Salmon
Visit each web site for more information on Salmon fishing
charters
Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar)
- Length: 26 inches average
- Weight: 4 -10 lbs.
- Coloring: brown, green or blue on top; silvery on sides, and silvery white below
- Common Names: Kennebec salmon, sebago, sebago salmon, grilse, kelt
- Found in Lakes: Superior, Huron and St. Marys River System
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Wet
Net Sportfishing Charters Lake Michigan 517-223-9365 Ludington, Michigan |
The Atlantic salmon has
been honored throughout history. The Gauls and Romans prized its many qualities,
and Britain's Magna Carta even granted it rights of protection.
Despite its venerable past, this valuable sport and commercial fish has not
readily adapted to the upper Great Lakes, though they were once native to
Lake Ontario. After more than 100 years of trying, Canada and the U.S. have
yet to establish these ocean-going salmon in the fresh waters of any of the
Great Lakes in any numbers.
In recent years, Michigan has planted a new freshwater strain of Atlantic
salmon in Lakes Michigan and Huron. These "Gullspang" Atlantic salmon
come from the freshwater lakes of Sweden, where they have been landlocked
since the Ice Ages. Michigan and Wisconsin have at times experimented with
a strain of Atlantic salmon that spawns in the rivers of Quebec province,
and Minnesota continues to stock this species.
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From these stocking programs, Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes now
have small populations of Atlantic salmon. However, the success in reintroducing
the fish has not been noteworthy, and Michigan is the only state that continues
to stock it. Wisconsin also planted a strain of oceangoing Atlantic salmon
in Lake Superior from stocks that spawned in the rivers of the province of
Quebec. In the 1980s, Minnesota alone continued to plant Atlantic salmon in
the headwater Great Lake, while Michigan today plants these fish only in Lake
Michigan.
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Unlike their Pacific cousins
Atlantic salmon may spawn two or three times during their lives. Self-propagating
stocks have not yet developed. But fisheries scientists still hope that some
experimental strain of Atlantic salmon will be found that has the genetic
makeup to survive and reproduce in the Great Lakes.
The best place to fish for the Atlantic Salmon are in the Rapids of the St.
Mary’s River and the river itself at Sault Ste. Marie during the month
of June. Also near Detour Village at the mouth of the St. Marys River.
As they are more akin to the Steelhead Trout than the Pacific Salmon similar
methods work best with regards to lures and fishing methods.
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Chinook Salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha)
- Length: 20 – 45 inches
- Weight: Up to 35 lbs
- (The U.S. record weight is 97 lbs 4 oz from Alaska.)
- Coloring: iridescent green to blue-green on back; sides below lateral line silvery; silvery to white underside
- Common Names: king salmon, tyee, spring salmon, quinnat
- Found in Lakes: Stocked in Michigan, Huron, and Superior
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Hawg-Tide Fishing Charters Traverse City |
Many chinook salmon end
their days as trophies mounted on tavern and game room walls. In tribute to
their size and character, they are also known as "king salmon."
Chinook were the first Pacific salmon to be transplanted to other parts of
the world, but the only notable success in creating self-sustaining stocks
has been in New Zealand. A key factor in this general failure was that, like
other Pacific salmon, chinook salmon seek the stream of their birth to spawn
and die. They have apparently failed to find the right kind of spawning streams
along Lake Michigan, so continuous stocking is necessary to maintain the chinook
as one of the lake's most prized game fish.
Chinook are generally caught by trolling. But as winter approaches and the
lake becomes colder, they disappear in search of more suitable water temperatures.
Some say they veer south along a route five to 15 miles offshore; others say
that, unlike cohos, they simply move offshore into deeper water.
For several reasons, this salmon species is especially popular with fish management
agencies. They can be released five to six months after hatching and therefore
are cheaper to hatch and stock than cohos, which require 14 to 16 months.
During their four- to five-year lifespan, chinooks feed on large numbers of
alewifes and so put more pressure on the lake's alewife population.
Coho Salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch)
- Length:11 to 26 inches
- Weight:2 to 8 pounds
- Coloring: steel-blue to slightly green on back; bright silver on sides; white underside
- Common Names:coho, silver salmon, sea trout, blueback
- Found in Lakes:Stocked in Michigan, Huron, and Superior
Initial hopes for a revived
Great Lakes sport fishery rode on the sleek muscular back of the coho salmon.
Commonly called "silver salmon," this Pacific import has been planted
in lakes Michigan and Superior annually since 1966 and is now an integral
part of the lake's "put-and-take" sport fishing industry.
Mature cohos gorge themselves on alewives, smelt, and other forage fish. In
Lake Michigan, cohos attain an average weight of five to six pounds but often
top out at 10 pounds or more. In Lake Superior, where forage fish are less
abundant, cohos average only two to four pounds.
Though smaller, coho salmon are spawning successfully in most Lake Superior
tributaries and thus have developed some limited but self-sustaining populations.
There is some concern that this aggressive fish might disrupt the spawning
of other valued species, such as brook, brown and rainbow trout.
Coho salmon ordinarily return in their third year to the streams where they
were planted to spawn and die. They reproduce naturally in many streams on
the eastern side of Lake Michigan, but their general population must be sustained
with hatchery-reared fish. Continual stocking has helped to improve the lake's
predator-prey balance and given satisfaction to thousands of sport fishermen
as well.
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