experiments with the traps, information was 

 acquired about the age and size composition 

 and timing of red salmon runs to the Kenai 

 River in 1957, 1958, and 1959. 



Cook Inlet salmon runs are regulated on 

 the basis of the size of the commercial pack, 

 the catch per unit of effort, and visual surveys 

 of spawning fish. Counting salmon in most 

 Cook Inlet streams is particularly difficult 

 because the water is of glacial origin and 

 extremely turbid. Therefore, the usual tools 

 for counting, such as weirs, counting towers, 

 or aircraft, are not practical. 



In recent years, an index of the escapement 

 of red salmon has been obtained by counting 

 the spawners in a few clear-water (rela- 

 tively low turbidity) tributaries of the large 

 glacial rivers. The proportion of the total run 

 that spawns in these tributaries is unknown, 

 however, and may vary from year to year. 

 Also, the time lag while the salmon travel 

 through the various river and lake systems 

 to the clear-water areas precludes making 

 adjustments in the fishery to allow increased 

 harvest, or escapement. 



Test fishing offers promise as a method of 

 determining the escapement in turbid water 

 by providing information about the relative 

 numbers of salmon in a river from day to 

 day. When supplemented with marking and 

 recovery experiments test-fishing data can 

 also provide a basis for estimating total 

 escapement. 



Large metal fyke traps have been success- 

 fully used as test-fishing gear in Oregon and 

 in California. The California Department of 

 Fish and Game initiated the use of fyke traps 

 in 1951 on the Sacramento River, which is 

 turbid most of the year, and were successful 

 in capturing steelhead trout (Salmo gairdneri), 

 and king salmon (0. tshawyischa), and coho 

 salmon (0. kisutch). Occasionally stray red 

 salmon, pink salmon, and chum salmon 

 (0. keta), were also taken (Hallock, Fry, and 

 LaFaunce, 1957'). 



Since this gear was effective in catching 

 salmon in turbid waters of Oregon and Cali- 

 fornia, we selected it for test-fishing experi- 

 ments on the Kenai River, a typical glacial 

 stream of the Cook Inlet area. 



The objectives of these experiments, which 

 were conducted in 1957, 1958, and 1959, were: 



1. Evaluate fyke traps as a test- fishing 

 device in glacial streams. 



2. Obtain 

 escapement 

 River. 



daily and annual indices of the 

 of red salmon into the Kenai 



'Richard J. Hallock. D. H. Fry. Jr., and 

 D, A. LaFaunce. The use of wire fyke traps to esti- 

 mate the runs of adult salmon and steelhead in tlie 

 Sacramento River. California Fish and Game, vol. 43, 

 no. 4, 1957. p 271-298. 



3. Determine by tagging experiments rates 

 of movement and spawning ground destinations 

 within the Kenai River system. 



4. Identify characteristics of the Kenai 

 River red salmon runs including timing, sex, 

 and age composition. 



EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 



In general the studies on the Kenai River 

 were conducted as follows: 



1. Large metal fyke traps were installed 

 in the river and were fished continuously 

 during the red salmon migration. 



2. Traps were emptied daily to learn the 

 relative size of the escapement. 



3. Traps were fished at various locations 

 and depths to learn the migration habits of 

 the fish within the river. 



4. Salmon taken in the traps were measured, 

 their sex was determined, and a few scales 

 were removed for age determination. 



5. The fish were then tagged and released. 



6. Seines and gill nets were fished in a 

 standardized manner to compare this gear 

 with fyke traps as test-fishing devices and 

 to obtain additional fish to tag. 



