Alagnak watershed rainbow trout seasonal movement

Adult rainbow trout were radio-tagged in two locations in the Alagnak River drainage in 1997 and 1998 and radio-tracked until March 1999. The telemetry data indicate the two different sample groups exhibited independent movements with little geographic overlap. However, some tagged fish from each sample group migrated downstream to the same general area during the spawning season. Rainbow trout within each sample group may have evolved the observed seasonal movement patterns to optimize food availability during the summer and thermal refugia in the winter.