Every year I anticipate the May long weekend fishing opener in the Mountain Parks. While there are a number of options available for fishing, my sights are always set on one place: Pyramid Lake.
There are so many things that draw me there. I love that Pyramid Mountain stands sentinel directly to the north, its multicolored rock often aglow in the low evening light. I like that the lake trout in Pyramid are native, and that the lake is self-sustaining. I like that Pyramid lake trout are honest. I put in a day’s fishing on the lake and I will catch lakers. If I catch a half dozen fish, it’s a good day. Some days I catch more, occasionally I catch much more. I have had days where it was never more than five minutes between bites! Pyramid Lake is one of my favourite fisheries.
There are a lot of ways to catch lake trout in Pyramid, but here is my go-to method: Get a two ounce bottom bouncer, tie a 6 foot leader of 10 lb fluorocarbon off of that and on the end attach an F5 flatfish in your favourite colour. Put that rig in the water and slow down the pace of your boat until the flatfish is lightly shaking side to side. For me that’s around 25 per cent power on my electric motor. The boat has to be going super slow. Next, drop the rig down to the bottom and perform this slow troll around the deep areas of the lake. Do this and every single day there will be a laker or five that will line up and take a shot at the hook. My favourite flatfish patterns are the rainbow trout and the green frog patterns. Both have scored exceptionally well on Pyramid’s lake trout. That said, I’m sure most any flatfish will work. Just get it deep, and slow troll it. To increase my hook ups when using the flatfish, I replace the original flatfish treble hook with one a size larger. The wider gap of a slightly larger hook seems to help me hook and hold more fish, so I can bring them all the way to the boat.
Using that same bottom bouncer, I have changed things up and tied on a walleye spin
ner rig. I like to clip the hook off and tie on a Jasper favourite, the double shrimp fly, which I pick up by the dozen at On-Line Sport and Tackle. I run the larger fly sizes and this matches up well with the size and appetite of the average Pyramid laker. Typically there are two of us in the boat, so one of us will run the flatfish, while the other runs the spinner and fly. It usually doesn’t take long before someone connects.
On a side note, bottom bouncers are made of lead, and lead is a no go zone in the park; using such materials can lead to tickets and fines. But—and this is an important but—anglers can use lead if it is heavier than 50 grams. In our case, two ounces equals 56 grams, so the bottom bouncer described above is permissible. That said, clear your tackle box of any lead materials, such as split shot, that weighs less than 50 grams, because even possession of such tackle in the park can lead to a ticket.
There you have it. These are a couple of winning presentations that have steered me to some fantastic days fishing on Pyramid. If you’re looking to get into the game when it comes to mountain lakers, this is an excellent way to start.
