FISHING -- If you haven't caught on to the new fishing experience at Deer Creek Reservoir near Headquarters, Idaho, check out this story by Eric Barker of the Lewiston Tribune:

State records for tiger trout have been falling at a dizzying pace at Deer Creek Reservoir near Headquarters, and it might not be over yet.

For now, Rick Miller of Orofino is state champ when it comes to landing big tiger trout. He set the mark recently during a fishing derby there with a 19-incher that weighed 2.65 pounds.

Prior to the June 10 derby, the state record was 17.5 inches, and organizers of the derby had high hopes it would fall during their tournament. They were right to have such confidence. That day a 17.6-inch tiger trout was caught and it looked like it had a chance for the books. But before official paper work could be filed, another angler landed an 18-incher and was in line to be fitted for the tiger trout crown.

Then, in swooped Miller, a chief deputy of the Clearwater County Sheriff’s Office. He caught a bigger trout while trolling with a lure — the make and model of which he is keeping secret.

His fish would last the day as the biggest ever caught in the state, and as of now remains the official record.

“I don’t think it’s going to last very long,” Miller said.

He may be right. Robert Hand of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Lewiston said there is word in fishing circles that an angler recently landed a 19.25-inch tiger trout from Deer Creek. However, the fish apparently is in a freezer, waiting to be measured and weighed on an certified scale.

“As of right now (Miller’s trout) is still the state record,” said Hand.

Tiger trout are new to Idaho. Wyoming had a surplus of tiger trout eggs a few years back and offered them to Idaho. The state accepted the gift and Joe DuPont, regional fisheries manager for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game at Lewiston, saw them as an opportunity to solve a problem.

Nonnative golden shiners were found in the lake in 2006. The bait fish are prolific and, given the chance, can take over small bodies of water and out-compete all other fish. Twice the department used chemical treatments to remove the unwanted shiners. But both times the fish returned, either by additional illegal introductions or simply because the treatments failed to kill every last one.

Tiger trout are voracious predators. With that duality in mind, DuPont decided to see if they could at least keep the shiner population low enough that the reservoir would support other fish like rainbow and cutthroat trout.

In 2014 and 2015, the reservoir was stocked with fingerling tiger trout, which are a sterile cross between brook trout and brown trout. Last year and again this spring, the reservoir was planted with tiger trout that averaged about 12 inches.

Hand said the goals is to keep the lake stocked with enough tiger trout to keep the golden shiners from taking over, but not so many that they eat them all.

“We want to kind of find that balance,” he said.

About 200 of the trout released to the reservoir this spring were marked with floy tags made of vinyl tubing. The tags have phone numbers and web addresses printed on them and Hand would like anglers who land tagged tiger trout to report their catches. Doing so will help the agency track the population and determine how many should be planted in the future.

By the way, not only did Miller set the state record, he also won the derby with a six-tiger trout limit that tipped the scales at 10.67 pounds.