Northern Ontario’s King of Chrome
By: Tyler Dunn   Tyler Dunn Guiding

The prized Atlantic salmon is most famous for its population and sizes in the Eastern provinces of Canada along the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic salmon were very plentiful in Ontario at one time but previous over fishing completely decimated the populations. Although Lake Ontario does have an Atlantic stocking program, Northern Ontario’s St. Mary’s River offers a thriving population of aggressive, feeding Atlantic salmon consistently each year. The entire stocking program is funded, operated and maintained by our American friends at Lake Superior State University located in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan a twin city of the Canadian side. The Aquatic Research Laboratory at LSSU has stocked the river annually since 1987 with more than 25 000 released in 2009 alone. These fish can be found in the river year round although prime time is from early June until the Chinooks arrive in August. During these months, anglers can witness Atlantics violently attacking schools of smelts on the surface of the water. It is definitely the closest thing I have ever seen that most resembles a shark, feeding frenzy in fresh water. The following is a brief “how to” for targeting Atlantic salmon in the St Mary’s River system.

Many methods can be used to target Atlantics but most commonly fly, down rigging and spinning gear can be used by fisherman from either shore or boat. Since I don’t fly fish yet, during late spring I usually always use down riggers and they produce consistant results. I generally use either hard minnow baits or spoons. Yo-suri crystal minnows, jointed Rapalas and Storm ThunderSticks are all effective lures I regularly use especially in pink, orange and chartreuse during the early portion of the season before the schools of smelt show up into the river. My spoon offerings in the spring begin with small Michigan Stingers ranging in sizes from 2 ¼” to 3 ¾”. Any other fluttering spoons such as Dream Weavers are also great substitutes. The early season usually has me fishing in the middle of the water column. If I’m struggling to find fish I always send the lures deeper towards bottom before they are brought to the top portion of the water column. As the season progresses, warming water temperatures bring up massive schools of smelt and other small baitfish to the top end of the river.

Once this happens summer has usually begun and the colour pattern changes from bright to white, black/white or black/silver to best duplicate their main forage. These fish have now begun to gain some weight back from the long winter and are showing characteristics of increasing energy levels by becoming noticeably more aggressive. As the season rolls into late June the peak season has just begun and fly fisherman using smelt pattern steamers definitely excel as do spinning gear fisherman casting. This is when the birds can be seen diving at the schools of baitfish when the Atlantics push them to the surface when attacking the school.

Spinning gear fisherman quickly cast directly at the pods of feeding fish in hope of hooking one of the visible feeding fish. Soft jerk baits, Berkley Gulp and many other scented bass plastics are incredibly exciting lures to hook up with Atlantics on. Another option for the soft baits besides looking for the pods of fish on the surface is to drift areas of the fast current breaks, cast and twitch them back to the boat letting them drop anywhere from 2-10 feet below the surface. Atlantics are just as notorious as pike for follows, so don’t be surprised to if receive 15 follows or more a day using this technique. The trolling gear still comes out on the water with me even during the peak time because this casting technique is generally used during first light, last light or when the fish or heavily feeding. I have caught them during the middle of the day casting but trolling the same spoons as above but bigger (4”-5”) and minnow baits only 2-5 feet below the surface either on a rigger or even flat lined often is the ticket when fish are spooky or seem dormant. The last part of the season often becomes difficult as the fish move into and around the base of the rapids to begin the spawning season. Other species of fresh Pacific salmon are now present and seem to push Atlantics into hiding as they prepare for the spawn. Up until 2010, the season was closed for Atlantics at the end of September but has now been opened all year long encouraging anglers to target this species year round.

Although the population has flourished and been maintained for some time now, conservation of the resource is still the most important aspect in preserving this amazing fishery. A limit of only 1 fish per angler is allowed and I do suggest a meal of fresh Atlantic once in awhile. It tastes great on a cedar plank but my favourite is smoked!