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<br />at, big ones," Ayers said. "We were going along the river with the sun just right, <br />on the trail and the fish, you could see them down there and looked like they <br />were that big and we shot at them a time or two, but we never did get any." <br />Tom Swain (Paradox, Colo.) remembered finding a large Colorado squaw- <br />fish in a driftwood snag in the Dolores River in the early 1920s. <br />"I've seen a white salmon caught in some driftwood, the river used to get <br />so high and go over its banks there and driftwood would catch on fences, and in <br />this driftwood was a white salmon that was a good 3 and a half feet long and <br />about that thick. It was caught in the drift there," he said. <br /> <br />Twenty.. to 40..pound Colorado squawfish <br />Most of the seniors who recalled catching large Colorado squawfish <br />remembered landing fish in the 20- to 40-pound range. <br />Wanda Staley (Ruple) (Vernal, Utah) was born and raised in Island Park <br />along the Green River in present day Dinosaur National Monument. Her family <br />frequently caught and ate Colorado squawfish during the 1920s and 1930s. <br />"We used to catch what we <br />called the whitefish, They call them <br />squawfish now," she said. "We <br />caught them ... well the largest that <br />I know that was caught over there <br />was 35 pounds. We would catch <br />them 15,20,35 pounds, you know, <br />it wasn't uncommon." <br />Lawrence Hastings (Green <br />River, Utah) remembered catching <br />a 35-pound Colorado squawfish <br />from the Green River near town. <br />"We caught one that weighed <br />about 35 pounds. This was when <br />we took it down to the meat mar- <br />ket," he said. <br />Walt Siminoe (Whitewater, <br />Colo.) remembered a neighbor <br />catching an 18-pound Colorado <br />squawfish from the Gunnison River <br />and he heard of a 24-pound one <br />also being caught. <br /> <br /> <br />Other species sizes <br />Documenting historical sizes <br />was much more difficult with <br />bony tail chubs, humpback chubs <br />and razorback suckers than with <br />Colorado squawfish. Only a few <br />references were made as to the size of these species. <br />Carl Morrison (Green River, Utah) remembered his uncle catching a large <br />razorback sucker in the 1940s. "That one that my uncle caught probably was <br />right around 9, 10 pounds. It was a big fish," he said. <br /> <br />Photo courtesy of Tom Hastings <br />Tom Hastings stands next to a 20- to <br />40-pound Colorado squawfish caught <br />next to his family's farm from the <br />Green River, near Green River, Utah. <br /> <br />Character- <br />istics and dis- <br />tribution <br /> <br />27 <br />