The Fish Geek Publishes Pictures of Tiger Trout
By Tom Chandler on Dec 9, 2007 in Underground Entertainment
Hell, I didn’t even know a Tiger Trout — a sterile Brown Trout/Brookie hybrid — existed. It’s quite rare in the wild, but face it — half its genes hail from The Official Char of the Trout Underground, so it’s worth a little education.
Even better, it looks like nothing you’ve seen before. The Fish Geek published some pictures from a friend, but since they’re copyrighted, you’ll have to go there to see them.
It’s worth a click. Where else can you see what will become The Official Hybrid Trout/Char of the Trout Underground?
We don’t know either. And yes, this is yet another example about how the Trout Underground improves your life by making you smarter. Really.
See you on the river, Tom Chandler.
kbarton10 | Dec 9, 2007 | Reply
Gorgeous fish, but based on the size of the hook it ate - it may be a few cans short of a sixpack..
Mark Ostrom | Dec 10, 2007 | Reply
Er… not to point anything macabre out, but this article says the guy got into a lot of them… if he handled them all like this… * SMOOCH* Bye bye
Tiger Trout lol… wonder if he put lemon on em? I once ate Zebra meat in Africa… preferring the white meat to the dark. ~ Regards MO
isaac roman | Dec 10, 2007 | Reply
you sometimes see them in the upper reaches of hat creek in lassen national. all the fish here are very small but a lot of fun on light tackle—–never stick your finger in a fish’s gill unless you plan on eatin’ it
Mark Ostrom | Dec 10, 2007 | Reply
Hmmmm…. they told me something like that in church about.. oh never mind. lol
Mark Ostrom | Dec 10, 2007 | Reply
As to the hook, sierra wild trout will eat a gold Eagle Claw hook bald as a bean and shiny as can be and in large sizes too. It’s all in the wrist, grasshopper, and the presentation. * grins * but wadda I know, I had to ask Tom what the jello “BWO” meant and I’ve pretended to fly fish for 45 years!
ijsouth | Dec 10, 2007 | Reply
It’s pretty amazing that these two species can even breed at all in the wild, but it definitely happens from time to time - I saw a picture of one from western North Carolina. There’s one stream that I like to fish in the Smokies where I wouldn’t be surprised at seeing one; it has a good population of browns and brookies, and I got a slam on it (bow, brookie, brown) one day this summer. Now that I’ve just bought a new digital camera (after going through three of them this year), I hope I see one.
hugh koontz | Dec 13, 2007 | Reply
I caught one earlier this year and ran a photo of it with my outdoors column at the Shelby Star newspaper in western North Carolina. Perhaps it was my Tiger you saw? The one I caught had a little more red in the fins with some white edges, more brookie than brown. Puzzling at first since I had never even seen such before. Matt Champion, who guides on the South Holston in Tennessee, ID’d it for me. Pretty little thing.
Tom Chandler | Dec 14, 2007 | Reply
Hugh! So cool you stopped by! A legend.
If you can share your tiger trout pic, I’ll post it here (gotta be 440 pixels or less in width).
I finally got the Star’s RSS feed working, so now I can see your columns as they’re posted.
Still, we gotta ask — does your dog have a fishing license to catch trout?
hugh koontz | Dec 14, 2007 | Reply
Well, as far as the license goes, he, uh, says he never saw any game warden.
I’ll send photos, but how? There is one on my blog (on Star Web site) you can use.
Bo, by the way, is a flea-fisher but he does not tie his own. He’s on another blog post.
Jim Hansen | Dec 17, 2007 | Reply
Hey, I caught 2 tiger trout in a stream near McCloud last year. Surprised the hell out of me! I’d like to think they were produced in the wild, but for some reason I feel there’s a chance somebody in the area could be experimenting with fish.
joe tummarello | Apr 14, 2008 | Reply
i have to say the tiger trout is verry egressive i had the pleasure to catch 2 tigers the 1 was about 1 an a half pounds i wish i mounted it but i thought it was to small so i ate it but it had unigue markings a larger mouth powerfull i like to thank the fish an game comminision of pennsylvania just imagane whats in the future thank u