The trip to Pyramid Lake was a success! We arrived on March 4 and fished the next 3 days, and returned home on March 8. There were numerous fish caught in our three days of fishing, all averaging 3 to 4 lbs., but Rick Allen caught the largest fish of the trip. Here is a photo of him and his 8 lb. fish.
Because of the possibility of hooking into extremely large fish, this is a fairly busy fishery. Fishermen line up with their ladders on beaches and points as early as 3:00am each day to “reserve” their spot on the lake. They set out their ladders, and then head for the truck until 5:30am, when it is legal to start fishing. Here’s a photo of me standing on the platform of the ladder our guide provided.
It is definitely a weird sub-culture of the fly fishing fraternity, and its members communicate with one another when they find a hot spot. A large fish caught by one is a fish caught by all, or at least that’s the way it seemed to me. When we hooked a fish, other fishermen actually cheered for us!
As it turns out, March is a transition month for this fishery. The fish are in pre-spawn mode and start migrating to where they were first introduced to the lake. There is a fairly aggressive stocking program of two distinct strains of Lahontan Cutthroat Trout: the Pilot Peak strain (which was thought to be extinct until it was found about 20 years ago in a very tiny creek on the Nevada/Utah border) is stocked by the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service and the Summit strain is stocked by the Pyramid Lake Piute Tribe. Interestingly enough, the adipose fin is clipped off of the Pilot Peak fish before being stocked, so they are easy to differentiate. It doesn’t really matter though – both grow to be very large! As a result, the fishing begins to pick up in March, but the size of the average fish caught goes down. I’m told that by April, the fish are virtually everywhere in the shallower water. These are fish that are looking to spawn, so they gain quite a bit of color and their energy level drops. As a result, the fish at this time are not strong fighters. We experienced that in most of the fish we caught. Only one or two of our fish were actually played “on the reel”. Here is Jeff Martin with a fish in full spawning color.
Our guide suggested that the first week of December was an excellent time to be fishing Pyramid. He said that the worst weather is basically the best time to fish it, so as winter sets in, the water temperature begins to drop, which brings the bigger fish out of the depths and into shallower water - within reach of the fly caster. These fish are not spawners and appear more silvery or chrome. They tend to be larger fish and very strong and active.
We brought our own rods and reels based on Nick’s suggestions. I brought a 10’ 7wt. Scott rod I built many years ago. I have a weight forward floating line on one reel for it and installed a 200-grain sink tip line on another reel. I used my rod and sink tip to cast and strip a rig with two popcorn beetles attached. Nick provided another 7wt. line rigged for what is best describes as indicator fishing, where a brightly colored indicator is launched as far out as possible and hung underneath are a variety of flies (mostly size 10 chironomid imitations and about the same size leech patterns). You simply cast and watch the indicator. Jeff and Rick caught a lot of fish that way. I simply got bored with it after about 15 minutes, and switched back to the stripping technique. I caught 80% of my fish stripping popcorn beetles. Jeff and Rick, exactly the opposite, but of course they caught way more fish than me. Call me stubborn!
I can count on one hand the number of times I have hired a guide, so my experience with them is limited. That being said, I must give kudos to Nick and Julianne Jackson of Pyramid Lake Guides. Jeff, Rick, and I booked their all-inclusive services (3 days guided fishing, 3 square meals each day, and accommodations). While we were not aware that the accommodations provided were beds in their personal home in Sutcliffe, Nevada, our initial concerns were abated by their easy going demeanor. Julianne is an excellent manager of the business (chief cook and bottle washer as well as marketing director, booking agent, and website manager) while Nick is up way too early each day to get out on the lake to place his ladders in prime spots for his clients. He knows nearly everyone that fishes the lake, so can usually find someone to watch his ladders while he returns home to fetch his clients. We were very grateful to get the extra couple of hours of sleep! As I said, the fishing begins at 5:30am and continues all day, or for as long as you can stand it. Breakfast was brought to us by around 8:30am and lunch was packed the night before. Dinner was usually an hour or two after returning from the day’s fishing. All food provided was excellent.
Incidentally, Nick and Julianne depart Pyramid near the end of March each year and migrate to Dutch John, Utah where Nick guides on the Green River through the end of September and Julianne works for various lodges and outfitters in the area. In November of 2017, somehow they found the time to get married and go on an Italian honeymoon.
Fishing Pyramid is not everyone’s cup of tea. It requires a bit of perseverance, an ability to tolerate misery, and a singular focus to catch very large fish. The typical rod to use there is either a 7wt. or 8wt. and the indicator fishing typically is done using a switch rod setup, mostly because that fishing is done in spots where you have limited back cast room. I did not use the switch rod at all, since I was able to shoot a line with little room for the back cast.
Let me know if you want to fish Pyramid and need a rod built for it!