Pyramd Lake

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Fishing is still good at Pyramid and the crowds have thinned out. Catching lots of 6-8# chrome Pilots, with a handfull over 10#, fishing balanced leeches and midges under the indicators. Now is a good time to bring your "A" game as far as fish fighting skills go as these chromers are MEAN and so different from the Summit Strain cutties. Guys stripping minnow patterns and popcorn beetles have been doing well also. Water temps are in the mid 50's and I expect the fishing to remain good until the opener on June 30. Give me a call if you want to tussle with desert chrome!

Jay

[loose_shoes]

Agreed. I had a very good day at Pyramid on 5/24/14. I checked the weather forecast the night before leaving and saw that the wind was forecast to be light so I decided to fish from the float tube.

Pyramid on Memorial day weekend could not have been more different compared with November when I usually go to Pyramid. There were thousands of people there. All the big beaches from Sutcliff north were entirely packed, end-to-end and bumper-to-bumper, with RV's and campers. If you wanted to camp on the beach and you hadn't staked your claim well before Friday you were screwed.

I went down to a beach that is usually good for me. It was packed, of course. There was just enough space at one end of the beach to squeeze my car into but that was it! The entire beach was a non-stop cacophony of JetSki's, speed boats, dogs and kids.

I got out into the water about noon. I didn't have much confidence going out as the cove was being torn up with JetSkis. However, to my surprise I was into a fish within about 15 minutes.


A classic Pyramid LCT. About 19"-20".

About 15 minutes later I hooked up with another one.


This one was smaller. About 17".

Again, about 15 minutes later, I hooked up again but this was different. Very different….
I could tell right away that this was a heavy fish. It was just pulling slowly and steadily out to deeper water. It wasn't until I pumped him up near the surface for the first time that he developed any sense of urgency. At that point I was on a wild Lahontan Sleigh Ride! He spun me around in circles and tried to drag me out to the other side of the lake. I knew my net was too small and I couldn't deal with him from the tube so I paddled into shore and worked on landing him on the beach. I had to enlist the help of some kids to pull my tube up on the beach and deal with some of my kit. The fish had me chasing him up and down the beach. I hoped I wouldn't fall on my face since was I doing all this with my flippers on.

After several strong runs (This was the first time I had ever 'legitimately' been taken into my backing!) I brought him to hand. I had the kids on the beach take pictures. Their hands must have been wet because the lens fogged up and the pictures are a bit blurry. Hey, I'll take what I can get under the circumstances.







I'm guessing that this is a Pilot Peak fish. It had a biologist tag in its fin. I would have liked to gotten the info off the tag and sent it in. I estimate it to be about 30" long and around 10lbs.

I must have been in the right place at the right time. I fished for 3 hours total in the same area and released 9 fish. Probably missed a half-dozen nibbles. Easily my best day ever at Pyramid. Most of the fish were in the 19"-21" range. Two fish were about 17" I never was more that 300 meters away from shore and the best action was always within 100 meters (or less!) from shore. I used a small black streamer-ish fly. I never had to change flies all day.

[John Sv]

Slightly off-topic, but did anyone catch that article in the Reno Gazette yesterday? Apparently come cutties ascended the Truckee and spawned. First time since the 30s!

[loose_shoes]

http://www.rgj.com/story/tech/enviro...-lake/9932583/

Slightly off-topic, but did anyone catch that article in the Reno Gazette yesterday? Apparently come cutties ascended the Truckee and spawned. First time since the 30s!

[jayclarkflyfishing]

Glad you had a great day! That is definitely a sweet slice o desert chrome right there! Nice job and way to brave the crowds!


Jay

[J.E.M. Hull]

Looks like an amazing good time, I've never even come close to catching trout that nice.

What were the fish taken on if you don't mind me asking?

[loose_shoes]

Looks like an amazing good time, I've never even come close to catching trout that nice.

What were the fish taken on if you don't mind me asking?

Ha! You're never going to believe what a small and simple fly it is. It was a size #12 curved scud hook dressed with black marabou wound around the shank and topped with a bit of burnt orange marabou. No weight added. Definitely not an original fly by me. I've been using it successfully all over the place from my float tube. It looks great in the water and swims beautifully. It has a nice bait fish profile and good leech-y wiggle.