Enough can’t be said about the amazing Atlantic salmon success story in Michigan. The beginnings’ took place in the 1970’s with Lake Superior State University bringing Penobscot Atlantic salmon from Maine- and the rest is history of epic proportions! The St. Mary’s River Aquatic Lab in Sault Ste Marie brought Atlantic salmon to Lake Huron and Torch Lakes- and now it has one of the finest Landlocked Atlantic Salmon programs in the world!
In my “The Brown Trout-Atlantic Salmon Nexus” book I have a whole chapter devoted to these magnificent chrome leaping wonders. The fact that an angler can come to Michigan and have the ability to catch several chrome and gorgeous Atlantic salmon in a day is a true testament to how well the Atlantic program has been. They feed on smelt, perch, Cisco and all types of baitfish. They are also surface feeders on mayflies, caddis and love sculpin intruders and tubes swung for them in the classic down-and-across Atlantic method and what I do.
Summertime sees them ascending the St Mary’s and hunting smelt, caddie and large Hexagenia mayflies. But my favorite time is October through December in the glacial lakes in Northern Michigan. That is when I guide for them and when they are aggressive to take the swung fly near the surface in their pre-spawn mode. To further attest to this amazing program, my client and I own the IGFA world RECORD Landlocked Atlantic salmon caught on a prawn pattern in 2010 and weighed in at 27 pounds, which this world record still stands today!