7770

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7770
• Author: Trammell, M. A.
• Title: Evaluation of Colorado Squawfish Stocking in Kenney Reservoir, Rangely, Colorado.
• USFW Year: 1991.
• USFW - Doc Type: Colorado State University,
• Copyright Material: NO

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Fish escapement from the reservoir is common and high. Several
species have escaped downstream into the White River from the reservoir
(e.g., black crappie, green sunfish, brown trout, rainbow trout. A 1987
creel census (CDOW unpublished data) showed as many rainbow trout caught
below the dam as above. The stocked squawfish behaved similarly.
No precise estimate of the numbers of squawfish that left the
reservoir is possible, but clearly it was a large proportion of those
stocked. Effort was not commensurate between the two areas. However,
since effort (in 100 mz seined) was not correlated (r2=.0002) to number of
fish caught (Figure 3), estimates based on the proportions of the total
number of squawfish recaptured above (including the White River above the
reservoir) and below the dam from 1988 to 1990, should be fairly
representative for the area sampled. The correlation was based only on
seining since this method captured 99.9% of the fish in the study.
However, because only a portion of the White River was sampled, it can be
assumed that a greater fraction of squawfish left the reservoir than
indicated by recaptures. The percentage of squawfish recaptured below the
dam varied from 18.5% to 45% (Table 4), but total escapement could be much
higher.
Table 5. Total recaptures of current year classes of Colorado
squawfish above and below Taylor Draw Dam, 1988 through 1990.
1988 1989 1990
No. stocked 17,000 32,000 ~ 47,597
Recap. above dam (%) 66 (81.5) 246 (55) 373 (80)
Recap. below dam (%) 15 (18.5) 201 (45) 93 (20)
Total no recaptured 81 447 466
recaptured of number stocked 0.4 1.4 1.0