The first mention of the grayling and grayling fishing in America was that of Sir John Richardson, in the narrative of the Franklin Expedition to the North Pole, in 1819. Dr. Richardson called it "Bach's Grayling" in honor of a fellow officer, a midshipman of that name, who took the first one on the fly. He gave it the technical specific name of signifer, meaning "standard bearer," in allusion to its tall and brilliant dorsal fin.
Regarding the gameness of the grayling, Dr. Richardson says: "This beautiful fish inhabits strong rapids…. It bites eagerly at the artificial fly and, deriving great power from its large dorsal fin, affords much sport to the angler. The grayling generally springs entirely out of the water when first struck by the hook, and tugs strongly at the line, requiring as much dexterity to land it safely as it would to secure a trout of six times the size."
The Michigan Grayling
The Michigan grayling, in early days, was known to lumbermen and trappers as "Michigan trout," "white trout," "Crawford County trout," etc. It was first described by Dr. Edward D. Cope, in 1865, who gave it the specific name of tri-color, in allusion to the gay coloration of the dorsal fin. Until recent years it was abundant in streams of the lower peninsula of Michigan rising from an elevated sandy plateau and flowing into Lakes Huron and Michigan and the Strait of Mackinac. In a few streams flowing into Pine Lake and Lake Michigan, as Pine, Boyne, Jordan, etc., it co-existed with the brook trout, but farther south, especially in the Manistee and the Au Sable rivers and their tributaries, the grayling alone existed. In the upper peninsula it also existed in Otter Creek, near Keweenaw.
U. S. Bureau of Fisheries.
Michigan Grayling. (Thymallus tricolor.)
The Montana Grayling
The Montana grayling, though mentioned by Lewis and Clark from the Jefferson River (to which fact I have recently called attention), was not recognized until seventy years later, when Professor J. W. Milner discovered and named it montanus, in 1872. So now we have the three species, Thymallus signifer, Thymallus tri-color, and Thymallus montanus. The generic name Thymallus is a very ancient one, and was bestowed originally because an odor of thyme was said by the Greeks to emanate from a freshly caught grayling. In our day the odor of thyme is not apparent, though when just out of the water it diffuses a faint and pleasant odor not unlike that from a freshly cut cucumber.
Morphology of the Graylings