Tiger Trout Identification Guide

Key identification features

• Irregular, wavy, worm-like (vermiculated) dark markings that cover most of the body in a maze or tiger-stripe pattern
• Golden-olive to brassy background color, darker along the back
• Generally lacks the red spots ringed in blue seen in brook trout
• Adipose fin often edged in orange; moderately to deeply forked tail
• Usually a compact, robust body shape

Common look-alikes

• Brook trout: vermiculations are confined mostly to the back, with rows of red spots ringed in blue along the sides that tiger trout typically lack
• Brown trout: shows separate round black and red spots rather than connected wavy lines
• Splake: has pale spotting typical of lake trout mixed with only faint mottling, not the bold connected tiger pattern

Where you'll see one

Tiger trout are a hatchery-produced hybrid of female brown trout and male brook trout and are almost always sterile, so they are stocked rather than found reproducing naturally; look for them in coldwater lakes and reservoirs across the northern United States and Canada where fish and wildlife agencies plant them.