Rogers Lake Report 11.7.2016

While not highly regarded among anglers, Arctic Grayling have long captured my interest. What the "Sailfin of the North" lack in robust fighting power they more than makeup for in beauty. Montana is home to the last remaining native wild populations of this unusual member of the trout family in the lower 48 but introduced populations can be found throughout the western United States. Having recently moved to northern Idaho I was eager to connect with these enigmatic fish. I packed my 5 wt Echo glass rod, an assortment of woolly buggers and nymphs, and loaded my kayak for a weekend fishing on Lake Rogers nested in the Salish Mountains southwest of Kalispell.

I arrived at the lake to find a healthy 15 mph south wind ripping across the lake but I launched the kayak anyway and made for the opposite bank hoping to seek shelter from the chilly winds. Along the way I trolled a prospecting wooly bugger. As I neared the shore the glass rod jumped to life as a fat Westslope Cuttie devoured what he thought was his breakfast for the day. I settled into this area working it over with dragonfly nymphs, prince beads, and wooly buggers.

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Over the next several hours I landed in excess of 20 cutties many of them deep bodied and wonderful fighters but could not scratch out a grayling. It was difficult to be disappointed with such constant action but the sun was dipping behind the mountains and the cool autumn breath of the mountains was settling on the lake. I was slowly stripping a black wooly bugger over the edge of a weed line when suddenly the line went taught. I set the hook and the rod loaded as the fish dove into the weeds. As I drew the fish near the kayak, fully expecting another Cutthroat, I caught the flash of massive blue and black checkered dorsal fin of a grayling. I slipped the fish into the net and admired the intricate patterns on its flank and face.

Mission accomplished! I caught several more grayling in the final hour of daylight before I retreated to Kalispell for cold beers and game 7 of the World Series.

I returned to the lake the next morning to glass conditions. There was very little surface feeding but the tell-tale signs of water mounding as fish pursued dragonfly and damselfly nymphs just under the surface could be seen all around me as I paddled to the fishing grounds. I stacked an olive dragonfly nymph under a mini-bugger and slowly stripped it across a weed line when a bulge of water swelled on the surface and moved towards the fly like some evil monster rising from the deep. The line snapped to life and I set the hook as the glass rod flexed its fibrous power before the drag system kicked in. This was no grayling! The fight was glorious on the glass rod and I giggled with delight as I watched the Echo glass rod strain against such a strong fighting fish.

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If ever a fish qualified as a "toad" this would be it. A 20" plus fish that was so deeply bodied one wonders if it did little more than sit in one place and hoover food up all day. The next 10 casts produced 7 more grayling including several large fish in the 14-18" range. A few more cutthroat rounded out the morning and the bite subsided and it was time to head home with another species checked off my life-list. There is still time to pull out that 4 or 5 wt glass rod and make your own adventure chasing "sailfins" in the mountains of Montana.

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