We arrived at Pyramid Lake last Saturday night in the pitch black with high hopes. I had done my research and knew exactly what we needed to do, I had a print out of which beaches to fish when and we had 11 of our 12 rods on board; we were ready to crush some trout.
Look at the size of that lake – how the heck do we find fish in there?
Things don’t always work out the way that you expect. First the truck wouldn’t start.
We woke up Sunday morning to a truck that would turn over but not catch. An amazing local named Ed hooked it up with ether and we were off – 3 hours later than we wanted. We spent the day checking out beaches, praying that the truck would continue starting, and talking to folks about what or what not to use and where to go. We got good advice, we also got bad advice, although we didn’t know it at the time. No fish were caught, but thanks to the non-starting truck we only fished for a few hours, so no big deal.
Aimee on her ladder casting for miles in the sunset
Monday the truck started. We fished, I worked, Aimee took care of George, grocery shopped in Reno, took photos did some writing. Aimee hooked one fish, but we didn’t land it, we broke one rod and caught no fish.
Tuesday the truck wouldn’t start. We called our mechanic in Bend and he correctly diagnosed the major problem as a bad glow plug relay over the phone. Good mechanics are amazing. Unfortunately the block heater plug also broke so that would need to be replaced as well. We fished very little as we had to make another trip into Reno to get the parts that we needed to verify the diagnosis and fix the block heater. During our brief time fishing Aimee hooked another fish that we also failed to land (her net man was slacking!)
George watching his parents fumble around on the water.
Wednesday saw another trip to Reno to get the new glow plug relay. We fished. We got no bites and had no fun (not exactly true, but at this point I had put in almost 10 hours on the water and hadn’t even had a bump). The high point of the day was successfully installing the glow plug relay. Boom – working truck! Of course during the truck repair a lock on one of the storage compartments on the trailer broke…. Are we having fun yet?
@$%&^!!
Thursday the truck started no problem. We fished. I got no bites. But Aimee caught one!! She has had the hot rod the whole time so far (she attributes her success to a new fishing beanie that she crocheted when we got here). We also learned that some of the advice that we had received was bad and that the setup that we had been using was really unlikely to work. Aimee was testing out our new rig when she netted the first fish of the trip. Stupid little flies with no motion are the way to go, who knew? Oh yeah, we also found a leak in the plumbing of the trailer. Aimee casually mentioned that there was a puddle on the floor and did I know where that was coming from? No I did not. We took some stuff apart and now know how the kitchen faucet is plumbed. We also found the leak – it was coming from the hot water valve, there had been a pinched gasket – and fixed it. Booyeah!
Aimee kicking some Lahontan butt!
Friday is here. The truck is working, we have a plan to fix the lock on the trailer and managed to get out on the water for dawn patrol for the second time all week. I headed down to the water first with George and Aimee coming after George had his first second breakfast (not really sure how to label all his meals, dude eats like 7 time a day).
Epic sunrises around here.
I had my very first bite on my first cast. I only know it was a bite because I wasn’t fishing yet and hadn’t let my flies sink and got a tug. Aimee swears I have been having bites all week, but I’m pretty sure they were just the bottom. Once Aimee and George showed up I took the little man and the bobber rod and resigned myself to futilely watching a bobber until George decided it was time for me to go back to work. Who knew that 8-10lb cutthroat trout eat giant size 6 midges that are just sitting there? Thanks to Aimee for netting my first fish of the trip (thanks are definitely due since she had to jump off her ladder, drag it and her rod to shore, run back out to where I was, grab the net and then try to fit a huge fish in a tiny net). It was awesome.
Aimee working wonders with the net.
Shortly thereafter I went back to work. Later Aimee took George for a walk and landed another fish!! She is a machine, this time hooking, fighting and landing the fish by herself with George in the chest pack. Epic! After that we fixed the lock on the trailer, fixed another leak from the kitchen sink (definitely caused by our fix on the previous leak) and ate delicious pork chops.
Hey, there are fish in this lake!
Things are looking up. We have had bites (2 for me that I know of), we have caught fish, we have tied flies that worked, we have found at least one spot that is holding fish consistently and we are psyched. One more week to try to catch that 30 pounder!!
