Ever eaten Arctic Grayling before?

Went out last weekend on Sunday to fish/scout a brand new lake for us above 10K. We all had stuff to do that evening but had the afternoon to kill so we went up there for a few hours…Had some great success landing Arctic Grayling on small swimbaits, live worms, and I even got one on a size 18 Zebra Midge.

We decided half way through the fishing that we should try and take some home to eat, since none of us ever had them before…I was very pleasantly surprised at the taste! We pan fried one and smoked the other 2…I BOTCHED the smoked batch as my smoker needs cleaning, i’ll just leave it at that lol.

Hope you guys enjoy the fishing, food, and drone shots of the new lake for us!

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They didn’t get driven to extinction in Michigan for nothing. Much due to logging but also harvest. I always assumed they were excellent eating. I would love to try them.

When I was in Alaska we cooked some up. Many Streams off the Denali highway have tons of them. I think I had a streak where I got 4 fish in 5 casts.

And yes, they taste great! I hear they don’t freeze well.

My F-I-L and I caught quite a few of them when we camped on the Gulkana river in Alaska at Sourdough Creek campground. I got almost all of mine on small mepps spinners, just like fishing for brook trout around here. We had a couple meals of them and they were tasty!

suzuki wrote:

They didn’t get driven to extinction in Michigan for nothing. Much due to logging but also harvest. I always assumed they were excellent eating. I would love to try them.

Oh jeez, had no idea! Sorry to hear that but yes they taste delicious and are fun to catch…Hopefully you can get into some one day!

phoyem wrote:

When I was in Alaska we cooked some up. Many Streams off the Denali highway have tons of them. I think I had a streak where I got 4 fish in 5 casts.

And yes, they taste great! I hear they don’t freeze well.

Do they get bigger there? A Master Angler Award worthy one in Colorado is only 15″…Some comments on my video said to not freeze them either.

xplorer wrote:

My F-I-L and I caught quite a few of them when we camped on the Gulkana river in Alaska at Sourdough Creek campground. I got almost all of mine on small mepps spinners, just like fishing for brook trout around here. We had a couple meals of them and they were tasty!

Nice, i’ll have to try a spinner next time…Got one on the Fly rod with a size 18 zebra midge and the rest of my catches with a 2″ Swimbait that is called “Tadpole”. Very natural pattern.

Tyler Thimsen wrote:

Hope you guys enjoy the fishing, food, and drone shots of the new lake for us!

Tyler,

I’d like to comment how much I enjoyed your video here. I found it rather refreshing relative to most the walleye/bass fishing videos common here in the Midwest. And to add, the uniqueness of grayling.

The drone shots were very cool showing the beautiful setting where you were fishing. I also admire your careful netting and handling of the fish you released and the selective harvest of some to eat. Those float tubes looked fun too.

I liked the cooking/eating segment as well. Sometimes it’s just that added element of catching the fish to eating and enjoying a delicious fresh caught meal.

Well except for the smoked one’s…

I’m sure you won’t let that happen again.

The ones we got were all 10-15”. I’m sure if you put some effort in, you can find some bigger ones in Alaska. But we just spent a few hours mainly looking to say we caught one, and to provide some dinner.

Tyler,

I’d like to comment how much I enjoyed your video here. I found it rather refreshing relative to most the walleye/bass fishing videos common here in the Midwest. And to add, the uniqueness of grayling.

The drone shots were very cool showing the beautiful setting where you were fishing. I also admire your careful netting and handling of the fish you released and the selective harvest of some to eat. Those float tubes looked fun too.

I liked the cooking/eating segment as well. Sometimes it’s just that added element of catching the fish to eating and enjoying a delicious fresh caught meal.

Well except for the smoked one’s…

I’m sure you won’t let that happen again.
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Thank you so much for the kind words! I do my best to provide entertaining and hopefully somewhat educational content. I’m glad you like the different type of fishing video; I lived in Minnesota when I was younger and miss fishing consistently for Walleye and Bass, but happy to be fishing for the wide variety here in Colorado too. I feel everyone should try a float tube, really fun and nice to use for harder to access places. LOL ya my smoked Grayling was very BOTCHED! I’m cleaning it this Sunday lol.

phoyem wrote:

The ones we got were all 10-15”. I’m sure if you put some effort in, you can find some bigger ones in Alaska. But we just spent a few hours mainly looking to say we caught one, and to provide some dinner.

Good to know, thought maybe they get giant like everything else that seems to live around up there haha.

Would freezing them in a plastic tub with water help keep them?

Oh have I got an Arctic grayling story. I was in Inuvik, NYT on a motorcycle trip trying to get to the Arctic Ocean on the new road that just opened. For breakfast I had a wonderful breakfast of eggs Benedict with the smoked grayling as the protein. I headed out to ride the last 90 miles of new gravel and dirt road to a native village of Tuktyuktuk on the Arctic Ocean. 15 miles from the village a hard drizzle turned the road into a glue like quagmire. It was the kind of mud that as you walked on it you would get taller with every step. The wheels of the bike were clogged with mud and the exertion to clean them ad sometimes picking up the now heavier due to mud buildup bike created a lot of indigestion in me. I was burping up smoked fish like a percolator pumps coffee out it’s spout. What was the best breakfast ever became my second worst nightmare, the mud being the first.

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castle-rock-clown wrote:

Oh have I got an Arctic grayling story. I was in Inuvik, NYT on a motorcycle trip trying to get to the Arctic Ocean on the new road that just opened. For breakfast I had a wonderful breakfast of eggs Benedict with the smoked grayling as the protein. I headed out to ride the last 90 miles of new gravel and dirt road to a native village of Tuktyuktuk on the Arctic Ocean. 15 miles from the village a hard drizzle turned the road into a glue like quagmire. It was the kind of mud that as you walked on it you would get taller with every step. The wheels of the bike were clogged with mud and the exertion to clean them ad sometimes picking up the now heavier due to mud buildup bike created a lot of indigestion in me. I was burping up smoked fish like a percolator pumps coffee out it’s spout. What was the best breakfast ever became my second worst nightmare, the mud being the first.

Awesome and horrible all in one!