Grayling, Arctic.....(Thymallus arcticus)

Re: SW Alaska arctic grayling

Sweet pics. i hope i can catch a few of those in a few weeks when i head up your way Terry. those will make some awesome mount.

 

Re: SW Alaska arctic grayling

Yeah Terry, we need a Doc Essox reference section

 

Re: SW Alaska arctic grayling

Terry...what type of water are those grayling coming out of......lake or large river? They have way thicker shoulders than all the small river grayling I catch in the MatSu Valley.

Brian

 

Re: SW Alaska arctic grayling

Great looking ref Terry . Thanks!

 

Grayling, Arctic.....thymallus arcticus

A few pictures from our recent adventure..

 

Re: Arctic Greyling reference photos

A few more..

 

Re: Arctic Greyling reference photos

Last one.

 

Grayling, Arctic.....thymallus arcticus......a dissertation

Thought I would put up a herd of grayling pictures from Alaska....they exhibit some serious color differences depending on the waters they came from.....some have more spotting.....some are more darkly colored.....some have very big dorsal fins. Here is what I've come up with. The first fish all come from Willow Creek about 75 miles north of Anchorage going up the Susitna Valley.....they are all pretty plump for their size and are quite brown in color with much more body spotting than any others I've come across.....









Girth is pretty thick for their length....but they all look very similar. If you travel farther north about another 30 miles you come to the Kashwitna River where the grayling don't seem to be near as brown....more gray-blue, not as many spots and thinner...this one is larger than most (21 inches) but pretty representative....













Back in Sept, 2010 my partner flew us up to the Kobuk River north of the arctic circle....we fished for two days and caught a few hundred grayling (along with herds of sheefish). One morning we flew a half hour upriver on the Kobuk where another small river merged and the grayling there were much darker than any I've ever seen before.....very striking in color. First here are many we caught around our island camp.....many of these fish had spectacular dorsal fins....





You'll notice all these fish from the Kobuk have far less body spotting from the ones in the little rivers north of Anchorage.....





Notice the irridescent blue colors when they are in the water......must be difficult to reproduce that.....







These are some of the darker fish from our side trip north.....









This last fish had the most striking dorsal fin of any grayling I have ever caught or seen personally....in the water the fish was an amazing composite of blues and grays on the body....the fins were magnificent.....both of these photos are of the same fish with just a small difference in lighting and the depth of the fish in water.......













When I see some of the fish you guys produce I'm amazed at how you can capture the very subtle shades of colors the fish had originally...I admire your work tremendously. Hopefully these grayling pics will help someone.

Brian