In the world of sport fishing rarely are modest stocking efforts a success. Generally speaking the most successful stocked fisheries are programs that involve significant plants over long periods of time.
The lower St. Mary’s River produces one of the most consistent fisheries for Atlantic salmon in the Great Lakes. The months of June and July are prime time to target these fish in the DeTour Passage. Jake Romanack caught this exceptional Atlantic while the Fishing 411 TV crew was pre-fishing for the show they eventually shot a couple days later.
The Atlantic salmon stocking program in the St. Mary’s River has been an ongoing effort for many years, but the number of salmon stocked is modest compared to other planting efforts in the Great Lakes.
Apparently sometimes less is more because the St. Mary’s River is currently enjoying arguably the best Atlantic salmon fishery found anywhere in the Great Lakes. A program headed up by Roger Greil who is the manager of the Lake Superior State University Aquatic Research Laboratory is actually a hands-on project for fisheries and wildlife management students attending LSSU.
While this program only rears and stocks about 25,000 to 30,000 Atlantic salmon annually, the number of these fish that survive and run the river as adults is impressive. Quietly a river fishery has taken root that enables anglers to target these Atlantic salmon from June into November.
The Aquatic Research Lab is gaining funding based on their success and may soon be capable of producing more Atlantic salmon.
ATLANTIC SALMON BIOLOGY
Similar to coho salmon, steelhead and brown trout it takes 18 months to raise Atlantic salmon to a size that enables these fish to survive and also thrive in the wild. Once released these fish are free to roam the Great Lakes, but the majority of the LSSU Atlantic salmon seem to favor the northern portions of Lake Huron.
Thanks to very specific fin clipping effort conducted by LSSU, biologists can later determine what hatchery a fish came from, how old the fish is and also where it was stocked. It takes about three years for Atlantic salmon to reach maturity similar to other salmon species, but Atlantic salmon are unique in that they do not die after spawning. Healthy fish can spawn two or three times during their five to eight year life span.
Atlantic salmon are also unique in that their diet is much more diverse compared to their cousin the Chinook salmon. The Atlantic thrives on a host of available forages and is adaptive enough to seek out and capitalize on whatever forage is currently or locally available.
This explains how Atlantic salmon can thrive in Lake Huron even without access to critical salmon forage species like alewife. Instead the Atlantic salmon thrives on a mixture of forage types including smelt, emerald shiners, spottail shiners, round gobie, gizzard shad plus a heaping helping of aquatic insects and also crustaceans.
While the Atlantic is clearly a salmon, it is actually more closely related to the brown trout. In fact, Atlantic salmon are often mistaken for brown trout because the two species share some similar physical features.
ADDITIONAL STOCKING EFFORTS
The Michigan DNR also raises Atlantic salmon at the Platte River Hatchery and releases them at points all across Lake Huron. About 100,000 Atlantic salmon are released annually and they can be identified by an adipose fin clip. Anglers are encouraged to cut off the head of Atlantic salmon with an adipose fin clip and turn the heads into the Michigan DNR. These fish contain a coded metal tag that is imbedded into their snout that contains invaluable biological data.
The author’s personal best Atlantic salmon to date. This fish was just a tick under 15 pounds and was taken on a Wolverine Tackle Streak spoon fished on three colors of lead core line and presented with an Off Shore Tackle Side-Planer board.
Salmon released by LSSU can be identified by pectoral and pelvic fin clips that identify them as LSSU fish and also the year they were stocked. Fish with a left pectoral fin clip were released in 2017, fish with a right pelvic clip were released in 2016, fish with a right pectoral clip were released in 2015, fish with a left pelvic clip were released in 2014 and fish with a left pectoral clip are from hatchery releases in 2013.
This unique and collective tracking system makes it possible to identify year classes and judge the overall health and growth rate of the fish. It’s this intensive study that has allowed the students of LSSU to determine strains of Atlantic salmon that do exceptionally well in the Upper Great Lakes system.
THE FISHERY
Atlantic salmon can and do turn up as incidental catches all across Lake Huron from Lexington on the south to Alpena and Rogers City in the north. Because Atlantic salmon are a pelagic species they travel anywhere their hearts and minds choose.
What makes the Lake Superior State University fish so special is that they seem to find the St. Mary’s River especially attractive. It’s no secret that Atlantic salmon like flowing water. This species is in fact native to the Great Lakes, entering through the St. Lawrence River.
The lower St. Mary’s River near the village of DeTour, Michigan is one of the predictable places adult salmon show up in catchable numbers. A natural choke point formed between the eastern tip of the Upper Peninsula and Drummond Island concentrates fish and sets the stage for some exceptional open water trolling action.
In June of 2018 the Fishing 411 TV crew visited the lower St. Mary’s River for several days specifically to target Atlantic salmon. At times the fishing was red hot and at others it seemed like catching an Atlantic salmon was a pipe dream.
“What we quickly learned about Atlantic salmon is that when they want to bite, they are easy to catch,” explains Jake Romanack of Fishing 411. “However, when the bite is over it’s like a switch is flicked off and Atlantic salmon go lock jaw sometimes for days at a time.”
Like other salmon the best bite for the Atlantic often occurs early and late in the day. “During our pre-fishing efforts, we were catching two or three Atlantic salmon in the morning and another two or three in the evening each day,” recalls Romanack. “Figuring we had them wired, we brought in our filming crew and promptly went a day and a half without a single bite!”
Fortunately for the Fishing 411 crew on the last day of their adventure the Atlantic salmon fired up and fishing went from lousy to absolutely exceptional. “Not only did these fish go on a feeding binge, we caught several Atlantic salmon over 10 pounds and one approaching 15 pounds,” adds Romanack. “The average Atlantic salmon is six to eight pounds, so fish in the double digit size are considered pretty rare.”
TROLLING SET UPS
Atlantic salmon can turn up anywhere in the water column, but for the most part they prefer to hunt near the surface. The vast majority of our fish came in the top 40 feet of the water column and many in the top 20 feet.
“During our June visit the surface water temperatures were nearly ideal ranging from the high 40’s to the low 50 degree range,” says Romanack. “We targeted these fish using medium-sized spoons fished on 3, 5, 7 and 10 colors of 27-pound test lead core line. We also caught fish on Slide-Divers and downriggers set to fish the top 40 feet. The Wolverine Tackle Mini Streak proved to be our most productive spoon, but a few fish were also caught on standard size Streaks.”
Specific fin clips help biologist track the movements of Atlantic salmon stocked by both the Michigan DNR and by Lake Superior State University’s Aquatic Research Laboratory. This fish has a pectoral fin clip indicating it came from LSSU. By checking with charts posted at local launch sites and fish cleaning facilities, anglers can determine the year a particular fish was stocked on.
The most productive colors featured spoons with lots of orange. The Orange Crush, Orange Chilly Willy and Jerry Lee were consistently good colors. Local anglers encouraged us to also fish stickbaits and wobbling plugs, but on this particular trip every one of our fish was taken on a spoon trolled 2.2 to 2.5 MPH.
The segmented lead core lines were set using Off Shore Tackle Side-Planer boards to spread out lines and cover more water. Lead core, divers and downriggers all produced fish, but not surprisingly the lead core rigs fired more often than diver or downrigger lines. The biggest fish of the trip, an Atlantic just a tick under 15 pounds, hit a Streak spoon fished on three colors of lead core and an Off Shore board.
SUPPORT STAFF
On this adventure our friends Rob and Tara Goedike helped us get on fish fast and also to better understand what it takes to catch Atlantic salmon consistently. Rob and Tara have targeted these fish every spring for the past few years and their insights helped us zero in on the best presentations quickly.
Charter captain Jim Chamberlin who operates Fish With Jim Outfitters targets Atlantic salmon out of Drummond Island during the last couple weeks of June and the first couple weeks of July. Captain Jim has these fish wired as well as anyone, producing Atlantic salmon and bonus lake trout and kings literally every day during this time period.
DNR VS LSSU FISH
It’s interesting to note that while the Michigan DNR stocks about three times as many Atlantic salmon as Lake Superior State University, during our trip only a couple Michigan DNR fish were caught. Almost all the fish that came to net were pelvic or pectoral fin clipped indicating they were LSSU fish.
The Michigan DNR fish are stocked further south and early in the year. It’s likely those fish simply have not make their way to the northern reaches of Lake Huron. During our trip in mid June, charter captain and fishing buddy Ed Retherford from Trout Scout Charters who fishes out of Alpena was catching two or three Atlantic salmon daily. Most of Ed’s fish were DNR stocked Atlantic salmon.
“The Atlantic salmon program has yielded more and more fish every year,” says Captain Retherford. “During spring and summer we enjoy a mixed bag made up mostly of lake trout with steelhead, kings and of course Atlantic salmon show-ing up in the catch almost every day.”
IF YOU GO
The Atlantic salmon fishery at DeTour and Drummond Island is tailor made for anglers with trailerable boats. Some of the best water is located from the DNR Public Access site in DeTour to the lighthouse at the mouth of the St. Mary’s River. While this stretch of the St. Mary’s can get pretty rough when the wind comes hard from the south or south east, prevailing winds make this water fishable most days in June and July.
1 comment
I have always been intrigued by Atlantic Salmon as a species, but always thought that fishing for them was out of reach. Having to book a trip to the Restigouche or a similar location wasn’t in the budget. This article was so informative that I am seriously considering making the journey to Lake Huron to pursue these unique fish. Thank you for the great information and technical facts and figures about the fishery. Look forward to more articles from this author.