NJ's oldest holdover Trout! Brookie? Tiger? 2/12/17

[FASTEDDIE29]

Because I have a disorder that keeps me from sitting around the house no matter what the weather is..... Out the door I went, bright and early, in search of some Trout before the weather got too snotty. Well I beat the weather by about 30 minutes and then came the freezing rain and sleet and whatever else was falling at the time.

Managed to hook 2 bows that were slow and lethargic on the first couple casts. I didn't expect much but was happy to see something biting in the crappy weather. Everything was starting to freeze up so I played last 5 casts with myself and hooked this stream creature. Fish fought like hell and did not want to come in at all. Finally, I get the fish in and the colors are intense in my opinion. Definitely and old fish for sure, flabby old belly from a recent spawn or old age, double hook jaw with some serious rub marks, fins that looked worn out and over used kinda like an old mans ears, LOL! I don't know how long this fish has been in the river but I'm thinking it's been around for a while. Fish measured 16 inches. Old, old fish! I'm in awe of this specimen and need your opinion fellas!
Old Holdover Brookie? Old Holdover Tiger? Check out this Trout when you have a chance! TIGHT LINEZ!!!:D
http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t599/fasteddie2927/image_zpsuecpsqr9.jpg

http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t599/fasteddie2927/image_zpsulwdx6so.jpg

http://i1315.photobucket.com/albums/t599/fasteddie2927/image_zpsnzlsrloe.jpg

[njflyfisher]

Hard to tell what it is but sure is nasty looking beast hahaa. My guess would be a Brookie. Either way nice job fishing in that snotty weather!!

[bigboy5522]

Is there anything that will stop you from fishing? LOL I agree looks like a brookie to me

[Chrisper4694]

Searun brook trout no question

[icemusky]

Nice Brookie Eddy that's what it looks like to me either a hold over fish the state stocked that was stocked at 12 to 14 inches in length several years ago or a club fish that went up stream or down stream depending which river you caught it in. If club stocked it it could be a year old. Awesome winter colors.

[Lard Almighty]

Dolly Varden! :D

[JDTuna]

Awesome fish. Looks like a brookie.

[acabtp]

awesome looking fish eddie. looks like an old tiger to me.

[Chrisper4694]

Nice salmon dude. This is what happens when the land locks escape!

[FASTEDDIE29]

Ok, some interesting opinions here.....

1 vote for Dolly Varden, that would be EPIC!
1 vote for Land Locked Salmon, must've jumped out of the net and landed in the river!!
1 vote for Sea Run Brook Trout! It probably swam down from Boston, duhhhh!!!
1 vote for Tiger, possibly ACABTP, possibly! It has the characteristics!
4 votes for one of my old favorites, the Brook Trout! Maybe, just maybe!

Well this is fun on a gloomy Sunday Funday! Thanx for looking MANIACS! Hopefully there will be more interesting comments as the day rolls into night, LOL!!!

[Finprof]

My guess is that it is a cross between a brookie and some other type of trout. The kype tells me that it is not a full blooded brookie. Also, there are no vermicular markings along its back.
I have seen lots of 16-17 inch brook trout while living in Northern Ontario and still have pictures of them. None have the kype. I even have a picture of one that was 7 lbs 6 oz.. but that one was caught by accident in Lake Superior while trolling for lake trout. It does not have a kype and that is an old fish.

[henro]

Beautiful fish!

[15FOOTER]

Were bigfishy and I in that area recently? If we were its a club fish from a guys that randomly stock fish with no type of permit or permission on a public stretch. Run by guess who..a bunch of police lol. We heard all about it from a local guy who had run ins with them. According to him they stock tigers and that looks like one of em. He said they were real douches. They would however let him join for 100$ lol.

[trout taco]

That brookie is the chuck Norris of trout. Nice catch man.
Are you fishing on river that has a club on it? Could be something a club stocked a while back. No doubt it's been in there a while.

[muskynut]

Male tiger.......tigers get that pumpkiny orange coloration and pitch black bellies or a dark chocolate color....... brook trout would be more red ;)

[FASTEDDIE29]

I've seen a picture of a fish that could be the fish I caught today. Maybe it's a club fish! If it is, it looks like it went through battle to get to where it was caught. This fish had no white or pink left in it's mouth, fins were flared up, swollen looking, kype had super rub marks including rub marks on the upper jaw portion! People do strange things, transplanting fish is one of them!

I've convinced myself this is an old fish! It just has the tell tale signs! It was caught on the SB! Possibly downstream of a club! Who knows??? ME!!! Hahahahaha! Keep the input coming! I like it!!!

As for clubs, they're great for the anglers that join them. Not for me. I'm always waiting up or down for a fish to swim out of bounds....... LOL!!!

[Delawareriver]

Definitely an older hold over, I would say brookie. Nice trout no matter what and definitely must have been through reward for fishing in this snot.

[15FOOTER]

No SB for us..Thats a cool fish. Cant remember seeing a tiger on the SB

[Detour66]

That fish is amazing and looks like it's been around for a long time. I guess ya gotta go out in the nasty weather to catch the grand daddy of NJ trout. Congrats!

[antgogz]

I would say an old brookie! Last spring i caught a ten inch trout with that same pattern in a contest at a pond by my house. I thought it was a tiger but there was no way the town stocked them. Your fish was a real trooper with how long he swam around in that section of the river. I feel bad for him! If you dont mind me asking did you keep that old fella????? You should have put him in a trout nursing home!

[Skunk City]

Definitely a White Perch buddy! Beautiful fish!

[acabtp]

If it's not a tiger... it could be a banded rudderfish

[thmyorke1]

It's obviously a snakehead, you should have killed it on site, those things will kill kids swimming

;)

Nice fish dude, definitely looks old with those shoulders and that hooked jaw. And beautiful colors as well.

[Dave B.]

Definitely a male tiger. There are several private stockings that take place on the upper/middle SBR that often include tigers. That one looks like a 'Frankenfish' for sure with his rubbery looking healed up pectoral and ventral fins and overall darker coloration but still a nice catch none the less!

[FASTEDDIE29]

I would say an old brookie! Last spring i caught a ten inch trout with that same pattern in a contest at a pond by my house. I thought it was a tiger but there was no way the town stocked them. Your fish was a real trooper with how long he swam around in that section of the river. I feel bad for him! If you dont mind me asking did you keep that old fella????? You should have put him in a trout nursing home!

The old goat of a Tiger, Brookie Hybrid Trouser Trout was kindly released. LOL! Nursing home Trouts.......

[AndyS]

It's a Tiger Trout stocked by Shannons raised at Musky fish hatchery.

[FASTEDDIE29]

It's a Tiger Trout stocked by Shannons raised at Musky fish hatchery.

Maybe, just maybe!!! Lol!!!

[bunker dunker]

how did it taste????? just kidding Eddie,great fish!!!!!!

[briansnat]

Looks like a brook trout to me. I've caught a bunch of stocked tigers and they look very different. The wear on the fins would make me say that it is a recent stockie, but I know the state hasn't stocked brookies in a few years.

Does the state allow private stocking of anything other than Rainbows? I know their hatchery had disease issues and stopped with browns and brookies. Do they extend that ban to privately stocked fish? If not I might go with a privately stocked brook trout.

[shucker]

It's a Tiger Trout stocked by Shannons raised at Musky fish hatchery.
...BINGO!!!!!! Not old or odd ...Shannons always dumps a few of these each year

[FASTEDDIE29]

...BINGO!!!!!! Not old or odd ...Shannons always dumps a few of these each year

Definitely not odd as I catch quite a few Tigers every year. Just haven't seen a male with these colors in a while! Amazing how this fish was caught 4 miles downstream from where Shannon's stocks in December! Wow!!! Tiger Trouts will travel!

[njflyfisher]

Definitely not odd as I catch quite a few Tigers every year. Just haven't seen a male with these colors in a while! Amazing how this fish was caught 4 miles downstream from where Shannon's stocks in December! Wow!!! Tiger Trouts will travel!

Hmm 4 miles down stream from shannons? There's a club down there near lake solitude maybe it came from there.

[dakota560]

Definitely not odd as I catch quite a few Tigers every year. Just haven't seen a male with these colors in a while! Amazing how this fish was caught 4 miles downstream from where Shannon's stocks in December! Wow!!! Tiger Trouts will travel!

Eddie, don't know if Tiger Trout spawn and even if they can't maybe they retain the instinct to do so. Maybe the instinct to spawn impacts areas of the system they look for as far as habitat is concerned. Seasonal fluctuations in water temperature, flow, quality as well as where hatches are occurring I would imagine factor into their staging areas as well. Steel head and brown trout have been documented to navigate the 16 mile stretch of the Salmon River within a week if not days, it's probably more common than we think for trout in general to make significant moves within a river system over the course of a year or two. We probably don't notice it happening as often as it might because most fish in NJ don't hold over long enough to be impacted by seasonal or biological changes.

[thmyorke1]

Eddie, don't know if Tiger Trout spawn and even if they can't maybe they retain the instinct to do so. Maybe the instinct to spawn impacts areas of the system they look for as far as habitat is concerned. Seasonal fluctuations in water temperature, flow, quality as well as where hatches are occurring I would imagine factor into their staging areas as well. Steel head and brown trout have been documented to navigate the 16 mile stretch of the Salmon River within a week if not days, it's probably more common than we think for trout in general to make significant moves within a river system over the course of a year or two. We probably don't notice it happening as often as it might because most fish in NJ don't hold over long enough to be impacted by seasonal or biological changes.

Arent most waters in the highlands suitable for trout? The fella that eddie caught was probably all over the region for a good year or two. Something crazy to imagine is if this trout wasnt even a stocked one and perhaps one born and raised in the own waters of NJ. Clearly it's been surviving long enough to get into the spawning mood, how long do you think that takes?

[dakota560]

The tiger trout is a sterile hybrid cross between a female brown trout and a male brook trout. The fish exhibits unusual markings found in neither parent. Tiger trout are rare in the wild, appearing only in areas where brook and brown trout share spawning grounds.

Found this on line. While the first sentence suggests they're sterile, the last sentence to me suggests they can be produced in the wild as a result of spawning between a female brown and male brook trout. So to answer your question, if there are brook and brown trout in the SB, I guess Eddie's fish could be the result of natural reproduction taking place by two different species of trout but not by tiger trout themselves. I have no idea how old a fish that size might be, I'd assume many factors contribute to answering that question.

[Dave B.]

The tiger trout is a sterile hybrid cross between a female brown trout and a male brook trout. The fish exhibits unusual markings found in neither parent. Tiger trout are rare in the wild, appearing only in areas where brook and brown trout share spawning grounds.

Found this on line. While the first sentence suggests they're sterile, the last sentence to me suggests they can be produced in the wild as a result of spawning between a female brown and male brook trout. So to answer your question, if there are brook and brown trout in the SB, I guess Eddie's fish could be the result of natural reproduction taking place by two different species of trout but not by tiger trout themselves. I have no idea how old a fish that size might be, I'd assume many factors contribute to answering that question.

Eddies fish is definitely a stockie tiger most likely one of Shannons fish purchased from Vern and Jeff Mancici's Musky Trout Hatchery near Asbury, NJ. Tiger trout do occur in the wild in NJ and elsewhere, wherever there are naturally reproducing populations of both brook and brown trout in the same stream, they're just a bit of a rarity in the wild.
As for traveling I can assure you from extensive firsthand experience that tigers absolutely do love to travel within a stream corridor. I've caught tigers I have personally stocked that traveled more than a mile in 2 weeks time. Others have caught tigers that I stocked in June of a given summer the following spring sometimes as much as 4-5 miles away upstream.
Wild tigers often have much more intensely colored markings than the hatchery products although the hatchery fish can be just as brilliantly colored, especially during the fall spawning period. Despite being sterile they will still often go through the motions of attempting to spawn.

[Fluken-Around]

I worked at a trout hatchery for many years and we would always breed a few batches of tigers every year. Most hatchery's won't raise them cause you don't get a good return rate from eggs to fish. But that is 110% a tiger trout.

[dakota560]

No matter what that's a very cool catch and some brilliant coloration. I've caught many browns upstate NY and when they spawn in the fall the males I believe more than females get that very black under bottom which you can see in this fish. It's amazing the changes their bodies goes through at different times of the year, natures way I guess to attract a partner and promote reproduction.