■ GILL NET 

 I FYKE TRAP 



400 



LENGTH 



Figure 13.- -Size composition of red salmon taken in 

 gill nets and fyke traps in the Kenai River. 



capturing predominantly small fish. The length 

 of king salmon taken in 1957 ranged from 300 



to 1,300 mm. Although king salmon over 

 1,300 mm. were captured in the traps and in 

 the gill nets, they were not measured accu- 

 rately, because every effort was made to re- 

 lease these large vigorous fish unharmed. In 

 1958, however, the trap did catch a large 

 number of small king salmon "jacks" (a term 

 commonly used to designate precociously de- 

 veloped small salmon, usually males). 



There are only scattered bits of informa- 

 tion on size selectivity of fyke traps for red 

 salmon. Efforts to capture adequate samples 

 of red salmon with a seine for comparison 

 with trap-caught fish were largely unsuccess- 

 ful. A limited sample taken at the upper end 

 of Skilak Lake in 1959 by beach seine is of 

 interest however. Daily hauls were made at 

 the upper end of the lake to determine the 

 size and age composition of the red salmon 

 run and to recover tagged fish. The seining 

 was never very productive, but the combined 

 catch of all hauls does provide another indica- 

 tion of the characteristics of the run. (fig. 

 14), The periods selected for this analysis 

 represent the most probable times that par- 

 ticular groups of fish passed the fyke trap site 

 and subsequently passed the seining site. The 

 range of lengths and the average size were 

 approximately the same for fish measured 



40 



(MIL LI ME 



Figure 14.- -Comparison of length (mideye to fork of tail) of red salmon captured in two 



types of gear, 1959. 



16 



