KEMMERER — Another year, another tiger trout record in Wyoming.
Shelby Holder of Kemmerer set the new record on June 6 with a 14-pound, 15.2-ounce fish caught in the Hams Fork River near Kemmerer. The fish was 31.2 inches long and had a girth of 19 inches.
Holder shattered the previous record set last year by Jaxon Krall of Kemmerer at 12.77 pounds. Holder caught the fish between Viva Naughton Reservoir and Kemmerer City Reservoir. Krall’s fish was caught at Viva Naughton, and in 2023, Owen Schaad of Cheyenne set the state record with a 11.93 tiger trout caught from Viva Naughton.
Holder caught the fish with a 1-weight fly rod using a brown wooly bugger. Holder said he used 8-pound-test line as a leader and it took 30 minutes to land the fish. Holder was fishing for rainbow trout, but had caught tiger trout in that particular hole. He said he saw this particular tiger trout “come up from behind a couple of rainbows and try to run them out of the hole.”
“I thought I would cast at him. He rolled on the fly, I set the hook and that fly rod was bent in a ‘U,’ ” Holder added. “I knew I had to take my time if I hoped to land it. I had all evening so that’s what I did. It’s spectacular and awesome. I never thought I would hook into something that big.”
Tiger trout is a sterile hybrid produced by crossing a female brown trout with a male brook trout. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department first stocked tiger trout in Viva Naughton in 2014 and the fish have done well in a short period of time, thanks in large part to an abundant food source of Utah chub. Holder’s catch confirms some of the tiger trout stocked in Viva Naughton have moved into the Hams Fork below the reservoir, and possibly further down into the Kemmerer City Reservoir.
“The performance of tiger trout stocked in Viva Naughton has undoubtedly exceeded our expectations,” said Jessica Lockwood, Green River Fisheries Biologist. “As we hoped, tiger trout keying into the abundant Utah chub population has produced some exceptional-sized fish.”
Holder said he plans to retire his 1-weight fly rod that landed his record fish, and he also plans to have the fish mounted.
Log on to the Game and Fish website for a complete list of state-record fish in Wyoming.
— WGFD —