With the lifting of covid restrictions, many California fly fishers are resuming their annual pilgrimages to trout waters outside of the state. If you’re heading east on I-80 through Nevada, you might want to consider a detour to an intriguing trout and bass destination that’s in the shadow of the Ruby Mountains.
Hang a hard right on Fifth Street in Elko, just a few blocks from an establishment called Dancing & Diddling, and drive out into the middle of the Great Basin. It is starkly beautiful country, featuring huge vistas and well-tended hay farms. Ruby Lake is in Ruby Marsh — actually the Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge — where 150 springs pop up in the middle of No Water, USA, also known as the great state of Nevada. Naturally, this oasis attracts a plethora of bird life, mostly traditional, edible waterfowl, such as ducks and geese, but also lots of wading birds, circling raptors, and assorted tweeties. The feds manage the huge area as a wildlife sanctuary, and it is pretty impressive from that standpoint, one of the most important in the country, especially for canvasback ducks. However, the federales do not seem to be too concerned about subsurface life-forms, and that is where the locals become a factor.
You see, there is a State of Nevada fish hatchery, the Gallagher Hatchery, right smack in the middle of the federal refuge, and they are pumping out some truly weird Frankentrout. Apparently, these two dedicated governmental agencies do not really like each other, and the Nevada guys have been known to talk some serious smack about the feds. The state staffers have even berated visiting fly fishers about releasing fish. The Nevada hatchery guys want you to whack everything, because they figure they put the slimy things in there, and you should have the good sense to thump them all and let a higher power sort them out.
The good news from a fishing standpoint is that these hybridized trout can get truly huge. You may catch (and surreptitiously release because you probably do not want to eat) a few fish in the three-to-five-pound range and maybe hook the nearly mythical double-digit specimen. You will not land most of the big ones, because much of the water is seriously weedy. I saw one fish go by me that a guy upstream had hooked. It was about a yard long, and it was pushing five pounds of gunk on the line in front of it. I saw the guy’s whole fly line pass by, and, needless to say, that story did not end well.
The fish are various genetic combinations of rainbows, browns, brookies, and possibly bulldogs. Some, presumably, tiger trout, have strange, squiggly markings, and, although a few of the trout look fairly normal, it would not be too surprising to catch one with feet. The really odd ones seem to be mostly in some spring ponds that are toward the south end of the refuge. The ponds are signed and easily accessed, and you see the fish clearly, which was often the case elsewhere, as well. Elsewhere was mostly what is called the Collection Ditch. It is a particularly pretty little ditch, and an old one, but it is a ditch, built to water the hatchery. This canal has gone back to the land, like an old hippie, and looks fairly natural, if a little too straight, unlike the old hippie.
The first time I was there, I encountered only two other fly fishers, who were, oddly, both named Dave. Dave 1, who could really fish, said he had a hard time talking his friends into coming out to the Nevada desert to fish a collection ditch. Dave 2 was recovering from some kind of painkiller addiction and was considerably less coherent, although enthusiastic. The water was clear and cold, the ditch was chock full of vegetation, and the trout were sometimes pretty spooky. They apparently get hammered during parts of the year, mostly in the summer, I inferred. Like big f ish anywhere, they could be essentially impossible at times and then suddenly become much friendlier.
Did I mention they are big? I saw some truly scary-looking fish, and Dave 1 showed me a photo of one he caught last year that looked like a salmon. They are probably not as consistently huge as the recent run of Pyramid Lake cutthroats, another Nevada fish. The two situations are completely different, however, because the Pyramid Lake native peoples resurrected a nearly lost indigenous megatrout. This Ruby Lake goat roping seems like a bunch of mad-scientist guys sewing together different halves of various trout, then spaying and painting them. But, what the hell, they are big, and they are not going to infiltrate anywhere, because the weirder ones are sterile, and all of them are living hundreds of miles from any other water.
Other than the campground host selling firewood and ice, there are no facilities of a retail nature at the Ruby Lake Refuge, just a campground, although it is a pretty snazzy one. The sites have tables and f ire pits, and the campground host on my visits had a quirky sense of humor. There was a large fish-cleaning area with an absolutely huge garbage disposal for the fish leftovers, big enough to Fargo-up some guy you disliked. The host was justifiably proud of this disposal and bragged about it to newcomers. Remember to purchase a Nevada fishing license, which you should do online or in Elko, because no one sells them at the campground. A really pleasant federal ranger-type person let me use his computer when I forgot, but I do not think he wanted to make a habit of it.
There was a great deal of big-game hunting going on in the area in the autumn when I was first there. A bartender in Elko had an album of very large dead animals that he was happy to pass around the bar. Apparently, the hunting can be pretty impressive, including some bird hunting, mostly ducks and sage grouse. Some conventional-tackle guys I met had been doing a “cast and blast,” and they had caught (and eaten) a boatload of small bass, as well as shot upland birds. They also claimed the lady at the nearby Harmon Ruby Lake Resort had cooked up the bass for them. This trailer park was the closest place to get a beer or a burger, and they also sold ice. (When I fished Ruby Lake in June, though, it was closed and the phone disconnected, I hope only temporarily.)
You could stay in Elko, but it would be a pretty long commute every day. I did overnight in Elko coming and going, staying at the old and vaguely spooky Stockman’s Hotel, and I ate at one of the Basque joints in town of which the locals are oh so proud. I am not sure what was particularly Basque about the food, but you get a remarkable quantity of it. Specifically, besides a huge main course, there were French fries and several plates of vegetables, as well as pasta, bread, dessert, and some other stuff I have scrubbed from the memory banks.
Dave 1 had looked at a website of a local fly-fishing club and had tied a bunch of flies that they recommended, as opposed to my SOP of just showing up and hoping one of the five thousand f lies I already had would work. For a while, my method was winning, because I was fooling them fairly well in the lakelike areas with a Callibaetis emerger that has been a go-to pattern for me on still waters. In the ditch, the hot ticket was a dropper rig with an Adams on top and one of the special fly-club f lies hanging down. It was an elongated, skinny, Blood-Midgy, Serendipity kind of thing, and the fish really seemed to like it. They could be picky and spooky sometimes, and then would all of a sudden get suicidal. For example, I caught several by dragging a small generic nymph far too fast, and as well as a few on the ubiquitous Woolly Bugger, of which I am the self-proclaimed master.
There was almost no one there in the fall, and I was there in the summer when it was not much busier, but I heard it fills up quickly when boats are allowed. You would probably want to reserve a campsite then, because the serious bass guys show up in their Rangers, so you know the bass fishing must be pretty good. However, they have to remove the big motor and just fish with the electric, another indication that the fishing must be worth some work. If you are bringing a boat, read the regulations on the federal website, because they are a little complicated. I did not do so one time and hauled my boat to Nevada to no avail. Be sure to have an electric motor, and also GPS, because the waterways can be a maze.
I tried popper fishing from the extensive levee system set up just so you could cast to the main lake from shore. Although it sucked when I was there, I understand that the popper bass fishing from the levees can be effective at times.
The trips I’ve described occurred two years ago, but I returned to the refuge last October, and the fishing was even better — we caught a lot of fish and a number of the big dudes, almost all of them on a hopper-dropper rig with a foam hopper on top and some kind of large nymph hanging down. We retrieved it at an embarrassingly fast speed, popping the hopper like fishing popping corks for sea trout in the South. Most of the big fish hit the hopper, and it helped in hooking them if you did not set up right away. They seemed to be trying to drown the damn thing and then would come back under water to eat it. I’m not making this up. We caught six species of trout (two of which were hybrids), and I caught five of them all in one day, some kind of weirdo trout super slam. Autumn is one of the better seasons if you want to focus on trout; both the air and water are cooler, and stocking resumes (the trout can experience heat-related mortality in summer). Spring can also be good.
The campground in October was reduced in size, the water shut off and the friendly host gone. The “iron ranger” was collecting the camping fee on the honor system, and most people there were hunting, not fishing. The weather was great, but it can turn quickly — the next week, the temperature plummeted to five degrees at night. It takes about 10 hours to drive to the Ruby Lake Refuge from my home in Sacramento, but I stayed in a casino in each direction — Winnemucca is about halfway. I won almost enough playing blackjack to pay for the trip.
On the first trip, this whole escapade was a whim, because I was on my way to Montana, but the guy I was going to meet changed plans. I found out in Elko, and I had heard about Ruby Lake for years, so I looked on a map, and it was right around the corner. I stumbled around without any preplanning and caught some really big, weird-looking trout. I went back the next year, meeting the more rational of the Daves, and then the year after that. The fishing results were about the same, that is to say, varied and strange. This place reminds me of something out of Richard Brautigan’s Trout Fishing in America, but then, so do I.
If You Go…
From California, head straight through Reno on Interstate 80 and in Elko, go south on Highway 227 for 65 miles. The Ruby Lake National Wildlife Refuge is easy to find — just keep going on the pleasant country road through the hay ranches until you hit it. There are other routes (see the federal website, https://www.fws.gov/Refuge/Ruby_Lake), and they all involve driving on gravel roads. Gas up in Elko, because facilities are scarce.
If it reopens this year, you could stay at the Harmon Ruby Lake Resort trailer park ([775] 779-2242), if you have a trailer rig, and it was only 10 miles or so away from the water. There may or may not also be a “bunkhouse” there, and there was a little bar, although I am a little foggy on that bit, because I was somewhat overserved. The South Ruby Campground, managed by the U.S. Forest Service, was really nice, having campsites that were secluded and others that were exposed, but had views of the lake. The nightly camp fees have risen to $17 and $34, depending on the site. You can visit https:/grounds/232091 to view campsite locations, determine availability, and make reservations. If you’re visiting on an impulse, a number of campsites are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Apparently, “primitive” undeveloped camping sites are available as well. The public bathrooms were big and clean, and drinkable water was available at several faucets during the summer months. There was also that amazing disposal for fish guts, which you will want to show your wife. Bring everything with you, because it is a long way to Elko.
Some conventional-tackle guys had ATVs with rocket launchers on the rear loaded with 10 rigged rods, but that seemed like overkill. You can drive to any of the locations in the park in a Cadillac, although why would you? According to the website, though, the roads get a little sloppy at times, so no Cadillac, and the levee roads were closed for a month to protect (I’m not kidding here) goslings. There were boat ramps, but in the fall, you would need a smaller boat to get around in the shrunken lake. Make sure you check the boating regulations, because there are monthly periods of no boats, others of no gas motors, and an interval with only motors of 10 horsepower or less. I knew there were strange regs and still managed to screw the pooch and bring my boat, which stayed on top of the Jeep.
— Mark Merrill
