From the 2003 season ....

There are a large number of salmon in the pool immediately in front of the dam, some of them very large (one recently collected by the staff weighed in at 39 pounds!), and all of them hurling themselves at the weir and the waterways in a frenzy unmatched any other time of the year.

The waterways, sealed off by metal gates, lie just out of sight of the weir camera, being off to the camera's left and two or three feet behind. The salmon are throwing themselves at the gate two and three at a time, and one of the staff told me that given enough time, the salmon will actually damage the gates in their mad attempts to get up the waterway; they'll actually deform the aluminum bars.

The object of their continuing attempt to breach the gates is to get to the pool beyond, now closed off due to the pool's currently being at capacity - the pool simply cannot support any more salmon. The gates will be opened Saturday allowing some salmon to enter while others are removed.

Still other salmon throw themselves at the weir itself, and occasionally do the impossible (or what seems impossible), and actually make it over. I saw one make it in the short time I was there, and saw several others that had already made it over, and were swimming in the pool above.