In 1959, two mysterious fish angled from Minnesota tributaries of Lake Superior were identified as pink salmon. This prompted inquiries by fisheries officials on both sides of the border into how these smallest of the Pacific salmon ended up in Superior.

The trail led to the Port Arthur Hatchery at Thunder Bay, where pink salmon had been raised for stocking in Hudson Bay. The project, intended to provide a sport and commercial fishery, saw the collection of nearly 800,000 pink salmon eggs from B.C.'s Skeena River in 1955. In 1956, fingerlings were planted in Goose Creek, a tributary of Hudson Bay. The Superior connection came from a Department of Lands and Forests employee who remembered spilling about 100 fish into the lake while loading an Otter aircraft destined for Goose Creek. The hatchery's manager also swept about 350 remaining pinks from hatchery troughs and planted them near Pie Island in Superior.

In 1961, pinks angled from the Pigeon and Nipigon Rivers, and one netted in Black Bay, were the first to be taken from Ontario waters. Subsequent odd years saw increasing numbers spawning in Superior tributaries. Fisheries officials were amazed pink salmon could survive and reproduce in Lake Superior. Even more surprising was that the population was apparently established from a planting of fewer than 500 fingerlings. It wasn't until 1967 that a former hatchery worker revealed that a much larger introduction had occurred. After the last planeload of pinks left for Hudson Bay, 21,000 remained at the Port Arthur Hatchery. All were discarded into a sewer leading to the Current River, which delivered the fingerlings to Lake Superior. Hatchery workers likely believed the fish would not survive in Superior, and dumping them was a convenient way to get rid of the excess. Ironically, while nearly 750,000 salmon planted up north disappeared without a trace, the 21,000 fingerlings tossed into Superior thrived.

Over the next 20 years pink salmon spread to every suitable Superior tributary. Every second year the rivers were thick with spawning fish. In 1979, Wawa District even issued 608 permits to dip-net pinks.

They worked their way through all the Great Lakes, reaching Huron by 1969, Michigan by 1973, Erie and Ontario by 1979. While pinks enjoyed a strong year or two in Lakes Ontario and Erie, numbers quickly declined. In Huron and Superior, a peak in the late 1970s to early 1980s leveled off, but the fish remain well established in both lakes. From July to September, Lake Huron chinook anglers regularly intercept pinks. These aggressive 2- to 3-pound (.9- to 1.36-kg) fish travel in schools and readily attack large chinook baits, releasing all downriggers at once. While some consider them a nuisance, other charter-boat operators say customers are happy to boat these tasty bonus salmon. Pinks occur throughout the lake, but numbers swell in Huron's North Channel. Here, anglers use magnum spoons to focus on chinooks. Others target pinks, downrigging with lighter equipment or even casting from shore.

Nowhere are Great Lakes pinks more revered than at the St. Marys River rapids. Already well known for steelhead, the rapids host an annual procession of mostly U.S. fly fishermen, who catch up to 50 pinks per day. Unlike their Pacific ancestors that spawn and die after two years, Great Lakes pinks often live for three years before spawning. This means spawning occurs every year. Odd years enjoy only slightly stronger runs than even years.

The rapids' powerful flow means weighting tippets with split-shot. Dubbed "chuck-and-duck" angling, it's the best way to quickly sink flies in front of fall pinks. They nail colourful wet flies, wooly buggers, and egg-sucking leech patterns. Locals tie variations in purple, pink, and white, with flash accents. Rapids regular Orest Witiw says fly preferences change throughout the day, "but once you find the fly they want, it's unbelievable." His favourite is a Michigan Wiggler, a mayfly nymph pattern, tied with a hot-pink chenille body and a squirrel and crystal chenille tail.

A female pink. While 90 per cent of anglers cast flies in the rapids, pinks are not above snatching a drifted roe bag or smashing bright spinners and spoons. "A No. 6 Swedish Pimple doctored with pink prism tape is deadly when cast behind current breaks in the rapids," says Witiw.

Anglers who have sought these diminutive Pacific salmon in their native British Columbia and Alaska rivers describe the "Sault rapids" as a world-class fishery. But enthusiasm for pinks seems to end at the rapids.

While numbers are strong along Lake Superior's north shore, catches of pinks are incidental for those seeking other species. With the plummeting of Superior's chinook fishery, there are fewer boats out chasing kings. No one I talked to targets pinks, but a quick run up the shore shows a consistent presence of them in the creels of Superior anglers. North of Sault Ste. Marie, coho zealots in Goulais Bay intercept the occasional pink. Die-hard Wawa chinook anglers still boat dwarf salmon in Michipicoten Bay, and fall steelheaders connect with them up the Michipicoten and other area rivers. At Rossport, pinks are caught off planer boards by anglers vying for mid-summer steelhead. In the Nipigon River and Bay, downrigging for lakers and chinooks dredges up the odd pink. The same is true for Thunder Bay.

By all accounts, pinks are an excellent gamefish. When in the lake, they're silver and sleek, resembling a miniature chinook - with the same, albeit scaled-down, scrappy attitude of their larger cousins. The delicately-textured flesh is excellent eating. Anglers who target them in rivers, when they darken and spawning males develop humped backs (hence the monicker "humpies" ) and pronounced jaws, experience aggressive strikes and spirited battles. Yet, Great Lakes pinks continue living under the shadow of chinook and other larger salmon and trout. Perhaps being ignored helped the pink to find its niche in Lakes Huron and Superior. Anglers who continue to overlook them, however, are missing out. This shunned little immigrant seems here to stay.

This article is written with permission by Fish Ontario. Visit their website, http://www.fishontario.com, for more Ontario fishing information.

Fish Ontario