Grayling grayling!
 

Sorry I don't have any pics but I just had to write about my excursion today. Took an old compressor road off the highway for about 5 km then continued the trip by rzr and quads. Ended up on a power line that lead us to a small creek loaded with giant graylings. Two of the guys kept a couple so I will see if they can get me some pics. What beautiful fish. I was catching them on a black ant and a royal coachman. Size 12-16. Such a nice creek but limited real estate for casting a fly as it is bush everywhere except the 200 feet at the power line crossing. What sort of flys are you guys and girls using for grayling?

I've always liked deer hair flies for grayling, or Adams.
Cat

I pretty much exclusively use dry flies for grayling. Yesterday I caught a bunch on a Royal Wulff. I've also had excellent success with PMDs, Adams and the Elk Hair Caddis. I've also found they prefer darker flies. I tested the theory "bright day, bright fly. dark day, dark fly" yesterday, and although it was mostly sunny, my fish were caught on brown and olive patterns.

I also managed a very nice, nearly 2 pound grayling yesterday on an olive rabbit strip leech while probing a deep pool for bull trout.

I use a Zulu as a wet fly and anything with white wings for a dry. When the are biting I think a safety pin would work. They are fun. Royal coachman is my go to fly for RMW.

Fly selection
 

Sorry, somehow we have no pics ... My buddy reports the grayling he kept measured in 42 cm and its stomach was full of grasshoppers?? I guess once grayling get big enough they would love to eat grasshoppers instead of the small flies they are used to. Next time I hit that pool I will have to try a hopper just to see what lurkes in there....:sHa_shakeshout:

One pic
 

One of the grayling I caught today at lunch break. She was about 11 inches.

Some scenery from today
 

A pic of my reel and the river

Small gal from today
 

First fish today. 8inch on a royal coachman.

Big boy on bottom
 

The biggest one today. Caught on a bead head nymph in front of the white froth at the log jam. Unfortunately while landing him and trying for a pic I lost him. Here's a crappy pic where you can sort of see him. He was around 12 inches and struck my indicator . I pulled the indicator off then drifted the nymph through there twice more before he took it.

Name that fly
 

Tried this dry fly from my box after no more action on the nymph. No takes but it ended up in a picture anyway... As you may notice all my photos need to be rotated to make sense... Sorry about that

you will be surprised what little fish will hit. Energy conservation screams hit one big hopper over 10 little PMDs for example

Went out to the "spot" again
 

Hit up the same stretch of river from my original post again....... Hopper was king. I was a little shy at first and started with the coachmen again but switched it out for a hopper and BAM!! That little pool and its head and tail waters turned in to a fly fishing Mecca ! Landed a 14" on the fist cast with the hopper. I will admit I missed the first set but he returned in .25 of a second and I set it good and proper. Followed that with 3 more landed in 10 min then a few misses and a landed 11". It is true that grayling will take on any fly even if its too big for their mouth. This began to frustrate me as the nice 7-9" fish were rising to me but unable to take. Switched out for a bead head nymph size 18? Caught another one then went cold for about 30 min. Tied on a big black with gold bead head and it started again. I was a kid in a candy store big grayling just rocketing out of the shadows and hitting this thing like it owed them money. Unfortunately , same problem, to big of a hook size so I squandered 10 takes for only 2 landed. It was a great day and I will return with a better assortment of fly sizes as the smaller nymphs did not garner the attention of their bigger peers. Landed 11 total in 2.5 hours. Most action packed into two 20 min stretches.

Tight lines everyone,

Flight 01