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<br />the upper Colorado and Gunnison river, long-term recapture rates were 4.7% (Burdick 2002), and <br />Ryden (2000) also reported much higher return rates in the San Juan River. <br /> <br />The mean RCR values for each monitoring method were lower on the Green River than on the <br />Colorado River (Table 3). This would suggest an overall lower survival rate of individuals <br />stocked in the Green River. Electrofishing, which was the only method used each year, produced <br />the largest number of recaptured bonytail on both the Colorado (385) and Green (391) rivers <br />(Table 3). In terms of raw numbers of recaptures, seining was the next most effective technique <br />followed by fyke and hoop nets (Table 3). Electrofishing appeared to be the most effective <br />method of recapture when considering the combination of man hours, area sampled, and range of <br />fish sizes collected. <br /> <br />Recaptures by stocking event <br /> <br />1996 - Eighteen of the bonytail stocked in the Colorado River on October 18, 1996 were <br />collected in October and November (Table 5). Electrofishing yielded 12 bonytail and an RCR of <br />0.45. Only two of the stocked bonytail were collected in the backwater in which they were <br />stocked. Most others were collected outside the mouth of this particular backwater. Subsequent <br />sampling throughout the stocking area in spring and fall of 1997 for ISMP did not reveal any of <br />the bonytail stocked in 1996. <br /> <br />1997 - Following the October 1997 stocking, only five bonytail were collected the next month <br />(Table 5). Electrofishing yielded three of the bonytail with an RCR of 0.61. The other two fish <br />were captured with fyke nets. One of the bonytail stocked in October 1997 (1996 cohort) was <br />collected on June 30, 1998. This fish had grown from 116 mm to 121 nun and moved two miles <br />upstream. <br /> <br />1998 - In the four months following the spring 1998 stocking, 221 bonytail were collected (Table <br />5). The majority (171) of these fish were collected during seining trips. Electrofishing yielded an <br />additiona122 of the 1997 cohort (RCR=1.51) and three of the larger bonytail (1996 cohort) <br />stocked in March 1998 were also recaptured during the April electrofishing trip (RCR=5.56). Of <br />the large fish, one was a tuberculated ripe male (TL=31 0 mm) and one had been radio tagged. <br />Additionally, USFWS-Grand Junction collected one of the large-sized bonytails on May 28, 1998 <br />at RM 63.9 on the Colorado River. No monitoring was conducted on the Green or Colorado <br />rivers after the 1998 fall stockings. <br /> <br />Note: Catches and related catch rates based on specific cohorts of origin after the spring 1999 <br />monitoring represent estimations based on stocked size classes. The actual cohort of origin could <br />not be definitively determined for fish stocked after the spring 1999 monitoring due to use of <br />coded wire tags and non-lethal sampling. This combination only reveals that recaptured fish are <br />hatchery-reared. <br /> <br />1999 - In the Colorado River, a total of38 bonytail were collected between May 4 and August 12 <br />(Table 5). Seventeen bonytail were collected during electrofishing surveys. Thirteen of these fish <br /> <br />10 <br />