Wild tiger trout coloring

[wildtrout2]

The one and only wild tiger trout I caught way back in 2010 was rather drab looking and pretty much lacked any color at all, per my pic. I'm guessing the reason for this was because the stream I caught it on is a very rhody choked, generally shaded (hemlock) stream along most of it's lenght. I've noticed numerous wild tigers that I've seen posted here on PAFF have been prettier, much more colorful tigers than the one I caught. In fact, I've only seen a few as drab as mine.

For those who have caught the more colorful wild tigers, what were the basic vegetative conditions along the streams you caught them on? More open, allowing for more sunlight to get to the stream, mostly shaded, or a mix of both?
I thought it would be a good cabin fever thread.

 

[Swattie87]

I’ve caught two. One was in high water and was super washed out. Salmonoid caught it a couple months later in late Summer 1/4 mile or so downstream in much lower water and it was much more colorful. I caught it in a bit of an open meadow section of stream. He caught it in a more forested section. Stream you’re familiar with Jeff, and the one we bumped into each other on, years ago.

The second was caught in fairly low water in good tree canopy. It was pretty colorful. Both streams were small freestones.

 

[troutbert]

The one and only wild tiger trout I caught way back in 2010 was rather drab looking and pretty much lacked any color at all, per my pic. I'm guessing the reason for this was because the stream I caught it on is a very rhody choked, generally shaded (hemlock) stream along most of it's lenght. I've noticed numerous wild tigers that I've seen posted here on PAFF have been prettier, much more colorful tigers than the one I caught. In fact, I've only seen a few as drab as mine.

For those who have caught the more colorful wild tigers, what were the basic vegetative conditions along the streams you caught them on? More open, allowing for more sunlight to get to the stream, mostly shaded, or a mix of both?
I thought it would be a good cabin fever thread.

Fish generally have deeper colors in shaded areas and paler colors when exposed to the sun.

 

[Bamboozle]

Take another picture with a better camera... 😉

 

[wildtrout2]

Take another picture with a better camera... 😉

Don't shoot the photographer. This was all I had at the time.

 

[Swattie87]

Meant to add Jeff, yours above was somewhere between the two of mine. FWIW.

 

[Solitariolupo]

Catch a male.

 

[BrookTroutLover]

Catch a male.

As sterile hybrids, they are genderless.

 

[sarce]

I've caught one, less than half that size but quite colorful. Forested stream but a flatter valley and not what I'd call deep shade. The pool itself was sunlit. Substrate is fairly dark colored rocks. Also not somewhere I've ever caught a brown, only brooks, but a couple browns do show up in the DNR surveys.

 

[Bamboozle]

I caught this fish about 20 years ago on a Class A section with adjacent stocked sections where I occasionally catch a stocker so I never really thought it was wild. However, I had no clue what it was back then.

Do you guys think it is a tiger and is it more colorful than wildtrout2's wild tiger? 😉

 

[wildtrout2]

I caught this fish about 20 years ago on a Class A section with adjacent stocked sections where I occasionally catch a stocker so I never really thought it was wild. However, I had no clue what it was back then.

Do you guys think it is a tiger and is it more colorful than wildtrout2's wild tiger? 😉

View attachment 1641248682

Yes. And, I thought my tiger trout was ugly. 😉

 

[Bamboozle]

It hard to tell if yours is ugly, your picture is so fuzzy... 😉

Coincidentally, BEFORE I suspected my beautifully colored fish was a Tiger, I nicknamed it "Fug Ugly."

 

[sarce]

Here it is. Took me a while to find the pic. Tiny

 

[wildtrout2]

It hard to tell if yours is ugly, your picture is so fuzzy... 😉

Coincidentally, BEFORE I suspected my beautifully colored fish was a Tiger, I nicknamed it "Fug Ugly."

That trout was aptly named. 😆

 

[wildtrout2]

I've caught one, less than half that size but quite colorful.

Yours is of the colorful variety I mentioned.

Also not somewhere I've ever caught a brown, only brooks, but a couple browns do show up in the DNR surveys.

That was the situation with my wild tiger. I had fished the stream for years and had only ever caught natives, until that wild tiger showed up. I've only caught two or three wild browns since then.

With the apparently very low number of browns in this stream, I'd think it made the odds of a wild tiger that much less.

 

[rustbeltwilds]

As sterile hybrids, they are genderless.

Yes but they still posess gonads

 

[ryansheehan]

My one and only was on the gunpowder just above the falls rd bridge.

 

[wildtrout2]

My one and only was on the gunpowder just above the falls rd bridge.View attachment 1641248699

Gorgeous trout.

 

[sarce]

With the apparently very low number of browns in this stream, I'd think it made the odds of a wild tiger that much less.

See, I think it's the opposite. Whichever species is there in super low numbers, can't find a partner of its own species and then mixes it up. It goes both ways too (where browns dominate and a few stray brooks remain)

 

[troutbert]

I've caught both wild and hatchery tiger trout, and I think it's quite possible that the fish in the OP is a hatchery fish.