have been recorded from specific areas of catch and, vhen fully analyzed, will provide 

 better information on the movements of these fish within the fishery. 



Daily test set netting was conducted at the upper fishing boundai'ies on the Naknek 

 £ind Kvichak Rivers. "Hie two uppermost commercial set nets on each bank of both rivers 

 were limited to 25 fathoms in length and allowed to fish continously throughout the 

 season. 



Primary objectives were: (a) To determine if daily test fishing will provide an 

 index that would indicate the number of red salmon escaping into the Naknek and Kvichak 

 Rivers each day; (b) To recover, as they left the fishery, red salmon that were tagged 

 entering the fishery, thereby indicating the length of time they were available; (c) To 

 obtain daily length and scale samples from fish leaving the fishery to better understand 

 the selective action of gill nets on the catch and escapement; (d) To study the rela- 

 tionship of tidal fluctuation on the migration of red salmon through the fishery. 



Catch figures indicate that test net catches fluctuated rythmically with the open 

 and closed periods (fig. 31), but data must be equated to tides and time fishes prior to 

 drawing conclusions. 



Tower counting by the Fish and lfl.ldlife Service provided good reliable estimates 

 of escapement into three major tributaries. Weirs were replaced by towers on the Egegik 

 and Ugashik, and escapements were estimated as S'f-ljOOO and 206,000 respectively. On the 

 Alagnak (Branch River) an estimate of 129,000 was obtained. 



On the Naknek, towers were operated in conjvinction with the weir and daily and 

 seasonal estimates of each were compared with favorable results. Partial analysis sug- 

 gests that smother study of the Naknek system is needed prior to replacing the weir with 

 towers. 



■Rie behavior of the migrating reds was closely observed at each tower site to 

 learn more about night migration and to develop equipment and methods to simplify enumer- 

 ation without loss of accuracy. 



Fish and Wildlife Service field crews captured red salmon fingerlings in fyke nets 

 to study the characteristics of the seaward migration and to develop sampling techniques 

 that will permit reliable estimates of the number, age, and size of the smolt. 



On the Naknek a cross- section of the entire river was sampled each day from late 

 May to early August. About three million smolts were estimated to have migrated as 



Figure 30. - -Naknek -Kvichak red 

 salmon tagging, 1957 



-.-NORTH SANK 



(saei 



NAKNEK RIVER 

 SITES 5,6 AND ^8 



OPEN PERIOD 



24 26 28 30 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 

 JUNE JULY 



Figure 31. --Daily set net catches of 

 red salmon, Bristol Bay, 1957 



17 



