Try Rogers Lake for rare arctic grayling

Ah, its springtime in the Flathead when a young man’s fancy turns to open water spring fishing, or at least something like that. As we all know, nothing is more enjoyable than being on a lake, in a boat, soaking up some springtime sun and testing your angling skills, trying to bring home some fresh fish for the frying pan.

Northwest Montana provides anglers with a vast array of open water spring fishing opportunities. Should you try for some big perch or salmon from Ashley Lake or some great smallmouth bass fishing on Little Bitterroot Lake or some Northern Pike fishing on Lower Thompson Lake or perch and Kokanee salmon from Lake Mary Ronan? The choices are almost endless.

The Flathead River and the mouth of the river on Flathead Lake are probably not fishable due to high water and muddy water from the snow melt in the high country.

So I’m going to suggest you try a unique fishery. How about fishing for the rare grayling fish, also known as Arctic Grayling, in Rogers Lake? The grayling in Rogers Lake can be fished year-round, but spring fishing is especially good.

Graylings are a beautiful multi-colored fish with some violet sheen on their sides and some red on their tail. Their most distinctive characteristic is their very large dorsal fin which has an array of subtle colors. Grayling are a very pretty fish.

Rogers Lake is a smaller lake, about 237 acres in size. It has a maximum depth of only 20 feet. Rogers Lake is only about 18 miles southwest of Kalispell. This size lake can be easily fished with float tubes, canoes, kayaks and small aluminum boats. It can also be fished with waders. There is a small boat launch site at the northwest corner of the lake. Most of the shoreline is public land, managed by the Montana Department of Natural Resources. There are some recreation user developed lake access sites around the lake. The boat launch sites are not overly developed but suitable for launching smaller boats.

Grayling are a native fish in Montana, but were originally found in only a few streams in southwest Montana, such as the Big Hole River. These small grayling populations are leftover from the last ice age. There is another native grayling population in Red Rock Lake in Southwest Montana. Locally, in Northwest Montana, grayling have been planted in Red Meadow Lake in the North Fork, Sylvia Lake above Little Bitterroot Lake and in Handkerchief Lake in the south fork.

Mature grayling are generally 12-16 inches long and fight like bigger fish. Maximum size is 20 inches and 3 pounds. Rogers Lake grayling are the result of plantings by FWP. The state agency now uses Rogers Lake grayling as a source for fish eggs, for hatchery use. These hatchery graylings are used to stock other streams and lakes in Montana.

The real attraction for spring fishing in Rogers Lake is that most of the grayling are concentrated off the mouth of a small seasonal stream that flows into the southeast corner of the lake. Thousands of grayling stage off the mouth of this small stream during pre and post spawning activity. This is what makes Rogers Lake grayling fish so good in the spring, the fish are concentrated.

This is a good example of the importance of a seasonal stream. It flows only in the spring from snow melt. But it flows long enough to be utilized by the grayling for spawning. It is fascinating to watch thousands of spawning fish jammed in a small stream.

A good fishing strategy is to fish off the mouth of this stream where the fish are concentrated. I’ve caught many fish in an afternoon or evening of fishing. My son likes to fly fish and has landed nearly 50 fish in a couple of hours of fishing. We fish catch and release because grayling have lots of fine bones and are difficult to filet for a nice chuck of boneless meat. Their meat is also soft. This graying sport fishing is in the catching, not eating. Graying are generally easy to catch and will bite on a variety of flies and small lures.

A fly called a bead head black stone fly is a favorite lure if fly fishing. Fly fisherman also use a pheasant tail nymph. You can also catch them with a bobber and worm and on spinning gear with light spoons. An added bonus to the grayling fishing in Rogers Lake is that you may hook into a fat cutthroat trout.

So, if you have a few hours during a spring evening, try a unique fishing trip to Rogers Lake for some grayling.