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the latest on August 13 (1995) at Westwater. Larval pikeminnow were collected for three to five <br />weeks each year. In all but 1994 and 1996, a few pikeminnow were still being found in the drift <br />when the study period had ended (Figure 4a-e). In 1995 we felt a portion of the pikeminnow <br />larvae may have been missed after sampling had ended. The final day of sampling had a high <br />catch rate, and high catch rate days were usually followed by a few days of diminishing catch <br />rates. These hypothetical fish may have been missed at the end of the sampling in 1995 (Figure <br />4d). <br />Total transport abundance of Colorado pikeminnow larvae was estimated annually. <br />Transport abundance was higher at Moab than Westwater in all years. Abundance in #fish/hour <br />at Westwater varied from 8,836 in 1994 to 47,116 in 1993. At Moab, for the standard dawn sets, <br />the lowest annual transport abundance was 124,741 fish/hour in 1994, and the highest was <br />858,174 fish/hour in 1996. At the Moab site in 1996, during the additional collecting period <br />from 900 to 1100 hours, nearly the same number of pikeminnow were collected as the standard <br />set. This resulted in a higher catch rate since fewer days were sampled, making this the highest <br />estimated annual transport abundance at 890,231 fish/hour. A summary of the sampling periods <br />and collection data is given in Table 2. <br />Total lengths of larval Colorado pikeminnow ranged from 5.5 mm to 18 mm, with the <br />majority between 8 and 11 mm (Figure 5). Most of the lazger larvae were collected in 1994. <br />Estimated spawning dates were calculated for each fish using the formula by Haynes' et al. <br />(1985). The larvae collected were generally the same range of size and age throughout the drift <br />season, although they tended to decrease slightly in size and therefore estimated age towazds the <br />end of the collection period. <br />The formulas used to back-calculate spawning and hatch dates carry assumptions which <br />may bias the results (Haynes et al. 1985; Muth 1990; Bestgen et al. 1998; Bestgen and Williams <br />1994). All pikeminnow aze assumed to be 6.7 mm at hatch, and all are assumed to hatch 6 days <br />after the spawn. However, among hatchery raised pikeminnow, there is at least a 1-1.5 day <br />variation about the mean incubation time of 5 days, and a range of 6-7.5 mm at hatch (Hamman <br />1981 as cited by Nesler et al. 1988). Wild fish can be assumed to have at least that much <br />variation if not more. A comparison of lengths and ages using the two different methods is given <br />in Table 3. <br />For wild Colorado pikeminnow larvae spawned in the Yampa River, Bestgen et al. <br />(1998) estimated an average age of 6 days post-hatch for fish with an average total length of 9 <br />mm, by counting otolith increments. In comparison, Haynes' formula estimates a 9 mm fish as <br />11.3 days post-hatch, and Muth's as 9.9 days. Since Haynes' method was used for this study, the <br />estimated spawning dates for the fish in this study maybe several days eazlier than if an otolith <br />count had been done. However we feel that the estimated spawning dates still provide a valuable <br />relative reference for the onset of spawning, as the bias will always be the same number of days. <br />The estimated date of the eazliest spawning activity occurred within a 5 week range, with <br />the eazliest on June 5, 1994 at the Moab site, and the latest on July 30, 1995 at the Westwater <br />site. In four out of five yeazs, spawning was estimated to have commenced one day to three <br />weeks earlier above the Moab site than the Westwater site. Spawning activity continued for 5 to <br />8 weeks. <br />5 <br />