Massive 27-Pound Tiger Trout Caught By Washington Woman Could Shatter World Record

A Washington woman has caught what has been described as a potential world record-setting fish in Loon lake.

Massive 27.43-Pound Tiger Trout Caught By Washington Woman Could Shatter World Record

The fish is a 27.43-pound tiger trout, caught on August 7 by Cathy Clegg who was fishing from the dock next to her family cabin.

Clegg of Colbert was soaking nightcrawlers with a spincasting rig at Loon Lake when the massive tiger trout struck the bait.

Clegg who reported News of her catch to Fish & Stream, said the encounter lasted for nearly 10 minutes.

“It took off and pulled my drag out like crazy.” “It was so much fun, but I was really afraid I was gonna lose [the fish]. I was shaking. I was so nervous.”

Tiger trouts are known for their striking colors and voracious feeding habits.

The fish is a sterile hybrid produced by crossing a male brook trout with a female brown trout. It’s extremely rare for a tiger trout to occur naturally in the wild. Most tiger trout caught by anglers are the result of hatchery hybridization. At Loon Lake, tiger trout are stocked by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) on an annual basis.

“The WDFW started planting them about 15 years ago,” Clegg said. “We would catch little ones. As the years went by, my son caught a 10-pounder, then a 12-pounder, and then a 15-pounder. They get bigger every year.”

Taxidermist measures tiger trout caught by woman in loon lake

According to WDFW Communications Officer Staci Lehman, Loon Lake has turned out a number of large tiger trout in recent years, in large part due to the lake’s prolific schools of kokanee, which the tiger trout prey on. In fact, just last year, Clegg’s son Caylun Peterson caught the current IGFA world record for tiger trout from Loon Lake. It was 24.49 pounds, just three pounds lighter than his mother’s recent catch, which he netted.

Because of Peterson’s record fish, Clegg knew the drill for getting her behemoth into the record books.

They put the fish on ice in a YETI cooler and brought it to a tackle shop in Spokane that had a certified scale. There, a WDFW representative took measurements of the fish and verified its species. Clegg’s catch measured in at 35.5 inches long with a girth of 28 ⅛ inches, according to Northwest Sportsman.

With a weight of 27.42 pounds, it has the potential to shatter the existin state and world record.

Clegg plans to get the fish mounted by a local taxidermist.

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