Tiger Trout Information

[Wildbrowntrout]

Everybody who has caught a wild tiger trout here in PA, can you please post what fly you used to catch it, if you can remember. I have always been interested in catching one, and was curious to see if any flies were similar. Thanks guys!

 

[sarce]

Elk hair caddis for mine. Technically mine was in MD but it was only a few miles from PA border. Also I think wild tigers are too rare to make any conclusions about flies to use, but let's see what the other responses are.

 

[troutbert]

I've caught 3 or 4 and have seen a couple caught by buddies.

I don't remember what flies were used. And don't think there is any connection between patterns used and catching tigers.

You simply want a fly that is good for catching trout in general, for the conditions you are fishing in.

If you choose a fly that works in catching brookies and browns in that stream, then a tiger will also hit it.

If one is there. Probably there ISN'T one there.

The reason few are caught is that few exist.

 

[Swattie87]

I caught mine on a Wulff of some kind, although I don't remember the specific variety. Gray or Ausable probably as they are the two I use the most when fishing small streams with dries. Size 14 is the most common size I use, so that was probably the size.

Agree with the others...the fly won't make much of a difference...fish what it is working for the given conditions. All you can do to up your chances of catching a Tiger is to simply put yourself in places where Browns and Brooks exist together in decent numbers. (Typically IMO, the best places to find this combination are small freestoners.) Other than that, it's just dumb luck.

I threw my Wulff to the downstream side of a downfall across the stream with some brush along the bank, and a Tiger came up and ate it. It was a fishy spot, and there was a fish there...but it just as easily could have been a Brown or a Brook.

 

[WildTigerTrout]

My first wild tiger I caught three times over a 16 month time span. I caught it the first time on a size 14 elk hair caddis. The second on a size 16 elk hair caddis and finally the last time on a size 14 light cahill dry fly.

My second wild tiger I caught twice from the same stream as above and over a period of 13 months. The first time I caught it on a size 12 slate drake dry fly and the second on a size 12 crystal-butt cricket. It's a pattern developed by Harrison R. Steeves.

 

[laszlo]

The only tiger I caught took a green weenie. You asked.

 

[Swattie87]

laszlo wrote:
The only tiger I caught took a green weenie. You asked.

That must have been the Brook Trout side of him showing. Snooty Browns don't eat at McD's.

 

[WildTigerTrout]

Swattie87 wrote:

laszlo wrote:
The only tiger I caught took a green weenie. You asked.

That must have been the Brook Trout side of him showing. Snooty Browns don't eat at McD's.

Don't kid yourself I have caught alot of "Snooty" wild browns on green weenies even the more snooty limestone types.

 

[FarmerDave]

I have never caught a tiger trout, but can offer this.

If it is like other hybrid fish then it likely is more aggressive than either of it's parent species. It's called hybrid vigor. So they will likely hit just about anything.

So, if there is any theory along these lines, throw something that brook or brown might be a little bit less likely to hit as a process of elimination. But why would anyone want to do that?

Use something fairly big.

If you don't catch any, then I agree that it is likely that there aren't any there.

I once caught a 10 inch hybrid sunfish (bluegill, green sunfish cross) while targeting bass. Was using an 8 inch soft plastic salamander and at least a 2/0 hook. May have been 4/0.

 

[StarvinMarvin]

Good point FD,

The three I have banked all came on small sculpin pattern from one moderate sized freestone stream.

In total we've landed 4 from this stream and the one did come on an EHC.

The stream isnt even listed as an ATW but has an incredible WT pop.
You just dont know where you'll get em or when. Thats the beauty of it.

 

[pcray1231]

I believe mine was on a parachute adams. If not, it was an attractor dry of some sort; the type you would normally chase aggressive brookies with. Coulda been a humpy, wulff, etc.

Don't think it mattered, they all woulda done the trick.

 

[SBecker]

Prince

 

[tstooge26]

Only caught one but on a size 18 brown San wan

 

[Chaz]

A stocker I caught was on my Pearl Jam Pattern, that was about a 15 inch fish. The one wild Tiger I caught was probably on a royal Wulff. I would have to find the pic I have of the fish.

 

[Wildbrowntrout]

So, unsurprisingly none of the flies were similar except for the two elk hair caddis... For the wild tigers, when is the best time of year to fish for them, and should I fish a specific hatch or just a streamer? Luckily, I fish a stream on private property with no fishing pressure and a lot of brookies and browns. Also I have heard many stories of some of the older guys that used to fish there with lots of luck, 2-3 tigers every trip. Thanks guys, and tight lines!

 

[Swattie87]

If they were catching 2-3 Tigers on a stream per trip, someone was putting stocked Tigers in that stream. They just don't occur in that kind of frequency naturally in the wild, even under ideal circumstances with a healthy mixed wild population of Brooks and Browns.

There's some clubs in PA that still stock Tigers in places. If it's just your objective to catch a Tiger, and not necessarily a wild one, try to research where that happens and fish there after they stock them. They shouldn't be all that difficult to catch.

For a wild Tiger, it really is just plain dumb luck. Just fish whatever is working best for the conditions of day and time of year. That may be a straemer, a hatch match situation, or an attractor type of deal...depends on the conditions. If it happens, it happens. If not, you just have fun catching wild Brooks and Browns. There really is no recipe for success for catching one. Cast a fly likely to be eaten, to a place likely to hold a fish, on a stream that's most (relatively speaking) likely to produce a Tiger. That's all you can do.

 

[k-bob]

I agree that the fly probably doesnt matter too much... maybe tigers are more likely/less rare in streams with brookies in the headwaters, browns downstream, and no barriers like dams or waterfalls?

 

[Wildbrowntrout]

Stream is listed as a wild reproducing stream and the game commission won't allow stocking on it... Browns were put there by people a long, long time ago and are thriving. We aren't catching all of those trout anymore, but back about 10 years or so... They may have been the same fish over and over again... Who knows?

 

[Swattie87]

Wildbrowntrout wrote:
They may have been the same fish over and over again... Who knows?

Could be. There are several "PAFF Tigers" that have been caught more than once by different people on the board. The one I caught, was caught a few months later by salmonoid a few hundred yards downstream. I know of a second one that was caught several times in the same place (literally the same little run, behind the same rock) over the course of a couple years by different PAFF members too. That should go as a point to show how rare they are though…the ones you see posted here, have at times been the same individual fish!

Even if it’s on the nat repro and not supposed to be stocked into, it still does happen. Sometimes it’s knowingly illegal, sometimes it’s with a blind eye looking, and sometimes it’s with a valid permit for some reason…kids Trout Derby, Wounded Warriors day, etc. If multiple Tigers were being caught on the same outing with any regularity, something artificial was going on there.

 

[salmonoid]

Someone with a stat background could calculate out the chance of tiger trout hatching in a wild setting. Survival rates in the hatchery are 5% of the fertilized eggs. 1% of the hatched eggs reach stockable size. If they are warm water shocked, the viability increases.

Now factor in that brookies and browns have to be present at the same time. You need a mixed brookie/brown stream, or at least one that browns enter for the spawn in the fall. Then, you need to have them on the same redd at the same time. Brookies spawn earlier than browns, so you need either a fish that is hot to trot early, or a late spawner and an early spawner overlapping. I don't know what the chances of all that happening in a wild stream is, but then throw a less than 1% survival rate on top of that, and you end up with the rare factor.

My feeling is that while tigers may exhibit hybrid vigor, it won't be any more vigorous than a starved, opportunistic feeding brookie on a small freestoner.

Regarding a pattern, your chances of encountering a tiger in PA are rare enough that the need to be on a stream that has them in it dwarfs whatever pattern choice you may make. There's no point in targeting them with a pattern. If you've found a stream that bore them in the past, then you've greatly increased your chances of catching one.