Just got back from my annual trip to Pyramid and it was very very tough.
We fished Thursday afternoon, all day Friday, and all day Saturday. We had bright sun the entire time except for a few hours of hazy overcast on Saturday afternoon. We did have two sessions with decent in our face wind and good wave action into the beach but the fish didn't respond.
Tactics used:
1. Sinking lines and stripping the usual Pyramid stuff ( I used the RIO OBS I/5/7 which I started using last year). Used both switch rods and 9ft SHers.
2. Indicators on both 9ft SHers and Switch rods. I used the RIO Switch Chucker on my Redington Chromer. Really liked that setup.
3. Two guys used spin rods a fair bit with large spoons.
So here are the "results" - 4 guys fished pretty hard and we landed 6 fish total with the biggest being under 5#.
Let me add a little more context to this group too.
Two guys have extensive stillwater experience, in fact, almost all of our trout fishing is on stillwaters.
One guy has a decent amount of stillwater experience but doesn't fish near as often as the first two guys.
One guy doesn't fish a lot and he ended up using the spin rod most of the time.
And FWIW we saw very few fish caught by others!
Just a very tough trip and in looking over our logs we think you can break your Pyramid Trips into equal percentages as follows:
1 in 3 trips will be pretty good with numerous sessions where you are getting fish.
1 in 3 trips will be ok with at least one session where you are getting into fish.
1 in 3 trips will suck like this one.
Certainly you will never catch a fish sitting in your living room and at the P every cast has the potential to result in a double digit fish. But it is also important for guys who haven't been there to hear the truth and not just set their expectations based upon IG and FB posts. I have no problem going on a trip and when its a bust telling people so and this one as a massive bust.
We fished Thursday afternoon, all day Friday, and all day Saturday. We had bright sun the entire time except for a few hours of hazy overcast on Saturday afternoon. We did have two sessions with decent in our face wind and good wave action into the beach but the fish didn't respond.
Tactics used:
1. Sinking lines and stripping the usual Pyramid stuff ( I used the RIO OBS I/5/7 which I started using last year). Used both switch rods and 9ft SHers.
2. Indicators on both 9ft SHers and Switch rods. I used the RIO Switch Chucker on my Redington Chromer. Really liked that setup.
3. Two guys used spin rods a fair bit with large spoons.
So here are the "results" - 4 guys fished pretty hard and we landed 6 fish total with the biggest being under 5#.
Let me add a little more context to this group too.
Two guys have extensive stillwater experience, in fact, almost all of our trout fishing is on stillwaters.
One guy has a decent amount of stillwater experience but doesn't fish near as often as the first two guys.
One guy doesn't fish a lot and he ended up using the spin rod most of the time.
And FWIW we saw very few fish caught by others!
Just a very tough trip and in looking over our logs we think you can break your Pyramid Trips into equal percentages as follows:
1 in 3 trips will be pretty good with numerous sessions where you are getting fish.
1 in 3 trips will be ok with at least one session where you are getting into fish.
1 in 3 trips will suck like this one.
Certainly you will never catch a fish sitting in your living room and at the P every cast has the potential to result in a double digit fish. But it is also important for guys who haven't been there to hear the truth and not just set their expectations based upon IG and FB posts. I have no problem going on a trip and when its a bust telling people so and this one as a massive bust.