Pyramid Lake. 10-11-12 March 08
Left MRY about 1030 after a routine dentists visit, and arrived at the Pyramid Lake store at about 1645. Note, if you come MacCarran Rd to Pyramid Way, you miss the cheap gas on Pyramid Way, in addition to being in surface road traffic for an extra 10 miles.
After some internal debate, I decided not to spend the $9 for an hour and a half of fishing that day, but to just buy Tues, Wed, Thurs license. Drove to the Trailer, but there was no one there. No surprise, I thought I saw the group’s vehicles parked at the South Nets. Drove down to look at a couple of other places. No one fishing at Separator, but Pelican Beach had a couple of dozen folks fishing from ladders, float tubes and boats. I drove over the little hump to the cove south of the boat ramp and parked. Looking down onto the cove beach, there were four folks fishing. All seemed to be bobicating, but one may have been stripping a bugger and beetle. Watched for about ten minutes, one fish caught by a bobicator. No other action. Went back to Pelican beach itself, and watched for about 15 minutes. Saw no fish caught. Given the number of fishers, I was a bit surprised.
Headed back to the trailer, getting there about 1800. GM was there, it was his night to get dinner. He confirmed that the others were at the South Nets, and had had a good day, although the afternoon had been a bit slow. I congratulated myself on saving $9. We chatted, had a Guinness and Greg worked on getting dinner ready. I set up my rods for the next day, organized my fly boxes into a fanny pack for stripping and a fanny pack for nymphing. I figured that since I had to come back to the truck to switch rods, I might as well be set up to switch fanny packs as well.
The rest of the group got back a bit after 1900. The bite had turned on just after GM left, and everyone had caught more fish. SD and Jim were stripping white and chartreuse beetles ahead of black wooly buggers, while BR (the Queen of the Midgers) was fishing midge nymphs. Both methods had produced well. I flagellated myself for being penny wise.
Dinner was chili, salad, and sour dough bread, with the occasional adult beverage to wash it down. I had brought a jar of Jameson’s and a bunch of Guinness, Jim had his half gallon of Seagram’s 7, BR had some brand of Bourbon. SD had brought a 14 year old Scapa single malt scotch – it was damn good. He also had a couple of twelvers of Guinness.
After dinner, I went to set up the thirty cup coffee pot. It is one of my better known contributions to these affairs. It keeps us from having to brew three or four of those dinky little ten cup pots. To my horror, I discovered that I had inadvertently grabbed two bags of whole bean coffee (Peet’s), when I thought I had ground. There was, of course, no coffee grinder in the trailer, and the store at Crosbies, just next door, was closed. Fortunately for me, there was enough of some off brand in a two pound can to make a full pot, so I didn’t have to grind the beans with a pair of pliers…
As planned, we got up about 0615 the next morning, except for Jim, who got up around 0500, started the coffee, and left the trailer to go fish about the time the rest of us were finishing our first cup of coffee. We all got to the South Nets at 0705, to find Jim already on his ladder, casting.
We set up as quickly as possible and joined him. Jim was about 100 feet off the shore when we got there, and was getting an occasional take at the very end of his cast. He is a very long caster, and I was getting nothing. After about a half hour, we all decided to move out a ways, and we did. The line we eventually picked required me to be up over my belly button in water when I set up my ladder, but it was very calm. Of course, the fanny pack was just above my fanny, and therefore under water. I decided it would dry out eventually.
After about an hour of slinging a sinking head as far as I could, letting it sink, and then stripping it back in, my arm and back were starting to get sore, so I waded back to shore, to switch methods. Laid my stripping boxes out to dry (it was a gorgeous day, damn the luck) took two nymph boxes in my jacket pockets, swapped out some coffee, grabbed my nymphing rod, and waded back out to the ladder. By this time everyone but me had landed a fish, but that is not unusual. Jim had had ten takes, and landed five fish.
GM had arrived about twenty minutes after the rest of us and hooked and landed a fish within ten minutes. I finally hooked one about 0930, but quickly lost it, so I do not know which nymph it took. I spent the day switching back and forth between stripping and nymphing, and finally caught two fish in the early afternoon on a dark green Teeny Nymph, fished under a Red Headed Accordion Player.
The second one really tore the Teeny up, but I kept fishing it, because I only had two of them with me, and no green pheasant tail to make more. We ate lunch on the beach, during a spell when the sun was bright and there was no wind at all, and no one was catching fish anyway. The beach was remarkably uncrowded – maybe a half dozen folks beside the four of us. (Gm had had to leave about 11.)
The fishing turned pretty slow about 11, and stayed that way. I kept switching back and forth. I did finally put on a Chartreuse and White beetle, because Jim was getting almost all of his fish on one. I also had on a black with green highlights Wooly Bugger. I had had a black over pink beetle, reportedly the hot fly the week before, but it did nothing.
It finally got so slow that Jim decided to drive into Sparks (45 minutes away) to buy a charger for his cell phone. He also agreed to buy a coffee grinder for me, so we could have coffee. He likes coffee too. He was gone for about two hours, during which I caught no fish, and BR and SD only got one or two.
About 1830, SD left to start supper (Albondigas Soup). BR gave up very shortly there after, but Jim and I stayed on our ladders, determined to bitter end it. Sometimes being stubborn pays off. About 1855, we got into a pod of fish, and were very busy until we quit at a half hour after sunset (as required by the regs.) I don’t know how many Jim got, but I got five; four on the White and Chartreuse beetle, and one on the Wooly Bugger. I think Jim only got two or three, but he was very busy cheering me on.
We got back to the trailer at 1945, bragged about the late evening bite, ate dinner, told lies for awhile, set up the coffee pot, and went to bed, planning another oh-dark hundred day.
Sure enough, we got one. Up and out early. Everyone on their ladders (at the deep line) by 0700. Unlike the day before, the bite was very slow. I got a fish mid morning on the black wooly bugger, Jim was getting a few, and BR was getting one occasionally. SD could not buy a bite. I was switching back and forth again, walking to and from the beach just to break the monotony. Just before noon I hooked and landed a nice fish on the Red Headed Accordion Player, but after I got the fish off, I noticed my last Teeny nymph was gone. I put on a small black midge, but never did get a bite on it. There was a storm moving in from the west, and a few times there was a pretty dark spot as heavy clouds rolled through, so I tied on my black over pink beetle again. Sometime mid afternoon, I hooked and landed a nice fish on that fly, making three fish on three flies.
Wednesday night was my night to cook supper (spaghetti with meat sauce and sausage, bread, salad) so I had to knock off at 1845 to go heat things up. That was made up for by the fact that I did not have to do dishes that night. In fact, I think I only did dishes one or two nights,. Everyone took their turn. It was so slow that BR had already given up and gone to the trailer to take a shower and see if there was a basketball game on at Crosbie’s. She had already started the spaghetti water heating when I got home. I guess I could have fished another twenty minutes or so (had I known), but the evening bite never did turn on. By then there was a pretty strong wind, directly at our backs, making long casts an interesting proposition, and chopping the water up pretty well. Once that really got started, no one had a strike.
During the day, while we were all catching nothing, a guy just north of us was consistently catching fish. Jim had chatted with him the day before, and given him a couple of white over chartreuse beetles, on which the guy caught some fish. So, when Jim asked what he was using, he not only told him, he showed him the fly, and gave him the only spare he had. It was a #8 scud hook black midge, with a red wire rib and a sparkly white head. Jim promptly caught a fish on it, then cut it off and gave it to SD, who still had not caught a fish. SD got one pretty quickly, but then the blow started and the bite quit. After the spaghetti that night, the tying gear came out, and we took turns tying a few of the black midge pattern for the next day. We had another crack of dawn day planned, so again we were in bed by 11.
We got up between 0600 and 0615 (except for Jim). It was blowing really hard, 15 to 20 knots, right out of the west. Traditionally, a strong west wind is the worst wind to fish at Pyramid, because it blows all the food out to the fish, so they don’t have to come out of the deep water. It was spitting rain too. That is a good thing, but the wind was giving people the grumpies. Jim hadn’t even left the trailer at 0700. At 0715 he couldn’t stand it any more, and he went to see if the more wind sheltered beaches were fishable. BR went and got her NOAA radio to see what the pros were saying. They were saying 15 to 20 knots, gusting to thirty knots, probable rain, snow down to 4000 feet in the evening, with no let up until Saturday afternoon. This being Thursday morning, and Donner Pass being well over 7000 feet, we began thinking of bagging the rest of the trip. About 0730 Jim came back. He reported that Separator was blown out, Windless Bay might be barely fishable, and Pelican Beach was probably not fishable, although a few folks were trying.
That pretty well tore it. We cleaned up the trailer, BR went and paid our rent (they even refunded Thursday and Friday night!!), and we headed over the pass. I made a brief stop at the new Cabela’s just west of Reno. It’s quite a layout. The fly fishing section is okay, but no better than the San Jose Fly Shop by any measure. Home safe and sound at 1900 but disappointed at not using the new fly. Next time for sure!
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Now that, is freakin report. Good on ya!
