Voices from the Past: The Michigan Grayling (1909)

I was having a discussion with a Cleveland collector today when the subject turned to the Blue Pike, the legendary Lake Erie fish that went extinct in the 1950s. The subject turned to the Michigan Grayling and whether deforestation impacted the decline in this once great fish. It reminded me of an article I had transcribed some time before from the 1909 Field & Stream magazine (for earlier articles on the Michigan Grayling Click Here and Click Here). Many people felt that by the turn of the century, the Grayling was still common in Michigan waters. This article seeks to prove this a fallacy. H.H. Ink rebukes Louis Rhead. It's as good an article on the rapidly declining state of the grayling as I've found.

MICHIGAN GRAYLING In one of his articles last summer Louis Rhead says that grayling are plentiful in the Au Sable, Manistee and other large Michigan streams, and I presume he will be glad to have me correct any wrong impression given. Last season I was trout fishing a number of times on the North Branch of the Au Sable, and became acquainted with quite a few local and non-resident fishermen who knew the fly fishing waters of lower Michigan. I talked with them particularly regarding grayling fishing, and their accounts seemed all to agree—to the effect that grayling in the Au Sable are extinct. It has been several years since the last one was caught in that stream, and it is a rare occurrence for a grayling to be caught in the Manistee, at least in the upper portion where they used to be numerous. It would seem there are still a few grayling caught in the Black, Pigeon and Sturgeon Rivers, but if my information is correct, they are far from being numerous.

I had quite a talk with Mr. Douglass of Lovells, on the north branch of the Au Sable, who is a fly-fisherman and an old resident. He told me that fifteen to eighteen years ago there were even more grayling in the Au Sable than there are now trout, and I can affirm to the fact that the north branch is literally alive with the "speckled beauties," with many rainbows and a scattering few brown trout. Mr. Douglass says that it is more than three years since he has even heard of a grayling being caught in that stream. It is generally believed that the "logging" of this river caused the disappearance of the grayling, but he expressed the positive belief that the introduction of trout some fifteen years ago was even more the cause of their extinction than all the logging that was ever done on the stream, and he seemed to base the belief on wide personal experience and observation. If Mr. Douglass' ideas in this particular are not correct, and if grayling can be propagated successfully in the same waters with trout, the North Branch of the Au Sable might well be again stocked with grayling, as it is surely one stream among a thousand in every way. It is exclusively springfed with an extremely steady volume of swiftly running water, always clear. It has a bed of sand and small and moderate-sized gravel, with unlimited fish food, and is a stream which is just right for wading with hip-boots. The trout are ever on the rise in numbers to more than satisfy any reasonable sportsman.

On my last trip to this river in August, I became acquainted with a Mr. Dudd, superintendent of a large saw-mill at Johannesburg, Mich., meeting him on the stream. He has fished those waters for many years and was well acquainted with conditions during the active logging period. He seemed to think that the logging had a great deal to do with the disappearance of the grayling, and especially so from the fact that jams frequently occurred in the numerous bends of the stream, and dynamite was often used to start the logs moving, with the result that thousands of fish in the pool where the jam occurred were killed. I take it for granted that the running of the logs was carried on during the spawning season. Regarding the matter of grayling being very scarce in Michigan, Mr. Dudd spoke with special interest of the fact that last July he had located and caught over a dozen grayling in a pool in the Black River. He said this was a great surprise to him, as it is a very unusual occurrence in recent years.

About a year ago the Au Sable Trout and Game Club, of which I am a member, was formed. Within its property on the North Branch, situated just below Dam 4, is what is probably a mile of the best water on the whole stream. This club has a membership limited to twenty-five, and is in a flourishing condition, its members being practically all active. A new bungalow is being built on the property, which will give added accommodations during the coming season.

Canton, Ohio. H. H. Ink.

-- Dr. Todd

Voices from the Past: The Michigan Grayling, Part II

The Michigan Grayling, profiled in last weeks Voices from the Past, was once a common fish but soon found itself imperiled both by overfishing, destruction of natural habitat, and the introduction of invasive species. The last known Michigan Grayling to be caught was in 1935, leading the Ironwood Daily Globe to print its obituary four years later.

Epitaph of Michigan’s Grayling to be Written

As the closing of the 1939 fishing season brings to four years the period in which no authentic report has been made of a catch of Michigan grayling the writing of the epitaph of this almost legendary fish of early Michigan needs to be postponed no longer.

Last known catch of this “trout of the pines” was made in Otter River near Houghton though the grayling was properly the trout of lower Michigan as the brook trout was the trout of the Upper Peninsula. A gamey fish though it had a delicate mouth, graceful in motion, beautiful in its markings and when alive in its iridescent coloring particularly of the long wavy dorsal fin, the fish achieved a fame that brought anglers from far and wide to Michigan.

When lumbering began there are records of grayling being taken from the streams at dams by the wagon load. They disappeared with the timber. By 1880 they were gone from the Jordan and Boyne rivers. By the turn of the century their decline was well underway. Now they have a place with the passenger pigeon.

What caused extinction of the grayling is still something of a mystery. Destruction of the forest may have changed the nature of their streams too greatly. Log drives coincided with the spawning season and did much damage. Introduction of brook trout may have hastened the end though in England the two species live in the same waters. Overfishing had its influence. Because grayling took the hook readily, to the last fish in a pool, the species is considered unsuited to present day fishing pressure.

A few Montana grayling, a closely related fish if not the same species as some believe, are still planted in Michigan waters by the fish division of the Michigan department of conservation for experimental and sentimental reasons. Planting of about 20,000 were made in 1934, 1935 and 1937. There are now 60,000 fingerlings at Wolf Lake hatchery, hatched from eggs furnished by the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries, which will be planted in the spring of 1940.

-- Dr. Todd

Voices from the Past: The Michigan Grayling, Part I

Over the next couple of weeks I want to concentrate on one of the sad stories in American fishing history: the death of the Michigan Grayling. A gorgeous fish who was once plentiful in Michigan, it went extinct by 1935. It is a sad tale with much to teach us about fish conservation. We will begin with an article from the 1904 Fort Wayne News describing its qualities as a gamefish.

Michigan Grayling: A Beautiful Fish


One of the handsomest game fishes in. American waters is the "grayling,” found more or less plentifully in Michigan. Formerly it was abundant in the Au Sable, Manntee, Marquette, Jordan, Pigeon and other rivers on the northern part of the southern peninsular. The grayling is purple gray with silvery reflections, darker on the back, the underside white; the sides of the head are of a bright bluish and bronze luster and the sides of the body are covered with, small, black, irregular dots.

At times the Detroit River, St. Clair flats and even Lake Michigan furnish good grayling fishing. Equipped with trout flies, a light rod and tackle, an enthusiastic angler is assured of sport when the grayling are rising. Unlike the trout, the grayling seldom misses the fly. At times it will rise many times to the lure but refuse to take it, and then suddenly dash for the fly like lightning and start off with it.

While the trout generally lies in pools, under banks or rocks, the grayling will be found in running water or at the bottom of deep pools, entirely in the open.

In casting for grayling, the fly should be dropped below the ripple, not above or in it as for trout Grayling will be found in schools generally, another untrout like habit.

The Montana grayling differs in appearance from the Michigan grayling, but is just as game a fish and will be found in the tributaries of the Missouri above Great Falls, in Sheep and Tenderfoot creeks, tributary of Smith river, in the Little Belt mountains, the Gallatin, Madison, Jefferson rivers and the tributaries of Red Rock Lake.

-- Dr. Todd