Arctic Grayling Stocking: Montana's Rare Native Fish vs. Utah's Alpine Sport Fishery

Montana's upper Big Hole River holds the last native, river-dwelling Arctic grayling population left in the Lower 48 states — a genuinely rare fish, not a stocking-truck staple. Montana has still recorded 1,286 grayling stocking events across 213 waters, mostly supplemental lake plantings separate from that wild river population; Utah's much smaller program stocks grayling purely as an introduced alpine sport fish.

Key takeaways

• Montana's upper Big Hole River is the only place in the Lower 48 with a native, river-dwelling (fluvial) Arctic grayling population — Michigan's native population is extinct.
• Montana has recorded 1,286 grayling stocking events across 213 waters, totaling over 142.6 million fish — mostly lake stocking, separate from the protected wild river population.
• Utah has recorded 789 grayling events across 120 waters, totaling about 1.46 million fish, entirely as an introduced species with no native Utah population.
• Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks manages Big Hole grayling under a formal conservation agreement (a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances), not as a typical sport-stocking program.

A genuinely rare native fish

Arctic grayling historically ranged through Montana's upper Missouri River drainage down to Great Falls. Only two native populations ever existed in the Lower 48 — Michigan and Montana — and Michigan's is now extinct, which leaves the fluvial (river-dwelling) population in Montana's upper Big Hole River as, in Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' own words, "the last remnants of this native Fish of Special Concern." That population has been managed under active conservation agreements for decades because of how narrow its range has become.

See Montana FWP's own arctic grayling program page for the conservation history: fwp.mt.gov/conservation/fisheries-management/arctic-grayling.

Montana's stocking numbers: mostly lakes, not the Big Hole

Outside the protected Big Hole population, Montana has recorded 1,286 grayling stocking events across 213 waters, totaling over 142.6 million fish. This is a separate, much larger program from the wild river population — it's overwhelmingly lake stocking, giving anglers a way to catch grayling (a fish most will never legally keep from the Big Hole's wild population) in alpine and mountain lakes across the state.

See the full Montana Arctic grayling stocking records and the Montana state hub for water-by-water detail.

Utah's grayling: an introduced alpine sport fish

Utah has recorded 789 grayling stocking events across 120 waters, totaling about 1.46 million fish — a smaller program with a completely different purpose than Montana's. Arctic grayling aren't native to Utah at all; the state's Division of Wildlife Resources stocks them purely to diversify high-elevation lake fisheries, often in the same remote alpine lakes reached by aerial stocking rather than road access.

See the Utah Arctic grayling stocking records for details, and our guide to how aerial fish stocking works for how fish like these reach roadless lakes.

Native conservation vs. introduced sport fishery: why it matters

The distinction between Montana's and Utah's programs isn't just trivia — it changes how anglers should treat the fish. Montana's wild Big Hole grayling are a protected population under active conservation management, with harvest rules built around recovery, not yield. Montana's stocked lake grayling and Utah's entire program are managed as recreational fisheries, stocked specifically to be caught, with none of the same conservation stakes.