488 U. S. BUREAU OF FISHERIES 



At Oregon City and other places on the Willamette River a num- 

 ber of chinook salmon are caught by means of trolling each year, 

 mainly by sportsmen. A spoon is quite generally employed in place 

 of bait. The fishermen claim that the salmon are not feeding at 

 this time, as their stomachs are shriveled up. 



For a number of years the Indians living at the reservation on 

 Neah Bay, Wash., have annually caught large numbers of silver and 

 chinook salmon in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. A large number of 

 white fishermen also engage in this fishery at the present time in the 

 same waters, while others troll for the same species, but more par- 

 ticularly silvers, in parts of Puget Sound proper. The ordinary 

 trolling line, with a spoon instead of bait, is used. 



Many of the troUers use power boats, and in this event four and 

 sometimes six lines are used. One and sometimes two short poles 

 are run out from each side of the boat (when two are used on a side, 

 one is shorter than the other), the butt being dropped into a chock. 

 Two lines are generally trailed from the stern. At the end of each 

 pole is a very short line with a small tin can attached. A few peb- 

 bles are in the can, and as the launch moves slowly through the 

 water with all her lines set, the troller knows when he has a bite by 

 the rattling of the pebbles in the can. Each of the lines attached 

 to a pole is also connected with the boat by a short line from the 

 side to a point on the line about 20 feet from the tip of the latter. 

 When a fish is hooked, the fisherman merely pulls in the line by 

 means of the short piece and then can haul the fish in hand over 

 hand. 



The most remarkable trolling region is in southeast Alaska. For 

 some years the Indians here had been catching king salmon for 

 their own use during the spring months, and about the middle of 

 January, 1905, king salmon were noticed in large numbers in the 

 vicinity of Ketchikan. Observing the Indians catching these, sev- 

 eral white fishermen decided to engage in the pursuit, shipping the 

 product fresh to Puget Sound ports. They met with such success 

 that 271,644 pounds, valued at $15,600, were shipped. The next year 

 several of the mild-cure dealers established plants in this region, thus 

 furnishing a convenient and profitable market for the catch, and as 

 a result the fishery has grown until in 1928, 3,354,400 pounds of king 

 salmon and 1,320,000 pounds of coho salmon were caught and mar- 

 keted. The length of the fishing season has also lengthened until now 

 the business is prosecuted vigorously during about seven months in the 

 year, and in a desultory manner for two or three months more, only 

 the severe winter weather preventing operations the rest of the year. 



In southeast Alaska the fishermen generally use either the Hen- 

 dryx Seattle trout-bait spoon No. 5 or the Hendryx Puget Sound 

 No. 8. The former comes in nickel or brass or nickel and brass, the 

 full nickel preferred. The Si wash hook No. 9/0, known as the Vic- 

 toria hook in British Columbia, is in quite general use. As a rule, 

 but one hook is used, and this hangs from a ring attached to a swivel 

 just above the spoon, while the point of the hook comes a little below 

 the bottom of the spoon. Occasionally double or treble hooks are 

 used. Some fishermen use bait, and when this is done the herring, 

 the bait almost universally employed, is so hooked through the body 

 as, when placed in the water, to stretch out almost straight and face 

 forward as in life. 



