Pyramid Lake is waking up

[jfkowalski]

Because of the cold nites, the cutthroats are migrating into shallow water. Two friends and I spent Thur and Friday there. We got a 26", a 24" and about a dozen between 19 and 22 ". There were about 15 other fishermen at the north nets. One got a 30" fish and another caught 8 during one day. Heard report of good fishing in other parts of the lake.
A black woolybugger was the most productive fly. Trolling an olive spinner blade behind a float tukbe or pontoon boat was also working

[Mario]

Hey how do those pyramid lake fish fight? Are they full of energy like their neighbors in eagle lake?

[jfkowalski]

Cuts are pullers more than jumpers. They rarely come out of the water. Like most fish caught in still-water, they are not as tough as a fish caught in a current. However they are large, ( you rarely catch one less than 18"), and because they have been planting less small fish the past few years, they are fatter than they used to be.
However it is challenging fishing that requires a lot of casting of sink tip lines. People use 6 wts with 200 grain heads and 8 wts with 300 grain heads. It is best done from a ladder so that you can fish in about 3 feet of water with only your ankles in the water. It's warmer and you can cast farther. (bring extra clothes in case you fall off of the ladder). A stripping basket attached to the ladder helps a lot.
In the spring you can fish for them with small nymphs below a strike indicator.

[Mario]

I've heard stories about those pyramid lake cutts moving into the truckee to spawn and that they use to go up to 40 lbs (once upon a time). I think the truckee is now closed during their spawning season, but are any of those cutts residents in the truckee or do they only move up to spawn?

[jfkowalski]

I've seen pictures of very large cuts being commercially fished in Walker or Pyramid Lakes, or both way back when.
Re spawning, most if not all of the cuts in Pyramid were spawned and raised in the hatchery at Pyramid lake. One of the reasons that you can have a 100 fish day there in the spring, is that they return to the hatchery to spawn. Fishing in both the north and south "nets" gets pretty crowded in March, April, and May. Before the Derby Diversion was built to divert water for irrigation, the cuts did spawn in the Truckee.
Some of the cuts may work their way up the Truckee since I have been told that they have a greater tendency to migrate than rainbows or browns. However most cuts caught in the Truckee were probabaly planted there by the Feds. They apparently have a policy of only planting native fish, which for the Truckee is only cuts.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Hi Jack,

I heard many years ago the Cutthroats could actually migrate between Pyrmamid Lake and Lake Tahoe?

[smokeater]

I don't know if they went all the way up to Tahoe, but I read about the history of the Lahontan Cuts in Pyramid lake a few years ago. Apparently there were trout as large as Chinook salmon in there prior to the water being diverted for irrigation. From what I understand, they diverted the river with absolutely no consideration for the fishery and what impact it would have.......basically they did it at the worst time they possibly could and stranded them mid spawn wiping out almost the entire run.

[Darian]

Pyramid Lake became famous for it's fishing during the gold/silver railroad boom in Nevada. 8) The worlds record Lahontan came from Pyramid. It was a 41 pounder. :shock:

During that time, there was a commercial fishery at the lake to supply the needs of miners/workers. Derby Dam was built considerably later by (I believe) the Feds for water diversions. This impacted spawning activities in the Truckee and the combined activities decimated the Cutthroat population in the lake. These activities, combined with increased salinity levels (due to drought periods and diversion of Truckee River water) were responsible for bringing the original strain of Lahontan's in the lake to the brink of extinction. :( :(

Then the State of Nevada decided that the only way to save fishing at the lake was to stock cutthroat/Rainbow hybrids. Producing a smaller sized fish but more of them. The State didn't really care about other species such as Cui Ui (a sacred fish to the Paiutes) existing in the lake. :? :?

When the Cui Ui became an endangered or threatened species, the Paiutes decided they could manage the lake better than the State of Nevada and embarked on their current program. As a result, the Lahontan Cutthroat has been reestablished from stocks in other lakes throughout the Lahontan basin. Catches of Cutbows are still possible but rare, now, as stocking the lake by the State has long ago, ceased.... I've been fishing Pyramid since 1981 and seen the size of the cutthroat taken increase every year since that time. 8) 8)

It's so stark up there, it's kinda like fishin' on the moon.... 8)

[smokeater]

Thanks for filling the blanks there Darian. So would you say that the fishery there at Pyramid is returning to what it once was, or not even close?

[Darian]

There are respected people who believe that the original strain of Lahontans no longer exists and that there never will be a great number of larger fish, as a result. :( So,.... I guess it'll never be what it once was but it ain't all that bad. 8) Not many places where you have a chance at 10 - 15 pound Trout off the shore while fly fishing (wading or off a ladder). 8) 8)

The info center at the lake and the Paiute Fisheries Newsletter shows picturtes and contains some anacdotes of what it was like before the disasatrous policies of the past. Catching Cutts over 20 lbs was common and 30 pounders just slightly less common.... :shock: :shock:

Now, a 20 plus fish is worhty of stop the presses, news releases..... 8)

[jayclarkflyfishing]

The Cutthroat in Pyramid are as close to the original strain as we may ever see.In the early part of the 20th century some fish from Pyramid were planted in Summit Lake.These fish were subsequently used by the Pyramid Lake Paiute tribe to start restocking the lake.These fish may not be the pure strain but they are very close genetically.We may never see the 40 lb fish of the past but the chance at catching fish over 10lbs keeps me coming back.I feel that the Tribe has done an excellent job with the fishery and continue to make Pyramid a very unique place to chase the dream of trout bum.Jay

[jfkowalski]

I once sat next to a guy on a plane who claimed to be a bioligist in the Bay area. He said tht the Lahontans over the years have interbred with rainbows and all Lahontans now carry some rainbow genes. In a way, the original strain is now extinct. Ony the cross breed now exists . Also since the offspring of this union can breed, they are not really separate a species. Ergo the sjpecies is not endangered!!

Can anyone confirm this, or is it trash?

[Darian]

Couldn't prove it one way or the other by me.... :? If the Lahontan's in Summit Lake (....or other source for Pyramid) didn't have the opportunity to interbreed, they're probably a pure sub-strain. Not sure whether the Cuttbows in Pyramid were sterile or could breed or not.... :? :? Hybrids are sometimes sterile.

The Biologist could be correct.... 8) 8)

[jfkowalski]

I believe that hybrids, the cross between two different species, are always sterile. Example is a mule. The argument is that since the young of a cross between Lahontans and rainbows do breed, they are not separate species .

[Ed Wahl]

Not a separate species, but a permanently diluted one. According to DFG there are still pure strains of Lohantons out there, but they're found in small remote streams that have escaped the haphazard planting of rainbows.The Upper Truckee has geneticly pure Lahontans, the fish that were stocked in the past century were Brookies which could not crossbreed with the cutts. They could crowd them out though because of the Brookies propensity for breeding in any marginal area. I've caught cutts in the creek alongside hwy 4 on Ebbets pass in water that's also full of Brookies. I think the time of the 30 pound pure Lahonton Cutthroat is past, once the rainbow genes were added to the gene pool of Pyramid they're there to stay. Does Pyramid fish well all winter, I'm gonna have to get up there. Ed

[Darian]

Hi Ed,.... Pyramid fishes well from late fall thru the end of May in normal water years. 8) Last year it was fishing well into June.... The catches change of the course of a season, tho. :? Early in the season, the fish tend to be plentiful but average (19" - 22"). As water temps cool and bad weather starts, the size of the fish increases and the volume goes down.... The largest number of the very big fish are caught during the coldest, windiest, wet weather..... :D :D

[jfkowalski]

The fish start to come into spawn sometime in March. From then until May they are concetrated in the "nets" area which is either side of the hatchery, and 20 or 30 fish per day is not unusual. Some catch a 100 pery day. Until the March mitration, 2 to 10 fish per day is more the norm and fishing is about the same around the lake, but the nets area is still the best area to try first.
The season closes mid-summer to Oct 15 or so

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Pyramid is open to trout fishing from Oct.1 til June 30.