Mark Taylor**(see info at bottom of page)  & I took off from his Snoqualmie, WA home on Friday (6/23) at Noon (after he got off work) for a long planned (a year) trip back to Lake X, a lake near Tonasket, WA. were we’d caught nice Brook Trout in ’05 while pursuing the Tiger Trout (Brook Trout x Brown Trout hybrid) without any luck.  I'd researched a couple more lakes in the Okanogan area that had Brook & Tiger Trout and the plan was for me to try to catch my first Tiger (Mark caught his first Tiger last year at Park Lake based on research I'd done), have fun catching some big Brook Trout & if possible set two IGFA vacant World Records for Tigers on 6 & 12 lb. line class.

On the 400-mile drive to Tonasket, Hwy. 97 follows the Columbia River for miles. Mark kept commenting on all the rip-rap along the Columbia and the fact that it must be loaded with Smallmouth Bass.  It got to the point where Mark was watching the river more than the road.  I finally said....Pull over....lets get this Smallmouth obsession out of your system.  Mark grabbed his spinning rod and hit the river.  It wasn't long before he caught a Smallmouth, then another.  A large Beaver swam by while he was fishing & I was scouting fish for him from the bank.  We spent a half-hour, and Mark was right, there were lots of Smallmouth most everywhere along the shores of the Columbia.  Now.....we've got that out of your system....lets go catch a Tiger Trout.

We drove on to Tonasket, got a room in a little motel & hit the back roads to old Lake X (Washburn Lake) with very high hopes.  The road to Washburn is long, dusty & way back in the middle of nowhere.  There are California Quail everywhere and a few Sharp-tail Grouse.  We crossed several cattle guards and had to wait for small herds of young calves & their mom's to move off the road.  Mark took his U-Tube & I took my Pontoon Boat w/ the new wheels I built used to drag the boat the quarter-mile to the lake.

We geared up quickly and headed down the trail to X...the pontoon wheels worked great.  The lake was bank full.   Last year the lake was down quite substantially, with a 30 - 40' ring of mud around the lake.  The bank full condition allowed the fish to move into the reeds on the bank, plus new lily pads had grown in some places on the shoreline.  A huge 4-point Mule Deer in velvet walked down to the lake, saw us & bounded away.

We fished our hearts out until dark using fly & spinning gear.  The only fish caught was a small Brookie (6") that I caught on a Rapala.  Very disappointing, but it follows the Yellowstone Gang experiences of not being able to return to waters and recreate the great fishing of a previous trip.

I mentioned to Mark that I'd read that Tigers & Brooks tend to be best fished in Spring & Fall.  As the water warms in summer the fish hang in deep water during the day and become nocturnal feeders.   I didn't think anything we were offering the fish was able to reach the 30'+ depths where I suspected the fish might be.  There was also lots of talk about winter freeze out, no planting by the State this year, fish hiding in the reeds and other reasons for the lousy fishing.   I think they were there, just real deep.

As we left the lakeshore, after dark, I hooked up my newly designed pontoon wheels, took a dozen steps & broke the assembly apart.  Rats, back to the drawing board.  Mark & I had to carry my pontoon the quarter-mile back to the truck.  As we loaded our gear in the truck in pitch dark, the owls were eerily hooting as we talked about the possibility of Cougar and maybe Grizzly Bears hunting the area for little calf snacks.  On the way down thru the hills a huge owl flew up from the side of the dusty road into our headlights....Mark swerved, saying, "What was that?".....reminiscent of a Yellowstone Gang incident with Al Miller driving down the Smith’s Fork River in Cokeville, Wyoming.

We arrived back at the Motel at nearly midnight, ate our Subway sandwiches….that we'd bought at noon....we suspected we'd be back to town late....after the gas station restaurant had closed.  The sandwiches were great??  The ice in the cooler had melted long ago and the lettuce had turned a bit brown and a little slimy, but the warm mayo & mustard hid the taste of the bad lettuce.

Up at 5AM, breakfast at the gas station....Yumm! 

Decided to try another lake I'd researched, Summit Lake, very remote, but data said it had Brooks & Tigers.  Driving north to within a few miles of the Canadian boarder we looked for the road into the mountains shown in the Gazetteer.  We were lost for a while, then finally figured out where the road was by the topography of the area.....come to find out, the name of the road we were seeking was wrong in the Gazetteer.  We drove up for the better part of an hour, steep, rutty, brush choked, tire spinning roads.  Gazetteer showed several winding roads in the area and we took a couple wrong turns and got onto some really crummy roads, then realized we were lost and turned back to retrace our steps.  There were some "houses" along the way, well not really houses, but camp trailers surrounded by rusted old cars, bunches old mean dogs snarling at the gate, deer skulls nailed on the trees, lots of rusted barbed wire & signs spray painted on boards saying "Keep Out", "No Trespassing" & "Beware of Dog".   The movie "Deliverance" came to mind.  We locked the doors of the truck and were wondering if we were going to make it outta here!!  Finally reaching the top of the mountain at about 4600' and found the small road to the lake.  A very pretty lake.  Oddly enough, no one was there. 

With high hopes we launched and began fishing.  A few small fish were rising in the reeds/pads near shore, but again....NO LUCK.  We fished the lake until about 10AM, throwing everything we had at them.   I suspected the same problem as the day before....the fish were deep and our spinners, spoons and flies on sink-tip lines wouldn't stay in the strike zone long enough to elicit a strike.

By now we were getting a bit dejected.  Based on our terrific experience at Lake X (Washburn) the year before we were beginning to think that experience was an anomaly. 

We drove down off the mountain and were wondering what we'd do next to find a Tiger Trout, we were running out of options.  We stopped for a gas station lunch and Mark looked at my Gazetteer.  I had recorded a lot of research data in the book and Mark asked, what about this lake?  I'd marked the new Lake "X" as having Brooks & Tigers, but hadn't found much other information about the lake.  I said, "Well, from what I know, there are Brooks & Tigers in the lake, but I don't know if they survived the winter.  There are three lakes in Okanogan county that share the same name as the "new lake X" and according to the Fisheries regs, two of them are "Selected Gear" lakes, but this one, the most remote of all, had no gear restrictions.

Mark suggested we buy some night crawlers at the gas station.  Night crawlers!!!  Garden Hackle!!!  Oh No....could I resort to the "ultimate bait" to catch a Tiger?  Stuffing my pride into my fly box, I agreed....saying "lets get two boxes!"   After all, the IGFA World Record line-class regs don't exclude using bait, and given our past 24 hours of disappointing fishing we had to do something different.

Checking the Gazetteer we decided to take the "shortcut" to the new Lake X even though the map showed the road as little red dashes with no name or Forest Service number.  We got lost a couple times, but finally figured out where the road was based on topography.  We turned up the road and ended up in the front yard of an old run-down ranch house.  We suspected the road we were looking for turned thru an open gate into a pasture and thought about giving it a try, but it really looked like we were on private property.  We chickened out and headed quickly back to the highway listening closely for the sound of gunfire.

Another check of the map and we found a different route to the lake.  A 25-mile trip around to the south side of the mountain showed another road to the lake, this time, a solid red line road.

Another 45 minutes of travel down a dusty, rutty, steep, brush-choked road and we'd crested the mountain and were driving along the top of the mountain when we ran into a gate with signs saying "Private Property", "Keep Out" & "No Trespassing".   We were concerned about the signs, and the "Deliverance" movie again stood the hair up on the back of our necks, but we continued on, after all, the road was a Forest Service Road and should be open to the public.  A couple miles down the road and a few dozen more "Keep Out" signs, we crossed thru another gate and we finally figured out that the property on either side of the road was private property, but the road was a public road.

The temperature was in the high 80's and the surrounding mountains were still snow-capped at the higher elevations.  The mountain slopes were very green indicating a lot of rain and snow in the area during the past winter.  We were lucky that we'd planned our trip for this weekend as the weather in the next couple days included temperatures near 108 degrees!  Each time we walked thru the brush we had to do a "tick check", the area was lousy with ticks.

Finally we saw a sign that said Lake X....Whew....we made it!  We turned down the steep, rutty trail to the lake only to find a truck, and two guys camping, then another vehicle with an older couple fishing on the bank of the lake.  We got out and asked, "How's the fishing?"  The older man said that the two boys camping had fished the lake for two days without a bite & he and his wife had been fishing for a while with no success.  Oh terrific...we'd driven thru hell to find another lake without fish!  We noticed another road came near the far end of the lake, and not wanting to disturb the campers and old couple, we decided to proceed to the far end of the lake.  The road ended on a high bank camping spot and access to the beautiful little lake was down a steep 50' trail.

We walked down to the lake and fished a bit from the shore, Andy tossed a spinner over the deep blue edge of the lake & Mark tried a crawler on a bobber.  No luck.  We were really wondering if we wanted to haul all our gear down the steep trail, just to be disappointed by lousy fishing one more time.  Finally we said, well, this is our last chance to meet our goal of catching a Tiger Trout and possibly set a record, so lets do it.

A few small fish were working the reed shoreline, nipping at blue dragonflies that were hatching all over the lake.  Loons and Mergansers were all around the lake.  The lake was in a basin surround by high rock cliffs and pine forest.  A snake darted across our path as we crawled back up the trail.

Mark was first down the hill with his Trout Unlimited U-boat before Andy could put his waders on and get his pontoon boat down the hill.  Within minutes, Mark yelled, "Yahoo....fish on!!"  After a 10 minute battle....these fish put on quite a deep digging battle....Mark landed a 17" Tiger Trout!!   All that could be heard from Andy was...Oh No!, Oh No!...Mark just caught the one & only Tiger Trout in this lake.....I'll never catch one of these things!!

Finally getting the pontoon launched, I rigged a night crawler on my Lamiglas spinning rod loaded with Maxima 6 lb. IGFA Tournament line.  Using a small split-shot & a #10 worm hook I let 60' of line out and slow trolled the night crawler along the bottom in 30' of water.

It wasn't long before I got a bite, slow nibbles at first...I fed him line..., then a steady, hard pull.   Wow!!....this felt like a pretty good fish.....he took drag and resisted any attempts to bring him near the surface for a look-see.   Oh please be a Tiger Trout....and don't let the line break!!  Finally I could see color, it was a nice fish, but still the fish resisted coming to the surface.  Finally.....I got a look at the fish.....looked like a Brook Trout, but there was still hope, maybe it was a Tiger.   The fish circled under my pontoon boat a couple more times and finally came to the net.....I looked him over closely.....it was a Brook Trout, about 16 inches!  Very nice, and my personal best, but my feelings bounced back and forth between.....nice Brook Trout & I wish it was a Tiger.  I took a couple pictures of the fish....it was hooked deep and I decided to keep the fish as Mark wanted a few fish for dinner.

Mark had paddled to the far end of the lake when I heard another "Yahoo" and a lot of splashing.  "Another Tiger?", I asked?  "Yeah" came back the answer.  Oh the Pain!    A few minutes later I had another nibble....the anticipation rose to unbearable levels....let him take it....let it take it, I kept telling myself.  Then the nibbling quit!  OH NO!!,  He got my bait....  No, let it be, maybe he'll come back.  Then another nibble and my rod bent over sharply!  I set the hook and my drag screamed....a strong fish!  Oh...please be a Tiger....   The fish fought hard, staying down and resisting all attempts to gain any line.  Finally I gaining a couple feet of line then lost twice as much....  I was terrified that the line would break or the hook pop out....this was the real thrill of World Record fishing....had I been fishing for Rainbows, just for the fun of it, I wouldn't have been concerned at all, but I must admit this fish had my adrenaline peaking the Richter Scale.  After a year of research and planning, could this be the fish I was seeking?  A long sought new species with the possibility of being a World Record?

The battle continued.....it seemed like forever.....when I finally saw the fish flash below me.  Seemed this fish was brighter than the previous Brook Trout, maybe.....just maybe this was the elusive Tiger Trout?   I untied my Orvis net.....the anticipation was at a fever pitch....the fish came to the surface on the left side of my pontoon and laid on his side about 6 feet away.  I saw the unmistakable "worm-wood" pattern on the back of the fish.....no mistaking it....it was a Tiger Trout!!  Then the fish dove...stripping scads of line from my reel!!  Talk about a thrill.   I laid my net down and concentrated on landing the fish.  Several more minutes of sheer terror and the fish came up headfirst next to the boat, a perfect net angle.  I went for him.....he jumped and dove under my boat...the drag was screaming.....I was panicked.   Thoughts of how well I'd tied the knot at the hook and the big teeth Tigers were know to have rubbing on my 4 lb. leader raced thru my head.

The fish came up again, this time in front of my boat; I couldn't reach him with the net.  As I tried to maneuver him to the side of the boat, he took another run and came up between my feet.....essentially inside the pontoon boat....yikes....was he going to tangle around my flippers?.....wrap the line on the pontoon frame?  Just then he popped to the surface and lay there between my legs.  One quick swoop with my net and he was landed!!!  A beautiful fish, some 17" and indeed a Tiger Trout!!

I laid my rod down and stared at the fish.....Wow my first Tiger Trout!!  Just then the fish started to flop in the net, he popped out of the net and fell back into the water.....I grabbed my rod and after a few moments of terror, I landed him again....this time holding the open end of the net next to my chest....this fish wasn't going to get away....not after a year of research and 30+ hours of fishing & driving.

I yelled "Yahoo" at the top of my voice and started kicking my pontoon back to the launch point with the net held close to my chest using both hands.  

"Mark.....I did it.....I finally caught a Tiger Trout!!"

Mark met me at the launch point and we weighed both of our Tiger Trout with my IGFA certified Boga Grip scale, measured them, length & girth and took lots of photos.

We'd done it, caught Tiger Trout and set the 6lb. test & 12lb. test IGFA World Records.....what a thrill.  High 5's echoed thru the woods!  My fish weighted a little over 1-1/2 pounds, was a little over 17" long and measured 8" in girth.  Mark's was nearly a twin, the same weight, but a little shorter.

None the less, we were elated that we'd finally cracked the Tiger Trout code, set a couple records and brought a successful conclusion to more than a year of planning, research and anticipation.

We arrived back in Seattle at 11PM, dusty, dirty, dehydrated, bruised, bit, exhausted and elated!   A 36 hour marathon trip where we were either driving or fishing for 31 of 36 hours....and smiles on our faces that you couldn't scrub off with a wire brush!

Our next trip, July 5th, (returning July 10th) is to Bakersfield CA, then up into the Sierra Nevada Mts. near Mt. Whitney to fish the home waters of a fish neither Mark or I have caught...... the Kern River drainage .....home of the Mercedes of Trout, the coveted Golden Trout.  Mark & I have talked about this trip for three years...we're finally going to do it.

** Captain Mark Taylor, besides being an awesome fishing buddy runs the "Raven's Luck Guide Service" which specializes in: "You name the species, I can help you catch it". Mark fishes freshwater & saltwater species from his small aluminum lake boat or his 18' fully equipped (GPS, Downrigger, depth-sounder, etc.) Hewscraft aluminum boat. Saltwater bottomfish, cutthroat or freshwater bass, trout or panfish, Mark can guide to to all of them. He can also guide you to IGFA World Records.

Contact Captain Mark Taylor at:

"Raven's Luck Guide Service"
206-200-2640
email: emtbckt@msn.com

Mark Taylor (206-200-2840) in addition to his work at Raven's Luck Guide Service is active in Trout Unlimited (TU) where he is the President of the Bellevue /Issaquah Chapter of TU (www.tu-bi.org) and is the Washington State NLC Representative for
Trout Unlimited (www.troutunlimitedwashington.org)