Tiger Trout!

 

 One of the banes of my spring has been Tiger Trout. For reasons I can't understand, I really NEED, not want, to catch a Tiger Trout. Every morning when I have woken up for the last month I have checked the Mass Wildlife website to see if Tigers were stocked. This has thrown off many of my plans. For starters, sometimes I get a late start to my day because I'm waiting for the stocking report. Because of the late start and usually no Tiger Trout have been stocked, I end up screwing myself out of daylight.

   I have it in my head that catching a Tiger Trout is important. I can't tell you why. It is the only species of trout I haven't caught yet in MA/RI (Brook, Rainbow, Brown, Golden) not including Lake Trout. A couple weeks ago I went down the Cape targeting Tiger Trout, I didn't get any but had a blast with Browns. 

   Today when I woke up, as usual, I checked the Mass Wildlife website. Tiger Trout were stocked at two different lakes down the Cape that were within driving distance. Next I checked GPS and it turned out there was a ton of traffic getting over the bridges. So when I left the house I wasn't even sure I was headed down there. It turned out I turned right. I went birding in Newport first. I spent the morning birding with friends because a rare bird (Summer Tanager) showed up at Miantonomi. By the time we got done birding it was 1 pm.

   When I left Mia I still wasn't sure I was heading to the Cape. If I went over the bridges I knew I'd be there till after the afternoon rush. I went for it. I pulled up to Hamblin Pond in Barnstable and a few guys were fishing but there was a lot of room. For over an hour I didn't get any fish. I kept searching. I was casting and moving and covering a lot of ground. Finally I hooked a trout, but it was a rainbow. I was happy to catch a fish but not happy it was the wrong species.

  My next fish was also a Rainbow but finally my third fish was a Tiger Trout. It wasn't huge, maybe a foot or slightly more. I took some photos on my phone and let it go. I ended up with five Rainbows and two Tigers. All of them were caught on a casting bubble/ wooly bugger. 

I'd like to say that I got that challenge out of my system, but I have to admit I had a really fun day. I spent four hours fishing and really it just flew by.