For years I have read about, watched videos, drooled at pictures, and battled an urge to go to the only stillwater I'm aware of that ladders are more prevalent than pontoon boats and funky bugs are the ticket to target massive native cutthroats. It's not secret to anyone that I am talking about Pyramid Lake. Generally the names of waters are absent from the posts here, but let's be honest, this will certainly be no secret.
For years I have wanted to head far west and target the famed Lahontan Cutthroat trout found in these alkaline rich waters. This lake is managed by the Pyramid Lake Paiute Indian Tribe, and they do a terrific job keeping this an amazing trophy trout fishery. And the famed ladder fishing is an event in and of itself.
So we all bought ladders, tied up wooly worms, shiny beetles, and various chironomid patterns, and we made the long trek west to give it a go.
We had hoped to get a few hours of fishing in before the day closed on our travel day. Needless to say we arrived at the lake with great anticipation. 4 foot rollers tearing across the lake and crashing on the shore and a nearly white-out snow storm greeted us. We bought our licenses and chatted with some of the regulars in the local bar in Sutcliff and headed out to make camp on the beach and hopefully get some fishing in. Camp was simple, but convenient as we rolled out of bed and were literally within 20 yards of the water.
The storm calmed significantly by the time we set camp and got dressed. This is what the lake looked like as we waded out and threw a few casts before legal fishing ended that night.
It was amazing, the waves (and the wind) never quit coming the entire time we were there, and almost had an oceanic feel to it as you waded out or sat on the beach at different times. I've heard people try to describe what is almost indescribable pull when talking about Pyramid. After visiting briefly, I can confirm that it has an almost mystical allure to it. I don't know if it is the brilliant blue-green waters, the wave swept sand bottoms, or the double digit pound cutthroats that are frequently caught here, but this place pulls you in. We didn't get any action that night, and went to bed hoping for success the next day.
It took a little bit on our first morning to figure out exactly what we were doing. We watched many people in the line hooking up pretty much from sun up on. After some trial and error we were able to get on the board with some nice fish. That morning we caught a handful of fish in the 21-24 inch range. Here are a few specimens:
After figuring out that there were a couple colors that seemed to be the ticket it was time for some lunch time tying to stock/re-stock the boxes for the afternoon.
After nailing down some color combinations that the fish had liked at the vise we put a decent number of fish in the net that afternoon/evening. And some of the beetles took some teeth marks to show for it.
The one thing that was constant was the wind. From a decent breeze to some pretty heavy gusts and everything in between, the wind kept coming. And intermittent storms came in and out throughout our time there.
But the storms would eventually blow out and the days usually ended pretty nice.
The big fish we came seeking alluded us the first day. We did witness a 29 inch 9+ pounder caught a next to us, but we didn't get anything over 24 ourselves. But who could complain sitting around a camp fire at night roasting jalapeno and cheddar brats and talking about the massive fish we were going to catch the next day?
Our second day at the lake proved much more difficult. The bad weather we had experienced the day of our arrival had dropped the water temps almost 8 degrees and the fishing suffered greatly because of it. I was able to hook into and battle a pretty nice fish early in the day, but I did not land it. That is the only tension any of the three of us felt all day. It was a tough day for everyone and many of the regulars who were there and fish it often were gone by lunch as they knew it wasn't going to pick up. For us who have an 8 hour drive to get home, that wasn't an option, so we just kept fishing. Threw everything we could at them, but it was just tough. No fish to be had on Saturday. But we did get some solid half-time entertainment when Blake got caught in Mikey's guard, got a little too high and Mikey put him in a triangle.
There were a couple die hards that stuck it out, but not many besides us to see a beautiful end to the day, even if there were no fish to be had.
It was a great trip. It was a long jaunt, but one that was worth every second, even with the fishing not being up to par. It's unfortunate, we missed it by a day and half. The 5 days before we arrived were said to be some of the best of the spring and numerous 9+ pound fish had been caught right where we were fishing. There were even multiple 14+ pound fish caught along the same beach in the days leading up to our arrival. But I guess that's why it's called "fishing" and not "catching." I won't speak for my compadres, but I will be back to Pyramid Lake. You can bet on that. And I am sure that the same mystical allure that haunted my dreams last night will continue until the day comes when I get back.
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