Wisconsin Driftless Area Tigers

[spinner1]

Written by: Len Harris
Photos by: Len Harris

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. Stream born tigers take on the appearance of their fathers (brook trout) Hatchery tigers look more like their mothers (brown trout).

Wisconsin has NO stocking program and ALL tigers caught in Wisconsin streams are "Natural" tigers.

This interspecies cross is unusual, in part because each fish belongs to a separate genus (Salvelinus for brook trout and Salmo for browns). It happens rarely in the wild, but can be (and is) easily performed by fisheries biologists or hatchery technicians.

This wild (non-hatchery) tiger trout was caught in Southwestern Wisconsin by angler Kevin Searock. A typical tiger caught in the wild are 4 to 16 inches. *below*

Tigers are pretty fish. The normal vermiculations (wormlike markings) found on the backs of most brookies become enlarged and often contorted into stripes (hence the name 'tiger'), swirls, spots, and rings. The trout also exhibit a greenish cast, which lets you know, when you hook one, that there is something different on the end of your line long before the fish is in hand.


Naturally-occuring tiger trout generally appear only in streams that have higher brook trout than brown trout populations. And while they don't appear often, they are becoming more commonly found in the Midwest and New England.



http://lenharris.blogspot.com/2009/1...less-area.html

[kglissmeyer]

Len, is it normal for Brown trout to have the vermiculated markings without the Brookie look on the fins? Could these be a 'washed-out' Tiger Trout strain? My favorite spring creek holds some great Browns that often have these markings, unlike Browns I have ever caught any where else.

Here are some pics:




Just curious.

Kelly

[spinner1]

i am wondering if the tigers might be cross breeding with the tigers or vice versa.

Saw those tiger like marking on those browns.

Really interesting.

[turvy]

If they are sterile then breeding back isn't possible....I would think

[spinner1]

look at the browns above.

They have odd markings

[danbob]

I think the weird browns are likely a phenotype (your locally colored version of Salmo Trutto), while the Tigers are a real crossbreed genotype (Salmo Trutto x. Salvelinus Fontinalus). Nature vs. Nurture and all.
DANBOB

[spinner1]

Last night I looked at my log books for the last *8* years.
I went back until I found the year I discovered stream born tigers
in my home water.



I tried to see if the streams had any similarities.

All the streams were small.
All the streams had small pebbles in area.
All streams that I caught a tiger in had a spring within 20 yards of the area I caught a tiger.
6 of the tigers were right where the spring emptied in to the small stream.

[spinner1]

I did a little more reading of my logs. Tigers are not choosy. Have seen them caught on almost anything. Looked for time of year and no pattern. they were caught in shallow holes 8 inches up to 30 inches depth. smallest one was about 5 inches. Biggest was about 15 inches.

[Jackster]

Bumping to the top for you!