Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition Issue 2724 Nov 9-23 | Page 16

16 Nov 9 - 23, 2018 MAP FEATURE VOL.37 • ISS. 24 By Paul Kneeland A spectacular cloudy sunrise at Pyramid Lake. T Photo by PAUL KNEELAND, Fish Sniffer Staff. Opening Days at Pyramid! he October opening of trout season at Pyramid Lake is a date my friends and I will never miss. The fishing at this spectacular desert lake is excellent almost all year, but the opener is something else altogether! I actually missed the Monday opener this year because my puppy had a doctor appointment, but my friend Brian Garcia of Colfax and I went up to the lake on Monday afternoon, where we met Mark Kalinowski, John Brassfield and Dave Barsi, all who fished on Mark’s beautiful 22-foot Rogue Jet. We stayed with them at their trailer from Crosby Lodge and had a good dinner at Crosby’s as well. Tuesday morning we launched The Fish Sniffer Rogue Jet 22’ Coastal at 6 am with a bunch of other boats. The weather was very unusual, with a slight north breeze of about 58 degrees and clouds and overcast all over the lake. Brian and I headed over to the east side and started trolling at the south end of Hell’s Kitchen. The water temperature was 67 degrees and very clear. We hadn’t gone 100 feet when a fat cutthroat ripped the line off Brian’s downrigger. After a spirited fight, I netted a beautiful 22 inch, 3 ½ pound trout. A few minutes later, my rod popped off the rigger and I was into a nice fish. This one was pretty heavy, and a few minutes later, Brian netted a gorgeous 8-pound cutthroat! What a way to start the day!! Tom Hamada of Loomis shows off his 16 pound Pyramid Lake cutthroat. Photo by MIKE STEARS, Sacramento. And, typical of the opening week at Pyramid Lake, the action never slowed down. We trolled the length of Hell’s Kitchen and up north a little as well, and had fish on constantly. We could see lots of marks on the Lowrance graph at 60 feet, and they were there for the next 2 days. We were trolling fairly fast at 2.5 to 3.0 mph, and had a lot of blowback on the downrigger lines. My downrigger said it was out 80 feet, but I wouldn’t touch bottom until we came into 60 feet of water. For once, we didn’t spend a lot of time changing lures! No need to when you are constantly hooking fish. Fish Sniffer publisher Paul Kneeland with a fat 11lb 4oz Our best offerings were cutthroat that took a watermelon Lyman lure at 70 feet deep. Lyman lures in “water- Photo by BRIAN GARCIA, Colfax. melon” and “dill pickle” Wednesday morning was again colors, 4-inch Doctor Spoons in “triple overcast, but with not much wind. threat” color, and the B-21 spoon from We headed back to the east side and Bottom Line tackle in “bloody frog” spent all day at the north end of Hell’s color. Kitchen. They say never to leave fish to We ended Tuesday with a total of 46 find fish, so we stayed on them! cutthroat landed, with the largest a fat It was a beautiful morning, with 10 lb. 4 oz fish that slammed a water- broken clouds over the lake shim- melon Lyman in 70 feet of water. We had 3 trout over 8 pounds, and many in mering in the refracted light of the rising sun! We even got rained on for the 5 to 7-pound range. about 20 minutes! But none of that Tuesday evening Brian and I camped on the shore just south of the boat ramp. slowed the fishing down. At about 2 in the afternoon, we were It was a beautiful evening, highlighted about to call it a day when my line got by the Pyramid across the lake shining ripped off the downrigger and the rod in the orange alpenglow of the setting tip bowed quickly to the surface of the sun. After great barbequed steaks, a water. I grabbed the rod, and the Daiwa nice cigar and a touch of Kentucky’s finest, we hit the sack after a wonderful Lexa Line counter showed the 8-pound test P Line Fluorocarbon peeling out at day.