Fifth wild tiger trout seen in 38 field seasons

[Mike]

Yesterday's trout population survey on Green Branch, York Co, revealed the fifth wild tiger trout that I have seen during such surveys during the past 38 years. That should be an indication of how uncommon they are. They also occur in odd places at times. For instance, Green Branch is a strictly wild brown trout stream, but probably has other species enter from the Susquehanna. Likewise, a number of years ago we captured a 5 incher in a trap net set in Blue Marsh Lake's lower end (Berks Co). Northkill Ck, a trib to Blue Marsh, also produced one in its headwaters some years earlier. It is mainly a brook trout stream. Two years ago we captured one in Locust Ck, Schuylkill Co, which is mainly a brown trout stream between Locust and Tuscarora Lakes. Finally, I saw my first specimen in Little Muncy Ck in 1980, after five field seasons spending most of my field time surveying trout streams. As I recall, Little Muncy was primarily a wild brown trout stream at the sampling site. They are always nice to see. I spoke to another AFM today from NW Pa and he had never seen one in the wild.

 

[Fishidiot]

Amazing - they really are rare.

As I've pointed out many times on the wild tiger threads...I've fished in PA for close to four decades and have never seen a wild tiger trout. Nevertheless, they do turn up and our forum readers catch them every year (I think we had one WTT caught twice!). I suspect they are more common in the north central tier, but I dunno.

Anyway, if anyone would be in a position to see WTT's it is Mike and this is only number five. Wow.

 

[Flyinglion]

Very cool. I was fortunate to catch this wild tiger on the Gunpowder earlier this year. It keeps me going back in hopes of finding one of those allusive Gunpowder native brookies some day!!

 

[salmonoid]

Last year was a remarkable year for me with respect to wild tigers, in that I caught three. Prior to that, the confirmed number for me was zero, although there is an outside chance that the only other tiger I caught could have been wild, as it came from a special regs FFO stream with wild brown and limited wild brook reproduction, but it was also caught when the PFBC was stocking tigers.

What was even more remarkable for last year is that two of those three tigers were also caught by other board members. Does this mean they will not grow to be big fish, since we practiced C&R? 🙂

My first wild tiger was caught in May 2013 and Sasquatch caught the same fish during this year's Jam. The third wild tiger was caught in September 2013 and Swattie caught the same fish in June 2013.

The repeat catches by fellow board members of other species of fish may happen more regularly than we think or it may be rare; I think it is really hard to say with certainty. Because the sample size of tigers is so small, though, it's easy to compare fish and identify the ones that are the same. I know that I have been able to identify some browns that I have caught multiple times, but that is because I have the context of the stream and even a specific hole on a stream to compare with past catches. I'm not sure that I've ever been able to identify a fish that was caught by another board member that wasn't a tiger though.

 

[Swattie87]

I think it’s kinda funny how intertwined the Tigers caught by myself, salmonoid, and Squatch are.

The Tiger I caught in June 2013 was caught a second time by salmonoid, as mentioned, in September 2013. It was about ¼ mile downstream of where I caught it, and was much darker in color (I caught it following a period of high water, and salmonoid caught in during low water) but it was clearly the same fish pattern wise. Interesting side story to my catch of that fish that I don’t think I recounted in my initial thread of the catch…Where I kneeled on the bank to photograph it was right next to a brush pile on a gravel bar. After catching and releasing the Tiger, I continued fishing upstream for a while, and then walked back downstream to where I was camping. When I approached the run where the Tiger was on the walk back, I noticed a Rattler coiled in that brush pile on the gravel bar! I think it was likely he was there, just a few feet away, when I was photographing the Tiger. He never rattled. Clearly my attention was on the Tiger at the time!

I was actually fishing with Squatch the day he caught his Tiger, which salmonoid had caught previously. It was a slow day fishing wise, and I’m not even sure we landed another fish on that stream that day. After talking to salmonoid that fish was in the exact same run where he caught it about a year previously. As great as it was to catch the Tiger I did, I gotta admit, being there with Squatch and watching his excitement when he realized what it was, was even better. I remember him holding it up over the water as I got the camera out, and me saying, “Dude, get it over the bank!”

These are the only two confirmed wild Tigers I’ve ever seen in person. I also had a fish get off nearing my feet (in the same watershed as the stream where salmonoid/Squatch caught theirs) a few years ago that was very suspect from the glimpse I got, but I cannot confirm for certain.

 

[troutbert]

Does the presence of a tiger trout in a stream tell you anything biologically about the stream? Or is it just a random occurrence?

 

[The_Sasquatch]

The first wild one I ever saw was the first time Sal and I ever fished together. We fished a small trib in northern Lancaster, about 2 miles up from the closest brown trout. He was surprised to catch it as he never even saw a brown in that stream. Since then, I've caught a brown or two out of it, but significantly down stream from where we were that day.

Didn't see one again until May when I caught mine. Yeah Swattie we caught a few other fish that day, but it was very low numbers.

 

[salmonoid]

troutbert wrote:
Does the presence of a tiger trout in a stream tell you anything biologically about the stream? Or is it just a random occurrence?

The only thing I think you can draw from it is that both brooks and browns are present somewhere in the drainage 🙂 I've read anecdotal evidence that points towards streams with higher percentages of brooks than browns as being more likely to produce tigers, but have never seen anything scientific to back that up.

I think that I remember reading somewhere that survival rate on tiger eggs in the wild was somewhere between 2-10%, with that rate being nudged higher in the hatchery. I do wonder what the probability of producing a tiger in the wild is. Given a stream with X% of browns and Y% of brookies, then what percentage of redds would produce eggs that would be cross-fertilized? You need an overlapping spawning window as well. How many tigers would develop and how many would survive beyond the first year to be catchable? And of the catchable size, how many are actually caught by anglers?

 

[WildTigerTrout]

I have been fortunate and caught two different WTT. The first one I caught twice the same year and then again the following year for a total of three times! Amazing to say the least. It was 12 inches the first year and 14 inches the second!!! The most colorful trout I have ever caught bar none. The second WTT I caught twice almost a full year apart. That one is pictured in my avatar. He was 9 inches the first time I caught him and 11 inches the second. Both fish were caught in the same limestone stream.

 

[geebee]

Mike - are they born sterile or not ?

 

[Bruno]

question : are they ever stocked ? I have caught one but have always been unsure if it was wild or not .

 

[salmonoid]

Bruno wrote:
question : are they ever stocked ? I have caught one but have always been unsure if it was wild or not .

They were stocked by the PFBC through 2005 but not by the state since then. I believe that clubs also stock them and continue to do so and I believe other states may have stocking programs.

Geebee - they are hatched sterile. This is a common side-effect of the fact that they are hybrids - 84 chromosomes for a brook trout and 80 for a brown trout.

 

[sandfly]

2 in bucks county and one in Monroe county in over 4 decades

 

[Fredrick]

Mike wrote:
Yesterday's trout population survey on Green Branch, York Co, revealed the fifth wild tiger trout that I have seen during such surveys during the past 38 years. That should be an indication of how uncommon they are. They also occur in odd places at times. For instance, Green Branch is a strictly wild brown trout stream, but probably has other species enter from the Susquehanna. Likewise, a number of years ago we captured a 5 incher in a trap net set in Blue Marsh Lake's lower end (Berks Co). Northkill Ck, a trib to Blue Marsh, also produced one in its headwaters some years earlier. It is mainly a brook trout stream. Two years ago we captured one in Locust Ck, Schuylkill Co, which is mainly a brown trout stream between Locust and Tuscarora Lakes. Finally, I saw my first specimen in Little Muncy Ck in 1980, after five field seasons spending most of my field time surveying trout streams. As I recall, Little Muncy was primarily a wild brown trout stream at the sampling site. They are always nice to see. I spoke to another AFM today from NW Pa and he had never seen one in the wild.

Mike do you have a pic ?

 

[Mike]

If the Bucks Co ones came from the Delaware River and were large, they were probably escapees from the the private stocking of tigers that occurred in a near-by NJ lake or stream a few years ago. "Everyone" was catching those fish in the river in the Yardley/New Hope area for a while. If, however, they were from a stream, that is more interesting as we know of only one wild brook trout stream in Bucks Co.

Frederick: no pics

Update: DEP found an isolated, small population of brookies a short stretch of Green Branch a couple of years ago. Our sampling was above and below that spot, so only browns were found. That further explains the tiger there, however.

 

[SBecker]

My monster (6 inches) came from the narrows section of BFC.

 

[Swattie87]

Mike – That one in Green Branch is odd. I’ve only ever caught Browns in all of those streams down there…both York and Lancaster sides of the river. Are there Brookies known to be present somewhere down there? Otherwise, that’s a hike a for the rogue parent Brookie, or the Tiger. Or maybe there’s a few stray Brookies reproducing down there that we don’t know about.

The Tigers I’ve encountered have all come from “likely” places to find one. Higher biomass watersheds that have known strong populations of both Brookies and Browns.

Edit: Just saw your above edit, which answered my question. I'd be curious to know if Brookies were found elsewhere down there though.

 

[pcray1231]

I have still never caught a wild one. Twice, a fishing partner has, but never me.

I would argue regarding the Northkill being primarily brookies. There's a lot of wild browns around 78 on up into the lower end of the game lands. I'd say far more browns than brookies. Then the stream splits for a while. Above there it's primarily brookies with the occasional brown thrown in for good measure.

I've been well into double digits on wild browns on several days.

Anyway, still want a tiger, no luck yet.

 

[sandfly]

bucks county from same stream cooks
I have caught those big tigers out of the Delaware for years. caught a few stocked ones in broadheads and Bushkill also. one in McMichael's in the 80's. quite a few in jersey streams also since they do stock them
mike there's more than one brook trout stream in bucks also

 

[NickR]

I caught a wild tiger on Penn's about 10 years ago. Wasn't a brook or a brown. Was an interesting catch to me at the time and I had assumed it was stocked because PFBC has some history with stocking them. If my memory serves me correctly this fish did not look like the PFBC tigers.