The Grand Coulee fish maintenance project of the f'ish and 

 Wildlife Service transferred adult blueback salmon from the 

 Rock Island trapo into Lake Wena tehee from the year 1939 to 1943, 

 the larp;est yearly transfer being 13,000 fish in 1943o These 

 fish spawned mainly in the Little Wenatchee and White Rivers, 

 with a few dropping down to spawn on the first few riffles 

 below the lake outlet o Observations made in 1942 and 1943 

 shove i no spawning activity along the lake shore* However, 

 in September 1947, 46 spawning bluebacks and 10 redds were 

 fo\md on a small gravel a'rea in the lake* A few chinook salmon 

 were placed in the lake in 1939, most of these spawning at; the 

 outlet, with a fevr observed in White River. No more chinook 

 were placed in the lake until 1943, when 900 vrere planted to 

 determine the feasability of using the lake as a natural 

 holding areao The majorit"' of these fish spavmed in the 3 

 miles below the falls on Tffnite River, a feyt spavmed at the 

 lake outlet, and one or two were observed in the Little 

 Wenatchee River. 



The lake always has had a large population of landlocked 

 blueback ealmon, fcicv.nn as ^kokanee", "silver trout", or "little 

 redfish^o Kokanee are naturally distributed over much of the 

 Columbia River watershed. Since kokanee furnish good sport 

 fishing, they have been stocked in many lakes in recent years, 

 and the state takes eggs annually from the Little Wenatchee 

 River for this purpose o Kokanee are observed to concentrate 

 their spawning activities lovrer in the Little Wenatchee River 

 than do the blueback, and usually complete their spawning a 

 week or so earlier than the blueback. Since there are still 

 spawning areas in both the Little Wenatchee and White Rivers 

 that are not being used there is little reason to believe that 

 the blueback have interfered with the kokanee spawning. 



12j-(l)o Little Wenatchee River .— (Surveyed at various 

 times, 1935-1947 5 Burrows, Whiteleather, Shuman, and members of 

 Grand Coulee fish maintenance project.) Enters the upper end of 

 Lake Wenatchee through a small swamp and extends for more than 

 20 miles. The lovjer 15 miles were surveyed up to an impassable 

 30 foot fall5. In the lower section the river is normally 50-60 

 feet wide. A discharge measurement of 40 c.f.s. was taken in 

 September at low water stage. However, the flow at other seasons 

 is much higher. The gradient is slight in the lower l/2 mile, 

 and the stream bed is heavily silted. In the next 3 l/2 miles 

 upstream deep, sluggish, resting pool areas alternate with ex- 

 cellent shallow spawning riffles o Above the lov/er 2 miles the 

 course extends through a rockj' gorge, with a coniferous forest 

 covering most of the mountainous watershed. Good spawning riffle 

 and resting pool areas alternate in this section. A series of 

 falls 4 to 20 feet in height is located 6 miles above the mouth. 

 At this point the stream drops approximately 100 feet in a distance 

 of 120 /a.'d?, and the cascades and falls are believed to constitute 

 practicftliy a total barrier to the upstream passage of fish. No 



71 



