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Father-Son Fishing Trip Nets A New State-Record Tiger Trout In West Virginia

Robert Riggs holds up the new West Virginia record tiger trout; the big trout weighed more than 12 pounds.

Robert Riggs and his son Brent carried their small jon boat, trolling motor, and fishing gear to the edge of Mannington Lake in West Virginia the morning of March 28. They readied the boat for fishing, then pushed off onto the calm water.

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The two anglers were after trout that day. Using light spinning gear and spoons, they soon caught a small brown and a rainbow.

"I had just switched to using a ¼-ounce yellow, green, and orange Dardevle spoon," Robert, a retired paramedic from Grant Town, tells Outdoor Life. "Just before 11 a.M. I made a cast to a submerged tree branch I saw under clear lake water near the lake bank. Something hit it, I set the hook, and knew right away it was a big trout."

Robert says the fish never jumped and went deep as it steadily pulled line off the reel. The fish tried to get under their boat several times during the battle, and Robert struggled to keep it from rubbing his line against the boat and breaking off.

"I'd just put new 6-pound test monofilament fishing line on my reel, and it was a brand I'd never used previously," he said. "I was worried the line might not be up to the fight the fish was putting on — it lasted about five minutes. Finally, I got it near the surface at the boat, and Brent went to land it. But the fish was way too big for our small landing net that's usually good for anything we catch."

The big tiger dwarfed the other two trout they caught that morning. Photo courtesy Robert Riggs

Brent somehow got the big trout's nose into the small net. Then he leaned way out over the gunwales and scooped the fish by its belly and tail in one swift motion, rolling the big trout into their boat. Robert says there's no way he could have landed the fish without Brent's help.

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"Brent was soaked from leaning out of the boat. But he got the fish in the boat. It was the biggest trout I'd ever seen."

Read Next: The 10 Best Trout Lures of 2025, Proven Fish Catchers for All Trout Species

The two quickly identified the fish as a tiger trout, a hybrid cross between a brown and a brook trout. While these crosses can occur in the wild, they are extremely rare, and most tigers are spawned in hatcheries and stocked for fishermen. Riggs, who regularly fishes Mannington, says the state regularly stocks the small, 10-acre lake with tigers, along with brown, rainbow, brook, and golden trout.

The father-son duo kept fishing for a short time after landing the big tiger trout, but with no luck. They then headed back to shore, loaded their boat and gear along with the heavy tiger trout, and went home.

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"When we got home, my brother saw my fish and told me he thought it was a record tiger trout," Robert said. "So, we drove to the state DNR office in nearby Farmington to have them look at the fish."

The state-record tiger weighed 12.55 pounds and measured just over 27 inches in length. Photo courtesy Robert Riggs

WVDNR conservation officer Dustin Smith weighed and measured the fish at the office and confirmed it was a new state record weight tiger trout. Robert's trout weighed 12.55 pounds and was just over 27 inches long. It tops the state record, a tiger weighing 11.98 pounds caught in 2024.

For comparison, the IGFA all-tackle tiger trout weighed 27 pounds, 6 ounces. Angler Cathy Clegg caught that fish from Loon Lake in Washington in 2022.

"I don't know yet where we'll hang the [replica] mount in our home," he says. "It depends on what my wife Shelly decides. I think she wants it in my man cave."

Marion County Angler Catches A New State Record Tiger Trout

MANNINGTON, W.Va. — When Robert Riggs and his son decided to drag their boat to Mannington Lake on March 28th, there was some doubt as to whether it was the best idea.

"It was an overcast and rainy day, but my son and I wanted to go fishing so we took our little Jon boat out there and started trolling," said Riggs, who is from Grant Town, W.Va.

As they plied the waters with lines out, one pole suddenly bent and the fight was on. Riggs, in an interview for West Virginia Outdoors, explained it didn't take long to realize he may have had more fish on the other end of his line than they were prepared to handle.

"We encountered a problem because the fish was bigger than the net," Riggs explained. "So my son had to stick his hand into the water and scoop the fish into the net. I give him all he credit for getting the fish into the boat."

The record tiger trout on a stringer with two other trout caught that day offers some perspective of how big it was. PHOTO: Submitted

Riggs admitted he initially though he might have hooked a catfish or some other large species. He was genuinely shocked when his son flipped a tiger trout into the boat.

"I didn't realize it was a trout because I've never seen one that size," he explained.

Turns out, nobody had ever seen one that size. Riggs' fish set the new state weight record for tiger trout. It tipped the scales at 12.55 pounds. The fish eclipsed the standing record for a tiger trout caught by Nathaniel Smith at New Creek Lake which was 11.98 pounds. Robert's fish however came up short of the length record. The fish was 27.60 inches, just shy of the record of 28.7 inches caught by Mike Connolly at Krodel Lake in Mason County.

West Virginia DNR District 1 Fisheries Biologist Dustin Smith took the measurements and certified the state record catch.

"He told me it probably had been stocked last year and had been in the water for about a year," Riggs explained.

Mannington Lake, formerly known as Dent's Run Lake, is one of three impoundments in Marion County where Riggs and his son enjoy fishing. They often fish Huey Run and Curtisville Lakes as well. According to Riggs, they had caught tiger trout in those lakes previously, but nothing of that size.

The catch was made on a rainbow colored spoon which they had just tied on before the big fish struck.

"We had just switched to that one a couple of minutes before we caught that. We typically don't use that one, but we do now," he laughed.

The DNR started producing the tiger trout in large numbers in 2019 and the first stockings began in 2021. The breed is a cross between a brook and brown trout, which can happen naturally when populations of the two species are high, but it's much easier to create in the hatchery environment.

Riggs took some good measurements of his record fish for length and girth and some good pictures to allow a wildlife artist to capture its markings for a replica mount. The fish itself was enjoyed on the dinner table not long after it was certified.

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