Appalachian Slam!

What is the Appalachian Slam? This is what fishermen call it when they catch all 3 species of trout of the Southern Appalachian Mountains in a single day. Yesterday, I fished the wild section of the Davidson River in the morning and caught a small brown trout and a 10" rainbow. Another angler was fishing downstream of me and wanted to pass. Normally, fly fishing etiquette would require that he walk around me and go far upstream. But, because I had already caught two pretty fish and he had been fishing after me, I told him to just go ahead of me.

I decided that I wanted to try for some Brook trout so I left the Davidson and went to a new stream that I had been wanting to try. The stream requires a difficult hike and climbing up 2 waterfalls. But it was well worth the effort. The stream had many small brookies at first. The further upstream I went the larger the fish got. At the back of a large pool there was an undercut rock that looked like a perfect holding area for a brookie. I took my time and tried many different patterns including nymphs. Finally, a large 10" brook trout took a #16 Royal Coachman and gave a nice fight. Unfortunately, I was using a barbless hook and I did not have net. So, he escaped right at my feet! But, I was very happy! I hooked atleast two more large brookies a little upstream and lost both of them. The point is, I have found a new stream with large sized brookies and I think it receives very little fishing pressure. I can't wait to go back with my net. Normally I don't like to use barbed hooks but I usually shallow hook the brookies and they are really good at shaking the fly from their mouth.

I'm afraid I am going to have to keep the location of this new stream a secret. Sorry!

So after fishing the "secret" stream for a few hours, I headed back to the Davidson to fish the evening rise. I found a large, deep pool where the Davidson and Looking Glass creek intersect. Just upstream of the pool is a nice riffle on the Davidson side. I knew this would be a likely spot for the evening rise. I waited until about 5:30 pm until I started seeing trout rising to insects floating on the water. My first cast was about 60 feet to the top of the riffle with a large grasshopper imitation. It drifted naturally for about 10 feet and was sucked under by a very large rainbow. I struggled to keep him from getting into the rocks at the head of the riffle, but I lost him. Usually the largest fish in the area gets first dibs on any food floating by. I'm guessing this one was about 20". The fish continued rising and I caught 5 more medium sized rainbows (10"-12") out of the same riffle and pool.

So, for the day, I had my first Appalachian Slam. Can you identify the three species in the following pictures? Sorry the picture quality is not very good, I forgot my camera and had to use my cell phone.Well? If you're not sure the answers are below.

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1) Rainbow Trout

2) Brown Trout

3) Brook Trout

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