What a day!

[Swattie87]

However, I have caught exactly ONE wild tiger trout in over 20 years of fly fishing.

Andy, that stream produced another Tiger for me last Fall.

Lifetime total stands at two, and potentially a third that flopped off before I could 100% confirm. I don’t recall ever catching a stocked Tiger, though admittedly I’m not often fishing in places where stocked Tigers are likely to be.

 

[Peyton]

This one came from Clark's creek, took over a year before someone at the fly shop told me what it was. Has to be native since PA doesn't stock tigers and it was only native fish from this hole. The lines on it are more blue than any other I have seen, it was safely released back to the same spot.

 

[wildtrout2]

Congrats! What fly pattern is that?

 

[redietz]

PA doesn't stock tigers

That hasn't always been true: http://www2.readingeagle.com/articl... Pennsylvania Fish,lake trout and brook trout.

I once caught a stocked tiger trout in Yellow Breeches.

 

[silverfox]

That hasn't always been true: http://www2.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=297483#:~:text=According to the Pennsylvania Fish,lake trout and brook trout.

I once caught a stocked tiger trout in Yellow Breeches.

Not to mention private hatcheries raise tiger trout and private "enterprises" still stock them.

 

[KeviR]

I had a little "run" of tigers a few years ago, catching two in back-to-back years, 2017-2018. I don't know if they were wild or stocked, maybe someone could weight in on that. The one from 2017 was the Saucon below the 412 bridge, about 8". The one from 2018 was Mud Run a bit below Albrightsville, about 11"
I once was at White Deer Creek right after they stocked (VERY unintentionally) and there was a whole school of freshly stocked trout stupid as doorknobs. Caught several tigers from that pool over the course of the hour I was there. Didn't bother to take a picture.

 

[KeviR]

Has anybody caught a large one? I've only heard of ones less than about 12"
I think they are aggressive and my theory is that they never last too long since they are not cautious. Maybe instead they are stunted by their genetics?

 

[redietz]

Has anybody caught a large one? I've only heard of ones less than about 12"
I think they are aggressive and my theory is that they never last too long since they are not cautious. Maybe instead they are stunted by their genetics?

They can get quite large. Run through the pictures on this thread from another forum: Tiger Trout Photos.

I don't think you're ever going to see wild ones get very big, though, simply because of the size of the streams they're found in.

 

[Peyton]

Congrats! What fly pattern is that?

tiny hook with minnow.

 

[bigjohn358]

They can get quite large. Run through the pictures on this thread from another forum: Tiger Trout Photos.

I don't think you're ever going to see wild ones get very big, though, simply because of the size of the streams they're found in.

This is the largest one I've caught that I believe is wild. Its like 15" or so.

 

[moon1284]

Are you suggesting your single experience with a miraculous survivor renders countless other scientific papers inaccurate? You know better than that Mike.

You're right. You know more than the biologist!

 

[silverfox]

You're right. You know more than the biologist!

I certainly never claimed that. Mike made a comment about brook trout being pushed further into headwaters, which is backed up by numerous other biologists in peer-reviewed journal publications, being false. My response was to him. No need to derail with personal insults.

 

[bigjohn358]

Here's a few more tigers that I have caught that I'm assuming are wild. The one was however caught close to a stocked section which I'm not 100% sure is wild (still class A with both wild brooks and browns) but still apears to be way different than the majority of stocked tigers I've caught. Like I mentioned before stocked tigers especially here in Pennsylvania tend to always have close together vermiculaton paterns.

 

[Peyton]

That hasn't always been true: http://www2.readingeagle.com/article.aspx?id=297483#:~:text=According to the Pennsylvania Fish,lake trout and brook trout.

I once caught a stocked tiger trout in Yellow Breeches.

Fish and boat don't stock them, small operations might.

 

[bigjohn358]

Fish and boat don't stock them, small operations might.

PFBC probably stopped raising tigers about a decade ago. Private hatcheries do still raise a few.

 

[Troutmeister]

The tiger that Peyton caught in Clark's on post 42 definitely looks wild. The larger ones posted after that look like hatchery fish to me.

There's a big difference in coloration, plus I don't think wild tigers achieve the size of those pictured, at least not in Pa.

I don't know where these stocked Tigers come from if the state doesn't stock. I've caught several in places as diverse as Jordan Ck. Broadhead, and either Kettle or the First Fork (can't remember).

 

[redietz]

Fish and boat don't stock them, small operations might.

They don't any longer, but the did at one time.

 

[Troutmeister]

Here's a Tiger I caught in the Jordan Ck. in 2021. So where did he come from if the state hasn't stocked any in 10 yrs.?

 

[bigjohn358]

Here's a Tiger I caught in the Jordan Ck. in 2021. So where did he come from if the state hasn't stocked any in 10 yrs.?

Maybe a private hatchery. Sportsmen clubs sometimes get them. There are private hatcheries all over the state. In all honesty maybe none of these tigers are wild (I doubt that but anything is possible in this goofy state). Anyone can go to these private hatcheries and purchase a bucket of fish and dump them in wherever they want. Its sad how many times that happens in this state. I've seen wild brookie streams in the middle of nowhere end up having stocked fish dumped in them.

 

[Dave_W]

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.

Fascinating!