
That's exactly why I fish Pyramid with my switch rods.

When you have a moment.........................

Would you mind sharing what weight switch rod and sinking line setup you're using, overhead or roll casting ?

Yesterday I was able to roll cast (my preferred method of casting my 7wt. switch rods @ Pyramid) an Outbound Short WF8I/S6 with "some distance success", however, my rod was under-loaded and was too light for me.
Mind you I did have a pretty gnarly tail wind helping with the distance thing..............:D

I've ordered a WF10I/S6 OBS which should load up my rod and give me a bit more distance with less work ie. the roll cast.

Hope you land some monsters you can brag about !!!!!


Bob

[STEELIES/26c3]

Thanks for the report. I'm staying at the lake in my trailer. Fished the last two days for 4-5 hrs. and it has been good. Stripping a white/chart tadpole & bugger combo has worked the best. Had hookups on an indie rig with a balanced leech but I can only watch a bobber for about 45 mins before I lose concentration. Most of the fish are hitting out past half way in, no followers. These fish are feisty, strong and very bright silver sided with little color, even big adipose tagged Pilot guys. Anybody have a theory about this as I found last year at this time the fish had lots of color? I think my switch rods extra distance and wind beating power are making a difference. Haven't used a single hand rod out here for a long time and my creaky old body approves.

First off, I am by no means an expert on Cutthroat trout. I have only fished them once at Pyramid but I have many friends who do fish for them and I have done a small amount of research.

Overall, the fish are trending towards bigger and brighter now based on the fact that the once-thought-extant, Lahontan Cutthroat (which were rediscovered in a small Nevada stream in the 1970's) were reintroduced to the lake in 2006, in hopes of eventually replacing the Heenan and Summit Lake cutthroat variety utilized by the Paiute Indians in their hatchery.

When I fished the lake 10 years ago, I caught a dozen or so cutthroat trout up to 10lbs but the fight (especially when compared to winter steelhead or even native rainbows...) was like reeling in a wet sock... and I decided it would be my only trip to Pyramid.

A few friends who have been there annually over these last 10 years have told me about the 'new-and-improved' strain and how they fight so much better and that most of them are bright silver or at least gray/green backs with bright white sides and bellies unlike their dark, yellowish, heavily-red-splotched counterparts. It seems like the ratio is about 3:10 (new strain : old strain) but that is just my observation from a very small sample size.

My guess is that the 'new' Lahontan strain simply has genetics for greater size and longevity and also for spawning later in the season than the Heenan strain. Historically, The this new 'Pilot Peak Strain' of LC trout migrated from Pyramid Lake all the way to Lake Tahoe... so 'genetically-speaking' it would have more time to sexually ripen and thus, it makes sense that at the time of year when Pyramid opens to fishing, these fish are still sexually under-developed and not yet displaying spawning colors.

In 2017, biologists and researchers found LCT's further up the Truckee River than they had been found since the 1930's. This was partly due to the greater snow pack of 2016 and subsequent high flows of 2017 which allowed for greater migrations and survival.

Hopefully, this trend will progress until the original, native strain of LCT overcomes and completely replaces the population of its lethargic, Pyramid Lake cousins...

[MrMoonlite]

Bob,
I've got several switchers but at the Mid I'm using an Echo SR 6 wt. and a Cabela's LSi 11 ft. 7 wt. They're both inexpensive entry level rods but cast very nicely and take a beating. I've found a Rio Outbound Short S6 in 8 wt. loads both rods really well. It's 315 grains so for overhead casts on a 6/7 wt. switch should be a good match. I'm only overhead casting the sinker....strip in, roll the head out, water load back cast and forward. One and done. For an indie/floater no cator I'm using a #6 & #7 Rio Switch Chucker floater. It's intended for 2 hand rods so match the line number to the rod number. It's also a good versatile spey caster with a skagit like head profile. Another sinker option is the Airflo Sniper. There are others but not that I'm familiar. Line matching 2 handers can drive you nuts and bankrupt. I'm liking integrated lines on the switchers for stillwater and trout spey. Good luck.

[BS]

Bob,
I've got several switchers but at the Mid I'm using an Echo SR 6 wt. and a Cabela's LSi 11 ft. 7 wt. They're both inexpensive entry level rods but cast very nicely and take a beating. I've found a Rio Outbound Short S6 in 8 wt. loads both rods really well. It's 315 grains so for overhead casts on a 6/7 wt. switch should be a good match. I'm only overhead casting the sinker....strip in, roll the head out, water load back cast and forward. One and done. For an indie/floater no cator I'm using a #6 & #7 Rio Switch Chucker floater. It's intended for 2 hand rods so match the line number to the rod number. It's also a good versatile spey caster with a skagit like head profile. Another sinker option is the Airflo Sniper. There are others but not that I'm familiar. Line matching 2 handers can drive you nuts and bankrupt. I'm liking integrated lines on the switchers for stillwater and trout spey. Good luck.

Thanks for your reply MrMoonlite.

I appreciate your insight and thoughts !!!!

BTW............land anything BIG today ?????????????? ;)


Bob

[MrMoonlite]

Pretty stiff wind today from the North. Me & the doggie hit Separator beach for a few hours this afternoon. Landed a couple and had a couple LDR's stripping the tadpole. Zilch on the indie. Sizes about 5-6 lbs. tops but more bright silver all over fish. Steelies is probably on to something about the evolution of the Pilot Peak strain. But these fish have some speed, tug hard and are pretty big for their size. I like 'em.

[sierraangler]

Made it out to Pyramid for the first time this season last night. Didn’t start fishing until about 2:45pm chucking a large streamer trailed by a popcorn beatle, pretty much the only thing I’ve fished out there. Absolutely nada for 1.5hrs - not one bump and zero sign of any fish near me or any of the guys within eyesight. About 20min after the sun set behind the hills got one fairly shuttle grab. Didn’t feel like much at first until he decided to swim due south taking me well into my backing and pretty much bending my z-axis 8 in half. The fish was not particularly hot just very large and near impossible to turn. Finally was able take line back and get him into the shallows but fish was too large for my big net (!) so had to tail him which made removing the beetle interesting. Got it done, revived him, set him free and called it as I was now soaked and frozen. One and done!

14500

14501

Guessing 12lbs+

[EricO]

Nice report.... When an 8 wt gets bent in half that's quite a fish. The mouth
on that thing is huge!

I've only been to Pyramid once...interesting fishing...cool thing was having the
car parked close to us on the beach with snacks and hot coffee inside.

Thanks for the report.

Eric

[BS]

Nice Toad Sierraangler !!!!!!!!


Bob

[loose_shoes]

Weighing-in with belated report from 11/16/18. The weather was spectacular. Probably a little too good for a Pyramid fishing day, though.

Spent about an hour at Warrior with no results. Lots of guys out in kayaks and float tubes in the bay. Perfect day for it. Probably a half-dozen guys working the beach. Looked like a club outing based on the canopy that was setup. Nobody was catching anything while we were there but 2 guys hooked up from shore just as we were leaving.

We went south to try somewhere different. Had to do a lot of poking around to find a place without other people. After finding a reasonably uncrowded beach we waded in. Just as I was getting control of my line on my first cast I felt a weight and setup. I hauled in a nice one in the 6-7 pound range. My friend hooked into a 4-5 pounder just as I was releasing mine. Nothing more for either of us over the next 30 minutes. It was getting dark and time to go.