Anglers can soon catch tiger trout in select North Dakota lakes

The North Dakota Game and Fish Department have stocked many lakes with rainbow, brown, and cutthroat trout over the years, but never tiger trout until this year.

In this weeks’ segment of North Dakota Outdoors, Mike Anderson takes us to Fish Creek where fisheries biologists are introducing a new species of trout for angling opportunities.

“So brook trout have been native to North America, but brown trout are an introduced species that came from Europe back in the 1800s. And after a number of decades, there actually started to be some natural hybridization,” says Jerry Weigel, fisheries supervisor for the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. “And it didn’t take long for hatchery folks to take advantage of that and started to artificially pair those fish up to create what is this hybrid called a tiger trout.”

Weigel stocked two lakes this spring in North Dakota, Fish Creek in Morton County and Hooker Lake in the Turtle Mountains, with these trout.

When these fish grow to a larger size, anglers will have plenty of opportunities to catch this fighting fish.

The Game and Fish Department will continue to stock tiger trout for the next three years.