gs/0694/ks ; 07/01/95 12:00 AM SNRF

April 1, 1966 to September 30, 1966

Chinook salmon harvest studies were not conducted in 1966, due to closure on salmon fishing in the study area. A smaller than average escapement of steelhead over Ice Harbor Dam was followed by a correspondingly small harvest by the South Fork Salmon River fishery. A run of about 3,300 chinook [sic] salmon spawned in the South Fork Salmon River in 1966, the equivalent of nineteen percent of the summer run counted over Ice Harbor Dam. Four-year-old fish dominated the run. Indications of a cyclic pattern in the age composition of South Fork runs were noted. Sex and age composition data recorded at the weir were related to comparable data collected from redd cunts and fish found dead on the spawning grounds. Redd counts were not comparable to those of past years. The sex and age composition of fish found dead on the spawning grounds indicated errors in sexing fish at the weir.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service F 49-R-5, Job 1