Rare catch in Lake Erie called a ‘unicorn,’ and a fish of a lifetime

A teen fishing in a tournament thought he had hooked a big steelhead, but once it was boated, he quickly realized its true identity.

A teen fishing in a walleye/steelhead tournament thought he had hooked a big steelhead, but once the fish was boated, he quickly realized it was a salmon species that was out of place in Lake Erie. It was an Atlantic salmon.

Colton Alex, an experienced fisherman at age 18, was fishing in the tournament with Capt. Joe Nemet of Nemesis Sport Fishing when the fish hit a spoon 65 feet down, according to GoErie.

“It fought like a bigger steelhead,” Alex told GoErie. “Once it was netted, as soon as I felt the jaw, saw the jaw, I thought ‘OK, this is a coho [salmon],’ but as soon as I saw the spots, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is an Atlantic salmon.’

“This is probably the rarest catch I’ve had on Lake Erie. Definitely, it’s kind of a unicorn of a fish for sure…

“I’ve caught my fair share of salmon. I caught Atlantics in Ontario, but I never caught one in Erie or even seen one being caught, and it was by far the biggest one I even heard of being caught.”

The fish measured 30 inches and weighed 10.4 pounds.

“It was the biggest Atlantic salmon I’ve ever seen,” Nemet (above, holding fish) told GoErie. “If you were going to tell me I was going to catch a 10.4-pound Atlantic salmon, I would tell you it was probably going to be on Lake Ontario, not Lake Erie.”

Mark Haffley, a biologist for the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, told GoErie that Atlantic salmon are rare in Lake Erie and that they’ve seen some each year caught in the tributary fishery. He added that “they are being stocked in the southern tip of Lake Huron and that is more than likely how they are getting here.”

Catches of Atlantic salmon in Erie will continue to be uncommon, Haffley said.

“Getting salmon here is uncommon and getting an Atlantic [salmon] here is even more uncommon,” Nemet told GoErie. “It’s definitely a fish of a lifetime.”

Photos of Colton Alex and Joe Nemet holding the fish courtesy of Alex.