Ruby Marsh Nevada 2025

[CI_Seawolf]

My bestie from Jr High has been bugging me about a bucket list trip to the Ruby Marsh in Nevada for a while.  His older brother is also one of my old backpacking buddies and we did some challenging trips in the Sierras back in the 80's.  We got the green light from all the wives earlier this year, and soon the group texts of planning and joking around got started.

I haven't tent camped in many years due to my health conditions but I made provisions in order to be able to go. We are all very seasoned campers and outdoor guys, the elder brother continues to backpack every year.  We combined resources for camp meals and were able to co ordinate getting together from the various parts of California where we all live.

Day 1 of my trip involved me loading way too much gear in my truck and heading up to my pal's place for an overnite stay and then 5 am get out to drive all the way to the Marshes (12 hours!). Big brother had arrived early and was texting out a few reports on his Inreach system as cell phone coverage is non existent.  One of the texts mentioned Mormon Crickets.... There can be thousands of these large flightless insects crossing roads and we weren't looking forward to dealing with them, but they are indigenous to the area of Nevada we were going to.

12 hours of driving went by fairly quickly, as old pals remembered lots of our old memories good and bad.  We did see some of our insect friends, but it wasn't terrible getting there.  We set up our tents and had some good old camp food of chili dogs.  Both the other guys just shook their heads at seeing the amount of gear I had brought.  Definitely more of a man's camping trip, so a lot of the stuff I brought wasn't unlimbered.  Still good to know that we had a lot of extra food, well equipped first aid gear, and sufficient spares in case the weather turned or if we had vehicle trouble.  Big brother had also caught 3 19" Tiger trout and a small Northern Strain Largemouth Bass.   

Day 1 of fishing:
We started at a place that we had seen on a YouTube of someone else fishing the place a year or so before.  I started off the bat with a mini jig set up, 1000 size Daiwa Laguna paired with an Okuma Pro Guide Ultralight 8' rod spooled with 5 lb micro raid to a short 4lb Blue label Seguar Flourocarbon leader with a 1/32 mini jig.  The other guys were using standard monofilament outfits in the 4 lb range too, casting small spinners.  I got 3 fish from 16-18" all Rainbows, very full bodied and fighting like wild fish.  The microbraid system in combination with the balanced rod/reel combo made casting and presentation of the light jigs an advantage.  We did get a visit from a friendly game warden while we were there, he checked our non resident licenses and talked a bit about where we could fish and shared some information on flies, etc.

We fished a pond that had produced one of the Tigers the day before, and could see large fish cruising, but no takers. It was warm and bright, so we took a break in the middle of the day to rest and tried another spot that we had talked about with the warden.  The brothers each got a decent trout about 18" or so, I had a couple in that same range when I got picked up by a bigger fish.  I could see it a bit as it slugged it out with me, very heavy bodied trout and we finally got it in the net.  21" Rainbow, a hen that was dropping eggs.  We kept her in the water and were more concerned about getting her revived than taking any bragging pictures.  After a fair bit of moving her back and forth in the net, she swam off into an undercut bank, minutes later, we saw her cruising out into the deeper water of the pool.  This was to be our style the whole trip, really working to not touch or molest these great trout and work hard to release them back.  The mini jig was normally hooked in the jaw, or in her case, the hinge of the jaw. The sun went behind the mountains and the light soon dimmed so we returned to camp, happy and tired.

Day 2 :
After a breakfast of sausage and eggs, the three amigos explored new waters further down the road.  This would be a pattern that we had every day at the Marsh, remembering some of the spots where we felt the effort to return would be worth it.  Amazing walking into some of these spring fed ponds, seeing fish well over 20" cruising.  We soon learned to keep from sky lining ourselves and keep a stealthy profile.  The brothers were starting to be aware that the microbraid was very effective at making the micro jig presentation work for these well fed, well educated trout.  Fortunately, I had a couple extra reels spooled up with microbraid, and loaned them to my buddies for the remainder of the trip.  I broke off on a huge dark bodied missle of a trout that broke water with a splash.  We hit a couple ponds and picked onesies and twosies out before returning to camp.  I got hit by some dehydration out there and the guys helped me back to camp to cool off and drink water and some lemonade and one of our old backpacking favorites...Tang Orange Drink.

That afternoon, we tried a different angle on the pool that produced the big fish of the day before.  We were able to fish the inlet stream in a few places too.  Water clarity was amazing, we saw several trout over 20" cruising and I was able to tempt a gorgeous 21" to the net.  My pal, the younger brother, soon was in a good tussle with a 22" rainbow.  High fives all around and then Big brother hooked a 22" when he returned to the spot we had fished the day before.   All of us got fish over 20" that session, Amazing!  A few pesky browns around 10-11" were caught, the smallest trout of the trip.  It clouded up and got a bit humid, we could see flashes of lightning when we got back to camp.

Day 3:
After breakfast, we headed far down the valley to cover some different water.  We scared up a few more decent trout, mostly in the 17-18" range.  As full bodied as they are, a 17" fish would probably go 3 lbs.  We usually made a point of carrying 2 rods with us, one a microbraid outfit, one a monofilament outfit.  Mine was a 7' St Croix Trout Series, with a Daiwa Laguna 2000 carrying 6 lb Flourocarbon line.  I used some small spinners and various trout lures on that.  Younger brother got a 15" Tiger, and all 3 of us got several Rainbows in the 16-18" range.  My pal, younger brother, got hit by the dehydration bug at the pond in the morning.  We got him back to camp and got some Liquid IV into him, we cooled off for a while before attacking the big fish pool of the prior two nights..... Thowing the same color jig that had produced a couple of the larger models, I connected with my largest fish of the trip, a monster rainbow that went to 26-27" it is scary when a big fish like that breaks water on a 4 lb leader.  Cloud and weather came in for a bit that night, we had to erect a hasty tarp between 4 trees to sit out of the rain.  But we were lucky it only lasted an hour or so.

I will finish the story in the next post, my hands are getting tired.

[CI_Seawolf]

Here are a few pictures:

[foakes]

Excellent trip & report, Tom!

Thank You!

Best, Fred

[MarkT]

Wow, great trip with old friends!

[jtwill98]

Very nice report and pictures. 

TY

[sciaenops]

Wow looks epic!

[JasonGotaProblem]

I enjoy these writeups about the experience of fishing in these places I'll probably never get to visit. Especially really good writeups like this that makes me almost feel like I was there.

Thank you for the effort. Sounds like a great trip.

[CI_Seawolf]

Back to the trip:
We had gone down to Fort Ruby, the site of a  US Calvary outpost just around the Civil war.  The interpretive site was interesting, but sad, the soldiers had committed atrocities against the Native Americans and there had been several battles in the area.  It was humbling to think of the violence that had occurred so long ago in such a lonely, remote area.  There was a reconstructed dugout type building there, and I noticed something different in the corner of the wall, it was a Bull snake that my pal tickled with a piece of straw to get to move.  I wanted no part of it.  Most things that I had seen on line about the marsh had included pictures of rattlesnakes, but we saw none on our trip.  The area was full of other wildlife though, we saw many types of birds, some antelope, elk, marmots, and muskrats.

Day 4: 
The weather warmed a bit, we went to a pond that looked deeper.  I decided to throw a heavier spinner in there and connected with a hot 20" Rainbow on the first cast.  That fish was quite a tussle, even on the 6 lb line and heavier rod.  I got a couple more of the 16-18" Rainbows.  In the Sierras, these would be considered large fish, but here they were just average.  Both my pals got more of the fish too. 

Remember how I had mentioned the Mormon Crickets back in our approach to the trip?  They were prevalent everywhere,  in some of the ponds we saw huge shoals of them and some of the trout were slurping some up.  Younger brother tried using them for bait, but those trout were wise to any minor defect and shunned most of his offerings of them. 

At camp it was interesting, the bugs would get on our tents but primarily stayed out of the kitchen gear, although we did drown some mosquitoes in our dish basins.  Mosquitoes weren't terrible, but they were present, and some got in big brother's tent and gorged on his blood.

We did revisit the pool that had kicked out many large fish , I think we fished it almost every day that we were there.  Big brother's got a 23" Rainbow and I scored another in the 22" range.  It rained for a short time that night, but it was no problem.

Day 5:
The Crickets were everywhere at the first pond we fished, they started crawling up our pants legs and were getting very pesty.  I had hooked a good trout on a spinner, and my pal was helping me with a net when one slipped down the small of his back into a very private region of his body.  Fortunately, he landed my fish, but exclaimed that he was very much over fishing that pond and would be at the truck if we wanted to continue fishing there.  We stayed a few more minutes but the fish were wary .  We went from there down in the marsh to check out some bird watching areas, there was also a bathroom down there and we needed to answer nature's call.  At a small dock on the pond there we broke out our rods and began casting to tiny Largemouth Bass that aggressively chased our mini jigs.  Big brother came out of the bathroom to us two old pals giggling like schoolboys playing with these tiny bass.

We decided to check out another dock area, and the sights and sounds of the birds in the marsh were amazing.  The yellow head blackbirds were cackling and there were hundreds of them in the marsh.  Two very large trout were hanging out right by the dock but were not interested in taking anything from us.  Casting spinners off the dock worked ok and big brother and I both caught trout over 20" off the dock. 

We returned to camp to cool off, and had to settle up with the nice campground host that did a great job of making sure that the campsites were taken care of.  He had a young man with him helping him out, and asked us if we could give the young man some tips on how to fish.

The brothers are both fathers, and I like to get folks started in the sport the way my dad and uncle did, so we agreed to take the young man out with us on our afternoon foray.


We decided to take him to the last dock we fished at so we could have some room to work on his casting skills.  He brought his outfit, which was suitable, but the reel didn't have much line on it and he didn't have too much in the way of lures and tackle.  My pal let him use one of his outfits and within a few minutes of casting instruction, he caught a small bass all by himself.  My pal hooked a nice trout and handed off to him.  He landed his first trout, a 16" Rainbow.  He was a little worried about his chores at home, so we took him back to his camp.  His step dad was very grateful, and my pal gave him a spool of 6 lb mono so he could fill his reel.  Both me and my pal dug into our supply of trout and bass lures and gave the young man a supply of stuff that could get him started.

As we went to leave, the young man ran up to us in the truck and asked if we could take him with us for the rest of our afternoon session.  We said sure and he grabbed his stuff and got back in the truck with us.

We took him to the big hole where we had caught a lot of the big fish of the trip.  I slipped off to a spot and hooked into another 22" Rainbow,  the young man came down and saw it netted and gently released.  We all went to the upper spot, my pal caught a 21" Rainbow while we were walking up, then the young man cast out and caught an 18" Rainbow all by himself.  We had a few more strikes, and I handed off  a fish to the young man, another 18" Rainbow.  We called it a trip and it was a great way to leave it getting a young angler started.


I know my friend's dad and my dad would have been proud of us for sharing the time with that young fella.  Frank and Dell (our dad's) thank you for taking us out all those years ago!

[CI_Seawolf]

More Pictures including the 3 Amigos!

[Benni3]

Very nice report and pictures. 

TY

That looks so clean,,,thanks for taking us with you,,,,

[CI_Seawolf]

More pictures including the young man

[jtwill98]

The Crickets were everywhere at the first pond we fished, they started crawling up our pants legs and were getting very pesty.

I remember them in Utah while riding ATV with my wife and son. At times, it appeared as if the trail was moving as it was completely covered. 

One of the rangers we ran into, jokingly told us there was a fine for running over the crickets. Smart-butt he was as my 11 year old son looked concerned upon those spoken words. 

[Maxed Out]

 Love reading this very detailed fishing adventure. Sounds like you all had a great time and made some great memories. That young man will remember you guys for the rest of his life. Great examples you set for him to share with his kids and grandkids someday.

 I have to ask... I know you all were doing catch and release, and kudos for that, but did you keep any to cook up for dinner back at camp ?

[CI_Seawolf]

Hi and thanks to all for the comments.  As a matter of fact, we did have to kill one 18-19" Rainbow that took the hook deep on a spinner.  It was bleeding badly.  So, we put it on the grill with some olive oil, butter, and Cajun seasoning.  It was delicious salmon colored flesh paired with a rice pilaf mix.

[Gfish]

Wow! Never heard of Ruby Marsh before. Looks like a real productive high-desert, spring-water system. Harder than usual to get to and well managed. No wonder that they have a hatchery there. Great magazine quality write up and pictures. Interesting that Large-mouth Bass are there also.