Pyramid Lake Mon-Wed

[Langenbeck]

The weather was cold, windy and raw. My first visit since 1970. Went with two others. No big fish days but did OK. First fish is 32" long and my guess about 13-14 pounds. The second one is about 6-7 pounds and a Summit fish and the last is a Pilot Peak fish. Talked to lots of guys at several locations and nobody talked about big numbers. A typical fish was 19-22"s.

[Brendo]

beautiful fish! I cant believe i still haven't been out there.

[Bull_Dog]

Hey Gordon,

Monday was just o.k. at the lake. We had to really move around and find a beach or two with a bunch of fish. We ended up with 15 fish per angler. Tuesday was slow in the morning and we finally found them in the afternoon and had a really good day. Wednesday I had a new 2 client group and we caught 30 fish. Pyramid is a big lake and the fish can move in numbers to one beach to the next. This week was a good example. The weather also played a big part. Fish the wind and be ready to move. We had two groups at the lake on Wednesday and both groups had big number days. Those fish you caught are awesome. If you give me your address I will send you one of our new catch and release stickers for your big fish. That is awesome and made your trip for sure. You can also go to pyramid lake fly fishing facebook page and post pictures for your 10 pound plus stickers.

[Terry Thomas]

Gordon
Glad you to see you got into some nice fish.

[Wanderingblues]

Looking forward to heading up in 2 weeks!

[NVswitch]

I have wondered, How does one tell the difference between the Summit Lake strain and the Pilot Strain of the cutthroat at Pyramid Lake? Thanks Mike

[Langenbeck]

Mike: Am sure there are more technical answers but look at pictures two and three of my post. The Summit fish are fairly reddish while the Pilot Peak fish look more like a steelhead with spots.

[Bull_Dog]

The only real way to tell is to look at the atapost fin. It is cut off on the Pilot Peak fish. I have some really good pictures of clients with really red Pilot Peak Males. You really can't go by the color except for most of the female Pilot Peak strain are more silver.
I can tell how they fight now that I have some time with them but I have been fooled by the color. Pics to follow

The one really red fish From Carl Nosek is a Pilot Peak fish.

[SHigSpeed]

Here's a fish I caught in January. Didn't notice until now that the adipose was clipped.

It is more silvery but then it's much nearer to spawning time now.



That last fish is almost certainly a hen, and they generally don't redden up like the bucks do which would explain its coloration.

_SHig

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Langenbeck
Glad you caught a few nice fish on your adventure. I would disagree that the bottom pic is a Pilot Peak fish. Although it is silvery, it has an adipose fin. It looks like a small Summit hen to me. There were no Pilot fish planted in 2011 or 2012 so there are no fish of that 16-20" size that are Pilots. The Pilots definitely pull harder than Summit fish, have fewer spots and the silver females have a more rounded head shape.

Mike-

This is a an 11# female Pilot Peak Strain fish (notice the stubbier more rounded head shape, few spots, and somewhat silver color...there are lots that are way more chrome)


This is a 13# Pilot Peak Male


Hope this helps to clarify identification a bit.

Jay