CleElum River 

 Easton Da^^^A^'^^'"'" 



Little Naches River 

 AmericonR. 



lEIIensburg 



^4'„ 



^tf 



^^^-^' 



.oo' 



.v-e' 



f<xe 



5 10 20 30 

 Scale in kilometers 



G< 



'Rozo Dom 



sYakima 



Prosser 



Figure 1. — Yakinaa River system and locations important to present study. 



areas were listed : Yakima River from Easton Dam 

 to Ellensburg, Naches River from the confluence 

 of the Little Naches and Bumping Rivers to the 

 confluence with the Tieton River, and Little 

 Naches, Bumping, and American Rivers and Rat- 

 tlesnake Creek. We surveyed these and other likely 

 areas in 1957 but found that, except for a few 

 scattered redds in the Cle Elum River, spawning 

 was stiU confined to the areas reported by Bryant 

 and Parkhurst (1950). We surveyed only the latter 

 areas and the Cle Elum River in 1958-6L 



Surveys were made in a standard manner. Work- 

 ing in pairs or alone, depending on the width of 

 the stream, we counted the redds and the live fish 

 as we waded downstream or fioated downstream 

 in rubber boats (table 1). If necessary, the surveys 

 were repeated weekly until no unspawned fish were 

 sighted. This precaution minimized the possibility 

 that we might overlook redds made by females 

 that were late arrivals. 



Distribution of redds (fig. 2) varied little from 

 year to year and agreed closely with Bryant and 

 Parkhurst (1950). 



Table 1. — Number of spawning redds of spring chinook 

 salmon in the Yakima River system, 1967-61 



Spawning redds 



Stream 



1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 



Num- Num- Num- Num- Num- 



Naches River and tributaries: ber ber ber ber ber 



American River 479 137 100 27 23 



Bumping River 41 67 66 31 30 



Little Naches River 106 16 22 3 2 



Naclies River. 94 34 108 67 103 



Rattlesnake Creek 44 30 21 8 8 



Subtotal 764 284 306 126 166 



I-Tpper Yalcima River; 



CYakima River from Easton 

 Dam to Ellensburg and the 



CleElum River).--- 1,216 531 255 184 176 



Total 1,980 815 561 310 341 



Spawning was distributed over a 6-week period. 

 Peak of spawning was usually within the following 

 dates: 



American River, Aug. 8 to 12. 



Bumping River, Sept. 5 to 10. 



Little Naches River, Sept. 1 to 5. 



Naches River, Sept. 1 to 5. 



Rattlesnake Creek, Aug. 28 to Sept. 2. 



Upper Yakima River, Sept. 17 to 22. 



348 



U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



