Figure 4. — Lowering haul seine Into attraction channel to sample fish at Snake Island flshway, Potomac River. 



Upstream Movement of Anadromous Fish 



The commercial and sport fisheries were 

 canvassed from Little Falls to the U.S. High- 

 way 301 bridge, a distance of about 60 miles. 

 Pound netters fished immediately above this 

 bridge from March 20 to May 10. The daily 

 catch ranged from 20 to 50 shad per net in 

 March and April and 3 to 15 per net in May. 

 The catches of other anadromous fish were 

 substantial, but no estimate was made of 

 the numbers taken. Drift gill netters near 

 Gunston Hall fished in April and May. Their 

 daily shad catch ranged from 12 to 165 fish; 

 the larger catches were taken in mid- May. 

 Dip net fishermen took an estimated 500 

 shad from May 5 to June 1 in the rapids 

 above Chain Bridge. Rod-and-reel fisher- 

 men caught a few shad near Fletcher's Boat 

 Landing about 3 miles below the bridge, but 

 no estimate was made of the numbers taken. 

 They also caught an estimated 300 immature 

 striped bass, 7 to 12 inches fork length, 

 between Chain Bridge and the rapids imme- 

 diately above the bridge from May 15 to 30. 

 Alewives, blueback herring, and white perch 

 were plentiful near the bridge and in nearby 

 tributary streams from the first of April 

 to the end of May. 



Experimental fishing with dip nets between 

 Little Falls and the rapids above Chain Bridge 

 produced two male American shad, one on 

 May 18 and the other on May 22, Several 

 resident fishes also were taken. 



A survey of the river channel from Little 

 Falls to the rapids above Chain Bridge re- 

 vealed no obstructions to the upstream move- 

 ment of fish in this section of the river. 



FISH PASSAGE, EXPERIMENTS WITH 

 ANADROMOUS FISH, AND STUDY OF 

 THE RIVER ABOVE THE DAM, 1963 



Field studies were continued at the Snake 

 Island fishway in the spring of 1963 to note 

 the behavior of anadromous fish placed in 

 holding facilities in the fishway attraction 

 chamber, to observe the upstream passage 

 of fish through the fishway, and to determine 

 the suitability of the Potomac River above 

 Little Falls for the hatching of shad eggs. 



Fish Passage 



The fishway was operated for fish passage 

 from April 25 to 28 and May 24 to June 12. 



