A salmon fishery finally was established when 15 million coho salmon and 6 million chinook salmon were planted as smolt in the Great Lakes in 1966-70. In 1970, for example, 576,000 coho salmon (12% of those planted in 1969) were caught by anglers in Lake Michigan.

Salmon are not native to the Great Lakes; they were intentionally introduced by humans to solve an ecological crisis. In the mid-20th century, the Great Lakes were overrun by alewives, an invasive species of herring that had entered through man-made canals. Without natural predators, alewife populations exploded, leading to massive die-offs that littered beaches with rotting fish. To combat this, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources began stocking Pacific Salmon (Chinook and Coho) in 1966. The experiment was a resounding success: the salmon feasted on the alewives, successfully controlling their population while simultaneously creating a world-class recreational sport fishery. Today, while some natural reproduction occurs in cold-water streams, the population is still heavily supported by annual stocking efforts across the region to maintain the delicate balance between predator and prey.