Arctic Grayling - Alaska fly fishing on Delta Clearwater River

I just returned from my annual work/fishing trip to Alaska. I spent 3 days fly fishing the Delta Clearwater River outside of Delta Junction, AK.  This is a crystal clear, spring fed river in the Alaska Interior about 90 miles south of Fairbanks. The water temperaure is 34 degrees year round.  Silver Salmon make their run to the river at the beginning of October each year as the Delta is their spawning grounds.

The hatches were plentiful and consistent each day. The first set of sailboats started covering the water surface at around 2 pm and then the rises became consistent until dark. The 3-6 pm timeframe was the most exciting for me. The competition with naturals was strong but there were so many grayling. I took a charter boat up river one day with 2 co-workers. I caught fewer fish up river but the size of the catch was much larger. Each grayling up river measured at least 20 inches whereas I only caught one that close when I fished from shore the other 2 days. I don't know the fly species that hatched each day but they were size 16-18 with a light tan color. I used various dry flies such as a royal wulf, mosquito, adams, tan caddis, BWO, march brown, etc... Each of those flies caught fish with the royal wulf probably being the most successful. The last day I found a hand tied, no name fly, that looked identical to the naturals when I dead drifted it. It worked like a charm. I caught probably 8 grayling on the single fly before its condition became so deterioated that it was no longer usable.


All in all, I estimate that I landed 50-60 grayling from 11 inches to 22 inches. I missed atleast 3 times that many. I fished 3 days for a total of about 20 hours. The action was consistent and fun. Pound for pound, grayling are one of the best fighting fish out there and they take dry flies very well. I highly recommend this fish species to any fly angler that visits Alaska. Grayling can be found near most areas in Alaska.

Shore fishing location - Delta Clearwater River

Local Scenery

Fish On!

One of many Grayling