Part 2: Grayling On The Fly

Later that night; I experienced Arctic grayling fishing on the lake. The grayling that live in the lake act very differently from the ones I am familiar with on our southern rivers. The fish can be found relating to the rocks and boulders that define the drop-offs in back bays. Although they often cruise around in pods feeding on the surface, success fishing for them with a dry fly can be a hit or miss affair. One of the most effective techniques we used was to anchor the boat past the drop-off, cast a Wooly Bugger up towards shore, retrieve it back towards the boat, and then let the fly drop down into the deeper water just in front of the rocks. More often than not, the Grayling would come rushing out from between the rocks to smack our offerings. A guy could definitely get used to this 'different' method of fishing for grayling. We headed back towards camp around dusk, and as we sat around the fire later listening to the world around us, the first of my stray thoughts crept through my head.

A Nice Great Slave Lake Grayling. Copyright © 2001 Frank Wood

The next morning we headed over to the Stark river near the community of Lutsel K'e on the southeastern shore. The river is a short one, about .5 Km connecting Stark lake to Great Slave lake. We went there, however, for the exceptional grayling fishing I had heard and read about. We were not disappointed. The grayling acted like their southern cousins in regards to location and willingness to take a dry fly, but there was a notable exception - size! Although the biggest one I caught was only 50 cm long, it took me 15 minutes to land him (Thanks Ron!), and he was so big in girth, I couldn't get my hand around his middle. After a joyous day catching lots of grayling, we headed back to camp where I didn't have much time for my evening fireside reflection as I promptly fell asleep.

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Second About Fly Swap We launched the second swap with this article.

Previous Features

From The Bench: The Muncher is a favorite of Ian James for carp, smallies, more.    Tie This!

The Doc's Rx: Thoughts of a Chicken Rancher. Doc tells it like it is.    The Doc's Rx