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Bony Lai i Chub <br />The author has not taken any Bonytail chub recently in Colorado or Utah. <br />The most intensive, recent study was by Holdon(1975) and he found them to be <br />very rare where they were taken. These fish were found in the Green River- <br />Yampa River confluence area. <br />Walter Walker Wildlife area has had an excellent population of Razor- <br />back suckers and Colorado squawfish at all times since it was first investi- <br />gated in 1973. This is the only known location on the Colorado River where <br />a fair population of both fish persist in comparatively significant numbers. <br />Other sites along the river periodically have concentrations of one species <br />of fish. Rarely do both species occur in equal numbers. <br />All areas this author has studied which have significant numbers of <br />either or both these fish species have one common physical feature--a relatively <br />large backwater area well connected to the river; at all stages these fish <br />are found in them. <br />In 1976 these fish did not return to many of the backwater areas where <br />major concentrations were recorded in 1975. N.F.R.I. believes low water <br />conditions prevailing in 1976 restricted these fish from utilizing these <br />backwaters they readily occupied in higher water years. Intensive netting <br />effort failed to yield any razorbacks or squawfish, with one exception: <br />Walker Wildlife Area. Reasons for this are not quite clear. However, as <br />stated above, low water conditions affected significantly size and access to <br />all the backwater areas except Walker Wildlife area. This is also true on <br />the Gunnison where low, early summer flows do not enlarge the few backwater <br />areas to a size comparable to backwater areas where fish are found in the <br />(32)