Grayling plantings

[PBH]

[quote RyanCreek]I swear if you took a whitefish and gave it a longer dorsal fin and some color you have a grayling. Whitefish and grayling must be closely related. And I agree they look a little like chubs.[/quote]

Take a look at their scientific classifications:

Arctic Grayling
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Salmoniformes
Family: Salmonidae
Subfamily: Thymallinae
Genus: Thymallus
Species: T. Arcticus

Mountain Whitefish
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Salmoniiformes
Family: Salmonidae
Genus: Prosopium
Species: P. Williamsoni

Utah Chub
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Cypriniformes
Family: Cyprinidae
Genus: Gila
Species: G. atraria


Rainbow Trout
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Salmoniformes
Family: Salmonidae
Genus: Oncorhynchus
Species: O. mykiss

Cutthroat Trout (Bonneville)
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Actinopterygii
Order: Salmoniformes
Family: Salmonidae
Genus: Oncorhynchus
Species: O. Clarki


conclusions?

Grayling are about as closely related to whitefish as they are rainbow and cutthroat trout. Grayling, Whitefish, Rainbow and Cutthroat trout are all Salmonids. None of them are very closely related to the Utah chub.

Grayling are a beautiful fish. Much of the consideration to stock these fish in areas like the Boulder Mountains comes from their ability to over-winter in lakes that other trout cannot. You'll notice that many of the lakes are those also contain populations of brook trout. What grayling will (hopefully) do in these lakes is create a more consistant fishery. Those years that the brook trout die off in the winter, hopefully the grayling will not and they can provide anglers the opportunity to continue to catch fish until the brook trout come back.
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