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RESULTS <br />FISHERY QUANTIFICATION <br />To determine the role flows have on fish community structure it is necessary to <br />quantify both the fishery and habitat availability and then to establish the relationship <br />between habitat and flow. The fishery was characterized by three different attributes for <br />each of the study sites: 1) species composition, 2) size distribution and 3) density and <br />biomass estimation. Since a complete summary of the fish data was in the job progress <br />report, Anderson (2002), not all fish data is presented in this report. <br />In general, each annual progress report compares species composition, size and <br />density data to the prior year's data. Length frequency histograms for each station <br />sampled in 1998 and 1999 are available in Anderson and Stewart (2000). Histograms for <br />the 2000 sample are given in Anderson and Stewart (2001) and histograms for the 2001 <br />sampling are in Anderson (2002). Length data can also be obtained from the author in <br />spreadsheet format. Seining data is presented in Anderson and Stewart (2000) and <br />Anderson (2002). <br />Data for the Yampa River was organized by two periods, the first two years (1998 <br />and 1999) had above normal base flows, while base flows during 2000 and 2001 were <br />well below normal. Differences in the fishery between these two periods probably were <br />attributable to differences in base flows. At the Duffy station, fish population sampling <br />was done in a 4.5-mile reach (Long Reach), but only the upper 1.8 miles of the long reach <br />was modeled for habitat composition (habitat reach). The Long Reach fish data was used <br />for making comparisons between years. <br />Fish Over 15-cm in Length <br />Native species composition was highly consistent between years at the Sevens <br />station with native fish comprising 73% (four-year mean) of the fish over 15 cm. The <br />four-year mean for flannehnouth-sucker composition at Sevens was 49% with a range of <br />46% to 53%. The four-year mean for bluehead sucker was 19% and it was 4% for <br />roundtail chub (Table 5). Colorado pikeminnow were rare or absent at Sevens for the <br />four-year period. The greatest inconsistency for a native species at Sevens was a drop in <br />bluehead and a small increase in flannelmouth composition in the 2001 sample compared <br />against the three prior years (Table 5). <br />Native fish species were uncommon to rare at Duffy, averaging only 13% of fish <br />over 15 cm for the four years. The data showed a downward trend in native fish at Duffy <br />with highest native fish composition in 1998 (15%) and the lowest in 2001 (10%) (Table <br />5). Flannelmouth suckers were consistently at 5% in the first three years, but were only <br />2% in 2001. Bluehead suckers comprised about 4% and roundtail chub were 3% over the <br />study period. Colorado pikeminnow were uncommon at Duffy. They comprised <br />between 0.6 to 1.5% of the total catch. <br />34 <br />