We didn't get on the water til about 10 am, starting at Pelican just to try a beach that I rarely hit while the others hit the South Nets beach. The wind was already blowing and the bay at Pelican had a muddy water line out to about a hundred feet off shore. The bay it self was relatively calm so I paddled my pontoon out to the northern point and hit the rough water. Stripping a chub pattern trailing a white beetle produced a nice 6lb native Summit cutt on the first pass but text messages from Brandon and Steve at South Nets had me itching to move. An hour of no more action sent me on the move to join the guys.
The report from the Nets had only about 20 guys fishing but everyone seemed to be hooking up with plenty of big fish being caught and released. Brandon pulled in a nice 31 inch cutt and we actually managed to get some decent pics of it. Through out the remainder of the day til sun-down I was frustratingly skunked on the pontoon while gents casting from ladders seemed to be catching fish at a good clip all day. Most of them looked to be stripping buggers and beetles. The water was extremely rough, to the point that I almost thought better of being out there but I've got a life jacket, a safety line tied to the pontoon and I'm only a few yards from the shelf.
The guys on ladders looked to have it way worse. While I was enjoying the roller coaster ride on the pontoon, they had to brave continual Pyramid Lake water boarding and winds from the east blowing directly in their face.
At the end of the day, a fella hooked up and braved the 75 yard walk through the horrendous breakers back to the shore line to land a monster. From my vantage, I'd guess that pig weighed in at 20+ and like all good boys and girls he let er go for one us to catch another day. In trying to get close enough to see but still avoid the breakers I hooked up with a good tugger and had to do a SEAL beach insertion to get back to shore and land the thing. All told the fish might have tipped the scales at 5lbs but the pontoon surfing fish fight experience was the real trophy. That fish also highlighted the draw backs of fishing from the pontoon. When fish are in shallow, the ladder guys get all the love while you watch from a distance wishing you were an asshole willing to drift closer to shore and fish the same water.
When the sun went down, it was a day well worth spending out at the lake, regardless of the wind chapped face and wave motion that lingered 45 minutes after getting off the water. If you too would like the confidence of fishing the big water when the wind blows, visit your local Marine Corps recruiter, or go buy your self a pair of camo pants, a paint ball gun and start watching prepper reality
TV. A word of caution though, the latter option will not actually make you any safer but you'll think so and that's probably worth something! Semper Fi.
Looking to this weekend, another system is slated to start blowing through on Friday the 27th lingering through the weekend. If had the free time, I'd try to be on the water this evening, tomorrow and Saturday. Sunday will likely be the back-side of the low but that's the day I'll be able to make it out so with any luck, the system will blow through quickly, or slowly putting Sunday in the midst of the low pressure or on the safe side of the backend. Another system is in line for early next week as well.
-Bobby
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