Rare tiger trout put up a fight

Our list this morning of stocked trout in Pennsylvania does not include a rare hybrid variety known as the tiger trout. According to the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, a few tigers have been stocked in commonwealth waters over the years.

The tiger trout is a hybrid between a brook trout and a brown trout. Sometimes tigers are mistakenly called splakes, which are hybrids between a lake trout and brook trout.

Years ago, I caught a 21-inch hybrid in a small stream near Lock Haven, and we were not quite sure what it was. Somebody identified it as a splake, but later I learned it was probably a tiger.

The fish had the dark body color of a brookie but instead of the characteristic red dots with blue halos decorating the flank, the tiger was covered with unsymmetrical fat yellow squiggles.

It gave me a great fight. I was fishing with nightcrawlers and casting into flat water above a riffle. The fish hit as I drifted the bait toward a clump of grass that was poking out of the middle of the stream. I thought I had a monster brookie. It turned out to be a ferocious tiger.

According to the PFBC: "State hatcheries have been experimenting with raising a small number of tiger trout over the last couple of years to determine if they would grow any faster or more efficiently than other species.


The PFBC also noted that most hybrids cannot reproduce, and in a further more telling revelation, the PFBC observed that hybrids usually are easier to catch than their respective purebred parents, which probably explains why I was able to catch one in the first place.

Contact Roger Mallon: 610-371-5969 or sports@readingeagle.com.

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