[Lard Almighty]

I originally wasn't going to go fishing today with all the rain we had last night, but since it was a nice day I decided to make the drive to some smaller waters to try for some trout. First stop: Peapack Brook. Water was up a little and stained, but very fishable. The trout were behaving strangely; there were a lot clustered in the deep pools, but they were hugging the bottom and mostly inactive. If they hit at all they were lazily tapping at the bait. It was only in the small pockets with swift water where I was able to find some willing biters. I picked away and managed 3 rainbows, 3 brookies, and 1 small brown. All came on a gold panther martin, except for two brookies which fell for the old white Mr. Twister.

Now a brown, brook, and rainbow is normally considered a slam, but a true grand slam has four things involved. That's where things get interesting.

I decided to stop by Natirar on my way back. Water was even murkier than at Peapack Brook, but visibility was still okay. I worked a lot of water and managed two small browns. Down past the bend along the road in I hooked what I thought was a third. As I was bringing it in, though, I noticed the colors looked a bit strange. When I finally got it to my feet, I realized I was looking at a wild tiger trout! Somewhat less importantly, the fish brought me to 10 on the day, the first time this year I've hit double digits in fish caught. Never had I been so excited to catch a 5 inch trout. After snapping a quick photo it was released, and I left, knowing that I would not be able to top that.

I've been fishing for trout in NJ for about 25 years, and in all that time I have only caught one other wild tiger trout. Has anybody else landed one of these fish?