FISHERIES OF ALASKA IK 1909. 
29 
A pernicious method of fishing known as “ jigging,” which has 
been occasionally followed in Ketchikan Creek, was forbidden this 
year. In jigging a long line with a three-pronged grapnel is used, 
or else three heavy fishhooks tied back to back, at the end, and a 
heavy sinker secured on the line a short distance above the grapnel. 
In July and August the salmon are massed in the pool below the 
first falls and the fishermen throw the grapnel end of the jigger to 
the far side of the pool and then draw it back in a series of short, 
sharp jerks. The fish are so massed together that it is unusual when 
the hooks do not catch upon one or more salmon each cast. Most 
of them escape, however, terribly torn and mangled, and are fre- 
quently found dead at the bottom shortly after. As long as the few 
owners of this form of apparatus used it in securing salmon for 
their own use, the practice, though reprobated, was tolerated. It 
was discovered this season, however, that these jiggers were being 
rented to tourists while the steamers were lying at the docks, the 
tourists using them merely to catch the salmon for amusement, and 
leaving the carcasses usually to rot on the banks of the creek. The 
practice was therefore absolutely prohibited. In reality there never 
was necessity for this cruel form of apparatus, as the salmon are so 
abundant in the pools below the first falls that sufficient to supply 
all ordinary needs can be secured with the bare hands. 
Another prohibition this year was against the tourists’ practice of 
catching salmon with their hands as the fish struggle up the first 
falls in Ketchikan Creek. In many instances this has been done 
for the sole purpose of being able to boast of the feat, the fish being 
generally left on the banks to die. Sometimes, however, the fish are 
thought to be fit for food. As a matter of fact, all salmon found at the 
falls after about July 15 are practically worthless as food, although 
very valuable in keeping up the future supply if permitted to go on 
to the spawning beds. 
As the salmon-fishing season was nearing its close, information 
was received that net fishing was being done in Eyak Lake and River. 
It is doubtful, under the law, whether this can be prevented unless 
these waters are set aside as spawning reserves, and in 1906 this 
action was recommended. The closing of the lake and river to 
commercial fishing would probably not seriously affect the packing 
interests, as the resources of the river have been so greatly reduced 
by excessive fishing in the past that they do not now afford a very 
material addition to the salmon supply of the region. Eyak Lake, 
is, however, one of the principal spawning regions in Prince William 
Sound, and should be protected to the fullest possible extent. 
A letter from Golofnin Bay, Bering Sea, dated July 26, complained 
that the run of salmon in Fish River, a tributary of the bay, had 
become so depleted owing to hydraulic mining that the Eskimos who 
