As we got him closer and finally netted him, we could see why – he was 31 inches long and weighed 10 lbs. 8 oz. – too big for the pelican to swallow!!

I have never experienced trout fishing like this! I have a“ clicker counter” hanging at the side of the boat, otherwise, we would never have had an accurate count of how many fish we caught!

There have been a few times when we got into a very hot kokanee bite, but never with fish that were averaging over 4 pounds! In 2 days, John and I landed 145 Lahontan cutthroat, and released all of them!

John got the largest fish at 10 lbs. 8 oz. on the digital scale. We also landed four trout over 9 pounds and seven over 8 pounds! We didn’ t bother to weigh all the 5, 6, and 7 pounders! Mark and Gary had very similar results, but without the counter it was easy to lose track of exactly how many they caught.

The amazing thing to me was these fish were in 40 feet of water, with a surface temp of 72 degrees! We couldn’ t figure out why they were there and so active. We didn’ t see any big bait balls, and none of the fish we released coughed up any minnows or anything. The cutthroat were acting like sharks! You could see them on the Lowrance graph actively swimming from the bottom to the surface, all over the place! I had Vance’ s cannonball flashers on my downrigger from when we were fishing deep, and when I hooked a fish I would bring the cannonball to the surface.

Many times, I would look over at the flashers swimming 6 inches under the surface, and only about 2 feet from the prop on the Evinrude kicker motor and saw bright streaks of trout zooming back and forth looking at the flashers!

It didn’ t really matter what lure you had on your line. Our best lures were the chartreuse / orange and watermelon colored

4-inch Silver Horde spoons,“ Canberra Killer” Tasmanian Devils, red dot frog Lyman’ s, and 4 inch chartreuse / red dot Apexes. We were trolling about 2.5 mph and the trout were hitting like a freight train! We caught fish from 40 feet to 17 feet deep, all in pretty shallow water.

Last year, we fished in late June and had a great

Fish Sniffer publisher Paul Kneeland and Rackerby with a fat cutthroat that slammed a Silver Horde spoon. Photo courtesy of JOHN BRASSFIELD, Auburn.

day, landing about 40 cutthroat averaging about 2 ½ pounds. This year there were more trout, and the average size was a good two pounds larger!

I can’ t wait till Pyramid Lake opens again in October. I am sure the fishing will be fantastic again, and the trout will probably be bigger than last year! The Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe has been doing an excellent job of taking care of this fishery. It is one of the few fisheries in our area that is actually getting better each year!

For more information about the fishing at Pyramid Lake, go to www. pyramidlakefisheries. org /.

Check out Crosby Lodge there in Sutcliffe. They have an excellent selection of lures for Pyramid Lake, and their prices are lower than many retailers. They also offer lodging at the lake, as well as a fun bar and restaurant. Call them at( 775) 476-0400 or see them at www. crosbylodge. net

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