One of the chief joys of fly fishing at Pyramid Lake is its lack of complexity. From late fall through late spring, Pyramid's cutthroat trout feed within range of wading anglers.

The technique is to wade into the lake and position yourself so that your casts send your flies well out into the deep water beyond the shelf that drops off toward the lake's 370-foot depths. After making a cast, allow the line to sink, and strip your fly back. Few places in the world can offer a visiting angler such large trout that are so readily available using the most basic of methods. That said, there are certain refinements of technique that will increase your chances of catching more, and bigger, trout.

Long casts (60 feet or so) are necessary to place your flies into the deep water from which the big Lahontan cutthroat come to feed. The trout can be anywhere, sometimes taking the fly at the farthest extent of your cast while on other occasions hunting minnows in a foot of water behind a line of earnestly casting anglers. Short casts can catch fish under the right conditions, but long casts significantly increase your chance of catching fish: The longer a fly is in the water, the greater the chance that it will be seen by the fish.

This is where the most curious piece of Pyramid Lake fishing equipment, the stepladder, becomes valuable. Stepladders are considered by many Pyramid regulars to be as basic a piece of equipment as rods and flies. Friends have used mere milk crates, however. The advantage of a few inches (once the crate or ladder has sunk into the sand of the lake bottom) of elevation is typically enough, either physically or psychologically, to enable you to throw your offerings a few extra feet.

Finding the right depth, however, is more important than making long casts. A shooting head (I use a fast-sinking head almost exclusively) backed up by running line is the most effective tool for finding Pyramid Lake's lurking cutthroat. Sinking-tip lines and full-sinking lines will work as well, although only the most skilled casters or dare-devil ladder climbers can cover as much water as an average caster using a shooting head. After the cast, count out the seconds while you allow your fly to sink. Vary your timing until you begin to catch fish. Start the searching process again when the action slows.

Experiment with a variety of retrieves, from short erratic jerks, to slow crawls, to steady strips. Start with steady 4- to 6-inch strips. Then, to help shorten your learning curve, look around and see what is working for other fishermen. A friend has caught many large cutthroat using fast retrieves and flashy streamers after watching successful spin fishermen. One word of advice on retrieving: Keep stripping until you can see your fly and can confirm that it is not being stalked by a cutthroat. Pyramid fish are notorious for following flies until they are virtually at the rod tip.

Sometimes they will take the fly at the last second, particularly if you suddenly vary your retrieve to provoke the strike. If the trout turns away, make a short cast in the direction that the fish retreated.

Although many gear fishermen and a few fly fishermen fish Pyramid from boats or the occasional float tube, the general consensus is that the difficulties in battling the wind on this mammoth body of water make this method more trouble than its worth.

Big Lahontan cutthroat are aggressively piscivorous, and the basic Pyramid tactics described above imitate baitfish and will catch fish under any conditions. But, the lake's rich invertebrate population ensures that even large trout do not feed exclusively on fish. During the warmer months, anglers using floating lines and light rods can sometimes fish midges to delicately rising fish, or slowly twitch nymphs along the lakebed.

There are water beetles, midges, dragonflies, damselflies, a few mayflies, and small scuds in Pyramid. Beetles and dragonfly nymphs can be quite effective, as can Woolly Worms (that probably look like buggy nymphs). Scuds and mayflies are not high priority food items in the lake.