The Lahontan Cutthroat of Pyramid Lake

On Friday, the Vin-Man and I made our first-ever trip to Pyramid Lake. It’s funny that we’ve lived within 3 hours of the place forever, but neither of us had ever made the trip over the hill. Friday’s mission almost didn’t happen — I had a last-minute guide trip cancellation and I made the call to the Vinster at about 9 p.m. Thursday night.

So, a few hours later, off we went — woefully unprepared in terms of tackle and knowledge.

Well, the short version of the story is we had nice weather and a great time — but only two bites. We’d never seen a Lahontan cutthroat before, so we were stoked to see how beautiful these trout really are.


While we worked hard with plugs and spoons fished 20 to 45 feet down, we weren’t able to scratch much. There were several boats around us and we never saw a net fly. However, clients of the local charter skipper, George Molino, landed 50 fish to 24 inches that same day! Obviously, there’s something to having the home field advantage and a trip with the dude is probably well worth the price of admission.

The fly guys on the ladders didn’t seem to be doing all that well, either…

Oh well, we still had a great day with very nice weather. Coming back over the Sierras, the view was spectacular that evening. All in all, a fun day — and we saw just enough to make us want to go back soon!

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