Become one with the chum
If you are going to fish it, might as well as tell us how it was
A few friends from CA and I hit Pyramid lake last weekend. The fish were cruising and nibbling but hookups were far and few between. Between the three of us I bet we had over a dozen strikes but only three fish to hand.
Bailey and I went down to the river for an hour. Midges everywhere and lots of rising fish. None were caught but how can you claim no success with this smile.
With flows on most rivers at the blown out stage I have had to put some time on the Little Truckee river to satisfy my fishing needs. While the river is nowhere near it “normal” flows, it is running clear and the fish are hungry. Needing to get out, I left Reno after work and a short time later was parked at the upper lot and making my way downstream to a few of my favorite holes.
I managed to hook two very nice fish in the slack water. The first first took my San Juan worm in a seam and put up an good fight. The second fish took the Hare’s Ear nymph and ran my quite a distance down river in the fast water. A combination of water levels that are 8 times above normal, tons of fast water and a decent 14″ trout challenged me to land this fish. Its initial run took me clear into my backing, an event that is not common on a small trout stream. It took a bit of running downstream to recover line and catch up with the trout. By the time I got it into some slack water, both of us were tired.
A quick two hour session netted two fish and a very happy fisher.
My friend Dan and I headed to Pyramid Lake for a morning of fishing. After an extremely windy weekend, Monday morning was eerily calm and quiet. Those familiar with Pyramid may not necessarily interpret this calmness as a good sign, but I was happy to be rid of the wind after the weekend’s tirade.
The weather was pretty fluid throughout the morning. Temps never rose above 55 degrees and water temps hovered around 49 degrees, a bit on the cool side. Winds came and went with 11am to 1pm having the strongest gusts. It was partly cloudy most of the day. For all respects, a perfect Pyramid day.
So how did we fare? Once we found a beach that had cruising fish we did much better. I wound up 0-3 on the morning whereas Dan was 1-3. I don’t know if it was bad hook sets, late hook sets, or just overall bad luck, but I lost all three hookups without even seeing the fish. Yes, I checked the hook on each release to make sure it was good and sharp. Dan was able to land one very nice fish out of his grabs. In all cases, the fish were grabbing the olive and red buggers that I had tied earlier in the week. Not a single fish took a swipe at either midge or the black and pink bugger.
We finished up with sore arms at about 1pm and sat at the car to eat some lunch. We were both happy with the results and whereas it would have been nice to land one of my hooked fish, I can still revel in the satisfaction that my flies got grabs and were responsible for the sole landed fish. We did roam around and do some additional reconnaissance, checking out South and North Nets, Separator and Pelican Point. All these spots had considerably anglers as our beach, which had exactly two. We did spend some time up on the rocks watching the picket line of anglers at Pelican and noticed that the hookup rate was about every 15 minutes while the land rate was about 1-in-4. So I guess for the day we were about average.
When you check out the photos below, note a few things. These were all taken with a phone camera which proved to be a huge hassle. My phone is just not quick to take shots and keeping the fish still long enough to get the shot was tough. But you can still get a feel for the size of Dan’s fish when you look at it as we try to net it and when he is about to release the fish. Enjoy!
The decision on where to head for a bit of birthday fishing came down to finding a spot on the Truckee that was not pumping, heading south to the Rosaschi or trying out something new like Pyramid Lake. I have been hearing good things about the fishing this season so Pyramid Lake wins the draw.
I headed to one of the local fly shops to gather some intel. The takeaway from the shop was a part of my conversation with one of the employees. I went like this –
shop: “What rod are you planning on taking to Pyramid?”
me: “My 5-wt”
shop: “um…what brand is your rod?”
me: “It’s a Sage XP. Why?”
shop: “Well, there is a good chance that you will break your 5-wt on the fish at Pyramid. Sage has a lifetime warranty so you should be fine. Do you own a heavier rod?”
I did pack my 8-wt based on this conversation and it turns out this was a very good move.
A short drive out this morning from my house, a quick stop at the tribal general store to purchase my daily permit and I was at the Lake and ready to…get blown all over the place. The winds were very brisk to say the least and were gusting up to the mid-thirties. That definitely did not stop the crowds from descending upon the Nets.
I snapped a full panorama of shots at the South Nets beach. What you see here is but one small section. Notice the “sticks” lined up in the water? Well those are the anglers. What you do not see in this shot is the fact that the line up continues for a quite a few more yards and that most of the cars were actually a bit higher up off the beach. This is the infamous “ladder” fishing of Pyramid Lake.
Despite the crazy winds and the intermittent rain squalls, I witnessed some of the anglers hooking up on fish. A good sign! So now it is time for me to hit the water and get serious.
I started driving along the shoreline. I had a tip from the fly shop employee, the same one that told me I needed to bring a bigger rod, so I headed in the direction he indicated. I must admit that he did not steer me wrong. When I arrived at the mentioned beach, it was vacant. Now if only that wind would go away.
The pre-fish drill, you know, the one that starts with stringing up the rod and ends with tying on the starting fly, a wooly bugger in this case, does nothing to excite me about tossing a big #8 Dennis Estrada bugger that I had in my bugger barn. It is wind like this that cause big flies to impale their casters. A short walk to the waters edge and I am stripping line and trying in vain to cast in the wind. Pretty futile efforts, despite the big rod.
After about 20 or so drifts, I decide that I am not made of whatever those other anglers sitting on ladders in water with 12-14″ white caps are made of and I call it quits.
My takeaway today is that Pyramid is a beautiful high desert lake and the Cutts in the Lake are big and healthy. I will be heading back in the next few weeks, just on a day when the weather reports shows the winds to be negligible.
