Pyramid

[1flyfisher]

Fishing has been good. I have been fishing from a power boat mostly and a kayak here and there. We have been doing well mostly around the south end of the lake, dago and south west side and other select areas/ beaches around the lake. We avoid that mess of combat fishing around the nets/pelican and have way better water elsewhere all to ourselves. We have been finding fish from 3 feet to 30 feet deep. Fish a few feet from shore to a few hundred yards from shore. Schools from a few dozen to hundreds of fish under the boat in water 15/20 feet deep the other day a few hundred yards off a south west side beach . And Some nice relatively shallow banks a few hundred yards offshore holding massive schools. We had some very good bites with some fish numbers (Landed) of 60-80 fish days per person for 2 anglers and some days with even higher numbers over 100+ per person. Some days much slower. Avg fish #'s maybe 40 from motor boat. From the kayak I have done well as I know where and when to go and I try and hit it just right. Sometimes(kayak) I only get into a few if I miscalculate and the fish have moved.

We mostly use the 4 weights now when we go for big numbers and This has been plenty of fun on the 4 weight/floater stripping minnows, in water 3-8 feet deep on average. Fish from 3 to over 10+ lbs. Often in the boat the winter fish will come following a wooly bugger or whatever bug up from the depths 30+ feet down up to the surface and hit the bug at the boat. In the spring in the shallow If you get into the fish on a good minnow bite in 10 feet or less deep water The cutts will follow the minnow right to the surface and blast it at the surface in a big boil. So what we do is let the bug sink to the bottom and then strip it quickly to the surface and they blast it. That is great fun when we can get them to do that. Works best when they are on dragons or minnows.

Go to bugs beside minnows have been dragon flies and damsels and they've also done well for us when we find fish in 3-10 foot deep water. We have been stripping floating lines the most but when we find the fish deeper we just pick up the 8wt with a shooting head and fast sink lead core head or titanium head and a minnow. You could do the super long leader weighted bug on the floating line, we have done this but it is annoying for a variety of reasons and having to re rig the 6wt from a 12 to 20+. So we don't bother and just go to the 8wt with fast sinking shooter. We don't bobber fish as we find no need to ever use one. In addition to a floater we have used a 6wt uniform sink type 2 which works great in water up to 10 feet.

The fish now will run up and down various beaches from pre-spawn staging/holding areas to the next or to and from feeding areas. SOme beaches will be 100X better than others so you need to just pull up the anchor and move to find them. The fish will move from holding areas to the next holding areas where they stack up. Often smaller numbers will break off and cruise till they rejoin larger schools. We know where these holding areas are but we are always looking to find new ones and We cruise and locate new holding areas as we know where and what to look for as far as topography and depth. They somewhat change from season to season, same for weed beds, dragon/damsel beds and where the minnows/baitfish like to hang/spawn. Some spots start sooner than others. You just have to find the ones that are working at the moment. Some of Our best fishing is off holding fish stacked up in large schools. Sometimes this will be shallow in 15/20 feet or so sometimes the fish will be suspended in deeper water. WE have done well going to where beds of dragon flies and damsels are located. We have found fish on schools of minnows and baitfish pushing them around. The cui-ui, perch and chubs are schooling up big to spawn and the fish are aggressively feeding on them. We locate bait balls and bedding areas where these fish will lay their eggs. We hit last years spawn areas as these baitfish usually revisit these bedding egg laying areas even though they aren't laying eggs/spawning at the moment they will now start to gravitate to these areas and the cutts will come find them and push them off or they will simply move. We have caught(in the past) big fish with cutts, cui-ui, perch, tui chubs up to 20" sticking tails out of their mouths or spitting out a large cutt or chub. Couple years ago one winter we had a big fish spit up a HUGE fish right at the boat about 7-8 feet down. It was well digested and we were unable to retrieve it with the net as it sank but my buddy tried hard. I am 90% certain it was a large cutt. May have been a cui-ui but from the shape it looked like a cutt to me. So point is,,,,,don't be afraid to throw some big streamers. We throw 1" to 6" minnow patterns #10-2/0. Also we throw buggers that size too. #2 6X long shank with a 3" marabou tail. Black. Pretty much the biggest bugs we can comfortably throw with an 8wt.

Our best fishing comes when we find fish stacked up on holding areas or off dragon/damsel beds, baitfish spawn beds. We had some epic fishing with fish pushing minnows. Nothing better than hogs chasing minnows and bait of all sizes flying out of the water. people wank that these cutts don't pull but that is because the sheeple are just doing what the next sheeple is doing and that is throwing a heavy 8wt line. You hook a 10+ on a 4wt when they are amped up chasing minnows and you are in for an epic battle. 4 lb fish on an 8wt with leadcore shooting head doesn't offer much of a fight dragging around that heavy line. So 4 conditions we look for. Holding/stacking areas, damsel/dragon bed areas, areas where fish balling up or corralling minnows, baitfish spawning beds. We have fished sun up to sun down and have had good bites at all times with dead periods throughout the day. It's just best to keep fishing and moving.

We had snow(it was dumping almost white out for 20 minutes) in reno the other day but temps are right back up and scratching 80. Water temps getting near perfect. It is supposed to get cold this weekend starting tomorrow through early next week. This is prefect weather to get out and fish this time of year @ pyramid. Check the weather as these fronts this time of year do help to get them on the bite. Nothing is written in stone and I have had many many epic days when there isn't a drop of wind and lousy days when the wind and conditions were perfect and the fish should go on the bite but don't. So You just never can tell. For this time of year, As an example we have visually found large schools 10-15 feet deep with hundreds of fish when the wind is down and they just won't bite. Then the wind shifts and picks up a bit and they go nuts and it is wide open bite with the 4wt/floater minnow setup and damsels/dragons and all the fish you care to hook. And Sometimes we find them and there isn't any drop of wind and they go nuts. In general This time of year the wind is better. In the winter we find wind doesn't matter as the fish are deeper. In the spring when the fish are coming in pre spawn they can often just not hit. We put bugs right on their nose as we are looking down at hundreds of fish. They won't eat/bite. Wind shifts direction they go off. So basically just go fishing and look for weather/barometer/wind changes to turn on the bite.

If you aren't getting anything in 20-30 minutes @ a spot, move if you(boat/tube) can. If you are stuck on a ladder then you just have to stand there and wait for fish to hopefully come to you. I highly recommend a boat to move around and find fish. We just out fish the ladders and if you have a boat or access to a friends I highly recommend using it.

Every spring we get into some dry flyfishing when there is an ant drop or ladybugs, bees/yellowjackets or some other mass dump of whatever whoknowswhat terrestrials. I have seen all sorts of bug drops with some type of flying bug, and other whoknowswhat weird bugs covering the water. You should have some nice big black/brown flying ants size #10 and some bees/yellowjackets or ladybugs wouldn't hurt just in case you luck into a terrestrial bug fall and the fish go off. Crazy epic flyfishing when 10+ lb fish are porpoising all around the boat and taking bugs off the surface and you have a wide open bite with a 4 wt in your hand. We both landed several fish over 10lb last spring on the flying ant bite w/4wt. Something you just luck into and having a boat sure helps as it can occur anywhere. Often hundreds of yards off shore or even further way out in the middle of the lake. BUT I did have this happen once right off s nets a few hundred yards off shore about 8 years ago and if you had a tube or pontoon you could have kicked out and been on it. Starting now there will always be bugs falling on the lake every day in single or small numbers and as i paddle or motor around I routinely see fish rising and eating these bugs off the surface. Unfortunately you can not target these sporadic risers as they are often a single fish sporadically rising on a single bug. But when a mass of bugs covers the water that is when the action starts. That's what it takes so have some patterns just in case you get lucky one day while kicking around in your tube and a bunch of ants or some other bugs lands around you and the fish go nuts after them.

All around Best bet is a power boat. Move till you find fish. They are there for the hooking. Ladder guys often aren't catching anything from what we see. They often look sad not catching anything as we drive past.
Get out in a boat and run around a bit if you can. You'll learn things about the fish and the lake that others just don't have a clue about. If you use a pontoon or tube be very careful as spring winds can be ferocious and blow your sorry ass right across the lake or dump you in.

Good Luck