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

[FASTEDDIE29]

Originally Posted by shucker

...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]

Originally Posted by FASTEDDIE29

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.

Originally Posted by FASTEDDIE29

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]

Originally Posted by dakota560

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?

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.]

Originally Posted by 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.

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.

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.