EP035: Nancy Vucinich – Pyramid Lake Update, Happy Zooplankton and Big Lahontan Cutthroat trout

Sep 28, 2017 | Podcast, Pyramid Lake, Reno Fly Shop

“Freshwater inflow plus nutrients makes for really great conditions to grow Lahonton Cutthroat Trout”

– Nancy Vucinich, Senior Fishery Biologist, Pyramid Lake Fisheries



Nancy Vucinich was last on the podcast about a year ago and what a year it has been. Nancy has had to deal with huge wildfires that have impacted where she lives, works and recreates. And then came the winter of 2016-17 where Pyramid Lake has seen a historic increase in lake level and a dramatic change in water chemistry.

Nancy and I got to sit down in the offices of the Pyramid Lake Fisheries and discuss many of these changes and the impacts she has observed in the short term and how she believes the lake will respond in the longer term.

Nancy and I were able to discuss water chemistry and how a alkaline terminal lake like Pyramid Lake can change with a big volume of freshwater. The changes start with positive impacts to the population of zooplankton. This is the foundation of the lakes foodweb. More zooplankton results in increases in abundance and availability of almost all aquatic species in the lake, especially the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout.

If you get the chance to share this episode with friends please do so on the links/buttons below and if you would like to check out discussion of this and other podcast episodes please check out our Facebook Group, Reno Fly Shop Podcast Group.

This is a shorter episode then we have done recently but with the short length comes a fairly dense discussion of Pyramid Lake.  I hope you enjoy.


Show notes:

Here is a link to Nancy’s previous episode.

We discuss the articles Mike Anderson prepared last year on the the different periods during the Pyramid Lake Season.

Early | Middle | Late

Information Nancy and I discuss:


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