Pyramid Lake Fly Patterns

[Flyfisher70]

I'm hopefully going to be fly fishing Pyramid Lake near Reno Nevada this coming April. I found a few flies online that seem to produce really well. I'm still not done tying as I have a few dozen more hooks left. All of these were tied on size 6 TMC 2457 hooks. It's a ridiculously easy pattern to tie. Here are a few photos of the Pyramid Tadpoles/Beetles.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Very nice.....thanks.

**At Kiene's Fly Shop we now have the entire selection of Pyramid Lake fly patterns that were developed by the Reno Fly Shop through Umpqua Feather Merchants.

[gene goss]

Great looking flies....i also been using a suspended fly for bass, trout, mackinaw trout, channel catfish....Etc....its a good fly.
Neutrel Buoyancy fly....i use a tank of water and trim the floatation off untill the fly is suspended...it doesn't sink or float up much. You will lose the up and down jiging movement....so...i trim the foam head to put a wiggle in the fly when you retrieve the fly.
Add a weed guard to the fly so you can snake it through the cover....good luck

[EricW]

Nice. Like the krystal flash tail on the white ones.

BTW, it looks like you snuck some partridge czech or shrimp hooks in there. I forget which is the very heavy gauge. The heavy one is noticeably heavier than a 2457 and will change the buoyancy of the fly if you don't compensate with more foam.

Also, you may want to coat the locofoam backs to keep the silver on (very light varnish or other coating). After a day the luster will be gone and you'll lose the ripple. Another day and the silver will be dulled a lot. I'm certain that the silver is important on that fly.

[Flyfisher70]

Nice. Like the krystal flash tail on the white ones.

BTW, it looks like you snuck some partridge czech or shrimp hooks in there. I forget which is the very heavy gauge. The heavy one is noticeably heavier than a 2457 and will change the buoyancy of the fly if you don't compensate with more foam.

Also, you may want to coat the locofoam backs to keep the silver on (very light varnish or other coating). After a day the luster will be gone and you'll lose the ripple. Another day and the silver will be dulled a lot. I'm certain that the silver is important on that fly.

Good eyes! Yes, there are a few in there tied with Partridge hooks. I had a few on the vise pedestal and used them up, there are about the same size as the TMC 2457, but like you said they are a heavier gauge. I did a float test of the flies with the TMC 2457 and the Partridge hook after reading this post. I put them both in the sink filled with water, both float really well and pop right back up to the surface, although in the Partridge version you can see a noticeable difference, I think it may benefit the fly though. Were talking 100's of a second though not much, we'll see what the fish think about them. Hopefully the fish in Pyramid will like them all.

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Those flies will work. The white one is what we call "Popcorn" and it is my go to fly at Pyramid for stripping. Big midges under an indicator are deadly also. There is a post on my blog that highlights my Pyramid boxes.

Nice ties!

Jay

[Flyfisher70]

Jay, I had bookmarked your My Pyramid Fly Boxes blog on your blogger and use the flies as a reference. Thank you so much for posting up the nice closeup photos, they really helped quite a bit with my tying up of the flies up above.

[catch&release]

"Those are great looking photos"

Jay Clark, Greg Sano and Ernie Walsh all showed me the beetle patterns for Pyramid. I have found that I personaly have alot better success by double foaming my beetles.

I like the extra lift and movement you get when you give the beetle a longer pause. Last year at South nets I hammered fish on the "popcorn" version and a red beetle that I tie called "Dorthy" because of the red sparkle.

Play around and tie them up in many different colors. These fish are color happy way more than size or shape.

Change your retrieves, dont always present the bug the same way as everyone else does. Longer pulls "full length of my arm and a 5 second count before the pull again worked better for me for sure and while we were all lined up this retrieve worked better than all the rest "on the particluar days I fished". Of course it changes, I watch how everyone fishes especialy if I am being out fished to see what kind of retrieve and presentation may or may not be working better than mine.

Paying close attention to your surroudings and the who, what and where that is going on around you will always make you a better fisherman in the present and the future.

Ernie Gulley

[Dan Harrison]

Good looking flies flyfisher i may have to try that crystal flash tail. And i like catch&release idea of double foam. It has been my experience at pyramid that eratic movement of the beetle can bring strikes. I like a bigger lip that pushes the beetle up or left and right. Like catch said the strip is very important and i have had good sucess with the fastest shortest strips I could deliver.

[Greg F]

Tie up some black and chartreuse buggers and try those, too.