SALMON INVESTIGATIONS IN IDAHO. 
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small ones I saw one large fish. Have not seen many during tlie last few years; saw none in 1890, 
1891, or 1892. They may have been there in 1893, hut I did not notice any; other parties said there 
were none last year. During the spawning they fight a good deal. 
I have heard it claimed that a few years ago the redfish spawned at the head of Crazy Woman 
Island, in Payette Biver, 2 miles above Emmettsville, or about 20 to 25 miles above Payette. This 
was a year when the water was so low that the fish were unable to reach the lake. They go up the 
iulet of Payette Lake 5 or 6 miles. I never saw nor heard of redfislx in any of the Payette lakes 
except Big Payette Lake. They have been reported from Weiser Biver, about 75 miles above Weiser, 
hut I do not know if they were really redfish. 
They are reported more abundant than usual at Payette Lake this year. I have seen them coming 
up into the lake in great numbers, and they were then all blue, there being very little red upon them. 
I am sure they come into the lake from below. They are rarely seen upon the spawning-beds until in 
September. I think they all die after spawning. 
At Council Valley, Idalio, we saw Mr. Alexander Kessler, wlio had recently re- 
turned from a trip to Payette Lake. He gave us the following important information : 
At the end of the first week in September of this year I visited the inlet to Big Payette Lake, aud 
while there spent two days catching redfish. This was on September 8 and 9, and we got about 175 
fish. At least half of them were of the small form, less than a foot in length. Most of them were 
females [this is probably a mistake. E.] and nearly all were spawning or ready to spawn; some were 
about spent. We caught them with grab hooks in the inlet about 3 miles above the lake. They 
were very abundant; we saw one bunch in which there seemed to be as many as a thousand. We 
must have seen 2,000 to 3,000 altogether. We noticed that most of them lay in deep water during the 
day and came upon the riffles to spawn chiefly at night. We camped by the stream and at night could 
hear them splashing about in the shallow water. The small ones were not much red outside, but 
their meat was redder than that of the large ones. Most of the small ones and some of the large ones 
were blue like trout. This is the only year I ever paid any attention to these fish. 
My own observations on tbe redfish of Big Payette Lake were made September 26 
and 27, 1894. On September 27 I took a sailboat and Dr. Scovell a rowboat at the 
lower end of. the lake and crossed the lake to the head, making such observations 
en route as we could to determine the presence of fish. Dr. Scovell followed up the 
east (left) shore, examining the shoal water as he went. We saw no redfish in the 
lake, though trout were very abundant. At the mouth of the inlet is a considerable 
bar, over which we had to drag our boats. After getting into the inlet we Avere able 
to ascend it about 2 miles, when a drift of logs prevented further progress with the 
boats. Leaving the boats at this place and carrying our seining outfit with us avc fol- 
lowed on up the stream about 3 miles farther. The thick chaparral along the stream 
made it very difficult to get down to the water at many places. We put in the entire 
day, however, aud succeeded in examining nearly every rod of the last 5 miles of the 
stream. 
About 4 miles above the mouth of the inlet we found six large redfish spawning 
on a gravel bar in shallow water just below a deep hole filled with logs and brush. 
When disturbed the fish would run up into this deep hole and remain concealed some 
time before returning to the riffle. The temperature of the water on the riffle at 2 
p. m. was 45°, and the depth about 18 inches. We watched these fish quite a Avhile 
and saw them fighting some. Whenever two males came near each other, one would 
swim rapidly up to the other and catch him by one of the fins, usually the pectoral, 
or by the back. He would keep his hold quite a little while, the two meanwhile slowly 
drifting down with the current. At least two of the six were males, and two or three 
of them were covered with sores. After repeated attempts we caught one of the six, 
which proved to be a spent female 1 foot 8 inches long, and weighing 2 pounds 2 
