This fly is designed to convince Lahontan Cuttroat to strike when they are lethargic and picky during high pressure, calm, sunny days. When Pyramid Lake glasses out and the surface gets slick, the amount of light available in the water column increases, and there is no shimmer from ripples and waves on the surface. As the season moves on from winter into spring, the number of natural midge larvae and pupae increases and the fish become more selective. When the fishing is slow, switching to this little chironomid is often the ticket. The black nickel tungsten bead virtually disappears in the water; the wire and thread mimic the naturals, and large, wary, hesitant pilots are willing to take a chance on this bug.
I like to run this fly in tandem, below the Peliwhopper Midge. I have noticed that Pyramid Lake Lahontan Cutthroat are extremely curious, but they have a limited attention span. If you fish a leech and a midge together, the fish will notice the leech from a greater distance, swim up to it, refuse, and swim away without noticing the smaller fly dangling above or below. For this reason, on calm days when you are trying to get fish to eat a subtle presentation, it is often best to run two similar or even identical flies at different depths rather than a divided approach.