50 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
is apparently no reason why he should restrict his fishery to his own water front or 
prevent anyone else from fishing there. For convenience each resident sets his nets 
as near his home as possible and has usually a number of well-defined sets, which are 
sometimes marked. These sets are the places which he regards as the best in which 
to catch fish, and are free from snags. One fisherman will seldom intentionally use 
a set belonging to another. 
During the past year very little attention was given to the “ Saturday night law.” 
It was said that this has not only been the case in past years on the Siuslaw Eiver, 
but that it is practically a dead letter on all of the streams in Oregon. The fishermen 
on the Siuslaw seem to agree that all of them would profit as well by respecting it as 
by breaking it. A few persist in setting their nets or drifting Saturday nights and, 
in order that these few men may have no advantage over the others, they, too, put 
out their nets on Saturday nights. 
According to the law the fishing season closes on the Siuslaw Eiver November 1. 
This law, of course, is intended for all of the coastal streams in Oregon, and as the 
time of the run of salmon, especially of silver salmon, varies somewhat in the differ- 
ent rivers the law does not protect all alike. In the Siuslaw Eiver the largest run of 
silver salmon occurs anywhere from October 25 to November 10. About this time the 
first fall rains begin and a gradual rise in the river is accompanied by an increased run 
of silver salmon. In 1896 the rains began October 24. The river did not rise much 
until the night of November 7, when it rose about 8 feet, which put an end to fishing. 
The largest run of silver salmon was between October 28 and November 6. 
About the same condition of affairs is said to have existed last season. 
The law which requires the season to close November 1 in no way protects the 
chinook salmon, as the run of this fish is over by October 15. As fishing is the chief 
source of income of many of the citizens on the Siuslaw Eiver it seems to them quite 
a hardship to be obliged to stop fishing daring the best portion of the season. All 
commercial fishing on the river is confined to that portion below tide water ; in fact 
very little is ever done above Mapleton until near the close of the fishing season. 
The distance from the head of tide to the mouth of the river is about 28 miles. 
Commercial fishing on the Siuslaw is carried on by gill nets, seines, and trolling 
lines, but mostly by gill nets. The gill nets operated by the fishermen engaged in 
drifting are from 100 to 150 fathoms long; they are used only on the lower 8 miles of 
the river, where the current is too swift during flood and ebb tides to allow them to 
be set in the ordinary way. There are a great many sunken logs and trees in this 
portion of the river, as well as further up the stream, and the drifts are therefore 
usually short. All gill nets used on the river from the head of tide water to within 8 
miles of its mouth are set in the ordinary way. They are all anchored by heavy rocks 
tied to the lead line at distances of from 3 to 8 fathoms apart. They vary in length 
from about 25 to 100 fathoms. 
That portion of the river in which gill nets are set varies from about 8 to 150 
fathoms in width. The gill nets also vary in length and, as no fisherman confines 
his fishing to any one portion of the river, very little attention is paid to the law which 
prohibits the use of gill nets reaching more than one-third distance across the river. 
Nets set in the Siuslaw Eiver reach all the way from one-fourth to the entire distance 
across it. During flood and ebb tide the current in the river is so swift that nets 
extending from about one-third to two-thirds across the river have their cork line 
dragged so low that the net presents a comparatively small and a very poor fishing 
