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.”
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.