Today, I did a full day float for Grayling on the Chena River. Our guide was Hank (I hope that is right. Dead hearing aids and stupidity keep me from remembering names) from AK River Tours (akrivertours.com). I received no discount or swag from reporting this, but I did get a ton of information from Hank about fishing grayling and where to find pike near Fairbanks.
The things I learned from Hank concerning dry fly fishing for grayling were: 1) Mend your line but don’t worry so much about a perfect dead drift; 2) At the end of the drift, lift your rod tip to move the fly towards you (I just stripped in a little); 3) Fish the edges of glides; 4) Fish back eddies and dead spots (sometimes known as “frog water; and 5) Perfect Trout Water is not Perfect Grayling water. I actually caught most of my fish using tip number 2: Lift your rod tip / strip in when your fly is done moving through a hold.
The grayling in the above picture was caught when I was intensely fishing an area that had small grayling, just for the thrill of seeing them take the fly. I think this fish was the biggest of the day. The colors are amazing on these fish, and they didn’t come out in my photos(????). The anal fins are white in the photos, but were scarlet red in the real world. Also, the trick is to get them wet and then take the photo, as their body markings are spectacular. Pure turquoise blue dots along their sides.
The time on the water was 7 hours and 45 minutes. I was exhausted at the end, and sat on the raft when less favorable water was present for dry fly fishing. Hank had me walk up a small, low water branch of the river to flip a fly into small pot holes of water. We could see a fish on the bottom of the first hole, that was probably 2-3 feet deep, and 4 x 8 feet in size. My first cast was attacked by the beast of a Grayling in the above photo.
A good day it was. I landed 16 of 20 hooked fish. Three were mini-graylings about 6-8 inches, and four were “bigguns” shown in the photos (length = ??? 14 – 16 inches?). The rest were just a little smaller than the “bigguns”, but photo worthy and life memories worthy. I didn’t take photos of the fish I caught while we were floating, after the first one. I wanted to get them back into the water quickly. These large fish are 15 to 20 years old, and another photo of a grayling, taken in the air, in a boat, in a net, didn’t seem necessary to me. Hank would net them, hand the net to me, I’d admire them for 3-4 seconds, then release them.
However, the drifting boat fish were probably the most awesome to catch. As we moved through edges with sections of slowly moving, but deep near the bank water, I would flip the fly 6-10 feet away from the boat. Large sized grayling would explode from the bottom and attack the fly as soon as it hit the water. They hooked themselves, and I caught at least 3, all about 14(+) inches, in this manner.
At one stop that wasn’t so great for using dry flies, I had two Chum Salmon right in front of me, either mating or fighting for position. They were side by side. One would then move off and ram the other in the mid-section with their snout, hard. I could see the salmon easily with my polarized glasses. My camera, however, didn’t have a polarized lens. Somewhere in the picture are the two large salmon. But, I ended up with nature’s example of a modern art piece!
Yes, I spent money that I don’t have for this experience. As the tv ads used to say, “Priceless”. Mentally and spiritually, this trip was priceless, and I’m cured of Grayling Fever. However, I will be paying this trip through next year. This trip was a good choice, and I never would have had this level of success poking around road access spots. Grayling Forever! Thanks Hank, and AK River Tours.
Tight Lines!