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<br />first captured on the spawning area have been recaptured later at other <br />locations of the river system. Sampling conducted when radiotagged <br />Colorado squawfish were present in the Yampa sJ,awning area has produced <br />89 ripe ad u1 t fish. <br /> <br />The second area of concentrated spawning activity is in the Gray Canyon <br />between RK 239-253 (RM 148-15 7). There is not as extensive a data base <br />and period of record for this reach but 14 radio-tagged Colorado squawfish <br />were tracked to the area during the spawning season from 1981 to 1984 <br />and 38 ripe Colorado squawfish have been collected in this reach. Larval <br />fish collections indicate successful spawning in this area since it is <br />inconceivable that the lO-day old larva collected from downstream reaches <br />would have drifted 300 m1 from the confirmed Yampa spawning area. <br />Calculating drift rates from Haynes and Muth (1984) with the assumption <br />that the older larva drifted from the upper end of the Yampa spawning <br />reach and the youngest from the lower, drift rates between 1.2-2.6 m1 <br />per day are suggested. Applying simUar calculations to 7 larva collected <br />by CRFP during 1983 at RK 207 (RM 129.6) provides an estimated drift <br />rate of .8-1.2 ini/day, assuming they were spawned at RM 155. Thus the <br />largest larva (22.2 mm) collected by CRFP from the lower Green was an <br />estimated 30 days old and would likely have been spawned below RK 268 <br />(RM 166). <br /> <br />There are several other reaches for which strong but less definitive <br />evidence suggests that spawning is occurring in the Green. CRFP has <br />observed radiotagged Colorado squawfish migrating to a number of <br />areas (Table 1) and, though complicated by the presence of confirmed <br />spawning areas upstream~ the collection of larval Colorado squawfish <br />less than 22 days old in those areas lends credence to those conclusions. <br /> <br />Colorado River spawning areas are not well defined because several <br />radiotagged. fish have not been observed congregating in specific aTeas <br />during the spawning season, however, the presence of larval Colorado <br />squawfish throughout much of the system proves that spawning is occurring. <br /> <br />15 <br />