Ryan came up from San Francisco this weekend for some fishing in the Reno area.  We hit the Truckee River Saturday morning, it was a little windy and the river was running a little high and slightly off color. Ryan caught two decent trout and a whitefish at the first spot we tried, but I was fishless.  For the next three hours we tried various spots around town, but didn’t catch anything.  I was skunked for the first time in a very long time on the Truckee and Ryan was delighted.  He spent the evening at the bar I work at watching basketball and informing anyone who would listen that he had caught fish and I didn’t, I almost kicked him out.  Sunday morning we left Reno at 5 a.m. and headed up to Pyramid Lake for some cutts.  When we got to the lake a little after 6 there were already about 20 guys perched on their ladders, and several were hooked up to fish.  The way to fish Pyramid is to wade out as far as you can, and then climb up on a six foot ladder to fish.  You cast out to the shelf, let your flies sink to the bottom and then strip them in.  We rigged up with a dark bugger and a white foam beetle and began to cast and strip.  All around us people were landing fish, including a teenage boy on the ladder next to me.  This kid could hardly cast, yet he was hauling in fish at an amazing rate.  His dad was slaying them too, I asked them what fly they were using and they ignored me.  A few minutes later I asked again and the dad told me they were using dark flies, but he wouldn’t tell me which color or pattern, thanks.  For the next couple of hours we thrashed the water in vain as people all around us caught fish after fish.  Finally Ryan hooked a beast on a black bugger, but the fly pulled out after a long fight.  My waders leaked terribly and I was soaking wet and miserable.  I couldn’t stand to see that stupid kid catch anymore fish, so I moved my ladder a few hundred feet down the shore.  My luck didn’t improve any at the new spot but I kept casting anyway, determined to catch a fish.  At one point my ladder tipped over and I fell into the chest deep water, providing entertainment for everyone around me.  We got out to warm up and eat some lunch, then decided to try another spot.  Soon after we got to the new beach Ryan started hooking up with fish.  He landed three nice fish in about an hour on a black bugger (pictured below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At this point I was ready to shoot myself in the head, I was casting out the same distance as everybody else, I was waiting the same amount of time before retrieving my flies and I was stripping them in at the same rate.  Finally at about 4 o’clock I hooked a fish.  While I was fighting it Ryan hooked up again and we landed a nice double (pictured below).  Ryan’s fish is the female and mine is the male on the bottom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                     Mine is bigger

 

 

I hooked a few more fish after that, but didn’t land any more.  We quit at about 5, I was borderline hypothermic and shivering uncontrollably because my ladder had tipped over again, dumping me into the icy lake.  For some reason I never do any good at Pyramid Lake, I always use the same tactics that reward everyone else, but they don’t work for me.  The fish are always big, I’ve never seen one landed that was smaller than 18”, but they don’t fight very well.  They don’t jump and their runs are short and weak.