Pyramid Lake - April 27-29, 2012

Another Pyramid trip in the books.  We read the reports, it sounded slow.  Quoted from some other people, 'the slowest fishing we've seen in 20 years.'  I guess we should have known what to expect, but I was optimistic anyways!

Friday:
After about a 4.5 hour drive from San Jose, we rolled in around 11am to the South Nets.  Tom already had a few fish, so things were looking good.  After unpacking the amazing amount of gear, we were on the water.  It wasn't too long before we had our first fish from the boat.  We had to fish the boat to be able to be right on the ledge that drops from 5 to 10 ft of water.
(above) Tom with a standard slot female with the Pyramid in the back


(above) My first fish of the trip


(above) My Dad with his first and perhaps only fish of the trip


(above) Chunky fatty on the midging rig... Look at that tail!

Saturday:
Woke up with high hopes, but boy was this to be a SLOW day.  We have a group of at least 6 guys, and NO ONE got bit until after 730PM.  We fished ALL day and it was SLOW.


(above) WINDY in the morning


(above) The wind died down which didn't help the already non existent bite. At least we could enjoy the Pyramid?


(above) FINALLY a fish caught on a beetle around 730pm

There was one or two other fish caught before dark by the rest of our group, but BOY was it slow.

Sunday:
Woke up a bit discouraged, but thought we would give it a try anyways. I never caught a fish and had to pull out around 11am to drive back to San Jose.  Tom ended up with 2 fish and the rest of the group got another 3 more I think for the rest of the day.  Slightly better bite than Saturday?    
(above) Sunrise Sunday


(above) Tom bendo!


(above) Just a fiesty little scrapper!


(above) This is about what we did all day, but it was great hanging out with everyone and getting a couple fish!

I won't be back till next spring, but lets hope it's better than this year!
-Ryan

Pyramid Lake Trip - April 14-16 2011

Well, another Pyramid trip came about, and we went for it! We aren't pro's by any means, but we can catch a few fish!

Thursday, April 14

Thursday morning started off with Tom leaving Mammoth and myself leaving Danville, both to end up at Pyramid Lake, about 30 miles north of Reno, NV.
We arrived around 11am and got the trailer all setup and then tied our rigs up.
We started fishing around 1pm. Action was steady, with a lot of fish on the indicator. There was a good chop coming from the east, which made the indicators bounce nicely. The wind never became too much of an issue.

Below: Nice slot male

Below: Tom with a nice male:


Below: Look at the colors on this thing!


Below: Long and skinny!



Below: Took that snowcone midge!


Below: Nice fish:

Friday, April 15

Friday we got up super early, as ladders were being staked around 5-5:15AM. We got out there and got a few fish early, but it slowed down a little.

I saw a friend I recognized from the internet, so I went over and talked with Mike a bit. He offered to take me out on his boat and show me one of his techniques. We ended up getting a nice fish for him up at the North Nets, just north of the buoy line.

I came back, only to find out Tom had landed a nice fish, but unfortunately, I had the camera, and he forgot his. I guess without a picture, it's a fish story right?

We fished through the afternoon with a slow but steady bite, but the evening west wind set in, and the bite was pretty slow.

Alby and Brett showed up, we had a good time shootin' the breeze around the campfire!

Below: Beautiful morning:


Below: Nothin like an early morning bendo at sunrise!!


Below: Heaven, let that light shine down....


Below: Mike with a bigger fish:


Below: Tom showin the goods


Below: Longggg one:


Below: This loon kept 'fishing' in front of us by 'snorkeling' around looking for fish, beautiful bird, amazing how they do this. I'd never seen one before!


Below: Nice sunset for the night:

Saturday, April 16

Alby and Tom got up around 5 and staked the ladders. I made it out there around 6, and they already had a few fish.

I ended up with a couple, but then it slowed down again, as usual. Then the mid day slumber set in, and we took a break, and drove up to Crosby's. First time I had ever been in there, pretty cool little lodge.

We came back, the fishing continued to be slow, we got a few. I did notice some guys indicator fishing south of us doing quite good, he was running a double black snow cone. They were getting hits maybe every 45 minutes. Slow for steady for them, but I struggled. The evening bite just left us with one fish for Alby, albeit a nice one!

Below: Fish Saturday morning:


Below: Tom with a nice male:


Below: Nice fish caught strippin' on the 9 wt.



Below: Just an amazing day out there, 70 degrees, I don't know how it could be more perfect... well... the fishing was pretty slow:


Below: I had been fishing for a couple hours without any action while Alby nursed his hangover. Then he came out, and landed this NICE fish on his second cast. We didn't catch another fish after this:


Below: The west winds picked up, and we tried hard, but nothing panned out besides this nice sunset:

Sunday, April 17

We got up early and packed up, and were out of there by 830am. I drove by Lake Tahoe and then down to the American River near Auburn on the way home.

Other notes:

Weather: Mid 60's up to 70 during the day, Low 40's at night. FULLLLLL MOON!! I think this killed the fishing!

Flies: Almost everything worked it seemed like. Some hot flies were darker wooly buggers, white beetle, black beetle, snow cone midge, red mahalo. Those guys catching a lot were using 2 snow cone black midges.