Landlocked salmon are Atlantic salmon that live their whole lives in fresh water, and they bring the salmon’s speed and acrobatics to a handful of cold Massachusetts reservoirs. Stocked to take advantage of the smelt forage, they are a spirited, silver, leaping gamefish and a genuine prize.
How to identify them
Landlocked salmon are sleek and silvery with small black x-shaped or cross-like spots scattered over the upper body and a slightly forked tail. They look like a chrome, streamlined trout, and run and jump like few freshwater fish.
Where and when
They need cold, deep water with smelt, so in Massachusetts they hold in the big reservoirs like Quabbin and Wachusett and a few coldwater ponds. The prime time is spring, when they chase smelt near the surface, with another window in fall; in summer they follow the cold water down.
Tip In spring, follow the smelt. Landlocked salmon key on smelt, so troll or cast smelt-imitating lures and streamers near the surface and around the tributary mouths where the smelt gather, that is where the salmon feed.
How to catch them
The classic approach is trolling smelt-imitating streamers and spoons in the cold months, and it is superb fly-rod fishing when they are up near the surface chasing bait. As the water warms, they go deep and you go down after them.