This article by Terry W. Sheely appears in the Winter 2001 edition of Northwest Fly Fishing which arrived in my mailbox yesterday.
Kent Lufkin >Tiger Trout Stalk Columbia Basin > >by Terry W. Sheely > >Tiger trout, an exotic trout/char hybrid, are being slipped into >more than a dozen fertile Central Washington waters, including >several prominent fly lakes. Biologists have their fingers crossed >that by next spring tigers will enter the fishery as nasty, >surface-sipping 10- to 14-inchers. > >The experimental stocking is being limited to 16 Columbia Basin >waters until Washington biologists get a firm idea of how well the >hybrids will survive, how big they'll grow, and their feeding >traits, habitat requirements, and impact on existing fish. > >Tiger trout are hybridized hatchery offspring of female brown trout >and male brook trout (char). The predatory name reflects their >striking golden brown coloration, vivid vermiculated tiger-like >stripes, and wild strike-fast, strike-often disposition. > >Little is know about this hybrid trout. It appears, though, that >tigers are energetic surface feeders and much more aggressive than >either parent, a predatory predilection that could endear it to >dry-fly enthusiasts. > >Because tigers feed primarily on insects, and like most hybrids are >sterile and incapable or breeding, fish managers doubt they'll have >a negative impact on established trout populations. > >And there's a chance they could grow some very large shoulders. >Nutrients that would normally feed reproductive systems are siphoned >instead into growth in sterile hybrids. Other sterile fish have show >phenomenal growth rates. > >Biologists are hopeful tigers will reach lunker proportions in >Washington, but it will take a few years to find out, according to >Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) Region 2 fish >biologist Jeff Korth, who is directing the Columbia Basin >introduction. > >So far, Korth has limited experimental tiger plants to Grant County >waters that already support brookies or browns. The initial plant is >being limited to about 40,000 fish, mostly fry. Few lakes will get >more than 1,500 tigers this year. > >Lakes on this year's tiger plant schedule are Beda, Brookie, Dry >Falls, Dusty, Homestead, Spring, Creek, Canyon, Lenice, Merry, >Nunnally, Sage East and West, and Quail. > >If enough tiger fry are available from the WDFW Ford Hatchery at >Moses Lake, Korth plans to plant nearly 7,000 in Upper Crab Creek >and another 6,500 in the Gloyd Seeps. > >Plans by Okanogan County WDFW fish biologist Heather Bartlett to >plant 500 tigers in a high mountain lake this summer were put on >hold when the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service raised concerns about >possible impacts on endangered fish. > >This year aColorado Springs angler filed for Colorado's first tiger >trout record with a 2-pound, 7-ounce, 17.5-inch tiger trout caught >in a private pond. Ten years ago, 400 4-inch tigers were dumped into >Colorado's Yampa Basin and never heard from again. "Tiger trout are >so rare [in Colorado] that there had never been one submitted as a >record before,' says Robin Knox, sport-fish manager for the Colorado >Dvision of Wildlife. > >In Washington, the tiger trout plant "should best be termed an >experiment at this point," Korth says, an experiment he'll be >closely monitoring. > >Optimistically, there's a reasonable chance that next spring these >experimental golden striped tiger trout will be stalking dry flies >on some of Washington's most popular trout lakes.
