This is NOT their spawning grounds. They have to get over the falls, past the bears and through at least one more large lake before they reach their spawning tributaries.
And they are all lined up in nice neat rows and columns, as you can see on the above water cameras when they are looking down at the river.
All I can figure is that these are the ones that are either too tired or too lazy to get over the falls and have given up.
They may actually try to spawn here, but nothing here is likely to survive as the water is too deep and too fast flowing.
The thing is that these are Sockeye Salmon and that run is pretty much over, except for these stragglers. The later season salmon runs should be starting pretty soon, but the Sockeye run should be pretty much done by now.
Strictly a guess here. They appear to be concentrated on the bottom.
Talking to a fisherman this very time of year, he mentioned fo me it wasn’t common to catch a good size fish this time of year, because when it’s this hot, they descend to the lake’s bottom to escape the heat. When it gets cooler, they resurface & get caught.
Could they be waiting for cooler temperatures to move past obstacles & complete their journey?
This is typical. Fish rest in the slack water below the rapids before making the attempt to get above it. You see the same thing in fish ladders at large dams (such as Bonneville on the Columbia. The fish don’t swim straight on up, they stop and rest after each step or two of the ladder.
That’s the lot of salmon. They are all going to die after spawning if they are not eaten by bears or eagles or something else. In fact they are half dead before they spawn.
