Rolette County’s little 36-acre Hooker Lake is located just south of the Manitoba-U.S. border. It’s also among the few select waters that North Dakota has stocked with tiger trout since 2023.
Evan Trottier knew that. And, because he’s been fishing Hooker Lake since he was a youngster, he figured he could catch a record tiger trout there.
Fishing in Familiar Waters
Trottier’s parents have a home on the lakeshore, where he’s been catching rainbow trout for years.
“I’ve caught tiger trout there previously, but most were pretty small fish not more than a couple pounds,” Trottier told Wired2fish. “I catch more tiger trout through the ice there than in open water.”
Tiger trout are a man-made cross between a brook and a brown trout. They’re popular gamefish for stocking: They grow fast, don’t reproduce naturally, and offer anglers a different target species than more common sportfish.
“I knew there were big ones in the lake,” Trottier began. “And I wanted one over five pounds so I could claim the state record, plus get the fish in the North Dakota ‘Whopper Club’ rankings.”
North Dakota’s “Whopper Club” recognizes anglers for catching exceptionally large fish, or “whoppers,” among various species.
The Bite and the Fight
“It was about 10 a.m., and a dozen or so other folks were ice fishing around the lake, too,” said Trottier, a 40-year-old concrete project manager living in Minot, N.D. “The ice was a couple feet thick, and I was jigging a silver ‘Little Cleo’ spoon with a live 2.5-inch shiner minnow on one of its treble hooks.”
Trottier says he was working his spoon about halfway to the bottom in seven feet of water when he got a strike.
“I fought it on an ice fishing spinning rod with 8-pound test monofilament line, and it was pretty strong,” he explained. “I worked it near the hole a couple times, but it swam by. Finally, I reached down through two feet of ice, grabbed it, and pulled it out.”
Confirming a New Record
Trottier knew right away that the tiger trout was more than five pounds; when he weighed it, it was over 6 pounds. He called state fisheries officials to report his catch, and learned he had to have it weighed on certified scales.
“Fortunately, I froze the fish, then met a couple of game wardens at a nearby butcher shop the next day that had a certified weigh scale,” he said. “The fish weighed 6 pounds, 2 ounces, with a 24.75-inch length. It set a state record for tiger trout – and also was big enough for a ‘Whopper Club’ certificate.
“I couldn’t be happier,” Trottier added. “I think I’m going to have a replica mount made of the fish, because I filleted and ate it.”
