Ever Hear of a Tiger Trout???

To increase the tiger trout that are stocked in the Holding Pond, donations can be sent to Mr. Joseph Moore, 105 East Street, Cobleskill, NY 12043. Each tiger trout costs $3, so they are looking for $10 donations to earn a button. If you wish to receive a button, please include another dollar to help defray the postage for shipping. When you donate money, please include your name, address, telephone number and email as well as if you would like the button mailed back to you.

 

Believe it or not tiger trout can but rarely are found in the wild. This hybrid of a brown trout and brook trout is real. It is rare and happens when a male brown fertilizes a brook trout red. There are other mating concerns that occur due to chromosome numbers between the different fish. You can read more about them at American Angler’s web site:http://americanangler.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=911&Itemid=0 

 

The tiger trout is known as an aggressive predator that is used to reduce fish population. I only saw one guy catch a trout at the reservoir. It was a brown trout that had its tail trimmed down. Not sure if the tiger trout were picking on it, but I never seen anything like that before. I understand that the best times to fly fish the Cobleskill Reservoir is from April to very early July, and then again in September. Rumor has it that tiger trout are exceptionally vigorous fighters.  The best flies to use when fishing for them are with non weighted and weighted wooly buggers of different colors. My research said that the most successful colors were black and brown. 

 

Two Saturdays ago I decided to drive to the reservoir and try it out. The weather was very changeable. There was everything from cloudy to sunny, rain to snow to ice, in addition it was cold and windy. Wow, I had my long underwear, my neoprene waders, fingerless gloves, hooded winter jacket and anything else I could bring without looking like the Michelin-man. Casting was very interesting. The wind was gusting to approximately 25 mile per hour. I began casting perpendicular to the wind. This seemed to work ok, but no hits or follows. I fished for 2 hours and moved some, but nothing. 

 

I decided to check out a few streams that I saw while driving. So I headed to West Creek, a fishy looking creek that wasn’t very far from the reservoir.  In checking out the water I made the mistake of putting my hand in the water to see what insects were active. I identified small mayflies (probably BWOs) and some white and green caddis larva. Once my hand was wet and the water that dripped down my sleeve I began to get cold as the wind and precipitation continued.   I fished for a very short while in the creek and then decided to go back after around 2 to the reservoir. This is where I began to see following trout. They would follow my brown or black woolly buggers to the shore and then take off back to where they came from. I wasn’t showing them what they wanted or at the right speed. What was interesting was that I began to see fish jumping out of the water or at least some surface activity. The wind was blowing stuff into the water and the trout were going after it. I wanted to change my reel spool from my intermediate line to my floating line and then a small stimulator pattern. But by now my hand was getting very cold and painful. I don’t think I would even be able to tie on another fly. It was time to go back without any fish but with an interesting adventure researching a new place to fish for a rare fish… the tiger trout.