Sunday, October 05, 2003

By Deborah Weisberg

There's no telling what the waters of the Youghiogheny River will yield to anglers with a spirit of adventure.

	Joe Klak and the Tiger trout he caught in the Youghiogheny.

Joe Klak of O'Hara was rafting with friend Jeff Hill, also of O'Hara, Aug. 19, when he pulled a 25-inch tiger trout from a slack pool about 100 yards above Dimple Rock near Ohiopyle.

Tiger trout are a hybrid of brown trout -- imported from Europe in the late 1800s and hatched in Pennsylvania ever since -- and brook trout, a native species. The state stopped stocking tiger trout years ago and there's little chance that Klak's fish was born in the wild, said Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission biologist Rick Lorson. It was probably planted by a sportsmen's club six or more years ago.

Klak and Hill were in a white-water equipped 10-foot long rubber raft called a shredder, alternately fishing and riding the rapids.

"We were throwing our lure around, killing time, getting ready to put our rods into a dry pack [before the next rapids] when this fish hit on a 3 1/2-inch long-gray and white-jointed Rapala," Klak said. "It wasn't just a hit. It ate the entire lure."

"I thought it was a big sucker at first.When we got it into the boat, Jeff and I looked at each other and said, 'Tiger trout!'"

Klak caught the fish in 3 1/2 feet of water. He revived it in the four inches of water that laid in the bottom of the shredder, snapped some photos and released his trophy. He has caught 20-inch rainbows and bass in the eddies beyond the rapids. Hill landed a small muskie there, too. But the tiger earned them their stripes.

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