The Arctic grayling is the perfect fly rod quarry. Beautiful, forgiving, and free rising to a fault, this species is a favorite of all who have pursued it. There is only one problem: Grayling in North America are largely restricted to northern latitudes well away from people. It wasn’t always so. Remnant populations of Arctic grayling were once abundant in Lake Huron drainages in Michigan, and the species occupied several watersheds in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, and southern Alberta. Extremely vulnerable to overfishing and habitat degradation, they have been completely eradicated in the east, and greatly reduced in the west. Southern anglers wishing to tangle with a Grayling nowadays must acquire detailed directions to pristine streams in Montana or Yellowstone, or visit one of the artificially-maintained lakes scattered through the Rockies. To truly experience Arctic grayling fishing at its finest, you need to head to northern Alaska, where boreal solitude has preserved vast areas of pristine wilderness. In a land dominated by big pike and monstrous lake trout, the Arctic grayling seems paradoxically dainty. A bronze- or silver-hued fish with large scales and a deeply-forked tail, the grayling’s calling card is its huge, sail-like dorsal fin, commonly tipped in lavender, purple, or red. In large males, this fin commonly extends beyond the adipose, and stands three- to four- inches tall when fully extended. It’s something you’ll never forget, and makes it impossible to mistake an Arctic grayling for anything else. Arctic grayling are extinct in their native range in Michigan, and only a few isolated populations still exist in Montana and the southern Rocky Mountains. The Canadian Arctic and Alaska are the best places in the world to catch these fish.  Almost exclusively insectivores, Arctic grayling are particularly suited to dry- fly fishing. So eager are they to rise to the fly, that even hard-core beer- gutted northern hardware fishermen have been known to set aside the heavy gear when confronted by grayling. In fact, it seems criminal to do anything else.