Friday afternoon, the Sniffers converged on the Pelican Point boat launch near Sutcliffe. A caravan, towing seven boats, made their way over the Sierras after leaving Auburn at 9 AM. The Reno area contingent was in the water when they arrived.

I made it to the dock in late afternoon after a beautiful run across the desert from Susanville, the lake was spectacular! The launch ramp was active as boats were being trailered. The Sniffers were easy to spot. Trucks and boats prominently displayed the 5-star board decals and Fish Sniffer logos in addition to an abundance of Fish Sniffer caps anglers were wearing.

Camps were set up on at Separator beach, about a mile away, then everyone headed of to Crosby's Lodge for dinner. The numerous trophy's, up to 12 lbs., adorning the rustic lodge's walls was the perfect backdrop for the fantastic rib dinner they served up. After dinner,we moved to a large heated tent, conveniently located adjacent to the bar, for the fishing Pyramid Lake seminar.

Ken Hembree (Bite Me II) organized the seminar. Nancy Vucinich, a biologist with FWS, gave a presentation about the fishery, the hatchery program, and management policy. Lee Weber (Doc...drstressor), a biology professor at the University Nevada, followed with the ultimate how-to for fishing the lake. After showing photos of the hot fishing spots, catching fish seemed a certainty! I passed around a few Fish Sniffer hats and tackle samples and everyone headed back to camp.

Fishing began at first light. I was fishing on the Bite Me II with Ken and Brian (BigB). We cruised up to the Needles, a prominent group of tufa islands at the northwest end of the lake. In less than five minutes Brian was hooked up. As he worked the fish toward the boat, my line popped out of the downrigger. Brian's fish went 22 inches, mine 19; what a way to start the day!

"I wanted to start fishing at the Needles because that is where we'll have the best shot of finding a trophy," Ken told us. We caught a few more in the 20-inch range and were spending most of our time cleaning weeds off the lines. An hour later Ken said, "I think we'll head over to Hell's Kitchen, there will be more fish."

We arrive to see a sizeable number of the Sniffer fleet working the shoreline. Fish were being caught frequently. Doc had told us to expect the bite to happen around 11 AM and sure enough, as the hour approached the fishing heated up. We would troll for five or ten minutes and then would catch two or three fish in rapid succession. Then we were hitting doubles. At the peak, we had a triple going, Mickey Thomas and hammer reported a double over the radio and we could see Fish4fun and Johnb had a double going. The pandemonium lasted nearly an hour.

At the end of the day, most of the boats reported they lost count of how many fish they caught but estimated 40-50 per boat. The largest fish would be a toss-up between Mickey Thomas claiming a 6.8 pound and a 6.5-7 pound 26.5 inch lunker claimed by TROUT KING.

Any gathering such as this is going to produce at least one fish story and the topper for this trip goes to Doc. I quote: "All of a sudden, just as the fish is under the boat, I feel this heavy weight. As I bring whatever is on the end of the line up to the boat, I see that a fish as long as my arm has the hooked fish, by the tail. It has about 1/2 of the fish in its mouth. The big one lets go. I let the hooked fish down again and the big guy comes up and grabs it again. If he had hit the head rather than the tail, I probably would have been able to hook him. In any case, he lets go. I released the hooked fish, which swam away with tooth marks. That was the first time in my life that I ever had a fish grab a hooked one in fresh water. I'll put that on my list of religious experiences."

Guide Jim Hartfiel, one of only three permitted to guide the lake, met me at the dock at the end of day and convinced me to stay and fish Sunday morning. The wind was up and both the cutthroat and tui were scattered. We still managed a dozen quality fish in a short day.

Pyramidfest was a smashing success and everyone who participated would be a pleasure to fish with.

For more information:

www.fishsniffer.com..Forums...The Trout Board

Crosby's Lodge
30605 Pyramid Lake Rd
Sutcliffe, NV
775.476.0400

Jim Hartfiel
Just Rite Fishing
Cell 775.813.3411
775.575.7850

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