Gotta Slam!

[phiendWMD]

I got out of work early today so I decided to take advantage of it. I had a few options to select from. I really wanted to fish the Lehigh, but the rod I had with me wasn't quite optimal for that, so I went with a tributary of the Little Schuylkill instead. Right away I brought a couple browns to hand in the first hole I fished. The next place I stopped produced a rather dull rainbow. Things got better from there and I was catching much more fish then normal. After a couple more browns, I got into some brookies. From there it was a mix of browns and brookies.

I've caught 2 of 3 before but never all 3 in one day.

 

[drakeking412]

congrats!

 

[laurelrun]

That's a fun feeling! Always a highlight of a a trip. Great job.

My bday was a couple weeks ago so I took the day off. I managed to hit all three plus a fat palamino. I think I was as excited when I got the brookie to complete the slam toward the end of the say as I was about the big yellow guy.

 

[herbalwizard]

Congratulation!
I actually got two in the past two weeks. Stocker slam this week in SEPA, walked a lot of stream hoping to see a golden to try for the grand slam. Thought I saw one, but on closer inspection it was a rather large goldfish or smallish koi.
The week before I got a wild slam on a Pine creek trib in NCPA. Some people say there aren't wild bows up there, but I've now caught four in the last 18 months. One was almost 8" and could have been a mistake that got in a truck and made it into a trib. The recent one that started my slam was about 6" and the first hole up from the mouth so again maybe an errant stocker. The other two from last summer were 3-4". There have to be stocked bows getting into the feeders or near feeder mouths and spawning to a tiny degree of success.

 

[Prospector]

A key component to wild bows is the eggs maturing while the water temp stays in a certain range. So if the rainbow pair chooses a Redd location near an underwater spring that regulates at that temp then a stream can have some isolated instances of wild rainbows when the full stream isn’t capable. Sounds like your honey hole has gravel in a key spot.

 

[Mike]

If it’s the stream that I think it is, bows have reproduced in there for years, but numbers are always low and they generally don’t make it past age 2. Even golden RT reproduced in there once (a first for Pa) and produced a big year class. They didn’t survive more than two yrs either.

 

[herbalwizard]

Mike, I sent a PM

 

[Prospector]

Mike wrote:
If it’s the stream that I think it is, bows have reproduced in there for years, but numbers are always low and they generally don’t make it past age 2. Even golden RT reproduced in there once (a first for Pa) and produced a big year class. They didn’t survive more than two yrs either.

Mike,
Thanks for the info. Any idea what would cause these fish to not likely live beyond age 2?

That’s just mind boggling to think they they can make it from egg to 2yr old (the time when highest mortality occurs) and then fade away after they have beaten all of the odds. Do the bows just leave the trib and only return to spawn for a few short weeks and head back to Pine?