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[clarki]

Over the weekend I was fishing a section of the Fraser River and came across two sections of snow fence staked into the river bed with rebar. The sections of snow fence were “C shaped and constructed as mirror images of each other with the backs of the “C” parallel to each other and about 20 ft apart.   The “C’s” of snow fence are doubled walled.

I’ve never fished this section of river in the fall before, but have in the spring, and have not seen this structure before. So either it’s the first year for it, or it’s taken down over the winter. It would take a significant amount of effort to pound in the rebar stakes and string the fencing.

The 20ft gap between the “C’s” aligns with a shallow channel that normally flows between two pools. (The water is higher in the pic so the channel isn’t evident)

I’m curious as to the purpose of the snow fence structure. One idea is that it’s to funnel chum up the channel to facilitate sucessful spawning. The other idea is that it’s a weir built by FN for fishing purposes.

Comments welcome.

[RalphH]

Weirs like that are sometimes used to trap fish in intertidal zones. As the tide floods fish move in behind the weir and as it falls some will be trapped in the concave side of the weir. As the river drops this time of year the fence may serve the same purpose.

Bottom left there appears to be a dead spawned out salmon and a redd.

My first thought is these may be to collect dead or spent fish drifting downstream to assess run size.

[clarki]

Perhaps…  While there were a number of dead chum caught up against the weir, there were a hundred times more resting in the shallows of the upstream pool.

I don’t think the purpose is run size enumeration based on gathering morts, but then again, it’s a good a suggestion as any.

[RalphH]

"Perhaps?". You asked for comments. I await a more plausible one from yourself or anyone else.

[clarki]

Yes. Perhaps…