For those who have fished for salmon in the Great Lakes for a long time, the chinook salmon is likely something you have come face to face with. There’s no doubt that chinook salmon are the “kings” of the Great Lakes. They are by far the biggest and toughest salmonids that live there.
Fin clips are a useful way to find out where Atlantic salmon are stocked, when they were stocked, and who did the stocking. This kind of management strongly suggests that the fish stocked in the St. Mary’s River by the Lake Superior State University are dominating the fish caught in this fishery.
You can fish for silver or coho salmon in the Great Lakes. They are almost as famous as chinook salmon. The coho doesn’t get as big as the chinook, but they fight hard, and many people think they’re the best fish in the Great Lakes for eating.
In the Great Lakes, if you fish for a long time and hard enough, you might also catch the pink salmon, or “humpy” for short. Salmon of this size were accidentally brought into the Great Lakes, and wild populations still do well in some parts of Lake Huron and Lake Superior.
There is however, one more salmon species that very few Great Lakes anglers have ever caught. The Atlantic salmon is the mystery fish of the Great Lakes for a number or reasons. For one, these salmon are rare and only found in catchable numbers in a handful of places.
Second, fisheries biologists have tried to increase the number of Atlantic salmon in the Great Lakes, but it’s hard to raise them in hatcheries and they’re also fragile when you handle and stock them.
This beautiful Atlantic salmon, which weighed just under 15 pounds, was caught in the DeTour Passage while filming an episode of Fishing 411 TV. It was the author’s personal best. The DeTour Light is visible in the background. This small area of the Great Lakes is the best place for an angler to go if they want to catch an Atlantic salmon big enough to hang on the wall.
And even though the Michigan DNR has a lot of resources and experience with salmon stocking, the Atlantic salmon stocking effort in Lake Huron has had at best mixed results. The Michigan DNR stocks roughly 100,000 Atlantic salmon annually into Lake Huron. Every year, the Center for Freshwater Research and Education at Lake Superior State University also puts between 30,000 and 40,000 Atlantic salmon into the St. Mary’s River.
The only place that makes sense for a fisherman who wants to add catching an Atlantic salmon to their “bucket list” of fishing goals is the St. Mary’s River fishery. Even though Atlantic salmon are sometimes caught at Alpena, Oscoda, Port Huron, and Lexington ports, I think the best place to catch one of these unique fish is at a place called the DeTour Passage.
It’s here in the lower St. Mary’s River that Atlantic salmon come and go regularly in the spring, summer and fall of the year. You can’t be sure that you’ll catch an Atlantic salmon if you spend a lot of time trolling spoons on lead core, diving planers, and downriggers, but this is the best place in the Great Lakes to try.
Like just about any other kind of fishing, timing is critical to success. Some of the most consistent fishing starts in mid May and runs through about the middle of July. In the past, June has been the best month, but groups of Atlantic salmon appear out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly, making it very hard to pattern these fish.
I’ve had some great days and some really bad days fishing for Atlantic salmon in the “Passage.” I’ve come to the conclusion that these fish are either here or they aren’t! No amount of fishing experience or time on the water will produce Atlantic salmon when there aren’t enough of them around to give you a good chance of success.
This makes me wonder why the Michigan DNR stocks Atlantic salmon all over Lake Huron in a way called “Johnny Apple Seed.” It looks like the fish stocked by LSSU are the ones that are caught most often in the St. Clair River. Mary’s River.
If more DNR fish were stocked in the St. Mary’s River, it makes sense that this could become a famous “destination” fishery for people who want to catch Atlantic salmon.
Indeed, managing fisheries is a tricky subject, and I’m sure the good people of Alpena, Lexington, and Oscoda would not agree with my idea. This fisherman thinks that there are so few Atlantic salmon in Lake Huron that the return on investment is at best very low.
The Atlantic salmon is a bucket list fish for many anglers. Bryan Darland of Jay’s Sporting Goods recently caught this unique fish near DeTour Passage.
Because Atlantic salmon thrive in flowing water and the St. Since the Mary’s River system is the best place in the Great Lakes for this species to live, it makes sense to focus on making a fishery where the fish have the best chance of surviving.
That being said, if you’re an angler who really wants to catch an Atlantic salmon, you should keep the DeTour Passage in mind. Based on my own experience, I can say that these fish are more useful than many other fisheries management efforts. As they say variety is the spice of life and the Atlantic salmon is variety super charged.
One of the most loved fish in the Great Lakes’ large freshwater ecosystem is the salmon. Salmon have become a famous symbol of Great Lakes wildlife. They have gone from being a valuable commercial fishery to a popular game fish that draws anglers from all over the country. However, salmon were not always a fixture of these interconnected lakes. The story of how salmon got into the Great Lakes is actually a very interesting case study in how to deal with invasive species and the unpredictable effects of human action.
The Native Species of the Great Lakes
To understand the role of salmon we must first look at the native fish that historically populated the Great Lakes. Species like lake trout yellow perch, walleye, lake whitefish and ciscoes evolved to thrive in this habitat over thousands of years. They filled niches as both predator and prey, stabilizing the food web. Many native peoples also relied on fishing these species for sustenance.
Overfishing, pollution, and invasive species, on the other hand, wiped out native fish populations in the late 1800s. Unchecked commercial fishing operations severely depleted stocks of lake trout and whitefish. Logging practices muddied waters, destroying spawning grounds. And parasitic sea lampreys invaded through man-made shipping canals, preying on native fish.
This created an imbalance in the ecosystem and opened the door for invasive species to take over.
The Rise of Alewives
One opportunistic invader was the alewife a small forage fish native to the Atlantic Ocean. Alewives likely found their way into the Great Lakes via canals or ballast water from ocean-going ships. They were first reported in Lake Ontario in the 1870s.
Lacking natural predators, alewives experienced a massive population boom by the 1950s. Schools of alewives swarmed the lakes by the billions. Although a plentiful food source for some game fish eventually their numbers became an ecological nuisance.
Decaying alewife corpses washed up on beaches in massive die-offs. The foul stench deterred tourism. Rotting alewife carcasses were also suspected of contributing to a deadly avian botulism outbreak in the 1960s that affected waterbirds like loons and grebes.
Clearly, alewives had to be controlled. But how?
Introducing Pacific Salmon
In response to the alewife problem, the state of Michigan decided to fight one invasive species with another. Their solution? Introducing Pacific salmon.
Salmon are anadromous fish, meaning they hatch in freshwater, migrate to the ocean to feed and grow, and return to freshwater to spawn. Five species of Pacific salmon including chinook, coho, pink, sockeye and chum salmon are native to the northern Pacific Ocean and rivers that feed into it.
Pacific salmon had been intentionally introduced in the Great Lakes once before in the late 1800s, but that initial stocking was unsuccessful. However, employing improved fish culture techniques, Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) resumed salmon stocking in 1966, focusing on chinook and coho.
Hatchery-raised juvenile salmon were released into Great Lakes tributaries. As hoped, the voracious salmon thrived in their new habitat, feeding heavily on alewives. Salmon grew large quickly on the plentiful alewife buffet. And anglers were delighted to reel in “king” salmon reaching over 20 pounds.
Maintaining Balance
Within a decade, Michigan’s salmon introduction was deemed a success. Alewives were kept in check as forage for the prolific predators. Sport fishing was resuscitated, giving a welcome economic boost to struggling coastal towns. The salmon naturally reproduced to supplement hatchery stocking programs.
However, ecosystem management is an ongoing balancing act. Over time, alewife numbers started to decline too much, and salmon were at risk of undermining their own food source. In response, aggressive salmon stocking has been scaled back over the past decade to prevent a total alewife collapse.
Still, salmon have become deeply entrenched in the Great Lakes after more than 50 years. They now fill an ecological role once occupied by native lake trout and other depleted species. Removing salmon entirely could bring its own unforeseen problems.
Continued monitoring of predator-prey ratios is critical to promote balance. Other management strategies like pen-rearing salmon on alewife diets and adjusting stocking levels and locations can also strengthen the fishery.
The Future of Salmon in the Great Lakes
The presence of non-native salmon in the Great Lakes leaves many questions for the future. Should native species restoration take priority over salmon maintenance? What other unintended impacts could salmon cause? Can native lake trout coexist with salmon or compete for limited resources?
These complex ecosystem interactions don’t have simple solutions. While salmon may not be here “naturally”, the reality is they now provide important ecological services as well as social and economic benefits to the region. With careful management guided by science, salmon can continue sustaining vibrant Great Lakes fisheries while also integrating with native species recovery efforts.
Over 150 years ago, human activity severely damaged the natural order of the lakes. Salmon turned out to be an imperfect but pragmatic fix that helped the ecosystem start healing. Learning to thoughtfully manage salmon moving forward, rather than attempting to recreate an elusive pre-colonial past, could be the wisest path forward for the Great Lakes.
This week’s Feature Blog
by: Mark Romanack
For those who have fished for salmon in the Great Lakes for a long time, the chinook salmon is likely something you have come face to face with. There’s no doubt that chinook salmon are the “kings” of the Great Lakes. They are by far the biggest and toughest salmonids that live there.
Fin clips are a useful way to find out where Atlantic salmon are stocked, when they were stocked, and who did the stocking. This kind of management strongly suggests that the fish stocked in the St. Mary’s River by the Lake Superior State University are dominating the fish caught in this fishery.
You can fish for silver or coho salmon in the Great Lakes. They are almost as famous as chinook salmon. The coho doesn’t get as big as the chinook, but they fight hard, and many people think they’re the best fish in the Great Lakes for eating.
In the Great Lakes, if you fish for a long time and hard enough, you might also catch the pink salmon, or “humpy” for short. Salmon of this size were accidentally brought into the Great Lakes, and wild populations still do well in some parts of Lake Huron and Lake Superior.
There is however, one more salmon species that very few Great Lakes anglers have ever caught. The Atlantic salmon is the mystery fish of the Great Lakes for a number or reasons. For one, these salmon are rare and only found in catchable numbers in a handful of places.
Second, fisheries biologists have tried to increase the number of Atlantic salmon in the Great Lakes, but it’s hard to raise them in hatcheries and they’re also fragile when you handle and stock them.
This beautiful Atlantic salmon, which weighed just under 15 pounds, was caught in the DeTour Passage while filming an episode of Fishing 411 TV. It was the author’s personal best. The DeTour Light is visible in the background. This small area of the Great Lakes is the best place for an angler to go if they want to catch an Atlantic salmon big enough to hang on the wall.
And even though the Michigan DNR has a lot of resources and experience with salmon stocking, the Atlantic salmon stocking effort in Lake Huron has had at best mixed results. The Michigan DNR stocks roughly 100,000 Atlantic salmon annually into Lake Huron. Every year, the Center for Freshwater Research and Education at Lake Superior State University also puts between 30,000 and 40,000 Atlantic salmon into the St. Mary’s River.
The only place that makes sense for a fisherman who wants to add catching an Atlantic salmon to their “bucket list” of fishing goals is the St. Mary’s River fishery. Even though Atlantic salmon are sometimes caught at Alpena, Oscoda, Port Huron, and Lexington ports, I think the best place to catch one of these unique fish is at a place called the DeTour Passage.
It’s here in the lower St. Mary’s River that Atlantic salmon come and go regularly in the spring, summer and fall of the year. You can’t be sure that you’ll catch an Atlantic salmon if you spend a lot of time trolling spoons on lead core, diving planers, and downriggers, but this is the best place in the Great Lakes to try.
Like just about any other kind of fishing, timing is critical to success. Some of the most consistent fishing starts in mid May and runs through about the middle of July. In the past, June has been the best month, but groups of Atlantic salmon appear out of nowhere and disappear just as quickly, making it very hard to pattern these fish.
I’ve had some great days and some really bad days fishing for Atlantic salmon in the “Passage.” I’ve come to the conclusion that these fish are either here or they aren’t! No amount of fishing experience or time on the water will produce Atlantic salmon when there aren’t enough of them around to give you a good chance of success.
This makes me wonder why the Michigan DNR stocks Atlantic salmon all over Lake Huron in a way called “Johnny Apple Seed.” It looks like the fish stocked by LSSU are the ones that are caught most often in the St. Clair River. Mary’s River.
If more DNR fish were stocked in the St. Mary’s River, it makes sense that this could become a famous “destination” fishery for people who want to catch Atlantic salmon.
Indeed, managing fisheries is a tricky subject, and I’m sure the good people of Alpena, Lexington, and Oscoda would not agree with my idea. This fisherman thinks that there are so few Atlantic salmon in Lake Huron that the return on investment is at best very low.
The Atlantic salmon is a bucket list fish for many anglers. Bryan Darland of Jay’s Sporting Goods recently caught this unique fish near DeTour Passage.
Because Atlantic salmon thrive in flowing water and the St. Since the Mary’s River system is the best place in the Great Lakes for this species to live, it makes sense to focus on making a fishery where the fish have the best chance of surviving.
That being said, if you’re an angler who really wants to catch an Atlantic salmon, you should keep the DeTour Passage in mind. Based on my own experience, I can say that these fish are more useful than many other fisheries management efforts. As they say variety is the spice of life and the Atlantic salmon is variety super charged.
Atlantic salmon, the only native Great Lakes salmon being studied at Western
FAQ
How did salmon get in Great Lakes?
Are salmon native to Lake Superior?
Who brought salmon to Michigan?
Are King Salmon native to Great Lakes?
Why was Salmon introduced to the Great Lakes?
The state introduced salmon as a way to curb an explosion of alewife, an invasive species of herring that probably was introduced to the Great Lakes in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. On that point, the salmon appear to have been wildly successful.
Are there salmon in the Great Lakes?
Great lakes salmon have been a staple of Michigan sport and recreational fishing for over 50 years. Originally introduced by the state’s Department of Natural Resources to curb the problem of an exploding alewife population, salmon have lived comfortably in the Great Lakes ever since the early 1970s.
Who is known as the father of the Great Lakes salmon fishery?
Howard is known as “The Father of the Great Lakes salmon fishery.” In 1966, commercial overfishing and invasive sea lampreys and alewives had decimated the trout population. As the then fisheries chief for the Department of Conservation, Tanner introduced Coho salmon to the Great Lakes. The following year salmon fishing season was born.
Are salmon in the Great Lakes in a state of flux?
Originally introduced by the state’s Department of Natural Resources to curb the problem of an exploding alewife population, salmon have lived comfortably in the Great Lakes ever since the early 1970s. But that level of comfort now appears to be in a state of flux, and decreasing salmon stocks could mean the state needs other options.