So my second trip up wen very well! Friday was a very productive day-- avg at north nets was around 20 fish (what i got) on both streamer and nymph. Most fish were 20-24" and ANGRY. Great fights. Interestingly the females in that size range were usually better fighters then the male. I foul hooked one in the anal fin with my anchor fly that was maybe 4lbs and it took a very long time to land. I thought I had a much bigger fish until a fellow a ladder over wisely commented, "have you felt any head shakes...?"... LOL Lesson learned-- soften up those strips because they will chase the fly on the tag line and a hard strip will possibly hook the fish sitting directly over the anchor fly! She was released strong and no bleeding so a cheap lesson. The bite seemed to die off for most beaches around night as a storm rolled in, which should have helped the bite but it didnt much to several folks amazement. Oh well. Saturday was a fairly slow day. The morning had a strong bite in the first hour and dropped to an avg at nets was maybe 2-4 fish per angler for the rest of the day. A few people came and went looking for a better beach. I did as well and given the wind direction decided on Pelican point as the wind from the south would be a headwind there. I got setup just before dark and made a few casts on a new rig I picked up from Crosbys (read below for more about it) stripping a black/bronze bugger and a yellow/white 'booby' on a tag. Just as the sun went down I did a slow long strip and BAM. Fish on! It turned out to be a nice 32~" male just shy of 14lbs!! My best trout ever! :) Sadly he was bleeding badly from nearly swallowing the hook so I decided it was going to come home with me. I really wish that hadnt been the case given that it is a pilot peak fish and C&R'ing them will just continue to improve the quantity of 10lb + fish... but then again I wouldnt know the weight because I wont boga or weigh from the gil a fish that large I'm going to release. Time to purchase one of those plastic weighing nets you attach to your scale...

PIC! Sorry the quality isnt so good, it was taken in my car headlights.


I've got some gopro footage of some nice fish from fri and sat and will upload them when I get a chance.

So the setup I mentioned is an 8wt Fenwick Aetos rod, a Pflueger Patriarch reel, and Teeny TS-350 line to fill it. The rod was new in 2015 for Fenwick and so far only has a few reputable reviews but in those it has been getting fantastic reviews for both performance and the price. I purchased a 5wt of it last year and have been very pleased with its casting performance. I had been considering picking up an 8wt as a Steelhead rod and just as a second rod for a different presentation type so when I saw them on the rack at Crosbys I decided to take the plunge. I also handled and was really impressed with the Pflueger Patriarch reel that is new for 2016. It is a large arbor reel that is salt water safe and features a fully sealed drag and bearing system. The reel handled the task of that 14lb Lahontans runs perfectly. The max drag the dual carbon washer system provides is somewhere just shy of 6lbs by my scale which is plenty for trout and several ocean species according to yellowstone anglers 2014 salt water reel shootout I used in researching the reel prior to buying. They also argued that fine adjustment of the drag is more important and since I'd like to use the reel for salt eventually I looked and found that with this reel. I like many others do like to play fish off the reel using the drag and adding drag with my palm as needed. As I'm about to land I will sometimes step up the drag from around .5-1lb initial setting to about double whatever it was before. On this reel that is about a full turn to add around a 1lb to a .75lb drag. So if you are on a lighter leader you are not stuck with a lower initial drag then you might like due to a coarse drag. The line I chose was new to me but is a well known Pyramid lake favorite-- Jim Teenys TS-350 integrated shooting head line. This was my first shooting head line and after some trial and error false casting lessons I learned it shoots very easily compared to my only other similar line... Cortlands Quick Decent SinkTip (9ips) with intermediate running line. Another great line but that line a shooting head it is not. The Teeny line required working to the surface and roll casting until the head leaves the rod tip, then a single pick up and false cast before shooting. It works wonderfully and the Fenwick rod was up to the task of moving a 30' 350gr shooting head. I'm sure a skilled caster would have no issues making use of the 100' of line total with the Aetos rod and this line. In a heavy headwind I had no problem picking up about 10' of line and doing a shoot that was purposely aimed high, pulling that back into a false cast and firing whatever I had out there which was usually just short of the head total. The result was usually about a 40-60' cast without a ton of physical effort and 60' is plenty of distance to reach fish there.

I'd also like to give a big thanks to Doug Ouellette from http://www.pyramidlakeguideservice.com/ who took the time to answer a bunch of questions I had about the performance of the rod, reel, and line combination I had picked out. Doug has fished that rod and reel combo guiding pyramid for a while now and is well versed in how fast the high alkali content of the lake can destroy lesser reels. He had nothing but great things to say about his new fleet of work horses and I'm looking forward to the rest of the season there and where ever else there are fish to be caught on it with.

That's a big trout, you did the right thing by taking him home.


Got any scenery pics to post?

Good write up. I have known about Pyramid Lake for 30 years and still have not made it there. It sounds like fun. Did you take a ladder out with you? Pyramid is on my bucket list.

I have fished a lot of those Teeny lines. They are a great tools to have in your quiver. They are also dangerous if you are not careful. I broke one of my 7wt Sage rods trying to roll a t-300 out while too deep. My largest salmon, 53 1/2 lb, was caught on a long cast with a t-400.

Don't worry about the fish, at least you could take it. I have had to release 10+ lb wild steelhead that were hooked in the artery between the gills. Regs did not allow for the kill of any wild fish. Oh well the system needs to be fed...

Nice write up. I've lived in n.nv too long to not have fished pyramid.
Is that the Lahontan cutthroat? Sorry if it was mentioned I read the thread a couple days ago.
Also was curious if my 10 ft flat bottom boat would be useful there. Knowing to be very cautious as the wind can make the lake pretty treacherous.

Edit. A quick re-read on the 14 lb Lahontan.
Is it true Lahontans are the largest cutthroat strain in N. America.?

I only have a few scenery photos, I was either fishing, sleeping, or drinking and was too busy to take pics for the moments of good weather lol

Here's one of the better ones I snapped on the way back from North nets:


Spey, ya I brought a 6' aluminum a frame ladder. It had a little shelf on it ID use to hang the net, spare rod, beer, etc. :) reno fly shop does some really inexpensive rentals for everything (boots, waders, ladder, and rod setup for stripping or nymph) for pretty cheap. The rods are Echo Solos I believe. Could help if you wanted a really light flight in and out. I think it was like 80$ for 3 days? They might even be less for everything but the rods. :)

Yes, lahontans are considered the largest known cutthroat trout variety. They are only in and around the area that used to be an ancient lake that covered the Tahoe area. The strain in pyramid is known for being extremely aggressive fish and their massive growth. It's a very weird feeling the first time you catch a 17-20" trout and think to yourself, "ah another small one..." Because nowhere else would that be considered a small cutthroat.

I probably wouldn't use a small flat bottom boat on pyramid. Just in the 5-6 days I've spent fishing there I've seen weather changes that were drastic in just minutes. Because of the terrain around there storms seem to funnel in and the lake gets rough extremely fast. The worst I saw it was around 3' white caps at really broken intervals. A couple other guys were saying this isn't even rough for that lake and that smaller boats often get into trouble really fast when storms like that hit. It went from breezy to 25mph + winds and that kind of water in about 30 minutes.

Awesome!

Knew that I should have gone this year. Anyway nice job!!!