SALMON AND SALMON FISHERIES OF SWIFTSURE BANK 
751 
Records of licenses issued between 1917 and 1934 by the Department of Fisheries 
of the State of Washington for the Puget Sound district, which also embraces the 
territorial waters in the vicinity of Neah Bay, are presented in table 23. Boats fishing 
exclusively offshore did not have licenses prior to 1917 as none were issued. Gilbert 
(1913) reported 250 trailers in the cape region in 1911 and stated that this was an 
“unprecedented number.” He estimated more than 400 there the following season. 
Smith and Kincaid (1920) reported more than 500 boats fishing at the cape in 1918. 
We may assume that the fishery was of little importance prior to about 1910, 
and that the number of boats increased thereafter to a maximum in 1919, the last 3 
years of tins period being included in table 25. There was a marked decrease in 
licenses during the period of economic depression following 1921, and again in the 
similar period after 1931. 
Table 23. — Puget Sound trolling licenses, 1917-84. 
Year 
Number 
Year 
Number 
Year 
Number 
1917 
782 
1923 
221 
1929 
656 
1918.... 
982 
1924... 
374 
1930 
784 
1919.... 
1,032 
611 
1925 
438 
1931 
599 
1920.. 
1926 
684 
1932 
259 
1921 
415 
1927 
820 
1933.. 
220 
1922 
165 
1928 
672 
1934 
478 
During recent years practically all the boats have fished in the region of the cape, 
some as far as Forty-mile (La Perouse) Bank. A few of those fishing in Puget Sound 
operate hi the San Juan Islands, but most of them fish the waters south and east of 
Point Wilson. A large fleet of Canadian trailers operates off the west coast of Van- 
couver Island, and a small fleet fishes in the upper part of the Gulf of Georgia for coho 
salmon. Some boats work off the southeastern part of Vancouver Island for kings. 
The catches of the cape and Puget Sound fleets for recent years may be found in 
the sections on coho and king salmon. For the 8-year period from 1927-34, Puget 
Sound trailers took 104,692 cohos and 18,285 kings. During the same period, the cape 
fleet took 2,411,312 cohos and 1,545,178 kings. In addition, a few thousand pink 
salmon are taken at the cape in years of abundance, and occasional catches of the other 
species are made. 
SEASONAL OCCURRENCE OF COHOS AND KINGS 
Species other than coho or king appear so infrequently in trailers’ catches that 
their occurrence may be disregarded. In the early part of the season kings are taken 
almost exclusively, but after the first of May both species appear in most of the catches. 
Seasonal occurrence is not so well defined in the troll catches as in other gear, for land- 
ings at any station, such as Neah Bay, may contain fish caught at a considerable 
distance from the landing point. In the early season the trailers fish longer, more 
heavily weighted fines, thus increasing their chance of taking the deeper-sw immin g 
king salmon. In the latter part of the season they fish closer to the surface in order to 
take cohos. Many fishermen shift during the fall from the plain metal spoons used 
in early summer for kings to ones which ha ve been painted red on one side and which 
