Chances for a wild tiger trout?

[PennypackFlyer]

I never kept track of catching them. Pretty sure I have.

 

[k-bob]

see image 1st few pages here:

http://files.dep.state.pa.us/PublicParticipation/Public%20Participation%20Center/PubPartCenterPortalFiles/Environmental%20Quality%20Board/2013/April%2016%20EQB/CRANBERRY%20CREEK/Cranberry%20Creek%20Petition.pdf

 

[Zak]

Not to confound these theories but of the 15+ wild tiger trout I've caught all of them have come from stream that are predominantly brown trout with very few brookies. Maybe the opposite happens there where the few brookies find browns are mates.

 

[Zak]

Attached is my best wild tiger trout. Apologies for the spinner in the mouth as I know this is a fly fishing site and I respect that.

 

[Zak]

Sorry for the double photo....I was learning how to post a picture. I successfully failed haha.

 

[Millsertime]

Zak....What features on that tiger make you feel it is wild?

 

[FarmerDave]

Zak, it certainly looks wild to me. I remember that photo and the very unusual pattern. I'd call that one a leopard trout. ;-)

 

[wildtrout2]

Millsertime wrote:
Zak....What features on that tiger make you feel it is wild?

I'll be honest, the bigger a tiger trout is, the more skeptical I am of it being wild. But, I have to say Zac's tiger has some awfully clean fins!

 

[Dave_W]

Zak wrote:
Attached is my best wild tiger trout.

I've caught many stocked tigers that looked like this. I think it's highly unlikely this is a wild fish.

 

[ryansheehan]

I've only caught one tiger in my life, I'm as confident as I can be that it is wild. I'm basing that only off location and size. I don't feel comfortable weighing in on stock vs wild other than basic things like fin condition. What type of pattern stuff specifically does Zaks fish have that says stocked? The fins and tail look as clean as any wild fish I've seen. It does seem that as soon as they get a little bigger everyone thinks they are stocked, but I'm out of my element on this one.

 

[larkmark]

A wild trout would never eat a CP swing

 

[Mwheaps32]

larkmark wrote:
A wild trout would never eat a CP swing

The best spinners that mankind made

 

[Zak]

Thanks for the questions. I will tell you that I agree, once a fish gets over a certain size, both Wild Tigers and even Native Brook Trout, tend to start to lose those firey colors. I'm sure this isn't across the board but most of the large native brook trout I've caught have been on the bland side. In this case there are several things that lead me to believe that this large wild tiger, which measured in at 17", was in fact wild.

1. This stream has never been stocked. For the sake of transparency, there is a stocked section of stream 6 miles below this and then 10 miles up stream on the creek it feeds which gets about 300 stocked trout a year. It would be heck of a run but anything is possible.

2. I've never caught a stocked trout from this stream so the likelihood that the first stocked trout I caught is a stocked tiger, while possible, is unlikely.

3. The stream is a 50/50 mix of native brook trout and wild browns

4. I've caught at least 9 wild tigers from this stream, most under 9".

5. There are other reasons but I'll rest my case with this photo. I caught this same wild tiger 3 years earlier when it was 13" and far more wild looking. I also believe that I caught it 3 years before that when it was 7" but the markings are much less conclusive. Over a 6 year period I caught it 3 times and it was within 25 yards of it's original location that whole time. Also a very good indication of a wild fish.

 

[Zak]

If you click on the pic it will enlarge. I've circled the markings that show it's the same fish but you just need to look at the rear most markings.

All that considered, like others have said, once a trout gets to a certain size, other than scale samples, theres really no way to be 100% sure it's a wild fish in Pennsylvania. You never know who's dumping what where. For all I know someone dumped a bucket of tiger trout fingerlings in the upper creek on a quad or something one day. Super unlikely but in PA anything is possible. If I had to bet a paycheck..or several of them on this fish being wild though..Id make the bet in a second ;-)

Hopefully I catch it again someday and I'll take that scale sample and find out for sure.

 

[wildtrout2]

Based on those pics, which I did click to enlarge, there's a distinct spot on the side of the bigger tiger, between the pelvic and anal fins, that doesn't appear on the smaller version. Really, from what I compared, I don't see a whole lot of similarity at all with those spot patterns.

They might be wild tigers, but they don't look like the same fish to me.

 

[salmonoid]

wildtrout2 wrote:
Based on those pics, which I did click to enlarge, there's a distinct spot on the side of the bigger tiger, between the pelvic and anal fins, that doesn't appear on the smaller version. Really, from what I compared, I don't see a whole lot of similarity at all with those spot patterns.

They might be wild tigers, but they don't look like the same fish to me.

They are the same fish. That spot (if I'm looking at what you are describing) appears to be a collection of whatever is causing the yellow pigmentation on the bottom of the fish; almost like a freckle and not so much a part of the markings. I've caught the same brown twice and was surprised to see a slight morphing of the spot pattern. They do change, not majorly, but they aren't static from the day they drop the egg yolk.

Someday, I always wanted to run a whole batch of my fish pictures through I3S, to see how many fish I've actually caught multiple times. I know I've caught a number of fish twice (two are tigers that other board members caught), but I'm sure there are many fish I've never IDed that I've caught multiple times. And there are some fish that have shown up on this board that I've caught previously as well, but it takes context for me to make a match.

http://www.reijns.com/i3s/index.html

A few comments back it was noted about catching tigers in Kettle. I believe I remember reading on here from a board member's post (Big John?) that clubs stock Kettle with tigers. The state hasn't stocked them for years, and being hybrids, any they did stock aren't reproducing.

 

[ryansheehan]

wildtrout2 wrote:
Based on those pics, which I did click to enlarge, there's a distinct spot on the side of the bigger tiger, between the pelvic and anal fins, that doesn't appear on the smaller version. Really, from what I compared, I don't see a whole lot of similarity at all with those spot patterns.

They might be wild tigers, but they don't look like the same fish to me.

I thought the same thing at first but they have the exact same dots on the nose and gill plates. The areas that were circled made me think they weren't the same fish though.

 

[PennypackFlyer]

Looks more like a snakehead trout.

 

[Mike]

Given my knowledge of the drainage basin, the very small stockings that do occur miles away, the fact that I have always been told that the stockings were of rainbows (supported by electrofishing near the stocked area), and my knowledge of the stream where Zak's fish was caught, it is highly likely that his tiger trout is a wild fish. As Zak said, you never know when someone is going to sneak a fish in from one stream to another, but I am thinking that it most probably is not one of those angler transplants.

The washed out colors of nearly all wild brooks and browns in this stream, particularly the brooks, is a natural phenomenon that aids in reducing their detection by predators. At first glance, this tends to make them look like stocked fish, but they are not.

 

[Swattie87]

Mike wrote:
Given my knowledge of the drainage basin, the very small stockings that do occur miles away, the fact that I have always been told that the stockings were of rainbows (supported by electrofishing near the stocked area), and my knowledge of the stream where Zak's fish was caught, it is highly likely that his tiger trout is a wild fish. As Zak said, you never know when someone is going to sneak a fish in from one stream to another, but I am thinking that it most probably is not one of those angler transplants.

I'm pretty good at sleuthing streams from context clues in posts, but dang. That's impressive. I have no clue where this fish was caught.