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This report addresses juvenile salmonid outmigrant monitoring (a key component of the IAP), evaluating tradeoffs between alternative monitoring methods for assessing smolt abundance, run timing, and condition. In addition, we assess the ability of the monitoring data to inform Program restoration goals for affected salmon species. We propose a new Bayesian spline-based methodology to estimate salmon abundance and run timing which provides several compelling advantages over the more traditional pooled or stratified Peterson estimator. In particular, the ability to share data among weeks within the Bayesian approach allows greater flexibility in terms of handling missing data. This feature may enable the Program to reduce the frequency of required mark-recapture events during periods with fewer smolt outmigrants without affecting estimates of precision.