red salmon migrate along the banks during 

 daylight hours. Similar behavior has been 

 observed in clear-water streams elsewhere. 

 In 1958 when the two traps were fished from 

 25 to 40 feet offshore (fig. 5), the catch in 

 these traps was only one-fifth as great as 

 the catch in the two traps that were fished 

 close to the bank. 



Figure 5. --Position of four fyke traps fished in the 

 Kenai River. (Traps 3 and 4 fished only in 1958.) 



Midstream island trap locations did not prove 

 to be productive either, further indicating that 

 the salmon migrated close to the river's edge. 

 In 1959 two traps at the upstream site were 

 fished at an island near midstream, but the 

 catch of red salmon was so poor that the traps 

 were moved to the main bank of the river. 



Information was obtained in our studies 

 about the diurnal movements of red salmon 

 in the Kenai River, Traps were emptied at 

 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. each day in one series of 

 experiments at the index site in 1958. The 

 period 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. included a varying 

 amount of daylight hours during the summer, 

 and thus the two periods are not distinctly 

 daylight and darkness (fig. 6), Fyke traps 

 must be operated during darkness if an un- 

 biased estimate of the magnitude of the run 

 is to be obtained. 



Kenai red salmon mill about for some time 

 in the mouth of the river. Fish tagged at the 

 mouth in 1958 were recovered from Kalifonski 

 Beach and Salamatof Beach in the commercial 

 fishery, and one tagged fish was recovered in 

 the Kasilof River (fig. 1) by a sport fisherman. 



Figure 6.- -Catch of red salmon in fyke traps during 

 the periods from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and from 6 a.m. 

 to 6 p.m., 1958. 



This back-and-forth movement of red salmon 

 was evident as far upriver as the index trap 

 site, 11 miles from the mouth. All red salmon 

 taken at the fyke traps in 1957 were tagged. 

 Twenty-one of these were returned from the 

 commercial fishery of Cook Inlet. One tagged 

 fish, which was identified by the color com- 

 bination of the tag parts, was sighted in Fish 

 Creek in the upper part of the Inlet. The be- 

 havior of these fish may have been affected 

 by the tagging and may not reflect the general 

 movement of the fish. 



Stream surveys were made frequently in 

 1957 on all clear-water areas of the Kenai 

 drainage to search for the tagged fish on their 

 spawning grounds. Most tag recoveries were 

 made by the intensive sport fishery that op- 

 erates at the mouth of the Russian River. 

 Thus, number of days between tagging and 

 subsequent recapture of tagged fish is one 

 measure of their rate of travel. 



There was considerable variation in length 

 of time between tagging and recovery (table 2), 

 but, on the average, red salmon traveled the 

 65 miles between sites in about 20 days. This 

 is maximum travel time since the fish may 

 have remained in the stream at the recapture 

 site for an unknown period of time before 

 being recovered. Also, physiological effects 

 of tagging and handling may have been 

 responsible for the fishes remaining at the 



