A friend of mine was fishing the yak,teanaway confluence last week and caught a 17" fish that he described as having " paisley" markings. He didn't get a picture,but when he got home he did some research & found a picture of a tiger trout. He swears that the fish he caught was a tiger. He talked to several fly shops in the yak area & not one of them had ever heard of this. He contacted fish & game and got the same story from them. Anyone here ever heard of this?
Do they plant the Yak? If so, that may have something to do with it.
One day we were catching land-locked Atlantic Salmon in the Metolius and they are not supposed to be there. We first asked the zone biologist if they were planning to dump the salmon in the Metolius and he said no... there are no Atlantic Salmon in the Metolius.
So we asked one of the techs at the Wizard Falls fish hatchery if they raised Atlantic Salmon at the facility. They did. We told him that we caught some in the river and he said it was possible that some of the salmon may have escaped the hatchery and ended up in the river.
That made the most sense. So if they do plant the Yak, it may be possible a tiger trout was somehow mixed in with the rainbow planters.
Anything is possible. A few years ago, I caught a coastal cutthroat on the Metolius. No idea how it got there, but it was there and I've never seen one since.
I've heard of wash down lakers from the reservoirs with torn fins. I can definitely see confusing a lake trout for a tiger if I'd never seen one before. I've also caught a lot of brookies in the upper river, which are probably a little more obviously not tigers. It's just hard to imagine that there was a tiger in the yak. I can't think of any spot in the drainage where they've been stocked.
I'm in the camp thinking laker, but weirder shit has happened. People have caught browns in the methow. Hell, I've caught Chinook in Rufus Woods. There could be a lake stocked with tigers somewhere that drains into the yak, if only seasonally.
I caught a mystery trout on the Teanaway earlier this year (further upriver than the Yak confluence) and took the photos into Troutwater fly shop in Cle Elum. I spoke with the owner/manager and he did some research and deemed it a tiger trout. It fought like a rainbow. Here are some photos for proof...maybe your friend caught the same fish.
I caught a mystery trout on the Teanaway earlier this year (further upriver than the Yak confluence) and took the photos into Troutwater fly shop in Cle Elum. I spoke with the owner/manager and he did some research and deemed it a tiger trout. It fought like a rainbow. Here are some photos for proof...maybe your friend caught the same fish.
View attachment 46829View attachment 46830View attachment 46832
Several years ago, close to where your friend was, I caught a similar fish. I was totally baffled and chalked it up to a brown or brook getting washed down from Cooper. Either way it is the coolest fish I've ever caught on the Yak.
tiger for sure, my minds blown. crazy. Iv'e been told about a creek mouth way down on the yak by benton city i think where guys use to catch big browns.
I caught a very nice Brown down there around 1983 or so... At that time, they were not being stocked in any of the freeway ponds & Tri-City folks thought that it had come up from the Columbia River.
Left to her own devices, Mother Nature can do some profound things.
I have often wondered how a species of fish could end up in a farm pond far from other water sources. Yet each summer time, kids catch them. Must be the worms.
Maybe we fly guys are doing it all wrong and should try GARDEN HACKLE.
The second photo actually makes it look skinnier than it was...the net is covering part of its belly. It definitely looked well-fed in person, which is not well represented with my crappy picture taking abilities. I don't photograph too many fish just because I want to get them released, but this fish was way too unusual and good looking not to snap a couple quick shots.
There are both Brookies and Browns in Cooper Lake and the connected watersheds above. It is very conceivable that there are naturally occurring Tigers in Cooper that could have washed down into the Yakima. I am surprised it doesn't happen more often.
A brookie spawning with a brown? On purpose? One's a trout. One's a char. It would be like a mountain whitefish spawning with a wild cutthroat trout. I can't imagine a brookie and a brown would find each other so overwhelmingly attractive that they spawn in the wild. I guess anything is possible when it comes to the fish type critters but that's a weird one.
I was watching a video on Steelhead spawning in Alaska I believe. They showed the big fish spawning and then a sneaky little fish would jump in and throw some milt around, before the male would chase it away.
This could happen to the Brookies and the Brown's as they both spawn in the fall of the year.
Just saying.
If fish are spawning close to each other natural fallout can occur. There is a certain trib in Ontario that has produced multiple record holding 'Pinook'. We caught a few through the years, pretty rowdy fighters.. definitely different looking.
I found an article last night,written by a guy back east & he said they're rare,but they do catch some wild tigers now and then on the local rivers. Mother natures a mad scientist.
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