Short grayling fishing trip on Nome Creek

This evening my wife and I took a short drive for some eager small stream grayling on dry flies. Unlike trout, grayling seem to bite best under the most pleasant conditions for fishing: bright sun and low, clear water. Today I caught thirty fish in two hours, while giving Lena first crack at all the holes (she caught plenty, too). This was the kind of day where every likely spot produces a guaranteed rise to a dry (sometimes several) and several fish wind up hooking themselves without my help as the fly line drags behind me while I'm taking pictures.



The main challenge was coping with the mosquitoes. This has been a nasty mosquito year throughout Alaska, and here they were about as bad as I've ever seen except on the North Slope. I was drenched in deet and picardin, which mostly kept the cloud buzzing around me without landing, while Lena was covered head to toe in bug-proof garb. Our defenses kept the bugs at a tolerable distance for a couple hours.

Underwater photos by Troutnut from Nome Creek in Alaska

Most recent comments on this post (latest on top)

Jmd123 June 29th, 2013, 12:49 pm



Posts: 2473 Wow Jason, I would say other than the mosquitoes (and Spence is right, they are bad here too) it looks like you live in freakin' Paradise! Such beautiful waters and beautiful fish, AND a wife who will not only tolerate but enjoy a day of fishing even though she has to wear one giant mosquito net!



Lucky dog you...although I suppose the incredibly long winters make up for that...



Jonathon



P.S. Spence, as I always like to say, Grayling is the town named after the fish it killed! No matter how big the one you just caught is, there's always a bigger one out there somewhere... Jdw4rf June 24th, 2013, 10:43 am Posts: 1 Their fondness for the dry fly didn't serve them well here...





not to argue but the overfishing is only a small part of why there are no longer any michigan graylings. Pollution destroyed their habitat, and just like cutthroats, they prefer clean clean water!



awesome catch, hope one day to get up there! Shakes2582 June 23rd, 2013, 8:45 pm



Posts: 1 Great photos. I also love to fish for grayling and armed with a 3wt they are my very favorite small stream fish. Love their eager attitude towards the dries and as you mentioned, their feeding isn't slowed by a wonderful sunny day. I am really jealous of your day. My wife and I were up at one of our Grayling hotspots this weekend. We found abundant insects of all types, especially some very large stonefly nymphs that would have made some exciting fishing. Unfortunately, we also found the creek swollen beyond its banks and chocolate milk colored, no fish. Maybe in a couple of weeks................ Crepuscular June 23rd, 2013, 8:32 pm



Posts: 920 Nice Jason! Beautiful photos. The shot of the dorsal fin is really cool.



Eric



PaulRoberts June 23rd, 2013, 1:05 pm



Posts: 1776 Wow. Just beautiful.

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