RESTORATION OF THE RUNS 



AFTER THE 1943-46 



SALVAGE OPERATIONS 



From the low point of 1943-46, the winter 

 run quickly recovered. Smith (1950), in study- 

 ing the upper Sacramento River sport Fishery 

 during 1947-48 and 1949-50, noted increased 

 catches of winter-run Chinook salmon in Jan- 

 uary and February 1949. He concluded that a 

 "sizable" run was present. This was only 4 

 years after the apparent destruction of all the 

 fish of this race (about 200) that could be 

 trapped at Keswick Dam. But some of the 1945 

 brood stock escaped capture, perhaps a far 

 greater number than indicated by the trapping 

 record. Also, the 1949 stock might well have 

 been considerably augmented by 3-year-old 

 fish of the 1946 brood. In any case, this initial 

 recovery seems to have been both substantial 

 and rapid. 



The winter-run fishery and the spawning es- 

 capement have continued to increase. Azevedo 

 and Parkhurst * noted that increased numbers 

 winter-run fish were encountered in the fall- 

 run spawn-taking operations at Coleman Na- 

 tional Fish Hatchery during 1949 through 1956, 



Since water of Battle Creek, on which Cole- 

 man Hatchery is located, is too warm for 

 winter-run fish, those trapped at Keswick 

 Dam (table 2) are now hauled to spawning 

 areas in the main Sacramento River down- 

 stream from Redding; no other suitable water 

 is available for them, 



Richard J. Hallock reports (personal com- 

 munication) that an estimated 11,000 winter- 

 run salmon were caught by anglers in the 

 101 -mile reach of the Sacramento River be- 

 tween Hamilton City and Keswick Dam during 

 the winter season 1961-62. He observes that 

 the total winter-run population now bears little 

 relation to the counts at Keswick. I inject the 

 word "now" on the assumption that the present 

 ideal temperature regime of the Sacramento 

 River probably leads to spreading the fish 

 over a much greater length of river than was 



*R.L. Azevedo and Z.E. Parkhurst: The Upper Sac- 

 ramento River Salmon and Steelhead Maintenance Pro- 

 gram. 1949-1956. Manuscript report in files of the 

 VS. Fish and Wildlife Service. 96 pp. 



the case during 1943, the first year of salvage 

 operations, when the fish piled up below Keswick 

 Dam. For example, his observations of the 

 sport fishery and activity of fish in the river 

 indicate that the largest populations occurred 

 in 1957-58 and 1961-62 whereas the seasons 

 1958-59 and 1960-61 were indicated to be 

 largest by counts at Keswick. On June 15, 1963, 

 I observed that numbers of spawning salmon 

 on the riffles near Redding were nearly as 

 great as 1 have observed during the fall-run 

 spawning peak which occurs commonly in No- 

 vember at this site. 



Hallock states further that several pairs of 

 winter-run salmon were observed in Mill Creek 

 below Ward Damin June 1958. On May 22, 1962, 

 he counted 47 live salmon active over redds 

 and 5 dead salmon in Mill Creek between 

 Clough and Ward Dams, and considered that 

 spawning had just begun. He reports also that 

 on May 22, 1962, a co-worker, John Riggs, 

 counted 457 winter-run salmon and estimated a 

 total population of 2,687 fish in Battle Creek in 

 the 2 miles between Coleman Hatchery and the 

 county bridge. 



In summary, although no carcass-count nor 

 other careful population estimates have been 

 made, spawning-ground and fishery observa- 

 tions of the years 1948-49 through 1962-63 

 indicate that the winter run has become much 

 more abundant than the spring run in the main- 

 stem Sacramento River and appears to be 

 approaching the full fun in abudance. 



SUCCESS OF SPAWNING LIMITED 

 BY WATER TEMPERATURES 



Spawning of winter- run salmon in Mill Creek, 

 Battle Creek, or Deer Creek could not nor- 

 mally be successful because water tempera- 

 tures in July exceed 70° F, Since temperatures 

 in the midsixties are lethal to salmon eggs, the 

 unsuitable nature of these streams is apparent. 

 During the spring of 1958, a total of 420 

 winter-run fish were hauled from Keswick to 

 Coleman National Fish Hatchery and 309 more 

 of this race were trapped from Battle Creek. 

 From 236 females among these fish, only 

 381,065 eggs were obtained during the period 

 April 30- June 13, 1958, Losses of the develop- 

 ing eggs and fry were heavy (table 3), Only 



