The color scheme of tigers is similar to a brown in that they often have a tan background coloration, but their size, aggression, and diet are what really give away their relation to the brown trout. However, they’re easy to tell apart from a brook trout, as the red generally isn’t as vivid, and they lack the iconic blue halo spots. They also sometimes have a duller version of the red belly and fins of a brookie. The deep, vivid vermiculation across their sides and back is reminiscent of the brook trout’s patterns. So how do tiger trout stack up against their parent species, the brook and brown trout? In my opinion, they take more of their looks from brook trout but definitely have a personality closer to that of a brown. Tigers of two to five pounds are commonly caught, and the record is over 20 pounds.

Because of this, they can get fairly large. Tiger trout are aggressive, and although they have similar diets to other trout species when they’re small, most switch to a diet of baitfish once they grow larger. They’re found in many of the same types of habitat as other species and are frequently accompanied by other trout species like brooks, browns, and rainbows. They’re stocked for a variety of reasons, from being a sport fishery to controlling other fish populations (tigers are both sterile and piscivorous, so they can control the populations of other species without becoming a problem themselves). However, using a method called heat shocking, scientists can quite easily create tiger trout for stocking. Brook trout have two more pairs of chromosomes than brown trout, making it much harder for these two species to produce viable offspring in the wild. While they can occasionally occur naturally in areas with brook and brown trout, they aren’t nearly as easy to produce as other hybrids, like cutbows. Tiger trout are found across much of the country, as they are almost entirely a stocked fish. They’re known for having very distinct vermiculation, the same pattern that’s more subtly seen on the backs of brook trout. As its scientific name, Salmo trutta × Salvelinus fontinalis suggests, the tiger trout is a sterile hybrid between the brook trout ( Salvelinus fontinalis ) and the brown trout ( Salmo trutta ). One of the most vividly-decorated and least-encountered trout in the water is the tiger trout.

Facts about the brook trout live