Forgive me, but perhaps this may be of interest
To see a spawning salmon in the stream look for white flashes underwater that
persist in one location. This is the female or 'doe' salmon turning on her side to
dig the redd. She selects the spawning location and prepares the redd while the
male, or 'buck' fights off other males who wish to take his place beside the
female when she is ejecting her eggs. A salmon redd is a depression created by
the upstroke of the female salmon's body and tail, sucking up the river bottom
gravel and using the river current to drift it downstream. The female salmon digs
a number of redds, depositing a few hundred eggs in each during the one or two
days she is spawning. Each redd is located immediately upstream from the last to
allow the current to deposit drifting gravel on top of and covering the previous
redd. Redds are very obvious in the stream, visible by clean exposed white
gravel.
