Salmon fishing

St. Mary's rapid is accessible from the Canadian side only and offers a great on or off shore fishing opportunities. The rapid represent a short stretch of the St. Mary's river which drains Lake Superior into Lake Huron. It's approximately 2/3 of a mile long by 1/4 of a mile wide flowing over a substance of bedrock (sandstone), boulder, rubble, gravel and sand. The rapids support annual runs of Steelhead, Atlantic Salmon, Chinook and Pink Salmon as well as a resident population of Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout and Whitefish.

In early September, the Salmon run started. I had heard from other fishermen about the legendary salmon fishing in the area. One elderly man boasted catching a 46" long and 44+ pounds Chinook salmon from the fishing platform on the boardwalk by the waterfront. It sounded like a dream. I tried to feel how wonderful it must have had felt holding that astounding catch. While it was not unusual to catch very large salmon from a boat, reeling something of that size from onshore was enviable.

Soon enough I found out it wasn’t easy to find a spot on the fishing platform, not during the salmon run. Fishermen from all over the area came here during this time, some even stayed overnight in the local hotels and motels. The round platform could hold only about a dozen fishermen standing about five-six feet apart from each other. The rest had to move down to other parts of the rapid and try casting either from the boardwalk or from the river side – which required climbing down about six-seven feet.

The best fishing spot was the platform, undoubtedly. The idea was to caste in the direction of the current and allow the water to carry the lure down the rapid. Once the lure was set in a nice location one could park the pole inside one of the metal poll holders adjacent to the railing that guarded the platform. Owing to the forceful current the string build up a tension on the pole. The moment a fish bit a lure it would pull hard to get free and the tip of the poll would visibly shake. This was when the fisherman would pick up the poll and reel the catch close enough so that a suspended net could be used to bring the fish up to the platform from the water surface almost ten feet below. Usually there would be somebody who wouldn’t mind giving a hand.

After several days of failed attempt one day I finally secured a place in the coveted platform. The first few casting didn’t go very well. I ended up tangling with my neighbors. Apologies were issued, lessons learned. Next I got into a snag and lost my expensive lure. More lessons learned. At the end it turned out to be a disheartening day. I went back home depressed.

Weeks later, after losing more lures and breaking couple of poles, finally the goddess of fish blessed me with a large salmon. The experience was overwhelming. I brought it home and measured it and took snapshots with my son Zakeem standing beside it. It was a 42” giant and taller than Zakeem. The picture created quite a bit of commotion among my family and friends and established me as a reputed fisherman. Later in that season I caught three more large Chinook salmon, one steelhead and a large rainbow trout. Finally I was starting to enjoy the Soo way-of-life.

First Steps in Fishing

Fishing, in contradiction to what many people may believe, is not a simple sport. Yes, it is classified as a sport and licenses are issued for a fee by the Ministry of natural resources. Kids and seniors are exempted. My journey in the wonderful often tedious and risky world of fishing started with the purchase of an outdoors card and a season license for fishing. I had to familiarize myself with the fishing regulations by zone. Most fish could be caught and kept only certain time of the year. The ministry tried to ensure uninterrupted spawning, especially endangered or depleting specious of fish.

Next a visit to Wal-Mart resulted in purchasing of a few fishing gears like the fishing rod with wheel, bunch of plastic baits and a small net. Once I figured out the tricky part of casting and reeling I beamed myself to one of the many fishing spots around the St. Mary's rapid. Soon I started to realize the difficulties when every third casting ended in snags. After a whole week of fishing and loosing most of my plastic baits that cost me almost a fortune my total catches amounted to one small catfish. Talk about achievement.

I knew I was missing something very vital. My attempts to get some help from the fellow fishermen didn't always go smoothly. To my surprise I discovered most fishermen weren't as friendly as one might expect them to be, either due to boredom or poor luck with fishing. The ones who were helpful talked my ears off. The cumulative information that I gathered left me more confused than ever. However, I learned many things as well. You can't use the same bait for all fish or even in all spots. It is necessary to do some spot profiling. One must find out the snag points, local fish population type and behavior, feeding habits, weather pattern etc. Also, knowing the art of reeling back is very important. This could make or break a fisherman's hours of hard work (if you are continuously casting and reeling the muscles does start to feel the stress). Some fish are quick to gulp its pray, some others are known to follow it before biting; some others wait quietly until it finds a suitable meal. Depending on how you reel your bait back you enhance your chances of catching specific type of fish.

After spending hours of hours of patient time and lots of casting, reeling, cursing, whining slowly but steadily my skill started to pick up. The first big fish that I caught was a twenty four inch - twelve pound Northern Pike. This is an eel like fish with sharp small mouthful of teeth. They are infamous for their unending appetite and were considered to have a bad influence in any echo system.

Happy, proud and all that I brought my catch home only to find out that Mili would not even touch it. So, I merrily scaled and sliced it and later made a mess frying it. Besides the initial scolding that was directed to me from Mili, there were also a few words of appreciation later as we found out the fish was delicious. Locals rarely ate them but it catered to our taste for fish. This catch was very encouraging and pushed me into a fishing frenzy in the coming days.