Tiger Trout !!!

I was fishing Falls Pond Monday night. I was stuck near home because DJ was over a friends house and needed a ride home sometime that night. This left striper fishing at the ocean out of the question. The weather was comfortable but cloudy and rain was approaching. I had caught two rainbows when someone in a blue car pulled up and asked me if I caught anything. I told him about the two 'bows and I'd only been there about 20 minutes. I thought he was going to get out his rod and stay.

Instead he told me he had just come from Whitings Pond. He said a guy there had just caught 7 tiger trout in a half hour. The biggest going almost 3 pounds. For those of you that don't know what a tiger trout is : Its a sterile hybrid between a female brown trout and a male brookie. Because they are a hybrid, they grow rapidly. They are very aggressive. You have a much better chance of catching one on a moving lure than powerbait. The small ones go about 14 inches. Until this point, I had never even seen one, never mind caught one. The state stocks about 6000 ( compare that to 320,000 rainbows). They are a rare treat to catch. To top it off, most of these tigers go to big famous trout ponds like in Nickerson State Park and Peters Pond. After the guy gave me this tip, he left and I thanked him for the infomation.

I picked DJ up from his friends house and we headed to Whitings Pond. We fished from about 7pm until dark but did not get any. The fisherman that caught the 7 was still there and told me all about his experience. So at least I knew what I heard earlier was not a fish story.

Not being able to sleep thinking about tigers, I got up really early to try my luck again. After about an hour without a hit on my roostertail, I switched to a spoon. I also put powerbait on my other rod. I figured it couldn't hurt my chances. Within minutes the powerbait rod started banging. I brought in a nice rainbow. The hook fell out when I picked it up. I picked it off the ground and placed it back in the water. I started walking the beach with the spoon. On my way back from my farthest point I hooked a fish. As I was reeling it in, it was green and had a big mouth. I thought I had a pickrel.

Nope! it was a tiger trout. It was about 14 inches long. I took some pictures of it. I l had it out of the water a bit long. It took a couple minutes to revive it, but it did swim away. I left after that fish. I went trout fishing again later that night ( so much for stripers) and picked up two more tigers both the same size. These were caught on a rainbow trout colored roostertail. One from the kayak. One from shore. All were released after pictures.

I got a sunburn on my feet the other day when fishing in sandals. Hence the picture of my feet in the kayak with socks on to protect them from the sun. Click on the pics to see the trout markings. They are pretty cool.