On June 20, Wade Jensen and his parents Hayes and Chandra parked at an Idaho mountain trail head and headed up to Fishpole Lake. The air-clear water lake is located in Idaho’s Custer County and is part of the Salmon-Challis National Forest.
It’s a noted spot for harboring arctic grayling, the little gamefish known as the “sailfish of the north” for its distinctive tall and wispy dorsal fin.
Catching Sight of the Target
Fishpole Lake is a tiny one, only seven acres in size. But the 2.5-mile hike up to it — at over 9,250 feet in elevation — isn’t meant for the weak-kneed.
“We got there in late morning and fished for an hour without much luck,” Jensen, 21, told Wired2fish. “We kept working around the lake while fishing and I finally climbed up on a rock to look around. I saw several grayling cruising near the bank, and I cast to them.”
He used a nine-foot, four-piece, #4 weight pack fly rod and sent a small, weighted bead-head nymph fly to the fish. And the fish took his nymph.
Waiting for the Right One
After a short fight, Wade netted a 15.5-inch grayling and released it.
“We went to Fishpole trying to catch an Idaho record grayling,” said Jensen, a resident of Moore, Idaho. “I needed one longer than the 16.2-inch existing record fish caught in 2020.”
Jensen had fished Fishpole Lake previously and knew some grayling lived there that were big enough for a new state record. He kept moving around the lake, finally climbing up again on a rocky high spot to look for fish.
There, he saw three big grayling swimming near shore, and made a roll cast with his nymph fly in front of one of them. He striped the fly toward the grayling, speeding his retrieve to hopefully trigger a strike — and it worked. The fish took the nymph; after a good fight near shore, Jensen eased the fish close and netted it.
Patience Pays Off
Using a ruler he’d packed in with him, Jensen measured the grayling: 16.7 inches. He quickly took photos of the fish and, with his parents watching, released it unscathed.
After catching his grayling, he showed his mother how to roll cast to cruising fish, and she caught grayling on flies, too.
“My mom loves fishing, and she holds the state record for catch-and-release tiger trout measuring 26 inches caught in 2023,” said Jensen, a Bringham Young University sophomore studying fisheries management.
When the anglers got home from Fishpole Lake, Wade went on the Idaho Fish and Game website, filled out all the necessary applications for his grayling catch, and submitted it. His fish has recently been verified by the state agency as Idaho’s new catch-and-release arctic grayling record-holder.
“I think there may be other grayling in the lake that may be bigger than my fish,” he said. “The one I released after a full growing season in the lake may be better later this summer or next.”
