Opening day tiger trout (4/9/16)

[JDTuna]

Headed out to the Musky for opening day with a few of my fly fishing buddies. Ran into Eddie at a convenience store on the way to the river. Ended up arriving at the spot early, and began the long, painful wait for 8am. While we waited, I scouted up and down the stretch for some holes.

The day started out slow. One of my friends caught a couple of rainbows early on, but they were the only fish we saw caught. I tried a few different lures with nothing to show for it, then I settled on the tried and true spinner.

I decided to take a cast in one pool I had fished earlier. Just as I was ending the retrieve and about to take the lure out of the water, a nice trout shot across the pool and grabbed the spinner at my feet. After a spirited fight all over the pool, my friend slid the net under a very nice, fat trout. The fish was clearly not a stockie, and by its condition had been in the river for a long time given its beautiful condition. We quickly took a picture and released the fish. It was great to watch the fish swim strongly back into the pool.

Originally, I had thought brown trout but looking at the pictures it was definitely different than any brown I ever caught, and I began thinking it looked like a tiger. I sent a message over to Mark B at the NJDF&W and he confirmed it was a tiger trout, my first at that. Another species crossed off the list!