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31 <br />Fin-Clip Marking <br />In 1977 a detailed creel census was planned for the Gunnison River <br />sections below Crystal Reservoir. The upper section below the dam is <br />annually stocked with catchable rainbow trout, as is a section at the <br />confluence of the North Fork of the Gunnison. To facilitate detection <br />of hatchery-reared rainbow, the entire catchable plant of 4,260 was <br />marked by removing the left ventral fin at Pitkin Hatchery before stocking <br />was begun in the upper section in mid-June.. The left pectoral fin was <br />removed from the 780 catchable-size fish stocked in the lower North <br />Fork area. <br />Creel Census Studies <br />Early Questionnaires, 1973-74 <br />Data regarding fisherman-use and success are necessary to properly <br />manage any fishing resource. Furthermore, such data would be necessary <br />to determine probable detrimental or beneficial effects of the completed <br />reservoirs on the downstream sections. Little recent use and success <br />data were available on the river sections below the dams when this <br />study was started, except for some rather rough estimates of fisherman- <br />use within the National Monument. However, no data were available on <br />the lower sections, which could gain the most by cold-water releases <br />i <br />from the reservoirs. Consequently, a major objective of the present <br />study was to establish present use and success trends for the Gunnison <br />River downstream from the dams at least to the North Fork junction. <br />Initially we attempted to obtain fisherman-use and success data <br />from a questionnaire (Table 2) given to about 50 "key fishermen" in the <br />Delta-Hotchkiss area. Even though these fishermen were interviewed and <br />given instructions before being given the questionnaires, most returns