Methods of the Pacific Salmon Fisheries
An in-depth account of salmon fisheries of the North American Pacific c. 1911.
From: 1911 C.E. To: 1911 C.E.
Location: Alaska, United States
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From The Salmon Fisheries of the Pacific Coast By John N. Cobb, 1911.
Apparatus and Methods of the Fishery
Gill Nets
The gill net is the oldest and most popular form of apparatus in use in the salmon fisheries of the Pacific coast. There are two kinds, drift and set, these names clearly expressing the difference between them. Fine flax or linen twine is generally used in their manufacture, although in some places cotton twine is employed, and it has usually 12 threads and is laid slack. They are hung in the ordinary manner—to a rope with cork floats to support the upper portion of the gear, and to a line with lead sinkers attached, which keeps the net vertical in the water and all its meshes properly distended. The nets are tanned, usually several times each season...
Drift gill netting is prosecuted chiefly in the estuaries of the rivers in and near the channels. If the water is clear the nets are set only at night, but should the water be muddy or discolored with glacial silt, fishing can be carried on either night or day. Night fishing is most common in the States, while day fishing is most common in Alaska. When fishing in rivers it is necessary to work in a straight stretch of water of fairly uniform depth and free from snags or sharp ledges, these being called "reaches."
“Removing the salmon from a gill net.” Images from Pacific Salmon Fisheries by John N. Cobb, 1921.
In setting the net the boat puller rows slowly across the stream while the other man pays out the apparatus, to the first end of which a buoy has been attached. When about two-thirds of the gear is out the boat is turned downstream at nearly right angles to her former course, so that the net, when set, approximates the shape of the letter L. The net is laid out at nearly right angles or diagonally to the river's course, so that it will intercept the salmon that are running in, and is usually put out about an hour before high water slack and taken in about an hour after the turn of the tide.
In Alaska the fishermen usually fish on both the high and low slack. The nets are allowed to drift for the time specified, the fishermen drifting along at one end, then the net is hauled into the boat over a wooden roller fixed in the stern, and the fish, which have become gilled in the meshes, are removed and thrown into the bottom of the boat.
Set gill nets are made in the same way as drift nets, in many instances being fragments of the latter, and are usually operated in the upper reaches of the rivers. They vary in length from 10 to 100 fathoms, from 35 to 65 meshes in depth, and have the same sizes of meshes as the drift nets, the size varying, of course, with the species sought for. Sometimes these nets are staked, sometimes anchored, while occasionally only one end is tied to the shore or a stake set in the water.
On the flats off the mouth of the Stikine River, in southeast Alaska, a combination of the drift and set method is followed. A double set of stakes, about 6 feet apart, are set out from the shore for a distance of several hundred yards. An hour or two before slack water the fishermen pay out the net parallel to the line of stakes and about 50 feet from them. The tide drifts the net down until it is caught against the stakes, which retain it until slack water, when the fisherman takes it up and repeats from the opposite direction on the next turn of the tide.
“A scow load of salmon.”
Haul Seines
On the Columbia River, where this form of apparatus plays a prominent part in the fisheries, the nets vary in length from 100 to 400 fathoms; the shallowest end is from 35 to 40 meshes deep, but it rapidly increases in width and is from 120 to 140 meshes deep at the other wing. The "bunt," or bag, in the central part of the net is about 50 fathoms long. These nets are usually hauled on the numerous sand bars which are a very noticeable feature of the river at low tide.
Buildings are erected on piles on these sand flats, in which the men and horses take refuge at high tide, when the bars are covered with water. Operations begin as soon as the beach or bar uncovers, so that the men can wade about. The net is placed in a large seine boat, with the shore end attached to a dory. At the signal the seine boat is headed offshore, while the dory heads toward the bar. As the seine boat circles around against the current the net is paid out in the shape of a semicircle. The dory men hurry to the bar with the shore end of the net, the idea being to get that in as soon as possible in order to prevent the escape of the salmon in that direction.
As soon as this has been accomplished, the outer shore line is brought to the bar, when several horses are hitched to the line and begin to haul in the net, care being taken by the men to work it against the current as much as practicable, and to get it in as speedily as they can in order to prevent the escape of salmon either by jumping over the cork line or finding some outlet below the footrope or lead line.
The only other place on the coast where haul seines are important is at Karluk, on Kadiak Island, in Alaska. Here the seines are hauled upon the narrow sand pit dividing the lagoon from the strait, and practically the same method is followed as in the Columbia River.
Diver Nets
These are in use in the Columbia River, mainly throughout the middle and upper portions of the river. They vary from 100 to 200 fathoms in length and are used almost exclusively for chinook salmon. In construction they somewhat resemble a trammel net. Two nets are attached together side by side. The outer one, or the one toward the oncoming fish, has a larger mesh than the other, so that if the fish manages to pass through the first, it will be caught in the smaller meshes of the second.
“Dipping salmon from the Copper River, Alaska.”
Dip Nets
These consist of an iron hoop secured to the end of a stout pole with a bag-shaped net fastened to the hoop. They are generally used at the cascades on the rivers, small platforms being erected upon which the operator stands while fishing. Indians formerly used them to a large extent, but, owing to the steady decline in the number of Indians, and the appropriation of favorable spots by the whites for other forms of apparatus, they are but little used now.
Squaw Nets
This type is virtually a set net. It consists of an oblong sheet of gill netting, about 12 feet long and 8 feet deep, its lower edge weighted to keep it down, and its upper edge attached to a pole that floats at the surface, and is held by a line or lines to another projecting pole which is securely fastened to the shore, so that it will not swing around with the strain of the swift current on the net. A single block is attached to the pole, and through this passes a rope, thus making a tackle for the more convenient manipulation of the net.
The dip-net fishermen of the Columbia River use this net, which derives its name from the fact that it used to be commonly operated by Indian “squaws” for taking salmon. But few are now in use, for the same reasons as given for the decline in the use of dip nets.
“Purse seiner hauling in net.”
Purse Seines
This form of apparatus is in quite general use in Puget Sound and southeast Alaska, and has proved highly effective in these deep, swift waters. These seines are about 200 fathoms long, 25 fathoms in the bunt, and 20 fathoms in the wings, all with a 3-inch mesh. The foot line is heavily leaded and the bridles are about 10 feet long. The purse line is made of 1 ½-inch hemp. The rings through which the purse line is rove measure about 5 inches in diameter and are made of galvanized iron.
On Puget Sound the purse seiners congregate mainly on what are known as the Salmon Banks, off the lower end of San Juan Island, during the run of sockeyes. After this run is over they go up the Sound and fish for dogs and cohos, and later go to the head of the Sound and fish for dogs, cohos, chinooks, and steelhead trout. In southeast Alaska they follow the fish all over the bays, straits, and sounds of that section. Purse seines are used in a few other places, but the fishery is secondary to those with other forms of apparatus.
On Puget Sound special power boats, which are fitted with a power winch for hauling in the net, are used almost exclusively in operating the purse seines. As soon as a school of fish is sighted one end of the seine is attached to a dory, and while this remains stationary the seine boat starts off, the crew paying out the net over a roller in the stern. A circle is made around the fish, the boat returning to the dory. The purse line is then attached to the winch, and the line slowly hauled in by power. As the net comes in, the slack is neatly coiled up on a platform in the stern of the boat, the cork line lying on one side and the lead line on the other. As the circle gradually narrows a man stands at the davit with a long pole which he continually plunges into the circle and between the purse lines for the purpose of frightening the fish away from the center of the net, which is open for about a third of the time required to purse it.
The poleman in time becomes very expert and is able to plunge the pole into almost any part of the center and have it return unaided to his hands. After the net has been pursed, the bag is either rolled into the boat or the fish dipped or gaffed from the net into the boat.
This style of fishing is said to have been introduced on Puget Sound by the Chinese in 1886.
“Brailing salmon from a trap.”
Traps or Pound Nets
A trap is stationary and consists of webbing, or part webbing and part wire netting, held in place and position by driven piles. This piling usually is held together above water by a continuous line of wood stringers, also used to fasten webbing to or to walk on if necessary.
In building, the "lead" is first constructed. This runs at right angles, or very nearly so, to the shore, and consists of a straight line of stakes, to which wire or net webbing is hung from top of high water, or a little higher, to the bottom, making a straight, solid wall.
At a little distance inshore of the outer end of the lead begin what are called the "hearts.” These are V-shaped and turned toward the lead, beginning at a distance of 30 to 40 feet on either side of same and running in the same general direction, the "big heart" or outer heart first, the inner heart, supplementing the first, being smaller, and the end of the outer heart leading into it. The narrow end of the inner heart leads into the "pot" and forms what is known as the ''tunnel.” The tunnel ends in a long and narrow opening, running up and down the long way, and is held in position by ropes and rods.
Below this is what is known as the "apron," a sheet of web stretched from the bottom of the heart upward to the "pot," in order to lead the fish into the tunnel when swimming low in the water, and to obviate the necessity of building the pot clear to the bottom, which would be expensive, as the pots of the traps are usually in quite deep water.
Some traps have "jiggers" (a hook-shaped extension of the outer heart) on each side, which help to turn the fish in the required direction.
The "pot" is placed at right angles with the inner heart and immediately adjoining same. It is a square compartment, with web walls and bottom connected in the shape of a large square sack, fastened to piling on all sides. This pot is hauled up and down by means of ropes and tackles, either by hand or, as is most popular, by steam.
The "spiller" is another square compartment adjoining either end of the pot (sometimes there are two "spillers," one at each end), and is simply a container for fish. A small tunnel leads the fish from the pot into the spiller, from whence the fishermen lift them out. This is accomplished by closing the tunnel from the pot, after which the ropes holding the front of the spiller are loosened and the net wall allowed to drop almost to the level of the water. A steam tug then pushes a scow alongside the spiller and takes position on the outside of this scow.
“The pot and spiller of a salmon trap.”
From the deck of the tug a derrick is rigged with a running line from the steam capstan through the block at the top of the derrick. This line is attached to the far end of a net apron, called a "brailer," which is heavily weighted by having chains along each side and leaded crossways at several places. A small boat is run inside the spiller, and the men in this draw the brailer across the barge and let it sink in the spiller. The fish soon gather over it, when the steam capstan quickly reels it in, the net folding over as drawn in from its far side and spilling the fish out on the scow. Men on the scow pick out and throw overboard the undesirable fish. The apron is then drawn back across the pot and the operation repeated so long as any fish remain. In this manner a trap with many tons of salmon in it is quickly emptied.
Traps, like nearly all other fixed fishing appliances, are built on the theory that salmon, like most other fishes, have a tendency to follow a given course in the water, whether a natural shore line or an artificial obstruction resembling one; also that the fish very seldom turns in its own wake. The trap has taken advantage of these natural tendencies of the fish, and is arranged so that, although the salmon may turn, he will continually be led by the wall of net toward and into the trap.
If a trap is located in a place where fish play and where an eddy exists, and the fish run one way with the incoming tide and the opposite with the outgoing, it will fish from both directions; if located where the fish simply pass by, as, for instance, on a point or reef, it will fish from one side only.
A variation of the trap, to be used in places where piles can not be driven, is the floating trap. An experimental trap of this variety was used at Uganuk, on Kodiak Island, Alaska, as early as 1896. Its use was abandoned in 1897, not to be resumed until some years later. A number of floating traps (of the type invented by Mr. J. R. Heckman, of Ketchikan, Alaska) have been and are being used in southeast Alaska, the first having been installed in 1907.
The design of this trap follows the shape of an ordinary Puget Sound driven trap. It is constructed of logs, 20 to 26 inches at the butt, bolted and braced together in one solid frame. Suspended from this frame through the logs are 2 ½-inch pipes extending down in the water 30 feet. Halfway down these pipes and also on the extreme lower ends are eyebolts, to which the web is drawn down and fastened. Thus the web is kept in place as well as if the pipes were driven piles. The lead is also a continuation of large piles or logs bolted firmly together with similarly suspended pipes and webbing.
The so-called wooden traps on the Columbia River are essentially weirs, being a modification of the brush weirs or traps used by the Indians for the capture of salmon long before the advent of the white men. They are built on shore, of piling and planks, the latter arranged like slats with spaces between. The bowl, or pot, is provided with a movable trapdoor that can be opened during the closed season and on Sundays, so that the fish can pass through and run upstream. These weirs, after being built, are launched into the river, placed in proper position near the shore, and then ballasted so that they sink to the bottom.
According to Collins, “pound nets were introduced on the Columbia River in 1879. In May of that year Mr. O. P. Graham, formerly of Green Bay, Wis., built a pound net on the river similar to those used on the Great Lakes. The success of this venture led to the employment of more apparatus of this kind, and many fishermen went West to participate in the fishery."
According to the same authority, Mr. H. B. Kirby, who had previously fished on the Great Lakes, set a pound net in Puget Sound about 1883, but it was a complete failure. On March 15, 1888, he again set a pound net, which he had designed to meet the new conditions, at Birch Bay Head, in the Gulf of Georgia. It proved a complete success, and was the forerunner of the present large number which are set annually in these waters.
In Alaska the first trap was set in Cook Inlet about 1885. British Columbia refused to permit the use of pound nets in its waters until 1904, when their use was allowed within certain limited regions.
Some of these trap nets, especially on Puget Sound, have proved extremely valuable. The years 1898 and 1899 covered practically the high-water mark, as several desirable locations changed hands in those years at prices ranging from $20,000 to $90,000 for single pounds, the original expense of which did not exceed $5,000. But few have brought such high prices since, however, owing to the decline in the run of salmon.
The location of sites for these nets is regulated by law in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, but in Alaska the procedure is not well defined and has proved rather confusing to strangers. Some acquire the necessary shore line by mineral location or by the use of scrip, while still others have merely a squatter's right. Within the bounds of the forest reserve no land can be acquired except by lease, which may be secured from the United States forestry agent, Ketchikan. Alaska.
“Racks and runways from which Indians gaff salmon, Chilkoot River, Alaska.”
Indian Traps
The natives, especially in Alaska, have various ingenious methods of catching salmon. In the Bering Sea rivers they catch them by means of wickerwork traps, made somewhat after the general style of a fyke net. These are composed of a series of cylindrical and conical baskets, fitting into each other, with a small opening in the end connecting one with the other and the series terminating in a tube with a removable bottom, through which the captive fish are extracted. Some of the baskets are from 15 to 25 feet in length and are secured with stakes driven into the river bottom, while the leader, composed of square sections of wickerwork, is held in place by stakes.
During the summer of 1910 the author found and destroyed an ingenious native trap set in Tamgas stream, Annette Island, southeast Alaska. This stream is a short and narrow one, draining a lake, about midway of which are a succession of cascades. In the narrowest part of the latter, and in the part up which the fish swim, a rack had been constructed of poles driven into the bottom and covered with wire netting, so as almost wholly to prevent salmon from passing up.
Just below, and running parallel to the rack and at right angles to the shore, was placed a box flume with a flaring mouth at the outer end. At the shore end the flume turned sharply at right angles and discharged into a square box with slat bottom and covered over with boughs. The fish in ascending the stream would be stopped by the rack and in swimming around many of them would be carried by the current into and down the flume, eventually landing in the receiving box alongside the shore.
“Fish wheel, Yukon River, Alaska.”
Wheels
Fish wheels are of two kinds, the floating or scow wheel, which can be moved from point to point if need be, and the shore wheel, which is a fixed apparatus. They operate in exactly the same manner, however. The stationary wheel is located along the shore in a place where experience has shown that the salmon pass. Here an abutment is built of wood and stone, high enough to protect it from an ordinary rise in the river. To this is attached the necessary framework for holding the wheel. The latter is composed of three large scoop-shaped dip nets made of galvanized-iron wire netting with a mesh of 3 ½ to 4 inches. These nets are the buckets of the wheel, and they are so arranged on a horizontal axis that the wheel is kept in constant motion by the current, and thus picks up any fish which come within its sweep.
The nets are fixed at such an angle that as they revolve their contents fall into a box chute through which the fish slide into a large bin on the shore. The wheels range in size from 9 to 32 feet in diameter and from 5 to 15 feet in width, and cost from $1,500 to $8,000, the average being about $4,000. A number of them have long leaders of piling running out into the river, which aid in leading the salmon into the range of the wheel.
The scow wheel consists of a large square-ended scow that is usually decked at one end and open at the other. Several stanchions, some 8 to 10 feet high, support a framework upon which an awning is spread to protect the fish from the sun's rays and the crew from the elements. To one end of the scow are fastened two upright posts, which are guyed by wooden supports, while projecting from the same end is the framework which supports the wheel, the latter being constructed in the same way, but on a smaller scale, than the stationary wheel. In operation the scow is anchored with the wheel end pointing downstream, and as the wheel is revolved by the current the fish caught fall from the net into a box-chute, through which they slide into the scow.
As stationary wheels can be used only at certain stages of water, the scow wheel is a necessary substitute to be used at such times as the former can not be operated.
The above forms of wheels are used exclusively on the Columbia River.
An ingenious device is used by some of the wheelmen on the Columbia River in getting their catch to the canneries, a few miles farther down the river. The salmon are tied together in bunches and these attached to air-tight casks and sent down the stream. At the canneries small balconies have been constructed at the water end of the building. A man armed with a pair of field glasses is stationed here, and as soon as he sights one of these casks he notifies a boatman, who goes out and tows in the cask and salmon. About 800 pounds of salmon are attached to a keg, and a tag showing the wheel from which shipped is tied to the fish.
In 1908 the first fish wheel to be located in the coastal waters of Alaska was operated in the Taku River, in southeast Alaska. The wheel was set between two 4-foot scows, stationed parallel to each other, and each 40 feet in length. The wheel had two dips, each 22 feet in width and hung with netting. It could be moved from place to place, the same as the scow wheels on the Columbia River. It was operated throughout the king and red salmon runs, but caught almost no salmon, and was not set in the succeeding years.
For many years the natives of the interior of Alaska have been resorting to the banks of the Yukon River and its tributaries in order to secure a sufficient supply of salmon to sustain them through the succeeding winter. The favorite apparatus of these natives is a type of fish wheel of local invention, which has been in use by them for many years, probably long before the white man first saw the Yukon.
A square framework of timbers is constructed in the water and moored to the bank by ropes. A wheel, composed of three dips, is placed in this, the axle resting upon the framework. The shape of the dip is such that the salmon caught roll off it into a trough, down which they slide into a boat moored between the wheel and the shore. Although crude in construction, it is very effective and a large number of them are set each season.
The Columbia River fish wheel is a patented device. It was first used by the patentees, Messrs. S. W. Williams & Brother, in 1879, and for several years they retained a monopoly in its use. A number are now operating on the river. The device was not new even when patented, as the natives of the Yukon River Basin had been using a precisely similar principle for an unknown number of years previously, while a similar "fishing machine," as it is called, had been in use prior to this time and is still used by white fishermen on the Roanoke River, in North Carolina.
Reef Nets
As the name indicates, this device is used around the reefs. Under natural conditions the reef is covered with kelp throughout its length, the kelp floating at the top of the water. A channel is cut through this, and in it is placed a tunnel of rope and netting, which flares at the outer end, in deep water, and into which is thatched grass, kelp leaves, or any other article resembling submarine growth, to hide the construction sufficiently to avoid frightening the fish.
Short leads of kelp are also arranged on the sides so as to draw the fish to the tunnel, which is held in place by anchors. On the reef itself two boats are anchored parallel to each other and some feet apart. An apron of netting is fastened to the rear of the two boats, while the other end extends under the small end of the tunnel and is kept in place by men in the forward ends of the boats, who have lines fastened so the apron can be raised by them. The device can only be used with the tide entering the tunnel at the large end. When the fish have entered and passed through the tunnel upon the apron, the men raise the floating end of the latter and dump them into the boats.
At one time this was a favorite device of the Puget Sound natives for catching sockeye salmon. They attribute its origin to one of the Hudson Bay Company's employees, who, they say, taught them a long time ago how to catch salmon in this way. Owing to the large number of men required to work them, and the fact that they can be worked only at certain stages of tide and in favorable weather, these nets have gradually been supplanted by other devices. In 1909 but five were used and these were operated off the shores of San Juan, Henry, Steuart, and Lummi Islands, and in the vicinity of Point Roberts.
“Puget sound purse seine boats at Richardson, Wash.”
Trolling
Each year the catching of salmon by trolling becomes of increasing importance commercially. For some years sportsmen had this exciting and delightful occupation to themselves, but eventually the mild curers created such a persistent and profitable demand for king, or chinook, salmon that the fishermen, who had previously restricted their operations to the use of nets during the annual spawning runs, which last but a small portion of the year, began to follow up the fish both before and after the spawning run and soon discovered that they were to be found in certain regions throughout nearly every month in the year.
The Monterey Bay, Cal., trollers use 48 cotton line generally. A few inches below the main lead an additional line is added, with a small sinker on it. This gives two lines and hooks, and as the main line has but the one lead, and that above the junction with the branch line, it floats somewhat above the latter, which is weighted down with a sinker. The main stem is about 20 fathoms in length, while the branch lines are about 5 fathoms each. These lines cost about $3.50 each. No spoon is used, but bait almost invariably. A few fishermen use a spread of stout steel wire, 4 feet long, with 5 or 6 feet of line on each end of the spread, two lines and hooks.
On the upper Sacramento River (mainly at Redding and Keswick) some fishing is done with hand lines. A small catch was made here in 1908, but none were so caught in 1909.
Even as early as 1895 trolling was carried on in the Siuslaw River, Oreg., for chinook and silver salmon. At Oregon City and other places on the Willamette River a number 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 few white fishermen also engage in this fishery at the present time in the same waters, while others troll for the same species, but more particularly silvers, in parts of Puget Sound proper. The ordinary trolling line, with a spoon instead of bait, is used.
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, several 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 1910, 204,823 king salmon and 6,000 coho salmon were caught and marketed. 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 Hendryx 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 Siwash hook no. 9/0, known as the Victoria 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.
A small commercial fishery is carried on in this region for coho salmon, mainly in August and September, in the neighborhood of Turnabout Island, in Frederick Sound. A Stewart spoon with two hooks on one ring is used, baited with herring in such a way that the fish is straightened out and faced toward the spoon. The sportsmen of Ketchikan also fish with rod and reel for this species in the neighborhood of Gravina Island, using a Hendryx spoon (kidney bait no. 6), which is silvery in color on one side and red on the other. Although much smaller than the king, the coho salmon is more gamy.
Reports from the trailers of southeast Alaska prove that all species of salmon will take the hook at some time or other in the salt waters of this region, an examination of their stomachs generally showing that they are either feeding or in a condition to feed.
Bow and Arrow
On the Tanana River, a tributary of the Yukon River, in Alaska, the Indians hunt salmon in birch-bark canoes with bow and arrow. As the canoe is paddled along and the Indian sees the dorsal fin of the salmon cutting the surface of the muddy water he shoots it. The tip of the arrow fits into a socket, and when struck the tip, which when loose is attached to the stock by a long string, comes out of the socket and the arrow floats, easily locating the fish for the fisherman.
Spear and Gaff
Spears of varying shapes and styles have been in use by the Indians from time immemorial and are still employed on many rivers in which salmon run. With the exception of the Chilkoot and Chilkat Rivers of Alaska, practically all of the catch secured in this manner is consumed by the fishermen and their families. In the Chilkoot River the Indians have built numerous racks in the stream and on the banks, upon which they stand and hook the fish out with a gaff attached to a pole. The catch is sold to the cannery located on Chilkoot Inlet.
Cobb, John N. The Salmon Fisheries of the Pacific Coast. Washington Government Printing Office. 1911.
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