Pyramid Lake offered challenging conditions this year, with a winter storm holding over the area, falling barometric pressure, and many days of cold north winds.
In addition, the lake level had dropped approximately 3 feet versus last year exposing more of the bottom to sunlight. This caused an explosion of moss which stuck to your fly.
The result was slow fishing in the morning, with little feeding activity during the day or in the evening.
The only alternative was to change things up; fishing in the same manner as the past was not going to work. After trying different approaches we decided to:
· Rotate through multiple locations on the lake to find the fish
· Watch other anglers to see if fish were being caught before setting up in a new spot
· Use custom designed flies with a smaller profile and frequently changing colors
· Fishing higher and sometimes lower in the water column to find fish
This is another example of how you must “Break the Code” to catch fish. A previous Adventure Letter explains this process in detail if you would like more information.
Twenty six inch cutthroat trout
Once we figured things out, two of us were able to land seventeen fish, the largest of which was twelve pounds. All of the fish were netted, handled carefully, and released unharmed.
My fishing partner was on fire; most of the fish were his. Heck I even tried standing on one leg, closing one eye and twirling the line over my head before making a cast, which is what he was doing, but all to no avail.
Just kidding about standing on one leg; but I tried everything else including using identical custom Bear River Tackle flies and still his luck was insurmountable. It was a pleasure just to be the net man and celebrate his success!
Twelve pound cutthroat trout, weighed in a net
Yes, the fishing was challenging but we did considerably better than the majority of other anglers, including those with guides.
This is a beautiful location, and we were blessed with a great trip. Hopefully your fly fishing trips will also be excellent this year!
Go fly fishing
Glenn Personey
President
Bear River Tackle