What a day!

[Troutmeister]

Had a fantastic day on the water yesterday. I fished 3 DHALO waters in the last couple weeks and got skunked at 2 of them so yesterday was a welcome change. I fished a small wild stream in Schuylkill Co. Last year I started a thread about catching a slam, wild rainbow, brown and brookie from the same water on the same day. Well yesterday I caught what had to be the super slam.

I caught a pile of wild browns, including the biggest I ever caught out of this creek, a wild rainbow, 3 or 4 brookies and a wild tiger. Up until yesterday The only tigers I've ever seen or caught were stockers. Anyone else ever catch a wild tiger trout?

 

[a23fish]

Now that's what I would call a GREAT day. I've never seen a tiger trout.

 

[goose54cdd]

I've caught stocked ones in Maryland, but never a native. That's a true trophy.

 

[teedee]

Aren’t tiger trout hybrids that are sterile? I don’t think there are wild tigers.

 

[wbranch]

Up until yesterday The only tigers I've ever seen or caught were stockers. Anyone else ever catch a wild tiger trout?

I've caught two tigers in sixty years. A NYS biologist told me it is very rare to catch a wild tiger trout. Nice catch but what makes you think it is wild?

 

[wbranch]

Aren’t tiger trout hybrids that are sterile? I don’t think there are wild tigers.

Incorrect. Tiger are the offspring of the successful mating of a female brown trout & a male brook trout. Therefore while extremely rare wild fish may exist in very small numbers.

 

[Troutmeister]

Pretty sure it's wild because of where I caught it, size and coloration. I've caught several stockers and this one just blows it away.

 

[pcray1231]

That's a wild tiger. I've caught exactly 1 wild tiger and a handful of stockers.

Congrats! That is a great day!!! Welcome to the wild tiger club!!! And thinking I know exactly what stream you fished, as I've accomplished the wild slam there myself (minus the tiger).

wbranch... Size. Appearance (stocked tigers looks considerably different in general). The fact that it came from an unstocked stream that contains a sizable number of both brookies and browns and that it does indeed happen, though yes, it's rare, which is why it's such a trophy. I'm confident his is wild.

 

[pcray1231]

Aren’t tiger trout hybrids that are sterile? I don’t think there are wild tigers.

Yes they are sterile. They are a hybrid between a (non sterile) brookie and brown. That's not easy, biologically speaking, to do, but it does happen on rare occasions when brookies and browns share the same water. Sterile means the tiger won't reproduce and make more tigers. So the odd fish here and there is possible, but you won't get a reproducing line of tigers.

 

[wildtrout2]

I believe that to be a wild tiger trout as well. Size and coloration make me a believer. Congrats, because that really is a rare event.

 

[Mike]

As I commented last June…
“The stream that troutmeister most likely fished that’s a trib to the Ltl Schuylkill does in fact consistently produce the wild trout trifecta. It has even produced a large year class of golden rainbows in the past, but like the vast majority of streams that have a bit of RT reproduction at times, few if any fish make it to legal size. There is a second trib to the Ltl Sch R that could produce the trifecta in the past, but it was never surveyed enough to learn of any consistency.”

As others have said, the pictured fish is a wild tiger trout and the individual tribs within this basin support trout populations dominated by one species or the other, providing ample opportunity for stray gametes or direct cross breeding from sneaky (opportunistic), precocial, small trout that behaviorally would not normally get a chance to spawn. In Fisheries Behavioral Ecology they are referred to as cuckholders.

As an aside, cuckholdry occurs frequently among Bluegills as well, and they are the better known species for this behavior. Within Bluegill populations it is an undesirable trait in that it can contribute to stunting if genes related to early maturity are passed along within the population. Early maturity=slow growth and small size because energy that would normally go into production of somatic cells (muscle, bone, etc) goes into sex cell production instead. This is also the problem with overharvest of Bluegills, meaning cropping the population length distribution down to sizes less than about 7- 7.75 inches. With an abundance of large males over that size, small males in large part will not mature at an earlier life stage, keeping growth rates high(er) and the length distribution desirable for anglers.

 

[redietz]

Aren’t tiger trout hybrids that are sterile? I don’t think there are wild tigers.

Yes, there are, in streams with both brook and brown trout.

I've caught stocked ones in Maryland, but never a native. That's a true trophy.

Maryland doesn't stock tiger trout. Both the Gunpowder and the Savage watersheds have wild ones.

 

[wgmiller]

That's a beautiful fish and definitely wild, in my non-expert opinion. The first step to finding such fish is to find where wild brook and wild brown trout co-exist. From there it's just a matter of putting the time in (and some luck). I have yet to catch a wild tiger, but look forward to the day it happens. I still feel that Schuylkill County is a highly underrated fishery, but I'll just leave it at that!

 

[gulfgreyhound]

Nice fish ,unusual to say the least. GG

 

[Mike]

Wgmiller: right you are!

 

[silverfox]

Yes, there are, in streams with both brook and brown trout.


Maryland doesn't stock tiger trout. Both the Gunpowder and the Savage watersheds have wild ones.

WV stocks the north branch with tiger trout. Freakish looking if you ask me.

 

[redietz]

WV stocks the north branch with tiger trout.

Good point.

 

[Blackhackle]

Took a 7-8 inch wild tiger trout in a blue line Pocono stream well known for its brooks and browns sometime in the 1980s.

 

[trout624]

That tiger is a beaut! Congrats

 

[dc410]

Very cool catch! For sure.