Hello! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

I've found a couple of things on the internet about "Tiger trout".... can anyone tell me all about them? They look beautiful and seem quite interesting. Of course, there isn't anyone near us who has them in hatcheries (I think).

What are the benefits of them as opposed to the parents? I'm especially wondering about ideal water temperatures.

Steve and I were talking about it today and I thought I would surprise him tomorrow morning with all kinds of facts and information!


And while I'm at it... we had gotten some Rainbow trout a month or so ago and were told that there were some "Steelhead" trout thrown in. I thought I could tell a difference in a few fish I helped to put in the pond but.... that could be my mind tricking me!!! Can anyone tell us more about "Steelheads"? We were told they are much better "fighters" when catching them.

I know I can research on the internet but I also know I will find honest answers here. We appreciate your advice and help!

Hope everyone is having a nice evening...:)
Stacy

Sterile cross between a male brook trout and a female brown trout. Easy to catch and aggressive. Requirements similar to other trout. Probably a little tougher and temperature tolerant than brook trout due to the brown trout genetics.

The steelhead most likely won't appear any different than any rainbows you have. All rainbows are good fighters.

Do you have a list of suppliers in Virginia, PA, and West Virgina from their respective DNR's? If not you may be surprised to find there is someone in your area that produces them.

Thank you Cecil! Yes, we have a list from VA, PA, and WV.... it's sad, several hatcheries I contacted have gone out of business.

I appreciate your input!
Stacy

Cecil! You're back! Welcome back! Hope the trip was a nice break for you.

Thanks Cecil I learned something today.

Yes it was. I need to get back into the groove and get some projects going and can't seem to get started.

It seems to me Professor Cornwell did an article on them in Pond Boss a year or two ago? Does he ever get on the site? I can't honestly say I've seen him here, but I'm sure he's very busy.

Yep and he sent me this pic.

Beautiful photos guys, thank you!

Here's my picture from the Wild Center in the Adirondaks.

Awsome looking fish in my book.

Great picture, F-H!

Believe it or not I have a moral dilemma with producing tiger trout even though I get a lot of requests for them. With up to 80 percent of the fish hatched disfigured, crippled, or dead, it just seems kind of wrong to do that to produce a few fish that we think are "awesome."

Of course that's just my opinion and I'm not making any judgement on those that disagree.

Personally I think the following brook trout puts any of those tiger trout to shame.

It's catching a wild tiger trout that makes it special to me. I have only caught a couple wild ones and that was pretty cool... The odds are not in their favor!

Cj, we gotta keep working on Cecil till he agrees that the Tiger looks better than the Brookie.

Maybe we need to form a Tiger trout faction of the GSF assn.

Brookies are quite pretty, but a wild male tiger trout in full spawning colors will give a brookie a run for his money!

No way Jose!

Picked up my Tiger trout today and took them up to the pond, I got 50- 6-7 inches, and the guy gave me free 25- 4-5 inchers.
It was a 2 hour ride from the hatchery to the pond but didn't loose any and they were real lively.
There had been some kind of bug hatch in the past 2 days as there were tiny carcases all over the surface of the water and the trout seemed to be busy catching stuff in the water after release.
I'm glad things went well but it was a 394 mile round trip.

AP, What did you transport the tigers in? I'm assuming you did not transport them in a bag. Not trying to hi-jack. If you do have a transport set up can you post pics of it under the questions and answers section? There is a thread titled "fish transport setup box". Maybe some dimensions? Thanks.

They were transported the normal way, double bagged and filled with oxygen, that's the only way that I've transported trout and has worked very well.

10-4, Thanks.

I really like the way the Tigers look. Hope they do well for you this Summer and that you can get them to overwinter for you.

Pretty fish... They're gonna have a fun time eating all the bugs and GSH in your pond this summer!

Great looking fish. You folks up Nort have all the fun!

Tigers are just awesome. I also really like Splakes. I get nothing great like them around here. Lucky to even see a Cutbow. Never caught a Golden either.

Steelhead and Rainbows are the same species. They just return to the ocean to spawn. But unlike Salmon they can make the trip back and forth several times. Someday I hope to be able to manage or help develop a Rainbow trout pond. It's in the works.

The new tiger trout seem to be following the same pattern as previous trout stocked the past 2 years. They were stocked this past Monday and while I was up there yesterday and today they didn't touch any of the pellets when the feeder went off twice a day, and this is the same feed they were getting at the hatchery.
I could see them hitting the surface once in a while at the far end by the islands so apparently they have gone Au Naturel on forage. Water temp. is up to 52.3F.

I got a well fed 8" brookie yesterday from the stream, he could be one of the ones I returned to the stream last fall, that makes 5 this month, now residing in the pond.

Pretty one!

The Tigers still won't eat any of the trout feed but they sure are hitting the bugs that have been hatching by the millions.
Not sure if they will start eating the pellets when the hatch stops or just switch to other bugs and minnows, also plenty of frog eggs waiting to hatch.

The Tigers have grown well this summer, I did some fishing to check on the trout growth and caught 4 tigers ranging from 9 to 12 inches, when stocked this spring they were 4 to 7 inches.
I didn't catch any of the BRKT, but did get some 3 weeks ago, as always the tigers are much more aggressive.

One has a spot and worm pattern, and the other just a worm pattern.

Wow that is an awesome looking fish.

You guys and your tigers! I still say a brook puts them to shame.

Pretty fish! I sure hope they can survive the winter this year with all your improvements.

Darn, didn't even get a rise out of my disparaging comments about tiger trout.

I'm not that partial to them... Brook trout are very pretty in their own right. The thing I like about tiger trout besides their pretty looks is just how rare they are in the wild.

Good answer!

"The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves."
William Penn 1693, also a lover of Tiger Trout.

HAHA!

Wow that's a real gut buster!

NOT!

I think you are going to be thrilled with the Tigers in your pond!

I caught this one last June in a local river that drains in to the Delaware. I don't know how to determine if this is a naturally occurring Tiger or a hatchery fish that made it's way up from the Delaware. NY State claims they never stocked them.



Around these parts we are lucky to get a brook trout over 12 inches. Brookies are certainly a very aggressive fish but I have no idea what kind of fight a 20 inch brook trout would give.

This is my first and only Tiger in near 60 years of fishing and to be perfectly honest a true thrill to catch. I don't think I will kill another but I had absolutely no idea what I had caught and had to bring it home for the research.

These fish are voracious when feeding and a true fighter on the end of your line in a swift stream with 4 pound ultralight gear. At first sight during the fight I thought I hooked a pickerel. Only when I finally landed the fish did I realize I had a trout of very strange markings.

I don't know the ethics involved but I can say for sure that any fisherman who ties into a Tiger will have a very big smile if he ever gets it landed. As far as I am concerned NY has my expressed permission to stock these fine fish as close to me as possible.

Hey Gary welcome to the PB Forum, that's a real nice Tiger you got, are you planning on having him mounted?

PA. has stocked Tigers, maybe he made his way from a PA. stream into the Delaware river and up the river you caught him in, or maybe you caught one of those rare natural tigers, usually from a female brown and male brookie.

As the N Ga Regional Fisheries Supervisor once said, "if you like the parent species you should be glad tigers are so rare". There is absolutely nothing better than catching wild brookies in the N Ga mountains...

MY grandfather use to have some, they never got as fat as other trout but they fought harder than any other trout. They tasted ok but nothing compares to the brook trout in taste.