Joe Wright 12/5/19

[troutbiscuits]

Had a great day at Joe Wright. Tried to take some video, but turned out poorly cause my chest mount was broken. Between three of us 26 grayling were caught between 8:30AM to noon. Way more snow than I am used to up there first week of December. I am 6'6 and there are places where I was buried up to my hip.

In addition to that it was snowing hard the whole time. We had about 4-5 inches of fresh snow on the car by the time we got back to it.

Ice is plenty safe by the Dam area at 7-8 inches. But as mentioned above, if you want to catch Grayling don't wait much longer. The snow and ice thickness up there will get crazy deep soon making it not worth it unless you are a glutton for punishment like me.

For me the best thing was a pink tungsten VMC ice fly. 1/32 ounce. Caught a 14 incher on that as well as a few smaller dudes. I also caught one on a gold 1/12 ounce Kastmaster, and another decent one on a Thinfisher Perch colored blade.

Fun time! Glad we went.

[Bigassbassman]

Nice!  Thanks for the report, sounds like a fun day.

Yeah we fished JW in January...snow was kinda deep to say the least.  An the ice was 18" or more.  That's a lot of trouble for some slimers with wings!   

[SLAYERFISH]

Not only a Grayling spot but numbers of them and good size.  Me and a bud fished it jeez gotta be 10 years ago and we caught Grayling bows cuttys and even a 15" tiger musky. Mostly on 1/4 oz. kastys.   Blizzard the entire time Ive never found a reason to go back.

[troutbiscuits]

Nice!  Thanks for the report, sounds like a fun day.

Yeah we fished JW in January...snow was kinda deep to say the least.  An the ice was 18" or more.  That's a lot of trouble for some slimers with wings!   

I usually try to go first week of December and leave it alone for the rest of the year. Typically the snow is not bad, but as you can imagine, from that crazy storm we recently had, it was way more challenging this year.

Personally I love catching Grayling. They are one of my favorite species to look at, and they are highly aggressive early ice. One of the ones I caught yesterday chased my blade all the way up to the hole from 20 feet down and snagged it right by the hole kinda like a mini winged Laker.

[Bigassbassman]

They are very cool fish — beautiful markings and fins. We’re lucky there are places in Colorado to catch em! We do have a good variety of species here.

[SLAYERFISH]

Are they any good? I've never eaten one-

[troutbiscuits]

Are they any good? I've never eaten one-

They taste great, but there is a caveat. For some reason their meat seems to degrade fast. So if I keep them, I cook them the same day I catch them. They don't keep as well as other fish.

[Bigassbassman]

Cool --- supposed to be lighter and flakier than trout, with a unique taste from what I hear. 
Fishslap said he would be smoking up a batch from a few weeks ago, wonder how they turned out. 

[fishslap]

Still haven’t found time but I plan to do a basic brine for whitefish, smoke them whole, then make dip with part of the meat.

[DrCro]

Are they any good? I've never eaten one-

Two fish eating enthusiasts told me they didn't like the taste of Grayling at all.

[Shoe]

They taste great, but there is a caveat. For some reason their meat seems to degrade fast. So if I keep them, I cook them the same day I catch them. They don't keep as well as other fish.

Taste like craaaaaap.  And I cooked some up fresh lake-side at zimm...years ago, when they had them.  It probably depends on personal taste.

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