So I made my first trip up there from las Vegas this past weekend and had a blast. That is a special water. I took with me a g Loomis 7wt crosscurrent with a Tioga reel spooled with some older Cortland 200gr quick descent. It's an 8ips sink tip with an intermediate sink clear running line in a shooting profile. Nice line. Sinks very evenly and had a phenomenal connection to the fly in 20-30' deep water. I had poor luck the first day and had two break offs back to back on that night. The day was so nice outside that many guys who fish it regularly opted to hang out on the beach and enjoy the 55f weather.

The second day was a bit better after I consulted a few fellow anglers who were having mid day luck as to the what and how of their success. A few were having luck on the famous popcorn beetle trailing behind a bugger. Some were fishing just an olive bugger with a dash of red or chart. They all mentioned the most successful tactic was to cast out and let it sink to various depths and then burn it about half way back before starting to gradually slow it down. By the time it was at the ladder is was a roughly 1"/s strip... Slow. That is where many got their hits on buggers. The beetles and spiders were doing more pauses to let it float up and a few guys were killing it with around 10 fish during the mid day to an average of 1 to people around them. I hooked my first that day and enjoyed a short fight in front of the ladder before that fat lahontan rolled (didn't know trout will even do that...) and it popped the hook. Nice fat fish. Oh well. Day went on slow with another lost mid fight and that night I finally landed my first.

I gave it a nice long fight to avoid breaking my 10lb leader and it took about 10 minutes to get it in. The fish was constantly surprising me with runs when I was sure it was done. After landing it and taking a few quick pictures I let em go and it again surprised me how fast its strength was back after resting in the water in the net for a minute.

There fish do a good job making a size 6 bugger look small lol.



So the next morning I had similar bad luck with popping hooks and lost another after a short fight. Sadly this fish felt much heavier then any of the others. The day was not productive for me again but I did manage to land one more small one just before dark that was maybe 18". Only at pyramid would I refer to an 18" cutthroat as a small fish hah

Anyways, I'm already planning another trip up there this season. Seeing the guy two ladders over land an 18lb beast fuels my hopes :)

I would like to get out there this year.  Glad your trip was successful!