GREEN RIVER- When Encampment resident Greg Salisbury caught a large tiger trout in the new High Savery Reservoir July 3 he knew he had some sort of state fish record. He just wasn’t sure which one.

The fish hit a gold spinner and weighed 1 pound 10.4 ounces and measured 16.5 inches long with a 9-inch girth. The "tiger" is a cross between a brook and brown trout. It has white-edged fins on its underside like a brook trout, but its body features irregular dark green lines or vermiculations on a lighter green background with infrequent spots. Salisbury has the honor of holding the first Wyoming record for the species.

"I caught tiger trout in High Savery last year and they were around 7 to 9 inches long," Salisbury said. "I usually catch and release my fish, but when I caught this trout I knew I had some sort of a record."

The Wyoming Game and Fish Department stocked the reservoir with Colorado River cutthroat, kokanee salmon and tiger trout, which were obtained from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, in June 2005. High Savery Reservoir is the only Wyoming water hosting the species.

Game and Fish chose to stock tiger trout because the hybrid is sterile, so stocking can strictly control their numbers. Tiger trout have been used in Utah in association with their Colorado cutthroat recovery plan with good success. The "tigers" should stay along the shorelines and prey more specifically on white suckers and creek chubs than cutthroats or kokanee. Tiger trout are also very aggressive and readily take flies and lures.

Salisbury, a taxidermist, has plans for his record. "I know this record will be broken soon, but in the meantime I am going to mount this fish," he said.

To get to High Savery Reservoir from Rawlins, take Wyoming Highway 71 approximately 35 miles south and turn west into the lake. Or from Wyoming Highway 70 in the Medicine Bow National Forest, take Forest Service Road 801 approximately 8 miles north of the forest boundary and turn west. There is no sign marking the turnoff.

The North American tiger trout record weighed 20 pounds 13 ounces and was caught on the Wisconsin side of Lake Michigan in August 1978.

For more information, contact fisheries personnel at the Green River Game and Fish Office at (307) 875-3223.
(contact: Lucy Wold or Bill Wengert (307) 875-3223)