Building a Pyramid Lake Ladder Chair


Behind most great Pyramid Lake fishermen is a custom made ladder. Pyramid lake is famous for fishing from ladders.  Over the last 40 years,  Ladder fishing has evolved from its beginnings when anglers would stand on milk crates in deeper water to allow them to  wade deeper and cast farther.  Pyramid lake is surrounded by steep drop offs that range from 3 -15 feet.   These drop offs are sometimes  close to shore and in some places are 100 ft out.    The key to fishing success in the lake is to fish these drop offs because the Cutthroats in the lake feed and swim along the drop offs.

Most veterans use the Steel Folding Chair Ladder which fold and rolls on wheels.  Transporting these ladders can be challenging and they are very heavy which is a good thing since big winds can blow over a  light ladder easily.   In the old days,  Milk Crate fishermen would attach a Duck Decoy to there ladder  or crate in order to find it if it blew over.   I heard it was quite the site to see a Single Duck swimming in front of every angler lining the beach.   Today,  some tie float to their ladders and its a new requirement to put your name, address and phone number on your ladder in case it gets blown out to the deep so that when they fish it out, they can charge you with littering.

I set out to build a light transportable ladder with a chair to use in the lake this Fall.   I decided to make it scalable  so I could use it as strictly a  stand up  ladder or add the char with stability.   I used a standing platform  to add a pedestal seat and I added an adjustable strut to stabilize the chair from tipping backwards.   I also added some scotty rod holder mounts to mount a stripping basket, rod  and net holders.   Also added some ladder wheels for easier mobilization.   I tried to build it so it would be scaleable   and Im able to use the ladder without the chair easily which makes it alot easier to lug over rocks and trails if I have to transport the ladder over uneven ground.

I got a lot of inspiration from  creative pyramid ladder engineers that have been kind enough to let me take pics of their creations or have posted them .

3 thoughts on “Building a Pyramid Lake Ladder Chair

  1. Looks like a well conceived design. Do you have a materials/parts list available and any instructions for building an identical ladder? I’d pay for the information. Thanks!

  2. I am interested to buy one of your chair ladders. My concern is lateral stability. You have a strut to avoid tipping backward, how about windy days and tipping sideways?

    • This post is about trying to build something better. So far it works well but then I havent been out in any really radical weather yet with it. Ill let you know if I dont drown. I was thinking of building a snap on lateral bar for sideways stability. Ive seen that on some designs, That would be an easy option to build onto it. that you dont have to use if you dont need it.

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