The Difference a Week can Make

The last two weeks on Pyramid were on fire for just about everyone, but all good things must come to an end. The fishing last weekend slowed down just in time for the onslaught of yahoos that are the Presidents Day Fishing Derby crowd. For 2 weekends in February every shoreline and trollable piece of water is covered with folks trying to nab a winning fish. These fishing tournaments have always disappiointed me because its basically a fish kill for anything over 7lbs that hit the net. I understand people keep fish and that it is part of the sport, but so many beautiful fish are taken and killed during these derbys at Pyramid. I do want to say that not everyone that is weighing in fish is killing them as I witnessed a fly fisherman Sunday run a still kicking 10lb fish to the scales, drop him back in a large cooler full of water and then quickly drove down to the nets to release it. That made me pretty stoked to see.

Back to "report". Saturday was a pretty slow day. Bob, Dan and myself headed out for what we hoped would be another awesome weekend. We showed up to our favorite little beach around 10 to an already packeed point. We moved into the bay and fished for an hour with no takers. Jumped in the rigs and headed to Monument and Shot Dog for nothing. Empty handed we decided to call it quits since Bob, being a new father(congratulations darling), had to get home to a wife and child.

Sunday eneded up being a little better for us. We were able to bring 4 to shore in a few hours and actually saw other catching fish as well. The bite seemed to get a little better as the wind picked up. Here are some of the fish we were able to get on Sunday.

Finally no iPhone pictures


they were all this size



Hopefully this nasty front moving through the area this week will stir things up out there and get those fish active again. If not, the size 16 BWOs are starting to come off on the river so get down there and soak a stack.

Pyramid Lake - Fish Porn

If I had to choose a single word to describe the winter fishing that Pyramid Lake is experiencing right now it would be stupendous.

Day 1 Saturday morning I was up at 8 tying up some flies in preperation to meet up with Tom for some for some double-haul practice out at Pyramid. By the time I had the truck loaded Tom had already been fishing for an hour or so near Shotdog and Seperator with no luck. We decided to meet at Indian Head with hopes of the light crowds we had experienced last weekend... no such luck. There must have been 6 or so rigs parked on the beach when we arrived. All the choice spots on the point had been taken and Tom had snagged a position in the middle of the bay. Immediately we noticed the guys on the point catching fish after fish. Some of the guys were throwing flies, some throwing jigs and more yet throwing a Carolina Rig(more commonly used for bass fishing) with a beetle or tadpole as the bait. Finally it was our turn as I hoooked into our first fish of the day which i lost maneuvering for a beach landing. We went on to catch 13 fish(fish porn to come) for the 3 of us in 5 hours with about as many fish lost. There is something to be said about a 60 degree day at Pyramid Lake in the beginning of February and the fish thought so too. We fished a variety of flies today with the best producers being anything in brown or olive. Tom got a few to take a white beetle and I landed one on an oilcan beetle with a sparkle purple chenile. Here is some of the promised fish porn:

My first fish

One of Dans many fish

Some McMillan love



And this was the big fish of the day. No tape measure unfortunately.

Of the 13 fish we were able to land that day the average size was right about 20-21" with a couple smaller and a couple bigger thrown in.

Day 2 Got on the water Sunday morning about an hour earlier than the day before and we were the only guys on the point. My first cast in this spot rewarded me with a nice 21" cutt. We proceeded to catch 6 between the three of us with the biggest being 22". The flavor today was anything in brown or olive.. the beetles got no love. More fish porn:






We talked with a couple folks on Sunday who said the entire week out there has been on fire. With 2 weeks of warm weather and another week of great conditions coming up there is no excuse not to get out there and get a few. The reports from all over the lake are coming back as excellent. Most fish are between 18-22" with an occasional kicker over 24". The spinning guys are tossing brightly colored charteruese jigs and beetles and the fly guys are getting them on various colored beetles and natural colored buggers.

See you out there Saturday.

Pyramid Lake - More of the Usual

A friend of ours, Dan, was able to pull himself off the couch long enough to hit Pyramid Lake before heading to work. He started at Popcorn around 9am throwing a standard purple and black wooly bugger stack. After an hour or so he moved to hip-hop beach(Blockhouse) and hooked up immediately with a cute little 18" cut. No other fish to the beach that day but 1 is all you need to keep you coming back. He said there were 6 guys fishing Blockhouse and it was a wednesday in February. If you have never fished Pyramid Lake and plan on coming and if you are looking for solitude do not go to Blockhouse.



Seems all of our fish and the fish we have been seeing others catch this winter have been right about this size. If the weather stays like this and spring is as early as the groundhog predicted then we should be getting a full push of fish moving shallow in no time.