Cummins said the decision to not stock tiger trout in Region 3 was a safeguard measure to protect these endangered natives.

“We decided to stay with native species because most of our lakes are connected to rivers, where we have ESA-listed steelhead and/or bull trout,” said Cummins. “We have also stopped planting eastern brook and brown trout.”

Both brookies and browns, though widely established statewide, are not native to the Northwest. Elsewhere in the state, tigers are on the move, and anglers are loving the stalk.

A DIFFERENT BREED
Packing the cunning and bulldog strength of brown trout and the aggressive hot-to-bite disposition of brookies, tiger trout are a handful on light tackle.

Flyfishermen in particular are falling in love with this strange hybrid, and some of the heaviest concentrations of tiger plants have been made in lakes set aside by WDFW as quality waters where sports fishermen are limited to unscented artificial lures, flies with single-point barbless hooks and knotless landing nets.

Many of the most productive lakes also have a one-fish daily limit. That attracts fly fishermen like Greg Lee, who was all smiles after landing nearly 5 pounds of tiger trout in Lenice Lake last year.

This is the seventh growing season for Washington’s tiger trout program. From one side of the state to the other, anglers are predicting a leap in tiger attacks and expecting records to fall.

Lenice is the most popular of a three-lake chain of food-fertile desert lakes along Crab Creek south of Royal City. The other lakes are Nunnally and Merry. All three now support tiger trout, and Lenice has consistently produced the biggest in the state, largely thanks to a diet of stunted sunfish.

Grant County, in the center of the semi-arid and heavily irrigated Columbia Basin, boasts a wealth of fertile trout water and so far, has received more tiger plants than any other area of the state.

State fish managers also are using the predatory tigers as a terminal tool to control unwanted invasive species in trout-only lakes.

This year, the state stocked tigers in Blue and Park lakes, two extremely popular trout and kokanee lakes in Sun Lakes State Park near Ephrata. According to Korth, the tiger program manager, the plants were partially to control unwanted bluegills and perch that may have survived last year’s rotenone treatments.

Korth said that Park and Blue are both big lakes, and the rotenone wasn’t expected to completely kill all of the sunfish, sculpins and other fish. So he stocked tigers and browns early on so that they’ll be large enough to be piscivorous -- fish eaters -- by the time the undesirable species again start to become numerous.

“I think it buys a little more time after each rehab,” said Korth.

It’s also a plan that benefits fishermen because once tigers become piscivorous, they really start to pile on the pounds.

Tigers are also starting to show in stocking allocations headed for Okanogan County and are being spread through the far eastern edge of the state, mostly north of Spokane.

A lot of the best water is heavily favored by flyfishermen, but tigers aren’t just a fly-fishing show. Conventional tackle-and-bait anglers are also stalking these scrappers.

Mineral Lake, a short drive from Tacoma, is one of the finest bait-and-lure lakes in western Washington. It now offers tigers, as does Klineline Pond, a bait-soaking stronghold along Intestate 5 in Vancouver.