I’m heading up there tomorrow evening and staying until Wednesday evening and am wondering whether or not I actually have a chance at catching one.
So, does anyone know how the grayling are doing in there? I know it’s been a couple years since they stocked them but there’s got to be a couple left in there right?
Any info would be helpful if you’ve got it. Maybe what fly pattern to try? Recent success?
My twin…(TyeDyeTwin) is gonna kill me for this but yes…there are a few graylings left at S and M. A buddy of ours was fishing from his Kayack and picked one up in the middle of the lake on a gold little jakes. They were fishing for trout but likely hooked into that grayling by mistake. The buddy of ours claimed that it was huge…but then again he is the same guy that will claim he caught a 3.5 pound rainbow…and we know he does not have a fish scale. Plus he will tell us that he caught 3 SMB’s, then when we ask “did they have red eyes” he will say, “one of them did” which means that 2 broke off…which sorry…that means you did NOT catch them. Found this out when we watched a trout come un buttoned in an aerial display and he said right afterwards…dudes I just caught a rainbow trout. Good luck at S and M and let us all know how it goes for you up there. Hope this helps a little.
Thanks for your input. If it’s that big of a secret you can delete your post, I’ve got the info now.
Had nobody replied I probably would have fished with mepps spinners, Jakes and little jakes, and probably some humpy’s of varying colors on the fly rod. I’ll probably stick to that plan now and hope to run into one so that I can cross it off my list.
No need to delete anything. In case you have not noticed we don’t keep a whole lot of secrets (unless the giver of the “new info” wants us to keep quiet, which is more of a respect thing).
In fact we hope that more people go up there because of the chance of the grayling. We feel this way because the trouts are STUNDED and need some removal ASAP!
So all we ask is that you keep a bunch of trout and maybe keep one off your limit in case you get the elusive artic grayling. Good luck to ya let us know how the trip goes…even if you get skunked.
Glad to see you were going to start off with the right stuff too. I cannot tell you how many times I ask about stuff and low and behold I was going to use the same thing. Makes me wonder why I ask sometimes!
Last I heard the best success for trout was with Blue Fox Gold spinner and Blue Fox silver and green in size #2. I liked the gold spinner option tipped with a nightcrawler the best and the worm and powerbait sunk on the bottom from shore worked too. There is usually more success at the inlet for trout.
Best thing if you’re going for graysing is #14 or smaller wet flies or nymphs with a cast a bubble if your fishing with a spinning rod. Some kind of yellow or pink fly was good. Gold hares ear.
Thanks for the advice everyone.
I ended up staying for more than one night as my family had camp reservations all week and I had the week free.
Thursday was the best fishing day I have had up there in probably ever. The morning was slow but in the afternoon i decided to explore the river that comes out below the Res. Best decision I made all week! Fishing a green humpy with a beadhead prince dropper I caught fish left and right and managed to land my first grayling… On the river!
In the evening I took the kayak and headed towards the dam side of the reservoir and it paid off. Again the hot flies were a green humpy with a Prince nymph dropper. and I managed my second grayling. They are some cool looking fish!
Species list for the week:
Grayling, rainbow, tiger, brookie.
I took a few pictures but I was too busy catching fish so I didn’t bother most of the time.
Dude, nice fish! Those are actually some pretty good sized grayling. I’ve caught them at round lake above s and m. They hit so aggresive and give a great little fight. We sure are fortunate to have them stocked in selected areas of our wonderful state!
Congrades on your fish!
Say, how do you like your kayak. I’ve been looking at them and really like them.
Whats your brand and are you totally satisfied with it?
Do you wish you wouldn’t got something diff?
Glad to hear that you hooked into not just one but two Artic Graylings up there. Nice to see that some of the advice passed on worked. The fish up there are SKINNY. Thanks for your report and glad you had a good time up at S and M.
Sweet! I am glad you got one in the lake too. Good on ya for getting 2 as well. Glad to see it worked out for ya and all.
In the words of the movie The Big Lebowski when walter shows up to the bowling alley and see’s Donny make a strike …
“Alright! Way to go Donny!” - Walter
Glad to hear that you hooked into not just one but two Artic Graylings up there. Nice to see that some of the advice passed on worked. The fish up there are SKINNY. Thanks for your report and glad you had a good time up at S and M.
Advice passed on? [crazy] No Jakes, no wet flies, no pink or yellow, no #14 nymphs…well maybe the prince was a #14 but looks like a #12.[;)]
chickendude1234, go with what you know, sounds like you got it down.
SKINNY? well maybe the Brookie and the tiger but they always seem thin on those high mountain lakes, but the Rainbow look just fine, and those Grayling look healthy enough.
Beautiful last picture too.
The advice passed on is that tour buddy caught one in there recently and that he would find them too. We hate to tell guys they are in there and it goes sour for them.
We told him he would not find them in the inlet area. That turned out to be true too. How do you know if we PM’d him or not?
A ton of those fish have huge heads and rail like bodies. I am talking rainbows, tigers, and cutts. Yeah I cannot tell you how many we saw that are stunded like you would not believe. Only a few fatties on that water.
Marathon: I can’t really say much about the Kayak as it was borrowed from my dad, it’s his and I don’t fish it much. I liked it because it seemed that I was able to sneak “in with the fishes” better than in the scanoe but this model is extremely wobbley and I like his other yak a bit better as far as stability goes but the other one has a removable keel and tracks to the right a bit and is bright orange so, not so much camouflage. They’re both Pelicans though.
Flygoddess: Thanks for the kind words! I just went with a dry fly that has always produced for me up there and tried my hand at some nymph’s on the drop.
Bigger seemed to work better as I out fished my pops and he was sticking to 14’s and smaller and I never fished with anything smaller than a 12. But it was most likely luck and being where the hungry fish were.
As far as stunted fish, I don’t believe it. That tiger was probably the skinniest that I had caught the whole trip. Everyone else was fat and happy from feeding on the more than abundant bugs that were everywhere. The graylings surprised me in their size. and that wasn’t the only chubby rainbow I ran into. I hooked into a fatty on the river, probably 16" and the prettiest colors that I have seen in a while. He ran me in between a couple rocks and popped my line or there would be a picture of him up here too.
The only skinny fish I caught had 6" of line hanging out of his gills.
Glad to hear they are not all stunted. I have caught 35 fish this spring up there and only a 4 to 5 were in the non-stunted category. Maybe all the stunted one’s hang by the inlet?
I have not caught a Grayling or Brookie up the so I cannot comment on them.