Panguitch lake1-25-22

[Fritzfishin]

Down here for the Ballon festival and tried some fishing at the lake Saturday morning, worm 3' under a bobber got 2 slot cuts, 2 rainbows, 1 tiger, then I went down to the creek and ended up with 4 browns,  4 species trout day pretty good!

[Cowboypirate]

Pretty good day getting a 4 species slam. How was thd festival?

[Fritzfishin]

One of the better ones! They probably had over 20 balloons lined up down main street 2 or 3 bands going. It was great!

[wiperhunter2]

Nice tiger, great color, is it the time of year that they go through a false spawn?

[Fritzfishin]

Nice tiger, great color, is it the time of year that they go through a false spawn?

Not sure when the tigers do that? I'm not to much of a trout expert

[wiperhunter2]

Nice tiger, great color, is it the time of year that they go through a false spawn?

Not sure when the tigers do that? I'm not to much of a trout expert

OK, I was just thinking that is not their normal color, so it must be spawning colors.

[richyd4u]

I've caught tigers colored up like that through various times of the year. They should mock spawn in the fall since they are a combo of two fall-spawning species, browns and brookies.

[wiperhunter2]

I've caught tigers colored up like that through various times of the year. They should mock spawn in the fall since they are a combo of two fall-spawning species, browns and brookies.

That is true and makes sense but when you cross two fish like that, it throws logic out the window, so you never know what you will get. I just have a hard time believing that it's normal for tigers to have that color phase all year round.  I'll send Chris Penne an email and ask him his thoughts about it.

[Fritzfishin]

Guessing its a male, its still swimming i only kept 1 rainbow for the grill,

[wiperhunter2]

Here is the reply I got from Chris, about that tiger's color:

I'm not firm on this and it's not something that's published in books, but usually attribute a lot of the coloration of the salmonids to what type of water they are inhabiting.  There's no doubt that fish color up for the spawn, but my observation is that the trout that are using open water in standing waters have a lot less color and take on a more silver appearance. We see this with brown trout caught in reservoirs, rainbow trout and tiger trout as well.  This makes sense for a fish that doesn't want to be easily seen in open water - which is that the silver tends to blend in with the rest of the water, like a mirror, and there is some countershading on the back and belly to help camouflage from above and below. We see this with ocean fish all the time.  Most fish in the open water of the ocean just have a silver body with some countershading.  And then the trout that spend more time in either streams or rivers, or more shallow and complex habitat in a reservoir tend to be more colored up, which seems to assist with all the different scenarios found in shallower water.  [/font][/size][/color][font="Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]Here's a quick article[/font][color=#1d2228][size=small][font="Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif] that talks more at length on this for ocean and river run fish.  I believe we're seeing these same forms of coloration with trout.

[richyd4u]

Yup, sounds like coloration has many different factors that can be enhanced during the spawning periods. Males always have the prettier coloration over the females of all trout species. I remember the male bows we used to catch at ice off at Otter Creek were amazingly dark and the most amazing lines. The male Tigers we catch out of Panquitch are always colored up like the one in his pic. Prettiest fish around in my book, beside a nice big brookie. Couldn't find any tigers up there two weeks ago, all big bows...but we always get into the tigers around July, once the weeds grow up to the surface. Can't wait!

[wiperhunter2]

Yup, sounds like coloration has many different factors that can be enhanced during the spawning periods. Males always have the prettier coloration over the females of all trout species. I remember the male bows we used to catch at ice off at Otter Creek were amazingly dark and the most amazing lines. The male Tigers we catch out of Panquitch are always colored up like the one in his pic. Prettiest fish around in my book, beside a nice big brookie. Couldn't find any tigers up there two weeks ago, all big bows...but we always get into the tigers around July, once the weeds grow up to the surface. Can't wait!

Well that explains it, I did not realize that all the male tigers in certain waters will always be in that color phase but Chris opinion above, along with your observations pretty much confirm it to be true. Thanks for helping me see what was going on.

[Fritzfishin]

Urgent news all the fish in panguitch died dont go fishing there stick to strawberry!

[wiperhunter2]

Urgent news all the fish in panguitch died dont go fishing there stick to strawberry!

LOL