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was an estimated 4,217 cfs compared with mean flows in 1988 of 2,445 cfs <br />in July and 1,634 cfs in August). <br />For introduced minnows, low flows are probably beneficial because these <br />species may be more adapted to stable environments, such as those provided <br />by unflooded backwaters. We concur with Valdez (1990), who suggested that <br />high flows probably flush these fish from their otherwise protected micro- <br />habitats and into the main channel, and that turbulent conditions and <br />delayed warming of the river during years of high flow may interfere in <br />some way with their ability to reproduce and recruit. Why correlations for <br />a given species were not identical among reaches might be due to differ- <br />ences in reach characteristics such as flow regime and channel morphology <br />(gradient, substrate, degree of channelization, availability of refugia <br />habitats, etc.). Difference in water temperatures between the 15-mile and <br />18-mile reaches was slight (Osmundson and Kaeding 1989), and probably <br />would not account for differences in fish abundance. <br />Abundance of ictalurid larvae and YOY was not correlated with peak flow. <br />No larvae of channel catfish or black bullhead were detected during the <br />four-year study, though YOY black bullhead were collected in both the 15- <br />mile and 18-mile reaches. Channel catfish YOY were collected only from the <br />18-mile reach. Because channel catfish adults are numerous in the Grand <br />Valley (Valdez et al. 1982), the rarity of young in samples may reflect <br />their preference for habitat types other than those that we sampled rather <br />than an actual scarcity in the river. Or, larval drift and later recoloni- <br />zation by adults from downstream reaches might explain discrepancies in <br />age-structure of the local population of this species. In either case,, our <br />24 <br />