Arctic Grayling:
 

My son Jason had a nice outing at Joe Wright Reservoir near Cameron Pass yesterday. The reservoir’s elevation is 9921 feet. Jason fished the moving ice line with a fly rod and balance leech. The fish were much more active than the nearly 8’ bull moose winter kill.

Nice. Catching a grayling on a fly rod is a mini bucket list item for me.

Here's a good pic of a friends very well fed 3#4oz grayling from the Ambler River in NW Alaska. Other than a 4#15oz grayling that was caught north of Nome, this is the biggest Alaska grayling I have seen evidence of. They certainly are fun to fish and are very strong swimmers. Your Colorado fish is very nice specimen; dorsal fin is spectacular.

The biggest arctic grayling I caught in the Kvichak River was a shade over 18" and was almost 3#. The dorsal fin was rimmed with pure gold!... or that's what it looked like anyway. It took a purple egg-sucking leech with a hot pink chenille egg. Caught a lot of them on Adams dries too.





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Pretty fish.

So........... how do grayling eat? If you're not from the South that might translate, are grayling tasty?

Can't say, we are strictly "catch and release" folks.

Grayling "eat" just like whitefish, which look very similar, just lacking the long dorsal fin. They don't freeze well. I like to roast them straight out of the water over a fire on a stick without gutting them. You charcoal the skin then scrape it off, salt them down a bit and eat them off the stick. Very tasty that way.