Lydia Lohrer Atlantic salmon caught on Detroit River
A suburban Detroit fisherman made a rare catch on the Detroit River: an Atlantic salmon weighing 9 pounds, 10 ounces.
Salmon are rarely seen in the Detroit River. The St. Marys River, which drains Lake Superior into Lake Huron in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula about 350 miles north, is the main Atlantic salmon fishery in the state. It’s likely the salmon traveled at least 85 miles before it was caught.
“It’s my first Atlantic salmon ever,” said Brad Smyth of St. Clair Shores, Mich. “I couldn’t believe it was actually right here on the Detroit River.”
The captain of Detroit Outdoor Adventures, a charter fishing operating on Lake St. Clair and the Detroit, captured the rare fish Wednesday a mile south of the Ambassador Bridge while using a lure that was a 1½-ounce Jonah D.O.A Jig for walleye in American waters.
The 41-mile Detroit River, which flows from Lake St. Clair into Lake Erie, is part of the U.S. boundary with Ontario.
“It was immediately obvious that it wasn’t a walleye,” Smyth said. “It started thrashing and I thought it was a snagged carp. All of a sudden it came to the surface. I actually netted the fish before I caught up slack in my line.”
Atlantic salmon were native to Lake Ontario and were eradicated.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials are hoping to reproduce the success they’ve had on the St. Mary’s, and Atlantic salmon have been stocked in the Thunder Bay River in Alpena, which flows into Lake Huron; the Au Sable River, which also flows into Lake Huron near Oscoda; and Lexington State Harbor in Lake Huron at Lexington, Mich.
That’s not the only unusual catch lurking in the Detroit River: This past week U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service anglers caught a 120-pound sturgeon. These ancient fish used to be abundant in the river, but fewer than 1% of the 1880s numbers remain.