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22 <br />Recommendations <br />Some possibilities for mitigating angling impacts, if <br />documented as significant, are as follows. Reduction of angling <br />mortality, could be accomplished by some combination of closing <br />the fishery seasonally or locally, or by restricting fishing <br />methods. On a seasonal basis, spawning reaches in the rivers <br />could be closed to protect areas of concentration of adults <br />during spawning periods. Temporary closure was effective in <br />mitigating angler impacts on the White River below Taylor Draw <br />Dam (Martinez 1986). Artificial lures could be required to <br />reduce potential angling mortality. However, this might receive <br />nearly the same public outcry as closing the rivers to fishing <br />entirely, because over 90% of anglers are using bait. <br />Encouraging the harvest of all channel catfish caught could <br />reduce non-angling mortality. Channel catfish probably have a <br />negative influence on Colorado squawfish through competition, <br />predation, and as prey by choking the squawfish. Since harvest <br />of catfish is ~50% of total catch and does not approach creel <br />limits, encouraging all legal harvest of catfish may benefit <br />squawfish. <br />We do not recommend another survey at this time. However if <br />future creel surveys are conducted, the following improvements <br />are recommended to increase the reliability of the data: 1) <br />counts should be made more nearly instantaneous, perhaps <br />accomplished by twice/daily overflights on fewer days per month <br />than this survey; 2) angler counts be designed within practical <br />limits to include anglers using the river at all hours; 3) some <br />