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natural reproduction. It appeared that a precarious balance occurred between striped bass predation and shad abundance beginning with the shad peak in 1991. The single shad peak year of 1991 did not result in survival of an excessively large number of juvenile striped bass since most adult fish did not attain spawning condition. Conversely, two years of improved forage conditions (1995-1996) resulted in high recruitment of 1996 year- class striped bass. Young-of-year population abundance was measured by annual electrofishing sampling each September and gill netting each November (Figure 3). The schooling, pelagic nature of striped bass makes any sampling scheme vulnerable to misrepresentation depending on the behavior of striped bass during the sampling period. Peaks in abundance measured by one survey have not necessarily been corroborated by other surveys in the same year. The 1991 peak capture of yoy in gill nets resulted from 2 nets of 10 total set at one downlake location where yoy were abundant. The 38 other nets included in that survey captured only a few yoy while two nets caught over 100 yoy each day. The result was a yoy peak in 1991 even when averaged over the entire survey. Spawning production in 1996 measured by electrofishing found record high numbers of yoy striped bass at all locations with the exception of Warm Creek, the station closest to the dam. When compared to yoy captured during fall netting a corresponding peak is seen. In some years a spike in yoy numbers is seen in one surveyor the other without corroboration from the other survey. The strength of the 1996 year-class was depicted by the results of both surveys. Young-of-year striped bass caught electrofishing was at the highest level ever recorded. Gill net catch of yoy was also near record proportions. Based on both surveys, the 1996 striped bass year-class was present at all locations in numbers never before seen in over 20 years of sampling (Figure 3). The 1996 year-class was extremely numerous as yearlings in 1997 based on creel survey reports but not remarkable when 23