Blake, Mikey, Kelly, and I took the long jaunt west to the land of pharaohs to chase overgrown Lahontans. The anticipation as this trip came closer was high for me as reports from the year were pretty poor. And forecasts of possible snow and cold the entire time we were there gave cause for some concern on top of the already poor fishing. Many reports abounded of solid sticks and experienced local guys getting completely skunked over multiple days. Good days had people barely hitting double digits. But we had an RV rented and plans set, so we just took off on faith and prayer that the fish would play. Also, a 19.2 pounder had been caught from shore in February....and after all....that's why we play here!
We got a late start on Wednesday night but eventually were able to hit the road after loading up all the gear, doing our grocery shopping for the weekend, and putting down a Double-Double, Animal-style/Protein style for the road! The winds and rains hit us early in the trek but I-80 cooperated enough to get us to Dover to see a couple team players provide entertainment for the others in rolling some bones. After losing enough we hit the road again and took up shop in Elko for the night. Having the RV made it sure nice to just find a parking lot and call it a night. Of course we had to set up the tying station and turn out bugs of all sorts on the drive out.
Thursday morning it was on and you could cut the anticipation with a knife! We were stoked to hit the water and give it a try. We hit Crosby's for the permits and then started hitting beaches and talking to folk. After some conversations it became apparent that Pelican was the place to be if we wanted a shot. The wind was relentless, and it was right in our faces. It was game on!
Blake was able to get us on the board first. We weren't sure if Mikey was going to join us on the lake for this trip as he was just hanging in the RV and not even ready to roll. Little did we know that he was just harnessing the mojo because he followed not long after Blake's with what ended up being the best fish of the trip for us in a nice 25-inch buck, but Thursday afternoon/evening was slow for us. That was it.
We soaked our sorrows in Diet Mountain Dew and Better-Cheddar Brats for the night and came up with a game plan for the next morning. The guys just west of us were slaying them while we sat and watched. We figured out that their 'mids were only 3.5-4 feet down. Ours were more like 7+. We made the adjustments accordingly, and went to bed with high hopes for the morning. The morning started out slow in the beginning, but then Kelly turned on the switch. Kelly was stripping beetles and was just on fire. I was 'mid fishing and started to get some love. Mikey was stripping as well and doing okay. Blake had caught one as well. We were all on the board after a couple hours of fishing and Kelly was putting on a clinic for all to see.
The morning bite subsided after our group probably doing the best in the morning from anyone in the area. We had brought close to 10 fish to hand between us in a few hours, most of those coming from Kelly. Mikey disappeared for a while and we couldn't figure what he was doing. Little did we know that in no time we'd have BBQ beef sandwiches delivered hot to us on the shoreline, right off our ladders!
You're the man Mikey! The afternoon cooled off and the wind wasn't cooperating with us as much. We tried different tactics and Mikey even brought out the spin-rod for a bit to get a little more length on the casts. It pretty much shut off for the middle portion of the day though.
In the afternoon and evening the fish played a little bit more for us, but not too much. I think we finished the day with 15 between us. We figured that Friday was good as it was, so we'd just proceed with the same plan for Saturday. But what a difference a day makes! We fished our tails off all morning and we didn't catch a thing. In fact, the only person we saw even hooking up was a little ways down from us throwing a big, dark jig on spin gear. There was much talk of hanging up the waders and calling it a trip. But when you come this far to chase this fish, you stick it out. Glad we did, even if the fishing wasn't hot. We were each able to stick one more fish for the trip before we called it quits in the late afternoon.
We hit the road and made it back to Elko again before returning home on Sunday the rest of the way. All-in-all the fishing was pretty un-spectacular. I think we landed right around 20 fish in 2.5 days of fishing between 4 of us. That isn't stellar by any measure. But we talked to an old-timer that we met out there last year that was just arriving as we left. He spent the week before there and had a hook-up at 8 AM on Thursday, and didn't have another bite until 6 PM on Saturday. So it could have been A LOT worse for us. And we were able to catch some pretty awesome fish. Nothing in the double digit category, but Mikey's 25 incher was no slouch and almost every fish we caught was over 20 inches. And for my money, these are the most beautiful trout there is out there. There isn't anywhere else I know where you have an actual legitimate chance of catching a 30+ inch 10+ pound cutthroat on any given cast. Literally every cast you have a chance of catching the fish of a lifetime. Here are some of just the fish to send you on your way.
Thanks for an incredible trip fellas. It's a special fishery. This place gets in your blood. I will be back.
