Trout fishing

Mongolia is a world-class trout-fishing destination.  

The pristine water that holds monster taimen also produces huge numbers of Siberian trout and grayling.  The trout fishing is a wonderful counter-balance to the occasionally arduous taimen fishing.  It’s very common for guests to catch two dozen or more trout on a leisure afternoon of hopper fishing.  Fly-fishing for these native trout is as good or better than any trout fishery in the American West. 

Siberian trout (lenok) are a beautiful fish. They have golden bodies, bright red bands and black spots.  Throughout the fishing season, these native trout feed aggressively on the surface.  They wait along banks and beneath willows to slurp the abundant grasshopper, mayfly and stonefly hatches.  A large Siberian trout will happily destroy a mouse pattern skated across a shallow run or behind a rock.  They will smash bead-heads dropped beneath riffles.  Their behavior reminds many anglers of cutthroat trout, charging up from the depths of crystal clear water to slam petite flies.

This river holds astounding numbers of grayling.  Grayling are the main food source for taimen in this river.  Taimen will often come from nowhere and attack the grayling on the end of your line.  While wading, we often watch dozens of grayling casually sipping small hatches within a few feet of us.  The plentiful grayling are wonderful fun on a light rod.  Amazingly, even the grayling will nail small mouse patterns!

Mongolia has several species of grayling.  Trying to catch them all would require a fly fishing odyssey around Mongolia:  Fish Mongolia for Arctic grayling; Altai Mountains and Eagle Hunters of the west for Mongolian grayling; north to the taiga and home of the Reindeer Herders for the strikingly colored Gold-tailed grayling; to nearly Lake Khovsgol for the endemic Black grayling; and, east to Mongolia River Outfitters for Amur grayling.