For most sportfishers in America, the Arctic grayling Thymallus arcticus (Pallus) is a rare freshwater game fish symbolic of the clear, cold streams of the northern wilderness.
The Arctic grayling is an elegantly formed cousin of the trout. With its sail-like dorsal fin dotted with large iridescent red or purple spots, the grayling is one of the most unusual and beautiful fish of Alaska. Grayling are generally dark on the back and have iridescent gray sides. They have varying numbers of black spots scattered along the anterior portion of both sides.
Grayling overwinter in our deep, glacier river, The Yentna River and the deep pools of Lake Creek. Their tolerance of low dissolved oxygen levels allows grayling to survive the long winters in areas where many other salmonids would die.
With the coming of spring, grayling begin an upstream migration to spawning grounds. Like salmon, grayling faithfully return every year to the same spawning and feeding areas. Grayling spawn for the first time at an age of 4 or 5 years and a length of about 11 to 12 inches.
Grayling are generalists in their food habits, but drifting aquatic insects, especially mayflies, stone flies, and caddis flies are their primary food items. At times grayling will gorge upon the eggs of spawning salmon, outmigrating salmon smolts, terrestrial insects that have fallen into the water, or even an occasional vole or shrew!
The tendency of grayling to eat almost anything endears them to the angling public. Any fishing technique, including bait, lures, and flies, will work at one time or another. Grayling are especially popular because of their willingness to rise to a dry fly.
