I’m happy to revive this old thread because I finally and surprisingly finally caught a golden rainbow yesterday. Thanks again for all the input and advice. In the three years since I asked for advice, I have only run across about ten or so opportunities to fish for golden rainbows. I have hooked into about half of them but was never able to land one... Again, I know these fish are not revered, but it has become more of a milestone for me in my fly fishing exploits. Not helping my ego with this inability to catch one of these is the fact that my twelve year old son has caught about four or five of them, albeit with bait in youth-only waters, but that doesn’t stop him from rubbing it in that I haven’t caught one yet!
So yesterday I had the fortune to head out to Meadow Run and was able to fish from about 7:00 till 2:00. I decided to go there since I haven’t been fishing Meadow Run as much this year as I have in the past because it is getting so much more pressure since it’s Keystone Select water now. I prefer more solitude and smaller fish I guess... However it’s hard to beat the scenery of Meadow Run so I decided to go for that reason.
I worked my way upstream only having caught two trout in about an hour and a half of fishing when I came upon a seemingly respectable little run that I decided was worthy of a cast or two. I was fishing a tandem rig with an olive stonefly nymph and a cream weenie dropper. My indicator jerked and I set the hook and saw the flash of gold and pink! I thought, NO WAY IT’S A GOLDEN! Not two seconds later he spit the hook and my line got tangled up in a tree... Having this be the routine for my encounters with golden rainbows has tempered me to not let the frustration get the best of me. I managed to pull my flies free and than had a tangled mess to deal with.
So, I took a seat on a nearby rock, got the line untangled, checked my knots and inspected the integrity of the line and told myself, he wasn’t hooked long enough to be put down, so there’s still a chance I can get this one. After two casts with no luck, I figured the fish may have moved up to the head of the run, so I made my third Castro a spot above the head of the run. My indicator drifted into position and BAM, fish on! This time I had a solid hook set. I played him just enough to net him and was able to finally cross this milestone off my list!
Now the trouble is, what is my next conquest going to be? I’ve caught wild browns, two wild rainbows, native brookies, one hatchery tiger trout and I’ve had two cases where I have caught the PA grand slam on three consecutive fish (one time was from the same pool in Laurel Hill creek). I think the next conquest must be to get a wild tiger trout.
The one thing I have learned from this golden rainbow chase is that TIME is the one thing that you need in order to pull this off... in my case, 3 years!
