Beautiful Day Of Fishing Pyramid Lake, Nevada

Yesterday was an incredible day that I will probably be talking about for years to come. I got the last minute call the night before to join my buddy on his boat for the Pyramid Lake, Nevada fishing opening day.

We saw a few beautiful rainbows in the sky while out on the water. Always a sign of good luck...

The scenery was incredible. And the fishing was even better! So many cutthrought trout were caught.

41 fish, to be exact. I downloaded and used a little fish counter on my phone. Catch numbers are usually impressive at this lake, especially on opening day with the fish haven't seen lures in a while.

This sunrise photo below was taken out the truck window on our drive to the boat launch. The day started off great!

The line at the boat launch is always a bit crazy on opening day. But it gave us plenty of time to prepare the boat and get set up.

My buddy Blake, the boat owner, is a fishing guide. He knows how to catch! I appreciate it when I get the invite to join him as I usually go home with dinner in the cooler. And I always try to get him a few photos for his socials and website.

His guide service is called Pisces Outdoors. He also has a website where he sells lures that he makes: www.piscesoutdoors.com And He also has a fishing YouTube Channel.

Another buddy, Paul, also joined us. These two guys are way better fishermen than me. I always appreciate learning as much as I can from them. We mostly used plug style lures, but a variety of lures were used, and a variety of colors.

All of the fish were released to be caught another day.

Well, all were release but one... lol. Yummy! I had 1/3 of the fish for lunch today. Two more meals in the freezer.

So many smiles, laughs, and good time out there!

Thank you for looking and I hope you are all having a great day.

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.TruckeeTahoePhotos.com - Art
Scott Shots Photography - Services

Lake Tahoe Photos From Yesterday's Fishing Adventure

Yesterday was a good day. I was invited out on my buddy Pete's boat for a day of fishing on Lake Tahoe. Just being out on the lake is good enough in my book. But add a couple of caught fish, and some "keeper" landscape photos, and it was a very successful day too!

Pete caught this huge brown trout right at the beginning of our day. It put him in a great mood! He believes it was his personal best for brown trout. I netted the fish for him and I couldn't believe how heavy it was for a brown. Yes, there are bigger fish in the lake, mackinaw get quite a bit bigger. But a brown trout this big is special. It was released so it could go breed and make more mega browns.

I was hoping to keep this second fish for dinner, but when we brought it up onto the boat, we saw that it was incredibly skinny for how long it was. It's hard to tell from this photo, but it looked weird and I didn't trust it. Perhaps it was sick? I don't know but I decided I didn't want to eat it so it was released as well.

It was a long fun day of fishing, not a whole lot of catching... but any day out on the lake is a good day.

Alright. I'll admit that I didn't personally catch any fish :( But... I did catch a bunch of incredible scenes with my camera. There were hardly any wind or waves, which gave the lake surface a mirror-like effect. The clouds were looking great, and with their reflections, they were incredible!

This one below was my personal favorite of the day. The wispy clouds, the incredible blues, the thin mountain line... I love it! It should look great as a large print on a wall.

Both images above were shot with the Canon 5DS R and a 24-105mm lens, handheld. The ISO was 200, and they were both quick exposures. No lens filters were used.

As we were pulling the boat out of the water at the end of the day, the clouds fired off with beautiful pink colors. Unfortunately, there were tons of buoys near the dock so I wasn't able to get any great horizontal wide angle photos. I shot some, but meh... the buoys ruined the shot in my opinion, so I didn't work on any of those. This vertical above was the best of those images.

Below is a photo of the boat launch and the dock. There were hardly any other boats on the water, here you can see why. Launching a boat on an icy ramp isn't easy, but Pete does it often and it was no problem for him.

It was another great fishing and photography adventure! Those kind of days are my favorites.
Thank you for looking and I hope you have all been having some great adventures too.

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

Pyramid Lake Fishing Photos

Yesterday was a good day! My budddy Blake of Pisces Outdoors invited me and another buddy out for the opening day of fishing at Pyramid Lake in Nevada (Northeast of Reno a bit, near the Black Rock Desert, where Burning Man takes place). Blake makes and sells fishing lures, he also recently obtained his fishing guide license and can now bring clients out for fishing adventures on his bad-ass boat.

The day started out rough. The waves were big and scary. But again, Blake's boat is bad-ass and handled the waves with no problems. I, however, ended up seasick and the first couple of hours of fishing were rough for me. Eventually, the awful feeling went away and I was having a blast! Many fish were caught, they were all Lahontan Cutthroat Trout. All of them were big, one was a very large one, probably about 12 pounds.

Here's one that I caught:

Here's Blake's "winner" of the day. We were quick to release the fish so they could live to be caught another day. This meant we did not have time to weigh the fish, but again, the three of us experienced fishermen agreed, about 12 pounds for this one. Yes, that's a GoPro in the shot. Blake has a YouTube channel and I was also helping a bit with video camera work. Here's Blake's channel: Pisces Outdoors on YouTube The video will be released soon...

This is Blake's boat, at the boat launch. We did not start at sunrise because the wind was supposed to die down mid-day, which means the waves should have started to lay down a bit at launch time.

NOPE! The wind and waves did not mellow out for another couple hours. And again, I ended up getting seasick...

Our buddy Paul and his dog Bubba were both BEASTS on this trip. Bubba handled the rough water like a champ, he is a very experienced dog when it comes to fishing adventures. Paul was incredible when it came to gearing up the rods with tackle and landing the most fish. He's not very patient and would change the lures out often with new ones. But this was a great technique because he was quickly able to figure out what was working and again, we caught tons of fish!

Here's a few more happy fishermen photos:

And here's a look at some of the lures we were using. Blake makes and sells the "spoons". Plugs also worked for us, as well as a few other types. Many many fish were caught, we were out there almost all day, so many types of lures were used. On "opening day" the fish haven't seen lures for a few months so they aren't cautious and bite a lot. So much fun!

We had one double hook-up, when two fish bite at the same time (different rods and lures). It's always fun even though it creates a bit of chaos on the boat. I actually caught that fish Blake is holding on the right... But as the photographer on the boat, it was my duty to get the photo, lol.

Almost all of the fish were released. We did keep a couple and I now have half of one fish in my freezer, the other half is in the refrigerator and is going to be my dinner tonight, woohoo! Pyramid Lake has very strict rules about what size fish you can keep, and how many. The lake is on on an Indian Reservation and the Paiute Tribe does an incredible job with managing the fish population there. It's not that uncommon for fishermen to land a 20 pound trout there. And there are SO MANY fish in that lake, you are really doing something wrong if you walk away empty handed.

We had to stop for a minute along the shore, in order to let Bubba the dog go pee. While there, I ended up with this cool shoreline landscape photo. I was happy with it and it is now available to order as prints on my website: "Fall Colors at Pyramid Lake".

I also got Blake a nice photo of his boat. I always make sure to get some good photos for his website, that way I get invited back out again!

Thanks for looking and I hope you all had a great weekend too. FISH ON!

Scott Thompson
Scott Shots Photography
www.ScottShotsPhoto.com

New Lake Tahoe Photo Gallery added.

Yesterday I added a new photo gallery to my website. Well, actually I divided one gallery up into two galleries. I had a Lake Tahoe Sunsets and Sunrises gallery. Now I have a Lake Tahoe Sunsets Gallery and a separate Lake Tahoe Sunrises gallery. This is because I was getting too many images in the original gallery, a good problem to have. I've been out shooting even more Tahoe and Truckee sunrises lately, although it has been tough as the sunrise happens pretty early this time of year.  Please view the photos below for a few favorites. 

Here's a couple links to the new galleries:

Lake Tahoe Sunrise pictures

Lake Tahoe Sunset pictures

And here are some new Lake Tahoe sunrise photos and Tahoe fishing photos I've added to my website recently:

"Sunrise Fishing on Lake Tahoe 2" - This trolling fishing pole was photographed at sunrise on Lake Tahoe.  One of the motivating factors for getting up so early lately has been fishing. I have a good buddy with a fishing boat and I often get the invite. As you can see, fishing and photography go very nicely together. 

"Tahoe Fishing Boat at Sunrise" - This silhouette of a fishing boat and fishing poles was photographed at sunrise on Lake Tahoe.  The boat is my fishing buddy's boat and I have spent many hours fishing and taking pictures of Tahoe from it. The fishing boat was loaded with gear and coolers, and the silhouette worked great to hide it all. 

"Tahoe Sailboats at Sunrise" - These silhouettes of sailboats were photographed at sunrise on Lake Tahoe.  I captured this one from the dock, right as we were about to head out fishing for the day. 

"Sunrise at Lake Tahoe 7" - This sunrise was photographed from a boat on Lake Tahoe.  As we were heading out of the buoy zone, the boat was moving slow so I was able to capture a few photos of a fiery but near cloudless sunrise. 

"Sunrise at Lake Tahoe 6" - This sunrise was photographed from a boat on Lake Tahoe.   Taken at about the same time as the photo above, I zoomed out to the widest angle my 24-105 mm lens could go. I like this one a lot for the simple and abstract feel to it. 

I've previously written a bit of a "how to" when it comes to photography from a small fishing boat on Tahoe. You can view the post here:  Fishing and Photography on Lake Tahoe  If you have any technical questions about the subject, please feel free to ask in the comments area below. Thank you!

-Scott Thompson

The images above are available at Fine Art Prints, Gift Items, and as Stock Photography. Please click on an image to view it larger and for purchasing info. All of the Scott Shot's Tahoe area photographs can be found in the Lake Tahoe and Truckee Areas gallery collection. 

My Kayak, What a Great Photography Tool.

Scott Thompson fishing and shooting on Lake Tahoe. Photographed with a Motorola Droid.

Last summer, my wife and  I decided to spend a few hundred bucks and buy a tandem sit on top kayak for the family. The purchase was supposed to be about family fun and fishing, it has held me, my wife, my son, and my 85 pound Labrador all at once. "The Orange Peel", it's nickname, has been well worth the money. But I have also found it to be an incredible addition to my camera bag.

The kayak is an Equinox 160T from Costco. The price was way below anything else I had been looking at online. My expectations weren't very high but I have found it to be perfect for my needs. Very stable and a whole lot of space for family and/or camera gear. The front seat has held my big fully loaded camera bag in a large dry bag and I've even stood up in the kayak for photos. (Note: Dry bags are a MUST if you plan on bringing a camera you value onto small paddle driven boat, drips happen, many many drips, oh, and don't forget splashes and sloshes. A small towel is also recommended.)  The kayak comes stock with a small covered hatch that keeps things relatively dry but water has unexpectedly gotten in there when the family was using it for play. If you own this kayak, don't trust the hatch for H2O sensitive camera gear.  Also, don't plan on winning any kayak races with this beast, slow and steady wins for photography purposes.

I've customized my kayak a bit. Online I found two flush mount fishing pole holders and a 4" hatch to provide a little more entertainment value and access to the large interior of the boat creating more storage.  These inexpensive additions have been priceless. Trolling for fish on the way to photography locations is a great way to make good use of work hours.

Scott's son Kane kayaking and fishing on Donner Lake.

When I'm with the whole family, wife and dog included, I skip all cameras but my cell phone.  When fishing with just my son, I bring just one camera body, one lens, flash, and polarizing filter. As always a dry bag is a must but I skip the tripod and additional gear. Space is limited and my attention to photography is also limited. But when I'm by myself, this kayak provides plenty of space for all my outdoor gear, 2 Canon bodies, 4 lenses, flash, tripod, and a whole lot of random accessories I rarely need until I don't have them.  I own three dry bags of different sizes and I use the smallest I can get away with.

The low angle  you get when you shoot from a kayak can be a good and a bad thing. It can provide some incredible photogenic angles but the glare and/or reflections on the water requires a polarizing filter most of the time to remove the glare. When you use a polarizer filter you lose a lot of light (kind of  like sunglasses for your lens)  so shooting from the boat handheld can be a bit more of a challenge. I usually use an ISO of 400 and a shutter speed no slower then 1/160 of a second.  Later in the day when more gasoline powered boats get out and about, the waves can really pick up. This can require even faster shutter speeds. It can also require you to ditch the shoot and quickly toss your gear into your dry bag. Safety of camera gear first, I can swim.

Lake Tahoe has 71 miles of incredible shoreline but much of it is inaccessible by foot due to private property or rough/steep terrain. Although I haven't kayaked all 71 miles, I have accessed a whole lot of areas I could never have dreamed to get to without it. Getting in close and bumping rocks is no problem either like it would be on most other watercraft.  Quickly beaching it in rocky areas and setting up the tripod for a shot has been great as well.

Photographed from a kayak with a polarizer filter.

The kayak has also proven to be great with helping me photograph birds. They seem to let me get a whole lot closer on water than on land. Getting out early can provide some incredible fog on the water images like this:

Canadian Goose and fog photographed from a kayak.

If you are a photographer or just want to get a better look at mother nature, I would highly recommend purchasing a kayak. After much use, the Equinox 160T gets two thumbs up from me. Kayaking is green and good exercise as well.

Please enjoy this sideshow of images that I have photographed from my kayak or from shore line that I kayaked to. Click the full screen icon for a better view. Are you a  kayaker? Please comment and/or post a link to a favorite kayak photo of you or that you have shot, or a favorite kayak photo story. Have a question about one of the images, ask me.

Photography from a Kayak - Images by Scott Thompson

These images in the slideshow above of Lake Tahoe, Donner Lake and Prosser Reservoir were all photographed from my kayak or from shoreline that I kayaked to. All are available as large fine art prints, gift items, and as stock photography. 

-Scott Thompson

Fishing and Photography on Lake Tahoe

Fishing and photography go great together, and when it's on Lake Tahoe, well, just view the slide show below. I'm lucky to have a friend with a small aluminum fishing boat and an addiction to trolling for  Mackinaw. He gets out a ton and I've joined him a couple times this spring with my fishing and photography gear. Both trips left me with no fish but plenty of photos. He has caught a Mack on both trips...

Fishing Lake Tahoe - Images by Scott Thompson

Not only did I get some fun photos of fishing poles and of the boat, but I shot a bunch of landscape and stock photos while trolling along the West shore of  Lake Tahoe. The quickly changing shoreline can be a lot of fun shooting from a boat.

Lake Tahoe from a Fishing boat - Images by Scott Thompson

When shooting Lake Tahoe from a small fishing boat, weather resistant gear is highly recommended. I bring minimal gear, my Canon 5D Mark II, a 24-105 L lens, a flash which I've never used out there, and a polarizing filter. The small camera bag fits into my small dry bag, which gives me peace of mind when I'm not shooting. Both times I've been out this spring it has snowed or hailed on us. The weather can change fast but can provide some beautiful scenery.  Dress warm with layers and a waterproof jacket if you suspect you may encounter some weather. I'd also recommend bringing a rag to wash and dry your hands between fishing and shooting for obvious reasons.

I wish I could give some great fishing tips, but as I mentioned, I got skunked both times. My buddy caught his big Mackinaw on our first trip with a red and blue pattern Rapalla in about 15 feet of water. The waves were a bit too big for his boat when we came around a point so we had to U turn and head back to the calmer waters. Right then he snagged a "rock", we turned around again to save the lure, and when we got closer, he realized he had actually hooked a huge fish.

Photographed on a Motorola Droid

The second fish was caught on the second trip with a big lure attached to a new down rigger in fairly deep water. It started snowing/hailing on us and just as we were about to call it a day, he landed another Mackinaw.  Then we called it, we'll have to bring waterproof pants next time...

Photographed on a Motorola Droid

The Lake Tahoe photos in the slideshows above are available as fine art prints, gift items, and as stock photography. Click on the slideshows for purchasing information. Thank you.