In 2002 in his 2nd year working at the Original Reno Fly Shop, Rob Anderson started wondering why the shop employees were spending so much time teaching anglers how to fish Pyramid lake from the confines of the fly shop. At the time there were no fly-fishing guides at the lake and no non-tribal fishing guides at all. Rob still remembers asking “why don’t we take people fishing at the lake?” The answer… “Oh Pyramid is on an Indian Reservation; we can’t guide out there.” Was always the answer. Later that year Rob found himself in a Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribal Council Meeting. On the docket to speak to the Tribal Council about the opportunity to guide, rob sat patiently. At the half way point of the meeting the Tribal Chairman approached Rob looking like a fish out of water in the meeting and asked “why are you here tonight?” After a brief discussion the meeting resumed and the Tribal chairman moved Rob’s place in line to the front. After a brief speech about the companies’ current guide service and the benefits to both parties of adding Pyramid lake, an agreement was reached to make Rob Anderson and the original Reno Fly Shop the first fly fishing specific guide service at Pyramid Lake.
Immediately successful, the guide service started to grow. Through email marketing, fishing reports and word of mouth, new anglers started coming to Pyramid Lake. The notoriety of the lake was growing and the guide service with it. The fishing technique to catch these large Cutthroat Trout in the lake was the biggest hurdle for the guide business. Anglers would need to make long casts with heavy lines with usually a fair amount of wind. In 2005 that issue would be solved. On the way home from a fishing trip to a very popular California Lake where indicator nymphing was popular, Rob Anderson and Chris Evison stopped by for a day at Pyramid Lake. Thousands of fish were in the shallows that day in the height of the spawning season. The fish were not eating the wooly worms and beetles being fished by the 50 or so anglers on the beach that day so after a break Rob broke out his Crowley Lake rig and started to hang a new fly, the Maholo Nymph he had designed, under an indicator in the middle of all the cruising fish. 6 hours and 50 fish later it was obvious that anglers had been overthinking the fishing at Pyramid for years. The Maholo Nymph would forever help change the fishing at Pyramid Lake. Word spread fast as more and more anglers started to fish indicator rigs at the lake. The Maholo Nymph now a commercial pattern, had become so popular that it was impossible to keep in stock. One night while sitting at the vise trying to re-stock the fly box for another trip to the lake, the idea of taking a Zebra Midge and using Holographic Tinsel like on the Maholo Nymph as the body and tying it that way. The fish loved it and now there was a much simpler pattern that took much less time to tie. The Maholo Midge is the most popular fly for indicator fishing at Pyramid Lake today.
With the ability of Indicator fishing at Pyramid came the next part of the guiding puzzle. Rob was now giving presentations on fishing around the west at fishing shows, fly fishing club meetings and charity events. Rob and the Reno fly Shop Staff had been throwing an Easter Sunday party at Pyramid Lake for years that included fly fishing instruction and a lunchtime Barbeque on the beach. This event helped put together the idea of group outings at the lake. Pyramid may be the perfect place to throw a fishing party. Unlike most fisheries, at Pyramid all the anglers in the group can fish together. The large sandy beaches at Pyramid were the perfect venue for clinics and all types of outings. In 2006 Rob hosted the first ever fly-fishing club outing at Pyramid Lake with the Fly-Fishing Club of Orange County. A huge fishing club in the Los Angeles area. The previous summer Rob had hosted an outing for the club at a private ranch called Goodrich Creek run by the Reno Fly Shop. The connection was made and an official outing put on the calendar for March of 2006. The outing was a huge success and would forever change the scope of guiding for Rob at the lake.