salmon wheel

noun

1. a trap for catching salmon, consisting of a revolving wheel with attached nets set in a river so that it is turned by the current to capture the passing fish.

Word History and Origins

Origin of salmon wheel¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

In the gathering dusk the Wildcat swam and floated for a mile downstream in the currents of the Columbia; then under the insistent drag of a wide-swinging eddy he headed for the leading fences of a great salmon wheel whose plunging buckets dived into the black currents and lifted with their gamble of fifty-pound salmon.

From Project Gutenberg