Fishing has to be one of the most humbling pursuits I have ever tried. One day you think you have all the answers, but the next you find out that what you know is not the entire picture.

A recent trip with friends to Pyramid Lake in Nevada proved this point with an exclamation. On a prior trip the week before, I had some great success with retrieving my flies slowly along the bottom. The water was cold and the fish were not taking the normal quicker retrieves. Once I slowed things down to a crawl, I began to have some moderate success on a slow day.

The conditions on this trip were very similar to the ones that I was facing the prior week. The water was still cold and the fishing was pretty slow. I made my first cast and began the slow retrieve. I was rewarded with a nice grab and landed my first fish shortly after and quickly released it to fight another day.

As far as flies are concerned, this is not a hard lake to figure out at all. It is usually just a matter of getting them in front of the fish. Of course, it helps to have a number of fish in the area. In the spring this is generally not a problem, since it is spawning season for the Lahontan cutthroat trout.

One of my fishing partners was nymphing with bead-head nymphs under a strike indicator. He happened to catch a fish more often than most and had a pretty decent day. My other friend and I switched to nymphing at one point, but did not have the success that our friend was having. Both of us returned to retrieving flies along the bottom.

As the day progressed, I had about four other chances, but did not manage to land another fish. My other friend landed four fish in a very short time using a slightly quicker retrieve and pause. I also tried varying the retrieve speed to find the key, but to no avail.

It was slow, but I made a real mistake and realized it at the end of the day. My friend with the indicator had been fishing his flies at about 6 feet in depth and was more successful than most in the lineup.

It dawned on me just before we were leaving that I was spending my entire day on the bottom with the slow retrieve. I cast again and immediately began stripping before my line reached the bottom. I was immediately rewarded with a bite, but the fish came off before I could land it. I made three more casts without a bite, but it was time to leave.

So what I learned was that I was far too tuned in to fishing on the bottom that day. My friend was fishing at 6 feet under a strike indicator and was having more action. This should have told me that the fish were a little higher in the water column on this day. Most days fishing on the bottom will yield you great results. While I am not 100 percent sure that retrieving a little shallower was the answer, I should have tried it sooner.

As fishermen, we often try and repeat our successes not realizing we should be paying more attention to what is actually happening around us. My prior success locked me in to fishing one way only. Keep this in mind when you are having a similar experience. Observation is often the key to an angler's success.

— Bruce Ajari is a Truckee resident and regular fishing columnist for the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza and other area newspapers.