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<br />38 <br /> <br />marked fish, The mouth of the backwater (see Figure 12) was too deep to <br />seine. The middle part was seined several times and depths and bottom <br />type suggested an efficient sample except that the entire width could <br />not be sampled in one sweep. Only a few young-of-the-year squawfish were <br />found here. The upper part was thoroughly sampled from bank to bank and <br />produced the majority of the young-of-the-year squawfish. Samples from <br />other backwaters also indicated a preference for upper portions of back- <br />waters with a relatively shallow depth. Therefore, sampling efficiency <br />was excellent in the upper portion of the backwater, good in the middle <br />part and poor or non-existent near the mouth. If just the upper portion <br />is analyzed, a large turnover of squawfish young is indicated. <br />The question remains, what happened to the marked fish? It is <br />possible they died from the marking and handling process. This is ex- <br />tremely doubtful due to the great amount of caution used in handling the <br />fish and the small amount of anal fin actually clipped, <br />Another explanation is that the fish moved considerably, either <br />within the backwater, or between that area and other habitats in the im- <br />mediate area. As mentioned earlier, an intense effort was made to locate <br />the marked fish, especially downstream from the sample backwater. The <br />area above and below the backwater was very deep, which prohibited sam- <br />pling other than very close to shore (Figure 12). Failure to find marked <br />squawfish, or any young-of-the-year squawfish for that matter, in these <br />adjacent areas suggests either the small fish used the main channel, <br />which is highly unlikely, or moved considerably within the sample back- <br />water, It would appear the latter possibility is the most likely, The <br /> <br />