Fishing America's driest region: The Great Basin

This is another contribution provided by my friend and fellow NVATU member, Daniel Lazenby, highlighting his continued fly-fishing adventures out west. Except where noted, all photo credits belong to Daniel.

After fishing the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains, I headed north to fish California’s Eagle Lake. After Eagle Lake my intention was to fish southeastern Oregon’s Outback Lahontan Cutts. Both of these areas are located in the northwestern portion of The Great Basin.

Not as glamorous as western mountain streams or blue-ribbon rivers, there are other western places to fish. The Great Basin is one of them. Multiple smaller adjoining basins in six western states come together to form North America’s Great Basin.

image courtesy of United States Geological Survey

Within The Great Basin borders there are numerous streams and about 19 or 20 remnants of prehistoric lakes. This basin includes the eastern half of Utah (2 lakes), nearly all of Nevada (7 lakes), a length of California (5 lakes) east of the Sierra Nevada mountains, central southeastern Oregon (6 lakes), southeastern parts of Idaho and southwestern parts of Wyoming. Some of the lakes are alkaline others are freshwater. All of them endorheic (meaning landlocked)! All precipitation that falls in this region never reaches an ocean. Nevada’s Pyramid Lake is well known and still contain its native Lahontan Cutthroat species. Oregon’s Goose and Malheur lakes, and their Interior Redband Trout species are lesser known.

Lakes in this ecoregion predominately rely on seasonal surface runoff. Human activities almost a century ago extinguished perennial streams and their spawning beds for Pyramid Lake, Eagle Lake and others. Endemic alkaline tolerant species in Pyramid and Eagle lakes are maintained by the Paiute Tribe in Nevada and California Department of Fish & Wildlife stocking and conservation programs.

Shoreline fly fishing is best in spring and fall when the fish feed along the lake’s perimeter. Summer heat drives the fish into the deeper/deepest lake water. Over the course of a summer, evaporation can drop lakes 3-5 feet, increasing the lake’s alkalinity and making the aquatic environment stressing.

My arrival at Eagle Lake coincided with the 2024 Northern California triple digit heat wave. At 5400 feet the temperatures were significantly warmer than usual, but nowhere near the triple digit range of the valleys.

When I checked in with my guide, he told me the fish had moved to deeper water. We wouldn’t be fly fishing the shallows from shore. He advised we would start with streamer fishing the shoreline drop offs from a boat with trolling flies. If the drop-offs failed to produce, we’d cross the lake to troll deeper water near Shrimp Island. Tui Chubs are one of the lake’s two primary sources of fish food. I would get to use the Jay Fair Tui Chub trolling flies I tied for this trip after all! We had a plan.

image courtesy of United States Geological Survey

The next morning, we were out early. Floating in the calm only found on a mountain lake. While drifting, we were watching a sky slowly flowing from blue-black into faint grayish hues giving way to purple-pink-yellow light of day.

I started tossing Tui Chub flies and stripping them out over the drop-offs. Only larger chubs seemed to be active along the drop-offs. As we moved to deeper water, I switched to my Type 9 sink tip fly line, but it didn’t sink fast enough. I needed a heavier line to get down farther faster. I put my fly rod down and picked up a rod rigged for trolling deep water.

We trolled along the deeper edges of the drop-offs. Missed some soft takes and then had a breakoff. We kept working our way to deeper parts of the lake. The temperature and alkalinity levels required retrieving more like I was bass fishing than trout. Then another soft take with a solid hook set this time and we had our first fish of the morning in the net.

first fish of the day

Eagle Lake scuds are called shrimp locally and make up 40% of the lake’s trout diet. Fish have a strong preference for orangish egg laden female scuds. As we drifted over the rock beds in the Shrimp Island area, I rerigged a #10 orange scud for use under an indicator and did a little jigging. We were rewarded with two more nice fish. We now had three. The next one would be our limit.

another nice Eagle Lake rainbow

As mid-day approached and heat was building, it was time to head back to the boat ramp. On our way back to we trolled an impressionistic Tui chub lure. The rod made a major twitch as we passed through the deeper part of the lake. The hook was set. Ten yards away the lake erupted with a skyward bound flipping rainbow. It ran, it charged the boat and leaped. Then ran again. Oh my! This one had other ideas. No way was this fish going to willingly come anywhere near the boat. We fought it out. A couple more heart stopping skyward leaps and a halfhearted run or two later, it seemed to decide maybe approaching the boat wasn’t such a bad idea. Not the fish’s best decision of the day. The biggest of the day was in the net.

limited out!

At the boat ramp we were met by California Fish & Wildlife officers collecting size, weight, age, and home hatchery of harvested fish data. Not counting Steelhead, my two rainbows were my personal best on any rod. The smallest was a little over 2 lbs. and the largest was well over 3 lbs.

This was my first visit to The Great Basin. It will not be my last. I will return to pursue Nevada’s Mountain Whitefish and its five other native trout species.