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By now the Pyramid ladder fishing season should be winding down, but with all the cold water inflow from the Truckee River, and the relatively cold spring weather we have been experiencing, the fishing is still going strong. The lake has been rising on a daily basis. There has been a ton of snow in the Sierras this year, and the Truckee River is raging into its terminal, Pyramid Lake. It has caused the fishing to be up and down, and the term I am labeling this spring's fishing with is "manic."

One day the fishing is red hot and it is possible to score from 40-80 fish in a day. On the flip side, the very next day can be dead slow. Most of the time, if you are getting a lot of fish, you probably won't be getting any pigs. Be that as it may, on April 19th I landed 60+ fish, one of which was 7Lbs, and the other tipped the scales at 11Lbs 4 oz. There haven't been a lot of big fish this year compared to last season, but the ones that are coming in tend to be extra large. Last year, there were a lot of 9's and small 10's, and this year it is rare to see a "big" fish that is under 11Lbs. 9's and 10's have been hard to come by, but there has been a good showing of 11-13Lb fish. These fish are likely the same age class of fish that were the 9's and 10's from last year. Most of last year's fish probably died after spawning, and these fish are making their initial run to the hatchery. On the downside, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of 6-8lb fish around, and those fish are the next generation of 10+Lbers.

Fishing could remain good through the better part of May at the pace we are going. I think there will come a point when the weather simply gets too warm and pushes the fish out of the shallows, and that will be that.