I could never have imagined the fishing trips fly fishing would take me on when I first picked up a fly rod. Driving twelve hours to stand on a ladder and fish for the biggest cutthroat in the world was a trip I never saw coming.
Since 2019, my friend Lane and I have traveled to Pyramid Lake to fish for the enormous cutthroat that inhabits its waters. Each trip comes with its own challenges, but I couldn’t imagine a spring without it. Our 2024 trip came with lousy weather, difficult fishing, and some of the biggest fish of my life. Here is a recap of our trip and why this fishery is so special.
About Pyramid Lake
Pyramid Lake has exploded in the last few years as one of the most popular fishing trips among fly fishermen in the Western US. The lake is a remnant of an inland sea (Lahontan Lake) that once covered Western Nevada. It is famous for the large strain of cutthroat trout known as Lahontan cutthroat. Due to the ecosystem and the cutthroats’ genetics, these trout grow to unheard-of proportions.
While I am no expert on the lake, here are a few facts that make this lake so unique.
- Pyramid Lake is an endorheic lake, meaning it has no outflow. The Truckee River is the primary inflow.
- The lake’s salinity is approximately 1/6th of the ocean.
- Two strains of Lahontan Cutthroat inhabit the lake, the pilot peak and summit strain.
- The lake is on the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Reservation and has special fishing regulations because of this.
Pyramid Lake Fishing Recap
The largest cutthroat in the world inspired Lane and I to make our first trip to Pyramid Lake in 2019. Since then, we have caught our fair share of Lahontan cutthroat, but the fish are just a small part of what keeps us coming back.
Pyramid Lake is one of the most challenging fisheries I have ever fished. This is why I get the urge every spring to make this trip happen, the array of challenges it throws at us.
It all starts with the travel. If you’re traveling from the Greater Yellowstone Region, it is just about a half-day drive. Trying to make this drive around work led us to drive overnight this year. Lane, Josh (another fishy friend), and I arrived at the lake around 2:30 am in 40 mph winds and a slight rain. Not great weather to set up a tent, so the front seat was where we tried to get a few hours of sleep before fishing time. Luckily, the roads were clear, but as you know, traveling through eastern Idaho in February and March can be dicey.
Once you take the time and effort to travel to the lake, you want to make your few days of fishing count. After two hours of poor sleep, we woke up Thursday morning to a typical day of fishing Pyramid.
What does a typical day of fishing Pyramid Lake look like?
Well, we wake up around 4:30 am to secure our spot on the lake and take advantage of the first light of fishing. The morning hours have historically been our most productive, so we take full advantage of this time.
We start fishing an hour before sunrise (usually around 5:45 am) and fish until 6:00 pm. We take minimal breaks throughout the day to maximize the time our flies are in the water. You never know when the cutthroat of your dreams will swim by. During the 12-hour day of fishing, you may have long stretches without hooking a fish. On this trip, we each had slow stints lasting up to 12 hours of fishing without hooking a fish. The mental toughness it takes to stay in the game long enough to succeed is hard for many anglers.
We deal with rain and howling winds throughout the day. The bad weather makes for better fishing, but standing in it for 12 hours is not pleasing. Repeat this process multiple days in a row, and you MIGHT have a shot at a 10+ pound cutthroat.
Many see pictures of big cutthroat and assume that all you have to do is show up and that you’re guaranteed a 10+ pound fish. This is far from the truth. It has taken us years to hone in our leaders, what flies work best, and where to fish along the 30 miles of shoreline. With the weather and the difficult fishing, this is not a trip for the faint of heart.
Looking back on this year’s trip, I realize it was more than successful from a fishing perspective. However, it did not feel that way at the moment. Going hours and hours without hooking a fish makes the fishing feel slow. Josh started the trip with four fish in the first few hours, only to catch one fish in the last two full days of fishing. It just goes that way sometimes at the salty pond.
At the end of the trip, we estimated 23 fish were landed between three guys. With each of us fishing for about 38 hours, we fished for about 114 hours combined. The math comes out to be 4.95 hours between fish caught. That is almost five hours of staring at a bobber without landing a fish. If you have never heard of bobber burn, go to Pyramid Lake, and you’ll see it for yourself.
The average size of the fish seemed to be bigger this year compared to previous years. Most of the fish I caught this year were over 5 lbs, with the largest weighing 12 lbs and the second largest at 10 lbs. These were a few of my biggest Lahontan cutthroat trout to date.
2024 was our first year having moderate success stripping flies. Our primary method in previous years has been suspending flies under indicators. While the bobber was still productive on this year’s trip, we caught seven or eight fish on the strip. There is something special about a big cutthroat destroying a stripped fly after hours of stripping. This success came after three trips tinkering with our flies, leaders, and lines to find the most effective setup for stripping flies. We still have a lot to learn.
While getting lost in the fishing is easy, it is important to understand that Pyramid Lake is uniquely beautiful. The shoreline is covered in ancient tufa rock, and the water has a green/blue tint unlike any other lake I have seen. The view of the Sierra Nevadas is also stunning, especially at sunrise while making your first cast.
The fish are amazing, but the beautiful scenery and the challenges I have described are why we return to Pyramid Lake. Not to mention the fantastic people I share the lake with every year, creating memories and connections that will last a lifetime. Fishing is much more than the fish caught; a trip to Pyramid Lake epitomizes that.
My Setup
Two techniques are most popular on Pyramid Lake: stripping flies on a sinking line and suspending flies under an indicator on a floating line. Both can be effective, but the leader is the most crucial part of both techniques. Here is a breakdown of how I fish both methods.
Indicator Setup
Rod: 9-foot 8-weight Echo Streamer X
Line: Scientific Anglers Mastery MPX 8 WT Floating Line
Leader: My pyramid lake leader starts with 3 feet of maxima chameleon (20lb) to a tippet ring, then 8 feet of 2x fluorocarbon to another tippet ring, then two tags from the second tippet ring that leads to my flies. One tag is 4 inches while the other is 24 inches, usually 2x fluorocarbon to the flies. See the diagram below.
Flies: Chironomids and balanced leeches (see below for specific patterns)
Stripping Setup
Rod: Rod: 9-foot 8 weight Echo Streamer X
Line: Airflo Streamer Max Shovelhead 280 Grain
Leader: Starting with 3-4 feet of 20lb maxima ultragreen as the butt section, I attach a swivel with two tags of 12 lb Maxima ultragreen. The first tag end is 6 inches long to my first fly. The second tag end is about 5 feet long to my second fly. See the diagram below.
Flies: Cyclops Beetles and Pyramid beetle
On this trip, we caught fish using a variety of fly patterns. It never felt like we had fish dialed in on one specific pattern. Wine chironomids always seem to be our go-to flies when using a bobber. The key to these flies is incorporating enough weight to detect strikes on the suspension rig, especially in the waves. Many of my chironomids were tied with tungsten beads to accomplish this.
The Cyclops beetles were our most productive flies when stripping, though Lane caught a few on other patterns. Fishing foam flies on sinking lines makes for a unique retrieve that lake fish seem to love. This technique is new to me, and I still have much to learn when stripping flies on lakes.
Here are a few patterns that were most successful for me as well as a reminder to tie on good hooks for your Pyramid Lake trip. Luckily, I was able to land the fish that bent my hook out.
What I Learned
2024 was our first year bringing ladders down to the lake. While odd, fishing Pyramid Lake with ladders is very popular. The lake has a defined shelf around the shoreline, where the bottom drops from a few feet deep to 8+ feet deep. This shelf is close to the shoreline in specific locations but is often just out of casting distance without using a ladder. The shelf is where many fish cruise to feed, so casting to the shelf is critical to success on Pyramid. Utilizing a ladder allows anglers to access this shelf without being miserably cold standing in the water all day.
This year, I learned how beneficial using a ladder can be when fishing Pyramid Lake. The ladders allowed us to fish many locations on the shoreline we previously weren’t able to fish effectively. The ladders were surprisingly stable and fared well in the wind and waves. Only when the waves started white capping did the ladders start to tip into the water.
While not necessary, I highly recommend ladders for Pyramid Lake if you are trying to escape the crowded rocks and explore the lake’s shoreline to its greatest potential. I plan to bring a ladder for any future trips to the lake.
What Left Me Curious?
We fish Pyramid Lake harder than any other fishery in our local area. We fish from sun up to sun down, keeping our flies in the water for as long as possible.
How would the fishing be if I fished my local lakes as hard as I do Pyramid? I rarely fish lakes like Hebgen or Henry’s Lake like I do Pyramid, and am curious what fish I would run into. Maybe I would find some bigger fish in the lakes by fishing early in the morning and late at night.
It would be interesting to apply the mindset we have at Pyramid to some of our local fisheries. I would learn a lot about these fisheries and stumble into good feeding windows I didn’t know about. Maybe I’ll try it this year and let you know how it goes.
I hope this recap of Pyramid Lake is insightful and helps you on your next trip to the salty pond. Feel free to reach out with further questions, as I love talking about this remarkable fishery.
